An Indication Of Space

studio juju's W Hotels Designer of the Future Installation at Design Miami/ Basel

Zigelbaum + Coelho’s Jamie Zigelbaum guest blogs for Design Miami/ Blog. In this post, Jamie sits down with studio juju – 2011 W Hotels Designers of the Future. Jamie’s studio was honored with the award in 2010.

At Design Miami/ Basel upon a second floor lacking a middle part (often called a mezzanine), I found a white, dome-ish object engorged with its designers, studio juju, seated on small, blue chairs within. (There were also metal insects nearby, but let’s not talk of those.)

The installation was studio juju’s response to Design Miami’s creative brief which challenged the 2011 W Hotels Designers of the Future to create installations that encouraged conversation at the fair.

studio juju's W Hotels Designer of the Future Installation at Design Miami/ Basel

“The idea of a tent,” Priscilla Lui told me. Continuing, “it’s a kind of gathering.” Then her partner Timo Wong added, “a really bare indication of a space, using lines.” And I agreed.

Their tent is minimal: white, powder-coated, spring steel arches linked with powder blue connectors. The thought of a tent and nothing more. Only enough to suggest a difference between inside and outside. Just a notion in slender steel. Something built not to cleave a space in the air but to carve a space in the mind.

Jamie Zigelbaum has a conversation with studio juju

Inside this nice thing, we had our own conversation. I asked the pair about their process, their inspiration, their thoughts on the fair, their aspirations, and other things. It was easy to talk with them, and enjoyable.

“For us it’s good to be a bit naive sometimes during the process. Do something without asking too much question, because you find things through that,” Timo said. “So you have to be a bit naive.”

Naiveté is best presented warm, atop a generous heap of cask-aged intellect. It’s one of my favorite meals. These two Singaporean designers, professors, and award winners served it well.