IN FOCUS
Ania Wolowska is a Polish designer who has made Bacalar, Quintana Roo her home for the past 12 years. There, she discovered the world of tropical woods, the language of carpentry, and the processes that transform wood into objects. This journey led to the creation of ITZ – Workshop and Studio, a woodworking and design studio that crafts contemporary furniture using endemic tropical woods from southern Mexico under the leadership of Ania.
ITZ collaborates closely with local carpenters and artisans, blending design with regional talent. Ania draws inspiration from nature, Japanese woodworking techniques, ancient cultures, rituals, and origin stories. Her passion lies in working with tropical wood to form characteristic furniture pieces, combined with artisanal craftsmanship and detailing.
Ania believes in quality over quantity: fewer pieces that last a lifetime. Her goal is to create timeless objects with simple, honest forms that highlight the natural beauty of the materials she works with.
When Ania Wolowska arrived to Bacalar, she transitioned from urban life to a transformative experience in the jungle. There, two carpenters from the Mayan community of Los Divorciados mentored her, introducing her to tropical woods and carpentry. They also taught her to see the jungle from their perspective, understanding the human-nature connection and the responsibility of sustainable use and giving back to the environment.
From the beginning, ITZ has embodied a strong connection between humans and nature. This ancestral bond has been altered by the perception of separation from our environment. Disconnecting from natural rhythms and cycles often leads to a belief in our superiority over nature. Living in the jungle, Ania observed its regenerative power and adaptability to constant change. She saw how everything has its purpose and understood that diversity is a strength, not a weakness, enriching and creating strong bonds among species.
From the beginning, Ania’s vision for ITZ was for it to be a carpentry workshop, not a furniture factory; an environment where everyone working knows and supports each other, consciously using wood, and enjoying the creation processes has always been paramount. Additionally, over these past 10 years, ITZ has become a trade school; many young people have learned fine carpentry and woodworking, taking this knowledge across Mexico and even abroad.
For over six years, ITZ has worked with women from a nearby village. Today, they manage the sanding and finishing processes of the workshop’s pieces. For many, this is their first steady job, and as single mothers, they support their families’ economies. ITZ has trained over 10 women in furniture weaving techniques, providing them with new job opportunities, including the possibility of working from home. This ensures the continuity of artisanal techniques.
| ITZ collaborates with various regional artisans, some of whom are rediscovering techniques learned from their parents and grandparents through these processes. For Ania, ITZ is a space for collaboration and mutual learning, where the forgotten is remembered and processes are continuously improved. |
| In 2022, ITZ released the COCOM collection, a series of chairs that draw inspiration from the wicker rockers and armchairs traditionally woven in Yucatan. The chairs were crafted out of a desire to remember and reclaim the heritage in the regional artistic tradition of hand-weaving chairs, which has been fading away for some time.The chairs have a simple and very lightweight structure. Their clean lines, with smooth and rounded edges, blend with the meticulous handwoven pattern. In this handwoven fabric, crafted by a family of artisans from Bacalar, the “partridge eye” technique is used with cotton or nylon thread.
As a designer, Ania Wolowska recognizes the difficulty of working with tropical woods and the limited information available about their characteristics. At ITZ, it has taken significant time to learn how to use each species, which often requires different techniques and machinery. ITZ honors the raw material by preserving the unique characteristics of each plank: the specific grain patterns, tones, colors, natural edges, small cracks, and organic shapes that together tell a story. The joinery is both beautiful and strong, striving to minimize intervention, allowing the wood’s inherent beauty to shine. The pieces are finished with natural waxes and oils, protecting the wood’s surface while highlighting its grain, texture, and warmth. All the wood used by ITZ comes from local communities with responsible forest management programs and certifications. |
