In 1975, five years after launching Mosel, a small business dedicated to the sale of furniture, José Patricio Álvarez de Arcaya and his family rented a new workshop in the Basque Country. Under the name Arkaia, they began to manufacture solid wood pieces of furniture, sign and number the most special ones and exhibit their best tables at prestigious fairs and shops in Europe. In 2019, Arkaia and Mosel joined as one in a new building of minimalist architecture. Since then, under the Arkaia brand, they create unique solid wood pieces of furniture with European hardwoods extracted from burgundy oak, asturian chestnut or French walnut, among other exceptional trees that they fell.

Today, in the building’s wood cellar, customers can find all the tree trunks they have brought from different regions of Europe. Then, if they wish to buy a unique piece, they can choose the logs they want for their future tables and go to the atelier to see how the artisans make them, using traditional or contemporary Basque techniques. Each of Arkaia’s tables, with its knots, nuances and imperfections, tells a story of life and resilience and, above all, reflects the meticulous craftsmanship of its artisans.