The original purpose of design was to propose reasonable solutions to the needs of life. With the strengthening of aesthetic values, they are gradually detached from functionality, and are injected with more emotional and artistic components, becoming a classic and eternal symbol, a logo of innovative breakthroughs, and a utopia that symbolizes the perfection of life. In this era when the boundaries of things are becoming more and more blurred, the cross-border attempts of designers, architects and artists are also constantly subverting and redefining many design-related concepts, making our lives vivid and interesting, rich and comfortable.
In this issue, we hope to provide a multi-dimensional way to talk with three well-known designers, Ma Yansong, Tom Dixon, and Oki Sato, trying to answer the relationship between design and life from different cultural contexts, and to think about what value design can create for the change of personal life. As Ettore Sottsass, the founder of the Memphis school, put it, "Design is a way of life that should be full of sensibility and possibility, and design has no certainty, only possibility." ”
Ma Yansong is known as one of the most important voices and representatives of the new generation of Chinese architects, and also occupies a place in the field of international design and architecture. For Ma Yansong, the interpretation of architecture depends on the architect's deep understanding of man, nature and the times, so that he can peel off the layers of shells and extract the flesh of the spirit from them to nourish the human soul. Therefore, he uses the power of art to interpret design and rebel against secular mediocrity. Perhaps, only by reading his rebellious spirit can we understand it in the curve of his freedom.
Ma Yansong with his reinterpretation of the Dior oval back chair "Meteor" Ken Ngan
At Milan Design Week 2021, Ma Yansong brought an art installation and two pieces of furniture with artistic color, although the materials are different and the forms are different, they invariably reveal Ma Yansong's design concept and values. Take his reinterpretation of Dior Maison's classic Oval Back Chair as "Meteor", which he sees as a curious satisfaction and challenge, admitting that his work has nothing to do with classicism, but looking forward to a chemical reaction with such a representative work of classicism in the field of furniture, colliding with new elements and sparks. In the process, he sets aside the functional expression of a piece of furniture and uses artistic techniques to construct the connection between tradition and modernity.
Ma Yansong and the art installation "Lamp of the Earth", photo by Tian Fangfang
"Making a sense of contrast" is ma Yansong's stubbornness in his bones, so his works are somewhat rebellious, trying to awaken the mind and the free spirit of people on the way to fight mediocrity. Sensitive people often have artistic talent, Ma Yansong regards architecture itself as environmental art, he once said, "The most fundamental function of art is to touch people's spirits." The so-called spiritual discussion is aimed at mediocrity—the everyday ones that are too boring, functional, procedural—to contrast with mediocrity in order to talk about the role of spirituality. ”
Because of this, he hopes to try to enter a surreal reality through his own efforts, to promote the integration of contemporary architecture and traditional painting scenes, to extend nature into the city, and to let the two collide in reality.
In 2021, MAD's work "Bone Chair" entered the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou in France
Photo courtesy of West Bund Museum
Ma Yansong, who constantly learns from classical architecture, extracts spiritual attributes from it, and while restoring the traditional landscape and water conception, adds modern scientific and technological means. As a result, people can see the "ink-colored landscape" of Beijing's Chaoyang Park Square and Armani Apartment Complex, the coastal humanistic atmosphere of Haikou Yundong Library, and the gesture of the Harbin Grand Theatre's creeping and natural integration. He wanted to build a spiritual habitat for people in the city, rather than repeatedly creating "living machines".
Design manuscript of Jiaxing Railway Station, Ma Yansong (Part 1)
Jiaxing Railway Station, Photo: Aoguan Architectural Vision (Part 2)
Ma Yansong's declaration of the ideal of future human settlements spread around the world. In addition to the completed and under construction projects, many of his projects still exist in the imagination of the "mirage" and in the drawings full of passion. He knows that many of his past ideas cannot be put into practice, but with a pure heart at all times, he cherishes all opportunities to express his ideals.
When asked how to face the future in a state of "freedom", Ma Yansong's answer was short and firm, "I definitely don't continue and bias anything, I hope that the next design work is unique, and I don't want to repeat myself." ”
Haikou Yundong Library, Photo by CreatAR Images
In the British design world known for its boldness, avant-garde fashion, gentlemanly style with a touch of witty fun, Tom Dixon is a maverick presence. During his studies, he was not really keen on design, he formed a band to play music, participated in touring, liked to ride a motorcycle, and even learned to weld. Perhaps by fate, a car accident completely "ended" his musical life, and the passion for creation was released in a pile of scrap copper and rotten iron, which opened the design road of Dixon's legend.
Years later, he lamented: "I'm not good at setting long-term goals, I just want to turn the ideas in my head into reality through my hands." This was never a plan, but an evolution. ”
Tom Dixon is in the brand's New York store
By chance, interest became a profession, and the self-taught Tom Dixon is now one of the synonyms of contemporary British industrial design, he used his amazing talent to transform metal into art, and has been described by many as an "alchemist" who turned stones into gold, but he has always felt that he has only "become a designer by chance". While his luminaires and furniture designs are renowned worldwide, he has also been committed to a variety of diverse spaces, from restaurants to hotels. His designs are always unexpected, just like the music he loved as a child, with a distinct personality and a little rebellious.
