Studio Gorm Brings Shaker Style Forward

John Arndt and Wonhee Jeong-Arndt, the duo behind Studio Gorm’s breakthrough project, Furnishing Utopia, developed a fascination with the objects in 2013, in the course of their research at the University of Oregon, where they teach product design. Eventually, they successfully invited 11 other studios from around the world to join them at two historic Shaker sites in New England, and now make work inspired by the religious sect’s austere style. The more than 30 pieces that resulted debuted as the inaugural Furnishing Utopia collection in 2016 at Sight Unseen Offsite, and the novel concept didn’t go unnoticed.

This year, Studio Gorm returns to New York as the winner of Wanted Design’s American Design Honors. Simultaneously, a new Furnishing Utopia collection will be presented at Design Within Reach’s SoHo Studio, now featuring four additional contributors, and showcasing designers’ creations alongside the Shaker artifacts that informed them. Since they founded Studio Gorm, in 2007, the two designers have always been receptive to ideas derived from rigorous academic research. “We enjoy looking at how basic design problems have historically been solved,” says Arndt, who met Jeong-Arndt while they were students at Design Academy Eindhoven. “We rethink that for a contemporary context.” For Wanted Design, a major installation will place site-specific elements alongside older works, including unfinished prototypes that reveal the team’s approach. “Logical construction is key for us,” Arndt says. “The forms come out as pragmatic and functional—not overly slick or cold. We don’t want to design objects that people think are fancier than they are.”

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