Begin with the possibility in a material
Meijer’s NewspaperWood account starts with a student assignment about wood. In the interview published by Vij5, she recalls the 2003 experiment that led her towards a layered paper material with a wood-like grain.4
The starting point matters. An idea for a material can come before an idea for a finished product, leaving several uses open. Development then requires people who can help the experiment become something others can work with.
Vij5 dates its first meeting with Meijer to 2007. Its account describes the collaboration that followed, keeping the initial material idea distinct from its further development and applications.1
The room enters the design question
The studio’s own statement places its work between architecture and design and describes scalable concepts developed and built for particular projects. An object can be considered through the space it helps define, as well as through its immediate function.3
A frame makes this particularly easy to imagine. Its members establish an outline while its openings keep another part of the room visible. Increasing its scale can change its role from something looked at within a room to something that helps organise the room.
The idea is not simply to make furniture larger. It is to notice how an object’s positive form and the space around it belong to the same experience.
A joint practice develops the system
Vij5 identifies the studio as run by Meijer and Roy Letterlé, bringing together their design and architectural backgrounds. The name of the practice should not make its collaboration disappear.1
In the Dutch Design Week interview, both speak about Space Frames. They describe wanting to stack light and make elements respond to architecture, then developing an experimental project into a system that could interest a client.2
That progression gives the work a human and practical setting. An experiment can open a possibility, but a larger commission also involves conversations, production decisions and a relationship with an actual place. The shift in scale brings other people into the process.
A use can remain open
Vij5’s profile describes objects that allow people to use them in their own way. The DDW conversation similarly leaves room for new applications while recognising that the studio still has a distinct design approach.12
Looking at the work through that balance makes its open structures more interesting. A frame can define something clearly without filling in every possibility. Furniture and architecture meet in the room that remains for a person’s own interpretation.