Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/32301
Forward Thinking Design is, by virtue, a future- oriented profession. Recognizing today’s young, experimental design innovators, Design Miami/Basel and W Hotels presents the recipients of this year’s Designers of the Future award: Asif Khan, mischer’traxler and Studio Juju. Announced in April at Salone del Mobile in Milan, the winners were challenged to produce prototypes for a project addressing this year’s theme, Conversation Pieces, to be unveiled at Design Miami/Basel. BY AILEEN KWUN Garden chairs are typically used to sit among flowers, not on them. For his “Harvest” line produced during a residency at London’s Design Museum last year, however, Asif Khan took to the term with a literal twist, using bloomers for seats. To produce them Khan took raw, flowering Gypsophilia—stateside, what we affectionately call “Baby’s Breath”—then molded, freeze-dried and bonded the naturally intertwining live buds with a linseed-oil based resin in a weeks-long process. His other works take an about-face from the organic, surfacing in tessellated, die-cut paper patterns that perforate into bits of confetti, and sleek wooden ta- bles so lightweight they can be bench-pressed with a pinky. Though trained as an architect, Khan says he prefers to approach his work with a Asif Khan broader role. “Recently I was introduced to someone as an experimental architect,” he notes, bemused. “I don’t know what it means, but I like the vagueness.” The breadth of his portfolio surely demonstrates his polymathic approach to medium. Forthcoming projects in- clude everything from a restaurant interior in London’s Borough Market, to employee uni- forms for Paul Smith, and a pavilion commissioned by the British Council and Royal Academy for the Singapore Architectural Festival. 44 CULTURED PHOTO BY JAMES MORIARTY