Perspectives on Elements (1/2)

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Job:02-30056 Title: RP-Interior Design Reference and Speciﬁcation

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PERSPECTIVES ON ELEMENTS:

CALVIN TSAO

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Calvin Tsao, describe yourself and your practice.

As architects, we have an interest in bridging different design disciplines. We have

a profound interest in approaching our work comprehensively, “total design” if you

will; our work as interior designers should be understood in this context. We are

interested in mapping out human behavior for different social conditions. We look at

the world from a larger perspective while advancing an aesthetic; you simply cannot

do one without the other.

Do you have a particular approach to placing furniture in a space?

Ultimately, we look at furniture anthropomorphically and therefore functionally be-

cause furniture is conducive to varying activities. However, I like looking at interior

environments less as a collection of things in a room than as an intersection. Why

draw the line between built-in furniture, loose furniture, and architecture? Some

furniture is already placed because it is built-in and loose furniture is simply an ex-

tension of the whole reality. The envelope creates the space, and the surface can

be altered to make niches, cantilevers, extensions, etc.; sometimes the surface

becomes a table or a four-poster bed. I prefer to blur the boundaries of architecture,

built-in furniture, and loose furniture.

What is your favorite type of space to design/furnish?

I love small, tiny spaces. As a child, I liked to make tents out of my sheets in bed

and under the stairs. It’s a very basic impulse and the next line of defense beyond

clothing.

Small spaces lack the bravura of large spaces, and therefore spaciousness isn’t

the primary character. Modest space must be carefully orchestrated and tactility is

an essential quality. Because the distance between the eye and an object is differ-

ent in smaller spaces, you look closer, you touch more. I like the involvement of the

senses when surfaces are closer.

Does your work have a particular style that you can define?

Style? An approach more than a style, really. It depends how you want to define the

word style. One can have a developed taste, but style can be limiting.

Who are the most influential furniture designers of the nineteenth, twentieth, and

twenty-first centuries?

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In the nineteenth century, the Viennese designers, most notably Biedermeier, were

addressing the social preoccupations of the rising middle class, who attempted to

emulate the nobility. In contrast, Christopher Dresser, who foreshadowed modern-

ism, was designing objects with a simple modern aesthetic that had a different,

almost Asian, cultural sensibility. His designs open the way for people like Mackin-

tosh. Simultaneously, the Herter Brothers were producing exquisitely crafted interior

furnishings. Their work influenced the nuances of the language through craft. What

is most notable about the nineteenth century is the parallel development of cultural

assimilations and the forging of an aesthetic movement.

The twentieth century is complex in that you have Mackintosh and Fortuny advancing

aesthetics through symbolism that partly explored psychosexual qualities in furnish-

ings. On the flip side were Le Corbusier, Perriand, and Loos defining a new aesthetic

via their romance with the machine age. Then Henry Dreyfus and Raymond Loewy,

taking cues from the Corbusian romance with industry and incorporating that aes-

thetic into their designs. Simultaneously, Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Jean-Michel

Franc were designing simple forms veneered in exotic finishes and patterns. Also

George Nelson, George Nakashima, and Vladimir Kagan were inspired by history but

took it to a different place. Noguchi transcended the idea of pure craft and created

functional art objects. Of course, one has to include Wright and the Eames.

The twenty-first century continues with designers like Marc Newson and Ronan and

Erwan Bouroullec. Marcel Wanders and other Dutch conceptual designers who make

up the Droog Collective. There is also the Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola, who

burst on the scene about five years ago. Ultimately, what I find most interesting

about furniture design is that it remains an everyday design problem with a populist

tradition serving a multitude of worlds and realities. The field continues to be di-

verse and exciting by being geographically specific in its influences.

Of these designers, who inspires you the most?

All of them. It is the multitude that gives you the confidence that you have to find

your own vision. We embrace a nonegocentric approach, but believing in the self as

it serves the world in a way that you desire to participate. We are like shaman; aes-

thetic chanellers of how people like to live.

What else (or who else) do you look at for inspiration?

In the end, nature is amazing: A hermit crab or the patterns of a leaf, there is noth-

ing unnecessary in natural phenomena. Whether it is camouflage color or color to

attract for procreation, it’s all necessary.

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I am also greatly inspired by movement and dance. My early training as a dancer and in the

theater has influenced my awareness of movement. Dance has helped me understand the

human interaction with a physical environment. I am deeply interested in mapping those im-

pulses as part of daily life, even beyond walking and running. I am sensitive to left-handed

and right-handed impulses. It is important to consider how one should open a door—should it

swing out or in?

