
Pig Design Offers a Play on Words for the Facade of Ya Space in Hangzhou, China
2021 Best of Year winner for International Facade
In the design world, the 1980s are perhaps best remembered for their definitive rejection of modernism’s austerity in favor of excess. In Milan, a group of mostly European designers led by Italian architect Ettore Sottsass took a deep dive into experimentation with postmodernism. They eventually resurfaced as the Memphis Group. Though only officially together until 1987, the collective’s joyous output of furniture, lighting, textiles, and ceramics was marked by euclidean geometric forms juxtaposing fanciful patterns.
Fast forward four decades. The Italian company Memphis Milano continues to produce original designs today that are purchased by collectors worldwide. The reach has even extended to China, where the gallery-esque showroom Ya Space in Hangzhou is the official dealer of Memphis—and a total embodiment of the group’s aesthetic. The two-story project is by Pig Design, a local architecture studio cheekily named after founder and chief designer Wenqiang Li’s especially tubby cat. Ya Space has an equally playful derivation: The Chinese nickname of Memphis, Tennessee, is Cliff City, and cliff is pronounced like ya in Chinese. That theme carries over to a section of the structure’s facade, which is composed of corrugated stainless-steel triangles that make up three-dimensional tetrahedrons, pyramids, and other pointed shapes. Entry is through a yellow circular aperture. It’s an introduction to the unusual silhouettes that define the 4,800-square-foot showroom, both inside and out.


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Projects
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Back in ancient Greece, revelers built theaters on hillsides so the performers could be seen by audiences above. China’s PIG Design looks back to those drama hotspots for GRNDCNTRL, an 18,000-square-foot nightclub in S…
Awards
Best of Year Awards 2021
Interior Design celebrates design in all its forms with the 2021 Best of Year Awards. See the winner’s gallery here.
Projects
Pig Design Celebrates the Memphis Group for a Hangzhou Showroom
In China, a Hangzhou showroom by Pig Design celebrates—and puts a local spin on—the legacy and aesthetic of Italy’s Memphis Group.