Ink Play, 2019
Designboom Interview
Yulin Peng: From Artistic Expression to Poetic Space
Q: Describe your creative process
I started by understanding the brief, looking at images and researching the context. After having deposited enough information, I would sit down to sketch, research more and sketch further. The concept and theme come natural through this iterative process. Then I will have crit sessions and talk to people with fresh eyes, and that helps to identify the best design directions. And client feedbacks are always the most important in this process, if I am not doing a project of my own.
Yulin Peng
Q: How do you get unstuck creatively?
I rarely got stuck creatively to begin with - I always feel like that the world is so enriching that inspirations are wherever, whenever I pay attentions. If at all, I will unwind and recharge by working out, taking a walk in the nature, reading, meditating, watching a good movie etc.
Q: What are the goals of publishing your monograph Airy and your thought process behind the project?
The monograph Airy started as my thesis while at Columbia GSAPP when I was synthesizing my own design language. Under LOT-EK’s Ada and Giuseppe’s encouragement in artistic exploration through the Makergraph Studio, we were prompted to make four objects/art pieces (metal, fabric, wood, plastic) and to genuinely document our primary preoccupations. We eventually ended up with a very personal booklet. I kept going back, refining and reworking the project for two years afterward, and it felt right to make available as public knowledge since my theme was pushed to its utmost expression at that point. It was time to communicate to the world.
Through the monograph, I explored the potential for one consistent design theme to keep growing into creations, brands, objects, art pieces, products, spaces and architecture. Though there are many approaches to a project, I try to instill a pure lens in the book and to find the essential elements to this one approach. Besides the book, the project is far from being finished. On the one hand, I am in the process of understanding ways to physicalize the design vision; and another, I kept pondering the relationship between architecture, products and their audiences, to better design for a vertical or horizontal market.
Airy, 2022
Q: What kind of questions do you ask before beginning a design project? Which piece of information is of utmost value?
For a project with clients, I started by asking what the prompts actually ask for beyond the obvious narratives and how to provide / maximize values with design solutions; besides that and also for other type of projects, the focus then becomes how to integrate the thinking and perspective to the project. The goal is often to expand the discourse in the field by contributing a unique design and to make the world a more interesting / better place. I think setting the right intention could work magics to begin the design process.
Q: Tell us about a project which has been your greatest achievement?
In retrospect, I am lucky and blessed to have several built projects to claim (credits to the firms and the teams that carried the projects through after I jumped on to the next adventures), and they are all widely published by renown mainstream press. These include Alice & Olivia’s Miami Design District Flagship store, the Sapphire Lounges for JP Morgan & Chase, a high-rise residential tower (150 East 78Th) in Upper East Side New York with RAMSA, and other projects that I briefly participated in like Smith College’s Nelson Library and Tencent Beijing Headquarter.
For my age and years in the field, I feel deeply grateful for the breadth of these practices and the diversity of project types, ranging from public to private, commercial to hospitality to high-end residential. Though I am in the process of exploring the possibility of a consistent design language through projects that land, like what I was doing in Airy and working on having a better understanding in terms of scales, practicality, project execution & management etc.
Being an architect / designer, I took great joy when I know I am contributing in a meaningful way and my design decisions are well received by the clients and the public / end users, which propagates the design products to wider audiences and contributing to the physical environments we inhibit infinitesimally but hopefully profoundly. That sense of accomplishments has been one of my most gratifying achievements so far.
Q: Do you have an artist that you are very interested in at the moment?
Torkwase Dyson has left a great impression lately. We produced a podcast episode featuring a conversation between Mabel Wilson and her in 2019 while working on GSAPP Conversations, Since then I have seen her work shown by galleries and museums well known by me. Her composition carries bold visual tensions and her sensitivity to scales allows her to challenge them, while also being well-versed in history and the language spoken in academia. This level of sophistication touches me to a degree.
