Design Map · Eindhoven
Sharpening Itineraries of Trust
Graduation project by Marta Costa Machado at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
‘Sharpening Itineraries of Trust’ is a mobile workstation at which two people can only sharpen a knife by working in unison. As they coordinate pace, pressure and movement, participants must, for that brief shared moment, place their trust completely in one another. Inspired by the Portuguese Amolador, a travelling craftsperson who maintained blades and tools, the project reinterprets a disappearing craft as a participatory encounter where vulnerability, care and power must continually be negotiated. Grounded in oral histories, archival fragments and embodied research, it creates a setting in which trust can emerge through shared action. The project proposes trust not as a stable condition but as a craft practised through reciprocity, shared risk and the willingness to depend on another person.