The Manzoni Restaurant
The LED version of the MELT chandelier was unveiled at last year's Milan Design Week "Energy of Light" exhibition
In 2019, he created a new concept restaurant in Milan, the "City of Design", The Manzoni, which combines the beauty of sight, hearing, taste and smell, allowing visitors to feel the joy of life in an immersive experience of beautiful and delicious food. In fact, it's not just a restaurant, it's Tom Dixon's first flagship store in Europe, an avant-garde venue for restaurants, shops and office spaces. Dixon believes that the presentation of household products should not only exist in the showroom, but also in a space with temperature. Two years later, at Milan Design Week, Dixon, with his unique insights and insights into luminaires, staged a "Energy of Light" exhibition show in the same venue. Under the magic of his design, the lamp has transcended the functional properties of lighting and transformed into an artistic sculpture of light.
Over the years, Tom Dixon has been exploring new materials and technologies. Today, he switches freely between roles in product creation, interior design and brand operation, and often finds time to spend time with his family. In his view, there is no conflict between personal life and work career. He was always open to the challenge of looking at things from an "outsider's point of view". When asked when he knew he wanted to be a designer, he replied, "I still don't believe I'm a real designer." I like to save design as a hobby so that I really like it. ”
This never-ending innovator, from playing bands and welding metal in the past, to learning to design and exploring new business models, it can be said that he has always been immersed in the rules of his own game to interpret the legend. Finding design from life and understanding life from design is the only way for him to seek out.
Who says a rubber band has to be round? Who says a watch has to be time-hand, minute-hand, second-hand, to read time? In the mind of Japanese designer Oki Sato, cubic rubber bands, standing umbrellas, and watches without dials are another kind of subversion that design can achieve – bringing new possibilities to everyday life.
Dai Sato Yuto Kudo
It's as fun as clay, and like clay, it has endless possibilities for styling. Daisuke Sato and his nendo (Japanese for "clay model") studio swept major design awards in the nearly 20 years since their establishment, and Sato himself was named one of the "100 Most Respected Japanese in the World". At the beginning of all honors, behind the spotlight is a master of architecture, a die-hard fan of Doraemon, and a diligent picker. Seeing first, then creating, Sato believes that good design begins with "taking a step back" and observing life.
"Doraemon" sketch nendo
Doraemon desktop supplies series, photo by Akihiro Yoshida
Born in Canada and studied architecture, Daisuke Sato implemented the rational thinking of science and engineering and the aesthetic endowment of pragmatism into his subsequent design career, gradually forming a "nendo style" that broke the convention. Whether it is designing luminaires for LV, designing pop-up stores for Starbucks, or designing capsule coffee machines for Coca-Cola, in different works that span fields, borders and languages, "nendo style" has won the attention of the world with its simple, practical and open appearance. And this style that cannot be generalized is actually a kind of work thinking, a way of creating.
Sato said to himself that "creativity" is not his unique talent, but comes from day-to-day observation and realization, "In fact, there are many 'non-everyday' parts of daily life, and I just present it authentically." "In today's urban life, it is difficult for us to imagine another form of office buildings and notebooks, but at the beginning of the birth of these objects, their images appeared precisely because they broke the norm. In a way, designers are also creators, and a history of design is a history of constantly innovating the world.
The Nendo design was exhibited at Milan Design Week 2016
"50 manga chairs" by Takumi Ota
As a world-renowned designer, Sato does not live in the dream bubble of inspiration, but lives a regular and simple life like an ascetic. In the rush of work in various countries, design, thinking about design, and walking the dog, these three things constitute the balance of Sato's big balance. Perhaps it is by relying on this long-term rational, seemingly boring persistence that Sato has used the thinking mode of the left brain to create a design that can impress the right brain.
Nendo Studio has created a private house in Tokyo
Stairway House, photo by Takumi Ota
In this rapidly changing Internet era, a live broadcast can sell the sales of traditional supermarkets for one year. The pace of people's lives is unprecedentedly full, progressing in speed and nothingness. But Yamato Sato and Nendo's simple and complex way of working, put steady gears on the "design-creation" chain. In the face of the rumbling footsteps of the times, at least we know that the creative process of an object from scratch has been fully transformed and painstakingly explored by the designer, and the acceptance of a design may also be a bridge, and the other end is the road to a new life and a new meaning.
Photographed by Akihiro Yoshida and Hiroshi Iwasaki nendo
Executive Producer — Carrie Cao
Curator, Editor — Luzy
Written by Carrie, Linda Jiang, LaFeng
Images — courtesy of each designer and official website
Cover collage — Longevity
Graphic Design — Wood Valley