Diverse Approaches

W Hotels Designers of the Future Design Talk

Design Miami/ Basel held its final Design Talk today and it was a chance to hear from the W Hotels Designers of the Future about their work and their diverse approaches.

Moderator Joseph Grima (Editor-In-Chief of Domus magazine) kicked off the conversation by noting that “all the pieces by the Designers of the Future this year are really different and are products of collective efforts.”

W Hotels Designer of the Future Asif Khan collaborated on his project for the show with Pernilla Ohrstedt, a friend from architecture school. Asif said he used this opportunity at Design Miami/ Basel “to create new work that would expand my definition of architecture and design.”

He described his project The Cloud as a “primitive space that provides shade. It is constantly changing and shifting shadows on the floor. The canopy the clouds form is an architectural structure but it is also something else. ”

Mischer’Traxler said after reading the creative brief from Design Miami/ that asked each winner to create a Conversation Piece for the fair, the partners of the studio (Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler) started asking themselves: What are conversations all about? They added their own parameter to the creative brief and decided they would only create work that needed at least two people to function.

For debut at the fair, they created Collective Works a machine that makes a basket but only functions when people engage and pay attention to it. They also created a mirror called It Takes Two that only reflects images when at least two people stand in front of it.

Studio Juju responded to the creative brief with a physical space. “We thought we cannot control conversation but we can create and control a space where conversation can happen,” said studio member Timo Wong. Their project is a seating arrangement within a tent that strips away the canvas but leaves the structural lines, so that what’s heard in the structure can be heard by all.

Grima described the project as minimalist and studio member Pricilla Lui responded: “We are always looking to achieve something that is just right – nothing more, nothing less.”