Jurgen Bey- A Designer Biography

Jurgen Bey- A Designer Biography

 

Jurgen Bey was born in 1965 in the Netherlands and is known as one of the most renowned designers of the modern world among the Dutches. He studied design at the Design Academy Eindhoven and has since then worked both independently and in collaboration with others running studios successfully. While running the studios he was also teaching at the Design Academy and is now teaching at the Royal College Of Art in London. Bey produces his products at the studio and the product rage include interior and public space design, public space and furniture. Most of his designs are either produced by his studios or other companies like Droog, Royal Tichelaar, Makkum and Mooi. Bey is also known as a critical designer with flair to question the world and driven to understand it in a unique manner. Some of the awards that Bey received are the 2005 Bernard Cultuurfonds Award, the 2005 Harrie Tillie Award from Stedelijk, Roermond and the Interior Award 2003 from Lenvelt/de Architect for his design in the meeting room for the Interpolis Company. In 2002, Bey started a studio called Studio Makkink and Bey with another designer Rey Makkink. They work together supported by a design team that is specializes in content and search for the relation of things and their users. According to these designers, town planning architecture and landscape architecture are closely in conjunction and work in symbiosis. Same as the lamp influenced the architecture, the built in homes have served to have an influence on the products for interior. Some of the products that have been by far produced by Bey are double chair – Kokon furniture, St. Petersburg chair, tree trunk bench and the Kokon furniture- table chair (connected). Among other products, light shade floor lamp is a beautiful design that reflects the surroundings from the exterior and lightens up the bulb on the inside when it is turned on. The concealed chandelier from within is very beautifully designed and reflects luminosity when turned on. The studio which Rey and Bey had started is located in an old industrial building enabling the production to come out on site. The designers that work in the studio come from various backgrounds like fashion, design and architecture. This variety in the fields of the people brings out different perspectives that are used at different stages of the design process. Solutions for the perpetually changing environment are achieved with the help of   stories, study and research. The main goal of the studio is to bring out new design culture through new alternatives with the help of critical design. The fundamental element for a new culture in a city, public building or a house is the analytical design. Here the design process is itself treated as the final product, and it continually adjusts itself to the current situation to fit into its designed context. They also believe that a single product can give rise to a large project motivating its own existence and an architectural project can give rise to a series of individual products. They use questions like, “Did the invention of the elevator give rise to the skyscraper buildings or did the skyscraper buildings demand the existence of elevators? Surely this is a very idealistic way of approaching design esthetics.