Drala Design Group S.C. is the multi-disciplinary design studio of John Perkins.
After apprenticing as a violin maker, studying design at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design he restored wooden boats, studied furniture design in the UK, with Alan Peters, operated a violin and guitar restoration business and then started his museum work as a decorative arts conservator for Parks Canada ending up at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles.
Always the designer he worked on new technology for environmental monitoring and control systems applications in cultural conservation. At the Getty his designs were used in the Dunhuang Buddhist Caves in China, the Sphinx in Egypt and other world heritage sites.
Returning to the design/build world he started History Reproduced producing a line of objects and accessories for museum gift shops.
Drala Design is his latest venture drawing together craft, restoration and technology into a practice encompassing art, architecture, and design.
Mexico's environment provides fertile ground for bringing all his skills to design projects: there are historic precedents to work with, competent workers to execute ideas and a population that is interested in exploring new ideas.
STORIES
