Rabbit – Design Trust Futures Studio

Rabbit

Double Rabbits

Designer-mentee: Su Chang
Collective Master-mentors: Cynthia Sah, Kan Tai-keung
Lead Curator: Marisa Yiu

L 33 x D 38 x H 6 cm
Wood, camphor blocks, engineered basswood plates, paper clay, cork filaments

Double Rabbits is a formal abstraction of rabbit ears that creates a functional double of traditional Chinese tableware: chopsticks holder and soy sauce dipping bowl. The design looks for a new language for contemporary woodcraft, between traditional techniques and emerging technologies (paper clay models, wood carving, photogrammetry, laser cutting, 3D printing), between typical wood stocks and new materials (camphor blocks, engineered basswood plates, paper clay, wood and cork filaments).

Inspired by the crafting story of “Ru Tu”, the marble sculpture created and carved by Cynthia Sah for Project Twelve in 2011, we translated the carving techniques of geometric approximation into an architectural process from drawing to space-making, creating a methodological connection between the two disciplines through their common attention to the issue of space.

The work is created with project assistants Leung Man Wah and Don Hong, with fabrication support by Bespecial Wood Carving and Woodcraft.

Design Process

 

"The form is an abstraction of the rabbit ears. We also think about the relationship between form and function, which is very key to our works as architects. What we are thinking most of the time is only just having this one-to-one relationship between form and function. But how can we create the doubling of function with just one form? The double ears that we have for the sculpture can perform as a chopstick holder, and a container for sauce." - Su Chang

Project Twelve

 

Ru Tu by Cynthia Sah (2011)

As always, Cynthia touches her audience with simplicity, elegance and tranquillity. “Ru Tu” is a creation of fluidity and subtlety. Its smooth and curvaceous surface is a pleasure to the sense of sight and irresistible to the sense of touch. Each piece of marble has natural pattern running over it and each rabbit is thus unique with its own character.