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offices and workshops, a shop, a showroom and a gallery, plus a restaurant and a theater hall. The project was a big step for me in the creation of an environment where I feel well. Everybody who feels well at his workplace can create good and beautiful things. With them you become more successful, but this is not my primary aim. But with success there will be even more opportunities to create more beautiful things.
English translation from page 42
We shall not design if … md correspondent Jamy Yang reports from China
At the last International Furniture Fair in Shanghai, the showroom of a new brand attracted attention with its clear style and a poetic inscription on the wall. “If it is for the sake of being different, for the sake of being colorful or for the pleasure to shock; if it is for a joke, a trick, a motif; if it is not for the love of humanity, if it does not illuminate our eye nor does it nourish our soul, then we shall never design.” Thus it reads on the showroom wall of the new ‘1ness’ brand, which presented an exhibition curated by architect and designer Chi Wing Lo under the motto of “We shall not design if...”. The exhibition aims at having us reflect on what a designer today is confronted with, who is well aware of his or her cultural responsibility. This message is particularly current at a time when China begins to invest heavily in the promotion of design. In his exhibition, Chi Wing Lo uses ink stones. With them he hopes to illustrate an intellectually sustainable approach while also giving absolute priority to sensibility in design. Modern, not trendy In contrast to the loss of proportionality and the arbitrariness of the exhibits out-
side, this tiny enclosed space looks like a Our author Jamy Yang retreat, an oasis, offering visitors a quiet studied product design in moment away from the hustle and bustle China and graduated in outside. Only a few light sources penetrate Germany with a master’s the darkness, lighting up only the ink degree in industrial design. stones‘ contours. The distinctive monochro- He worked at Siemens HQ for a while matic ambience has a contemplative and before returning to China and founding introspective effect. Just like Chi Wing Lo’s Yang Design in Shanghai in 2005, an designs. They are elegant, modern and of office for product strategies and design a timeless aestheticism, but in no way consultancy. In 2007, the y-town design trendy. label was established, catering for environWith his Greek-Chinese background, Chi mental problems, human resources, Wing Lo is today regarded as a typical material studies and design experiments. representative of a combination of FarAmong his qualifications are numerous Eastern aestheticism and contemporary national and international design awards. taste. He recently explained his views on China’s cultural genes. His inspirations inEnglish translation from page 47 clude images of the terraces in Yunnan, the cormoran fishermen, the boat trackers, the embroidery girls… In his eyes, wisdom, pa- Point of sale The real pleasure in shopping tience, dedication, inventiveness, serenity and contentment are the outstanding national Chinese traits. But he does not want to simply copy Chinese symbols and shapes; instead he aims at reawakening the sentiment and wisdom inherent in them. Chi Wing Lo founded ‘1ness’ to make his works accessible to us, which were inspired E-commerce is booming, and stationary by unique traditional materials and techretail is facing a crisis, although it offers niques that have been passed on to our one decisive advantage when compared generation. His objects raise the question: with the online world. The world of “How can we explore new potentials and commodities is not staged develop new perspectives and opportuntwo-dimensionally on a screen but in a ities at a defined moment and time and sensually perceptible spatial dramaturgy. by using an established process?” Lo examines conventional products with Once in retail trade everything was fine in much attention and empathy. He wishes the proverbial sense of the word. On the that his designs help to rejuvenate a craft one side of the counter there was the that is at risk of falling into oblivion by dealer who had a clear mandate to sell, bringing it closer to our current requirements and the modern zeitgeist. He hopes on the other the (potential) customer that his rigorous reinterpretations, however with an idea to purchase something. Both reached an agreement and finally restricted they may be by set perimeters, exchanged the product for money. A can propel forward more viable altersimple principle, which basically still works natives. Just as he sees his architecture like this today. Only the distribution chanand furniture design, Lo wants the everynel is a different one, because the concept day objects in our homes to occupy a special place and have a positive effect on of the buyer – or, put in the marketing exour living and dwelling. Anzeige
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