Studio Makkink & Bey (B. 2002)

Studio Makkink & Bey (B. 2002)

Studio Makkink & Bey is led by architect Rianne Makkink and designer Jurgen Bey. The studio works in various domains of applied art and includes public space projects, product design, architecture, exhibition design and applied arts. Supported by a design team, they have been operating their design practice since 2002.

The ambition of Studio Makkink & Bey is to see the role of the designer expanded to the most strategic function possible. To this end, our design team includes professionals from many different fields of knowledge; forming alliances with other designers, architects and experts. The design strategy of Studio Makkink & Bey is to re-appropriate what is already present in the context of an assignment, with a strong emphasis on the process. These contextual elements aren’t just rearranged within one product, but alsoon the scale of a building, a landscape or a social work environment.

One single product can progress into a project of a larger scale, motivating its own setting. In reverse, a project on the scale of architecture or urban planning can equally produce a series of products related to their original context. This movement of zooming in and zooming out marks the interaction between the domain of architecture and urban design and the domain of products. Urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture are indissolubly bound to product design. The light bulb has had an influence on architecture, the way a house is built will inevitably influence its interior. Did the invention of elevators give rise to the skyscraper, or did high-risers necessitate elevators?