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48 DESIGN MAY/JUN 2024 FDM ASIA | www.fdmasia.com

a composition acting as a ‘sculpted path for light’. colour.
Working with three woods, Taylor was interested in exploring “It has a beautiful warmth in its pinkish, red hue,” she says.
different material hollows, cutting each layer to expose the “I felt that supported everything I was trying to put into this
wood’s grain. piece.” Her design’s name (using the Latin word for ‘beside’)

represents the desire for human connection and closeness
Winding Stream by Wang Yunhan that guided the process.

Unable to carry out certain customs during lockdown, people
are confined to performing rituals at home. There is a novel Recollect by Tan Wei Xiang
need for suitable furniture and objects that can fit a small Searching for a tangible physical connection to loved ones
space but serve the same purpose. (beyond virtual calls), Tan turned to keepsakes as a way to
Wang wanted to create a domestic alternative to the fight nostalgia.
‘winding stream party’, a Chinese drinking custom in which His keepsakes cabinet is imagined as a way to hold,
poetry is composed while a cup is floated down a stream preserve and give respect to the items we hold dear. Its forms

with people sat on both sides; the person sitting in front of were inspired by Singapore’s ubiquitous construction sites and
the cup that stops has to drink it. the ridged zinc sheets used to protect them.
Inspired by Hakka round houses, Wang created a compact Tan recreated this motif as the outer shell of his tall, lean
table design with storage concealed in the legs and a central cabinet, and created curved shelves to sit inside it, with a
slit to fit trays and cups. mirrored, polished brass circle, mimicking the sun setting on
The table is also equipped with a drain so users can the horizon.
dispose of their water through the twisting gully, and it then The designer had worked with maple before but never

trickles into a waste bucket housed in the main leg. from the American hardwood forests and, for this project, he
Wang chose hard maple for Winding Stream because selected a combination of hard maple of different thicknesses
she was drawn to the light colour, and the timber has been to achieve the ‘crinkled’ effect on the shell, and red oak for
spray-painted to prevent rot from setting in. the curved shelves inside.

Luxta Me (Beside me) by Vivienne Wong Shelter Within by Duncan Young
Dancer-turned-designer Wong looked at non-verbal communication Young focused on the materiality of timber, and how this
as the starting point of her project, approaching the task from organic material can help us connect with nature while
a personal point of reflection and knowledge. confined at home.

“I wanted to translate my previous understanding of how “For those in dense urban environments, lockdowns have
we can connect and communicate,” she says, and looked to impacted our physical and mental strength by limiting the
create a piece to nurture strength, intimacy and connection. biological need humans have for being in outdoor spaces,”
Invisible physical boundaries and the creation of textures he says.
through light formed the basis of the project, which developed He looked at studies analysing the positive impact of
into a coffee table featuring interlocking echoed forms, where nature on physical and mental health, and in response created
the functional joinery also became a decorative motif for the a modern cabinet of curiosities as a pillar to nature, for the

piece. user to engage with the natural world while at home.
Wong chose American cherry because of its grain and Featuring a solid carcass with discreet joinery and a moiré-