A Monograph of Scholten and Baijings' Varied Works

Since founding their practice in Amsterdam 15 years ago, designers Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings have produced a varied and prolific body of work—everything from textiles to ceramics and furniture pieces for clients including Georg Jensen, Mini, and design company Hay. A new monograph, publishing this month, Reproducing Scholten & Baijings (Phaidon), states the ambitions that have guided the studio’s activities from the outset: “to design functional products, collaborate with the best professionals in the world, and create a balance between industrially produced series and experimental projects.” Organized into three sections, the hardcover tome begins with a photo essay of the studio’s crisply designed creative workspace, and a conversation between curator Louise Schouwenberg and frequent collaborator Michael Maharam. A telling taxonomy marks the catalogue of projects, diagrams, and sketches comprising the majority of the book, including section titles “Woven Willow,” “Vegetables,” “Colour Wood,” and “Blocks & Grid,” All are indicative of the firms studious forays into colors, materiality, process, and technique—explorations stemming from poetic observations on function, handicraft, and the natural world. “Once you start unpeeling nature,” Baijings muses, “you see how refined the colours are.”