Wire Weave, 2020
对话建筑设计师Yulin Peng：从艺术性表达到诗意空间
Q: 描述你的创作过程
我从阅读相关信息、查看图片和背景调研开始。 在积累了足够的材料后，我会开始画草图，进一步调研，修改草图。一般概念和主题会在这个相互不停完善的循环过程中自然而然地形成。 但有时过程也不完全是线性的。然后我会进行批判性讨论并与具有新的视角和思维的前辈/朋友交谈，以确定最佳设计方向。 如果不是自己的项目，客户的反馈在这个过程中始终是最重要的。
Q: 你如何摆脱创作瓶颈？
我很少陷入创作瓶颈，总是觉得世界如此丰富多彩，灵感无处不在。如果有的话，我会通过锻炼、在大自然中散步、阅读、冥想、看一部好电影等来放松和充电。
Q: 出版你的艺术设计专集 Airy 的目标是什么，你在这个项目背后的思考过程是什么？
Airy 开始于我在哥伦比亚大学研究院 GSAPP 的毕设项目，在LOT-EK Ada 和 Giuseppe 的Makergraph Studio艺术表达的鼓励下，我试图提炼自己独特的设计语言。 这个项目是我建筑学术生涯阶段的顶点但它又最为非传统，非建筑（non-architectural）。我们在短时间内快速创作四个凸显材料机理的艺术作品（金属、布料、木材、塑料）并坦诚地记录对于我们有重要意义的想法，最终合集了一本书册。 项目结束两年后，我继续不断地完善和编辑其内容，直到感觉这本书中需要表达的理念已阶段性地达成。
我试图通过专集传达理念— 将设计师/艺术家的灵感和统一表达被不断发展为创意、品牌、物品、艺术品、产品、空间和建筑的潜力。 尽管一个项目有不同立意和方法的可能性，但我试图找寻一个纯粹的视角，并找到这种方法的基本要素。但在此之外，这个项目还远未完成，一方面是继续寻求艺术愿想的具象和空间化，另一方面在工作中不断地思考建筑，产品与受众的关系，以更好地理解如何创作拥有垂直市场的设计。
Q: 在开始设计项目之前你会问什么样的问题？ 哪条信息最有价值？
对于客户的项目，我会自问在表层的叙述之外项目真正的诉求是什么，以及如何通过设计解决方案提供/最大化价值； 同时，及设计其他类型的作品时，重点也在于如何将我们的思维和切入点融入项目，以贡献独特的作品来扩展设计的可能性，让世界变得更有趣/更美好。拥有正确的初心对开始设计过程的推进特别有帮助。
Q: 告诉我们一个你最大成就的项目？
我很幸运地拥有几个已建成的项目（感谢在我下一阶段的工作开始后，继续完成这些项目的公司和团队），它们大都被媒体广泛报道。 其中包括Alice & Olivia的迈阿密Design District旗舰店、摩根大通全美/全世界各地的机场贵宾厅、纽约上东区与 RAMSA 合作的高层住宅 (150 East 78Th)，以及我曾短暂参与的项目，如史密斯学院的尼尔森图书馆和腾讯北京总部。
对于我这个年龄和工作年限的建筑设计师，我有幸涉及了从公共到私人，从商业到酒店再到高端住宅项目。我对这些经验的广度和类型的多样性深表感激。 虽我已在Airy初步表达，但我还在探索具体到落地项目如何统一设计语言，以及在创作完成后对于尺度，实用性和落地过程的各方协调/项目掌控还有许多需要学习。在项目团队中，当我知道我正在以有意义的方式做出贡献并且我的设计决策受到客户和公众/最终用户的高度接纳，从而能将设计产品传播给更广泛的受众时，我感到非常喜悦。 那种成就感是我目前最大的收获。
Q: 目前特别感兴趣的艺术家是谁，或者说谁能够影响您的创作？
Torkwase Dyson 最近给我留下了比较深刻的印象。 2019 年时，我们通过GSAPP Conversations制作了她和 Mabel Wilson 之间对话的播客片段，之后，我在我所熟知的画廊和美术馆好几次看她的展出。 她的作品带有强烈的视觉张力，对尺度的敏感，同时又深谙历史及学术的语言，这种具有魅力的复杂性让我感到很特别。
06/2023
[ link broken as Designboom China has stopped operation temporarily / permanently after 20 years due to the recent sudden passing of the founder & owner Mr Liu, R.I.P. ]