I am particularly fascinated with the eighteenth century. They created furniture based on the

idea of movement, from straddling a chair to sitting low in front of a boudoir. The clothing of

the time informed the furniture, the furniture informed the architecture, and the architecture

informed the social politics of a situation—imagine the drama of a suite of enfilade rooms.

Lastly, I am influenced by art and artists. Since artists are the most advanced prophets, I look

to them not to copy but because they show the way.

When do think it is appropriate to use custom-designed furniture?

Custom furniture should not be revolutionary, but rather custom fit for a particular space. It

should not be about inventing something new for the sake of novelty. I prefer to make the

analogy to Savile Row; make a perfect suit to custom fit a person. When we design custom

furniture, we aim to make the perfect chair to fit the space perfectly.

Who do you think is making well-designed mass-produced furniture?

Ikea is pretty damn good. They work with young talented designers and there is a clear agenda

to promote affordable good design. In contrast, Target is mining well-known designers that

they convert to brand names to promote more sales.

What are your top three resources for purchasing “one-of-a-kind” pieces of furniture?

1stdibs.com—A lot of dealers use this website for selling their treasures. It is essentially a

web-catalogue, not unlike Ebay but for designers. If you’re a dealer, you have to go to shows

and it is costly. Some or all of the inventory on the website leads to a specific seller’s website,

making it a great way to connect to dealers as well as objects. However, I still feel weird about

buying things without seeing and touching them. There’s something about the human eye and

body interaction that gives you a better sense of whether it is going to be the right piece.

Flea Markets—I still believe that everyone should travel and get up to speed on where the

local flea markets are held. Some of my favorites are the first Sunday of the month in Arezzo,

Italy; Portobello Road in London; Marche Paul Bert and Marche Serpette, both in Paris; in

Brimfield, Massachusetts; and Pan Jia Yuan in Beijing. What I like most is that they are not

edited. You don’t know what you’re going to find, but sometimes you can find unique items.

Once I found a fabulous big chunk of wood—something I certainly wasn’t shopping for. Only

flea markets provide these wonderful kinds of revelations.

R 20th Century—Lastly, when looking for modern furniture, R 20th Century in New York is a

great source. The owners are constantly looking. Right now they are focusing on the Brazil-

ians. Whether I buy or not, I always go there to see what they’re looking at; it’s a great place

to train the eye. Good furniture dealers are almost like tutors, with their great eye they pick up

new things. What’s both fascinating and difficult about this market is that dealers are forced

to move onto the next area of exploration as they price themselves out of the current trends.

As a result, it is a constantly evolving market.

Does your design or project approach differ for a residential client versus a corporate or

institutional client?

Yes and no. Because so much time is spent in the workplace, it is important to navigate with

ease even though the concerns are totally different from those of a residence. The goal of

office design is also to enhance living. I often ask, how residential can I make a corporate

environment?

With corporate or institutional clients, I try to draw out the humanity. You can’t serve anyone

if you stay on the surface. If you treat them as entities, it’s difficult to serve them. The human

dynamic can be a pain or it can be wonderful; but in the end, if you can appeal to the human

condition, better design is achievable.

How do you integrate an existing piece of furniture that a client may have and that you do not

particularly like?

With each client, I try not to be static in my approach to design or to the design process itself.

Because they have engaged me as an architect and designer, I assume that our clients want

to evolve—that they want new space, furniture, art, accessories, etc. At the same time, if they

have had a piece for a long time and are happy with it and not ready to let go of it, who am I

to tell them that they must? That approach is right out of those marvelous Jacques Tati films,

where the government authority adopts modern design as law and dictates that its citizens

have to change the way they live in order to conform. It’s brilliant satire, but I prefer not to play

politics in that way, and I believe that to command clients or to try to persuade them on purely

theoretical or intellectual grounds is fundamentally not good practice.

My role is to serve our clients as individuals, so my first task is to inquire about and under-

stand how they live. Then I continue by informing them about the furnishings and objects they

already have, and whether I like or dislike them shouldn’t really factor into the discussion.

Finally, the most important and helpful thing I can do is to inspire them and to advise them

as to what can be. Fully informed and aware—not just of the realities of the past but also

of the possibilities of the future—clients might then realize, perhaps even to their surprise,

that they are ready to discard existing design and to embrace new design. In this approach,

everyone learns, everyone grows, and everyone is pleased with the design outcome. I evolve

as a designer by gaining a deeper understanding of the spirit of each individual client. And our

clients evolve, too, by gaining the experience and confidence they need to make informed and

thoughtful decisions.

Overleaf

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