The Holy Ghost furniture by Yi Chen & Muchen Zhang

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DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

YC&MZ : The design is actually a result from a spiritual experience based on our Christian belief. Its holiness, dynamism, and mobility, combined with the ethereal beauty of the spiritual space, arouse more thoughts related to religious conviction and spiritual pursuit. By breaking withpeople’s inherent thinking towards the chair, it not only inspires the multidimensional cognition of abstract and symbolic objects, but breathes new life into the chair itself. It is just like a spiritual entity, designed with an invisible, untouchable, but perceivable image as the theme.

DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

YC&MZ : Our focus has been on breathing new life into the chair itself to turn it into a holy spiritual entity.

DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?

YC&MZ : We expect to come up with more furniture pieces with their own spiritual temperament.

DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?

YC&MZ : One month.

DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?

YC&MZ : It is a result from a spiritual experience based on our Christian beliefs.

DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?

YC&MZ : We’ve been considering such plans

DI: What made you design this particular type of work?

YC&MZ : The Holy Ghost Chair is inspired by our Christian belief, in which the Holy Ghost stands for love. The Light of the Holy Ghost being a source of affection and love, the Holy Ghost is not an object to experience, but a means to explorea new life. The moment we’re touched by the Holy Ghost, we feel the transcendence and presence of the God, who allow himself to be known and to be experienced .

DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?

YC&MZ : I cooperated with Muchen Zhang in design.

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

YC&MZ : Young, energetic people.

DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?

YC&MZ : It is not like a chair, but a holy, weightless object seeming to have a soul.

DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?

YC&MZ : The holiness, dynamism and mobility that characterize the chair dovetail with the invisible, untouchable but perceivable nature of the Holy Ghost. Namingit The Holy Ghost Chair is an attempt to breathe new life into it.

DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?

YC&MZ : Combination of vertical line arrays and horizontal block surfaces

DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?

YC&MZ : It is a spiritual entity, not merely a chair

DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?

YC&MZ : I cooperated with Muchen Zhang in designing the chair, while the makerwas responsible for technical solutions.

DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?

YC&MZ : It’s helpful in giving the support required by the chair.

DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?

YC&MZ : We’re not influenced by data or analytical research.The achievement of a spiritual experience based on our Christian belief, however, did have an impact on our design.

DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?

YC&MZ : To make it appear holy and weightless.

DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?

YC&MZ : A’ Design Award is a prestigious prize in international design field. Being part of it would allow more people, either laymen or professionals, from other countries to know about our work. And we expect it to bring in more opportunities for professional exchanges and real projects

DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?

YC&MZ : We learned how to reflect our understanding of religious conviction in our own design.