Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 36
Occupation: Architect and designer.
Instagram: @paul______chan and @thecoast.studio
Hometown: Hong Kong.
Studio location: Los Angeles and New York.
Describe what you make: Spaces and the objects within.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: The Either/Or light collection. What began as a small table lamp has evolved into an architectural scale lighting system. The project has led me to think deeply about how lighting impacts one’s spatial experience.
Describe the problem your work solves: I am trying to articulate the “in-between”—to bridge the gap between inside and outside, light and dark, man-made and nature, perfection and imperfection. It’s okay to not be perfectly defined. I am creating spaces and objects where boundaries dissolve, bridging rather than dividing disciplines.
Describe the project you are working on now: I am in the design phase of a new lighting collection inspired by the Eames Mathematica exhibit. It’s a testament to how design can spur curiosity not by aiming for simplicity but by offering hints of complexity. It completely blew me away when I saw it in person at the Ford Museum in Michigan, an exhibition that’s 50 years old and still going on.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: I am revamping an established restaurant in New York and building a specialty Asian grocery in Highland Park. Both are operating against tradition—new concepts that should come back stronger after the Covid recovery.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: Snacks are huge. I snack like I’m five years old! Hot Cheetos and Snickers ice cream bars. In the morning, I prefer Philip Glass or Frank Ocean to set the tone and wrap up with Kendrick Lamar at the end of the night.
What you do when you’re not working: Since the quarantine, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my basement woodshop playing around with Chinese, Japanese, and Western wood joints. I am fascinated by traditional carpentry’s utility and it’s a shame we have traded so much of that beauty for banal industrial materials.I think it’s time that we consider working with nature rather than against it.
Sources of creative envy: Agnes Martin, Ingo Maurer, Wong Kar Wai.
The distraction you want to eliminate: My wife.
Concrete or marble? Concrete, more specifically Tadao Ando’s concrete. The way he frames a view and creates moments of filtered sunlight through concrete inspired me to become an architect.
High-rise or townhouse? High-rise. I grew up on the 32nd floor of a high-rise in Hong Kong. My favorite memory was watching my neighbor cook dinner through the window in her kitchen with nothing but blue sky behind her. It felt like we were living in the sky. Still, I felt very close to her by witnessing her daily routines, even though I might never get to speak to her. I’ve been thinking a lot about how our living environments will change after the pandemic. The fact that everyone is itching to go outside highlights how human beings are naturally communal and feel uncomfortable being indoors for extended periods of time. I believe a more nuanced architectural typology will emerge to provide density for cities but also provide a sense of connection with outdoor space much like a townhouse or a single-family home so people can have their own sliver of open air space to plant a garden to nurture or escape to.
Remember or forget? I forgot.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens.
Dark or light? Light. It creates shadows.
