Strength in numbers

Domus profiles three design studios built around teamwork and networks: CKR have worked together for years on multidisciplinary projects; UVA select and manage different design teams for each installation; the members of KiBiSi work together from a distance by night.

This article was originally published in Domus 963 / November 2012

Some stages in the history of art denote lively collective identities. Think of the Bauhaus, or the early-20th-century avant-gardes, when opposite factions debated the future of culture. In today's creativity on the other hand, it is rare to find individuals ready to share their visions and watch them merge — in art as well as in design and architecture. But when this does occur, the results are impressive. Which only goes to show that multiple minds concentrated in unison can boost the imaginative potential with excellent results. The UVA (United Visual Artists) group of British artists is a collective practice. Set up in London in 2003, its partners are Matthew Clark, Chris Bird and Ash Nehru, who are masters of a technological research transferred and filtered into magnetic stage designs of unusual expressive elegance.

Specialised in the creation of spectacular installations, aided by an original use of lighting and video projections (which started as scenic support for concerts by Massive Attack, U2, Battles and Jay-Z), UVA have widened their radius of action through collaboration with designers, architects and engineers, but also with other visual artists and with the help of advanced interactive communication devices. Their multimedia creativity involves and captivates audiences. In 2007 their Hereafter video installation, presented in Tokyo, Belsay and London, featured a floor-length mirror with a hidden high-speed camera giving reflections that wove together previously recorded moments, objects and people. In 2010 they made Canopy, a permanent 90-metre-long light sculpture spanning the front façade of the Maple Leaf Square building in Toronto. Inspired by the experience of walking through a forest's dappled light, this architectural installation is made of thousands of identical modules switched on and off intermittently. A dance of shadow and light makes the forms, abstracted from the geometry of leaves, appear remote from nature yet able to lead us back to it by recalling a forest canopy.

The group of British artists
UVA (United Visual Artists)
in their Great Suffolk Street
studio. Formed in London in
2003, the collective is led by
Mathew Clark, Chris Bird and
Ash Nehru (top image) — The group of British artists UVA (United Visual Artists) in their Great Suffolk Street studio. Formed in London in 2003, the collective is led by Mathew Clark, Chris Bird and Ash Nehru (top image)

Due to be inaugurated this autumn is Sound Wave, commissioned by the Bristol City Council for the Hengrove Park Leisure. The sound-responding sculpture, installed in a public swimming pool, generates light waves according to the leisure centre's level of activity, with audio outputs filtered by specific frequencies from its surroundings. These are transferred and converted into light beams that skim the surface of the sculpture to create an ever-changing spatial map. The inspiration comes from the response of waves on the surface of water. The sculpture consists of a disc rear-lit by concentric lines of LEDs, each autonomously monitored. With a diameter of 3,5 metres, it is made of Corian and aluminium and can set off a rhythmic concentric movement. A texture of very thin lines milled onto the front of the disc evokes the effect of a drop falling into the water.

<em>Always/Never</em>, the result of
research on time perception,
opened in September with
an exhibition at Gazelli Art
House. Above, during the
studio test phase — *Always/Never*, the result of research on time perception, opened in September with an exhibition at Gazelli Art House. Above, during the studio test phase

One of the British group's recent explorations of large-scale responsive LED sculpture is meant to explore our society's acceptance of a technocratic life form: Origin is a cube with ten-metre sides made for The Creators Project New York and constructed in collaboration with the Scanner, who composed the musical score. Presented last year between the two bridges on Brooklyn's shore (and soon to be repeated in San Francisco), the cube of light both disrupts and reflects the city, eliciting an emotional reaction from people approaching it. Origin is the culmination of a series of works derived from Orchestrion, the stage design created by UVA for the Coachella 2011 music festival. In their view, "Teamwork is like playing in a band: you've got to be intuitive most of all. The only way to success is to hit on the perfect combination of different personalities and qualities."

