Berlin 2012 and the Post Office Studio Kuboraum was founded in 2012 when sculptor Livio Graziottin and anthropologist Sergio Eusebi set up their studio inside a former post office that once stood between East and West Berlin. In Berlin the concept took shape, but the making remained Italian. Every mask is built in workshops near the Dolomites, where acetate is cut, sculpted, and polished with methods closer to small scale sculpture than industrial eyewear. Hammered metal temples keep their irregularities, and acetate fronts are left with the subtle unevenness of craft. Even the name Kuboraum, meaning cubic room in German, points to this philosophy, each frame is a space you inhabit, not a surface you decorate. Ten Years of Travelling and the Mask as Ritual Calling them sunglasses misses the point. Kuboraum insists on the term mask because masks carry weight across cultures. They protect, but they also alter, allowing wearers to inhabit other roles. The brand makes this explicit. A pair of Kuboraum does not blend into an outfit, it adjusts how the wearer is read by others. Their tenth anniversary in 2022, marked with the project Ten Years of Travelling, turned the Berlin headquarters into a stage of installations, sound pieces, and performances. This was not marketing spectacle but a continuation of their central idea, eyewear as ritual, as an act of becoming. The frames are not defined by logos or recognisable silhouettes but by the decision to treat the face as a site of theatre. Cult Status Through Consistency Kuboraum’s place in culture comes not from visibility but from a deliberate distance. The brand has refused the logic of mass adoption, which is why it remains both niche and quietly influential. To encounter someone in a Kuboraum mask is to sense an alignment with a particular way of seeing, one that values experimentation, history, and the weight of objects. The aura is not projected but accumulated through a decade of consistent ideas, from Berlin thresholds to Italian hands. Their prestige lies in making sunglasses that are not accessories but propositions, asking the wearer to step into a role rather than a trend.
