Text by Jeanne Tan
Translation by Xiyang Wang
Photo by Ilco Kemmere
Judith and Gunter Wehmeyer are co-founders of Studio BoomWehmeyer. The studio regularly moves between the UK, China (Jingdezhen and Shanghai), and now the Netherlands (Arnhem).
Urban design and research projects brought us to China in 2004. Since then, we’ve been evolving a network and initiating discourse with Chinese and international designers in China around a common concern for the meaning and role of the changing design landscape in China. We started working on large-scale urban research, but also on small-scale craftsmanship in the porcelain industry; somehow this seemed to be the right approach for us to start to bring the human scale into our conversations.
China has been in the news for more than a decade regarding its growth and speedy transitions of society, business, infrastructure, and identity. Design has also undergone huge developments. Design should ultimately address human needs and put the human experience at the core of the process. Of course, with China being in transition, this was the right place for our studio to mix transition and discourse in design with the roots and identity of China. We have been working intensively in China on rethinking this needs-transition connection, as it’s an area with no clear instruction manual. The reward is in seeing this change happen and we learned so much through seeing the Chinese themselves adapt to this fast change and its consequences for living together as a society. It has raised a lot of questions and also answers.
Judith van den Boom and Gunter Wehmeyer
If you’re really interested in China, go there to first immerse yourself in its culture and to breathe it in. Observe, engage, interact, and please work outside the expat scene with Chinese creatives to experience the growing creative scene beyond the facade of the design scene in the big cities. China is a big country dealing with so many issues. Depending on your line of work and long-term interests, you should make sure to connect with the designers and creatives who actually do the building and make this new future happen in China.
You start seeing things in a different perspective when you distance yourself from all the hype about China. It’s not really about them and us but more about understanding how we are interconnected.
Something that is very present in Chinese culture is fireworks. Every celebration, welcome or goodbye begins with fireworks. Our Chinese contacts brought along loud firecrackers when we had a good kiln firing or when a building opened. Last January when we finished a five-month porcelain process, we took the initiative and laid out big rolls of firecrackers near the truck that transported the finished pieces to wish it a safe journey. When you start lighting fireworks at your house on a regular basis, you could say you’re truly living like a local.
Studio BoomWehmeyer
www.boomwehmeyer.com
This interview was published in Connecting the Dots #6 for South China in 2012.
For entire magazine click here.
Judith和Gunter Wehmeyer一起创立了BoomWehmeyer工作室。该工作室经常活跃在英国，中国（景德镇和上海），和荷兰（阿纳姆）之间。
2004年，城市设计和研究项目把我们带到了中国。自那以后，我们与中国的设计师以及在中国的国际设计师们一起，围绕着不断变化的景观设计在中国的意义与角色这个共同关心的问题，逐渐建立起了一个关系网络并发起对这一问题的讨论。在陶瓷行业，我们开始了大尺度的城市研究和小尺度的工艺研究；在某种程度上，对于我们开始将人的尺度带入到我们的对话中来说，这似乎是正确的方法。
在国家成长和社会，商业，基础设施以及身份的快速转换方面，中国备受关注已经10年多了。设计也经历了巨大的发展。设计最终需要解决人的需求并把人的体验作为这整个过程的核心。当然，随着中国正处于转型之中，对于我们工作室来说这里是一个非常合适的地方来将设计中的转换，话语的表达与中国的根基与身份相结合。在中国，我们一直都很紧张、投入地在重新思考这种需求与转换的联系上进行工作，因为在这方面目前还没有明确的指导。回报是我们看到了这个变化的发生，通过看到中国人自己适应这种快速的变化并作为一个社会整体共同生活，我们学到了很多东西。这种变化引发了很多问题，也产生了许多对策。
如果你真的对中国感兴趣，到那里首先要深入到它的文化中去，并感受那里的文化。去观察，去参与，去相互沟通，脱离外籍人士的那种海外情结与中国的创意人士去体验在大城市之中设计外表之外的成长中的创意景象。中国是一个大国，正在应对许多的问题。根据你所从事行业和长远利益，你要确保与真正设计那些建筑和创造中国未来的设计师和创意人士们联系起来。当你将自己置身于所有关于中国的宣传和渲染之外时，你就会开始从一个不同的角度来看问题。这与“他们”，“我们”没有真正的关系，更多的却是在于理解我们是如何相互联系的。
在中国文化中非常有现实意义的物品是烟花，每一个庆典，无论是欢迎还是道别，开始都要放烟花。当我们成功烧好一个窑或当一栋建筑开张，我们在中国的联系人就会带来响亮的鞭炮。去年一月，当我们完成了为时5个月的瓷件制作时，为了表达能够将这些物品安全送达目的地的意愿，我们自发地在卡车边摊开几卷鞭炮来放。当你遵照习俗在家中放起鞭炮时，你就可以说自己真的入乡随俗了。
