Homenkà is a design studio and research collective founded by designer and researcher Zoë Chinonso Ene. The studio explores innovative approaches for creating and co-creating objects and experiences that honor Nigeria’s rich traditional past while synthesizing with the present. Homenkà’s mission is to materially continue culture within the Nigerian context by preserving and evolving its design heritage.

At Homenkà, we believe Nigeria’s diverse cultures have gifted us beautiful, functional things and unique ways of making them. Like all valuable cultural assets, these traditions should be engaged with by people, researchers, and designers to define new, exciting expressions — whether they are seen, touched, sat on, or experienced in other ways. The studio’s name merges the Igbo word “Omenkà” (meaning artist) with the English word “Home,” symbolizing our hybridity and commitment to continuing Nigerian culture through design.

Our work aims to bring the essence of these cultural practices out of the past and into the present, not just as artifacts in museums, but as living, breathing elements in the hands and homes of Nigerian makers. Through collaboration, collective design conversation, and experimentation, we create designed interventions for homes and public spaces that resonate with today’s world. By making the results of our research and experiments widely available, we aim to ensure that culture continues to thrive — collectively and sustainably.