KiBiSi, the Danish collective
composed of Lars Holme
Larsen, Bjarke Ingels and
Jens Martin Skibsted — KiBiSi, the Danish collective composed of Lars Holme Larsen, Bjarke Ingels and Jens Martin Skibsted

The Copenhagen-based collective KiBiSi is composed of Lars Holme Larsen, Bjarke Ingels and Jens Martin Skibsted. Each has his own practice: Kilo Design, the industrial design firm directed by Lars Holme Larsen; Bjarke Ingels's BIG architecture office; and Skibsted Ideation, run by Jens Martin Skibsted, who also founded the brand Biomega. KiBiSi are a creative avant-garde triad with commissions from top international design names, which include the Silverback light for the Danish giant Louis Poulsen. Their operation ranges from lifestyle projects to the creation of high-tech bicycles. But it is more correct to say that the group deals with contemporary culture, its mission being to open up fresh opportunities for creativity applied to the various arts. To do this they exploit the know-how of each partner, so as to examine design from varied perspectives and summarise it in the best possible way.

Left, KiBiSi's <em>Bulb Fiction</em>
lamp for Light Years, 2012. Right, the <em>Knot lamp</em>, designed in
2005 — Left, KiBiSi's *Bulb Fiction* lamp for Light Years, 2012. Right, the *Knot lamp*, designed in 2005

Available from November, Bulb Fiction made for Light Years is a range of suspension and floor lamps with contemporary details that pay homage to the iconic incandescent bulb, while the name takes its cue from the film Pulp Fiction. The OKO bike, an extension of the Biomega Bike collection, comes with integrated front and rear lights and a half carbon half aluminium frame. Made in three different sizes, it aspires to be one of the lightest and most functional bikes on the market. The OKO bike was selected by Zahid Sardar for his book 100 Best Bikes, and conceived as the natural brother of Marc Newson's bike. Biomega was set up in 1998 and seeks, through collaboration with contemporary designers, to redefine the very concept of the bicycle in its urban context, bringing it into direct competition with the car in order to improve city life.

KiBiSi's Puma Disco bicycle,
2009 — KiBiSi's Puma Disco bicycle, 2009

"Working as a team for professionals who direct operations of their own is an extremely enriching experience," say KiBiSi. Perfectly complementary in their differences, they think of teamwork as a strengthening advantage. Lars is apt to awake from troubled dreams to linger for hours over the smallest details in pursuit of perfection; Bjarke is focused on analysing their design vision from a social perspective, starting again from scratch if he is not satisfied; and Skibsted highlights the interactive rhythm that unites the group, pointing out that "intense collaboration occurs especially at night, through a steady flow of email comparisons".

Mårten Claesson, Eero
Koivisto and Ola Rune have worked together since
1995 — Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune have worked together since 1995

Also the third collective examined here is Scandinavian. CKR, the acronym of Claesson Koivisto Rune, was founded in Stockholm in 1995 by Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune. Having started out as an architecture practice, an interest in multidisciplinary work prompted the group to embrace product design too, for which purpose they liaised with companies such as Cappellini and Artflex. The latest endeavour is a collection of furniture designed for Discipline, a new Italian brand that debuted at this year's Milan Furniture Fair. CKR produce a clean and linear type of architecture, true to Scandinavian tradition.

After CKR started as an architecture
practice, they soon became
multidisciplinary — After CKR started as an architecture practice, they soon became multidisciplinary

Their product design is innovative, with a proper respect for its key principles. Natural materials such as wool, wood, leather and bamboo are treated with sustainable processes and finishes, in line with the firm's claim to be "beautifully designed— consciously made". Because, say CKR, besides the need to please the eye, touch, too, plays a vital role in the satisfactory realisation of a product, while its conception must adhere to precise ethical rules. Geometrical lines, combined with opaque wood or intense colours like Ferrari red, are features of the Kami ("paper" in Japanese) collection by Discipline, with its thin two-dimensional profile. The basic idea of the collection is to produce paper-thin furniture. Kami Metallo is a family of coffee tables with a thin metal profile; Kami Pelle is a sofa and armchair with a thin upholstered profile; and Kami Bamboo is a combination of bamboo and metal for dining or conference tables, and a table-bench with a thin bamboo profile.

The intuitive merging of fortes and specific individual professional skills focused on a common cause gives an edge to groups dealing with the manifold aspects of creativity: mediating personal opinions and searching for effective contradictions can help to boost intuitions received from other brains. Ideally, this leads to a disciplined multidisciplinary and collective harmony. "Being part of something that is bigger than ourselves, but unattainable without each partner's contribution, can be a wonderful source of joy and strength," conclude CKR. Maria Cristina Didero

Strength in numbers

Domus profiles three design studios built around teamwork and networks: CKR have worked together for years on multidisciplinary projects; UVA select and manage different design teams for each installation; the members of KiBiSi work together from a distance by night.

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