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ARTS THREAD teamed up with Paris-based Equip’Hotel, the key global trade event in the hospitality and catering sector, to run a competition aimed at graduate product designers. Contestants could enter their designs into five categories: bar, dining room, bathroom and terrace. Now the winning designs have been chosen and will go on display at Equip’Hotel. We caught up with Siyuan Zhang, winner in the bar category, to find out about his winning design.
ARTS THREAD: Tell us a little about your background
Siyuan Zhang: I’m a young Chinese designer currently based in Paris. I initially gained a bachelor’s degree in engineering at Zhejiang University in China. I then moved to France, staying in Marseille first, where I obtained a BA with honours at Fine Art School. I then moved on to Reims where I studied my masters, and then made my way to Paris where I’m now a freelance designer of products, furniture and scenography.
AT: Tell us about your Wired table you will be showing at Equip Hotel?
SZ: The Wired Table is made of two parts: the plateau and the base. These two parts are assembled by elastic lines. When they are in use, the elastic lines can hold the plateau. When they are in stock, the plateau can be put aside to save some space.
I developed the design for the Wired table during my master’s degree. The thesis during my master’s focused on lines. I’ve categorized lines in a very personal way: they are separations, continuations and transcriptions. They are not only a geometric tool or an expressive language, they are also a way of thinking. A cut trace separates things, a rope connect things. Then I tried to play with this contradiction by creating a series of objects which then formed the basis of the Wired project.
Siyuan Zhang, ‘Wired table’
AT: What do you hope to gain by exhibiting at Equip Hotel?
SZ: I’m looking forward to meeting people who can appreciate my work and can help me develop Wired into a final product. It would be so exciting to see the Wired table in a real bar!
AT: What are your future plans?
SZ: For now, I would like to continue freelancing in Paris, but I’d love to work for an agency.
In the long term, I would like to go back to my hometown – Shanghai – and open my own design studio.
Zhang’s winning work will be shown and promoted at Equip’Hotel November 11-15 2012. Visit Siyuan’s website for more information.
