Makkink & Bey: Explorers

(jiří macek) Rianne Makkink and Jurgen Bey are no doubt the biggest foreign stars at this year’s Designblok. The leading figures of conceptual design presented their vision of office space for PROOF in Milan in spring, which was truly unforgettable.

The Dutch studio of Rianne Makkink and Jurgen Bey is renowned primarily for its collaboration with Droog Design, for which the studio has recently designed e.g. a new showroom presentation in New York and Milan for the House of Furniture project. However, their cooperation stretches further back, especially in the case of Jurgen Bey, who belonged among the first generation of designers associated with the Droog Design phenomenon. That era most likely brought about his most famous furniture piece – a tree trunk with backrests.

The Milan installation for the innovative office of PROOF combined drawings with slightly oversized furniture pieces – light objects, Ear Chair wing chairs, the variable Work Sofa in the form of plateaus, and the Slow Car mobile unit, which Makkink & Bey presented in the Vitra Design Museum. The effect was exceptional – even though the futuristic lab could function in a movie by Kubrick, it did not lack humanity or humor. The installation clearly demonstrated why these designers are sought-after, not only to create unique pieces for galleries and collectors, but also to design extraordinary interiors.

“We feel like explorers, travelling around the world either driven by curiosity, or sent on a mission, constantly investigating, inquiring, and associating to come back with stories, stories that are told through design, for design is our language. Our goal is to create an installation or story mostly of a speculative character, such as New Family and New Ecology. They represent production and reproduction based on the shifting relations between living, working, and consuming. A trans-disciplinary approach and innovation take place at the sections of the established fields,” say the designers.

Makkink & Bey will present a collection of cabinets that serve as working craftsmanship cells in Prague. Visitors will also see the results from their workshop at the AAAD in Prague in cooperation with Designblokem and the Czech glass factory of Vitrum.

Photo: Stijn Brakkee

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