Yabu Pushelberg’s “Rational x Intuitive Thought” Pop-Up Exhibition at New York Design Week 2014

Award-winning design duo Yabu and Pushelberg launched a pop-up exhibition called “Rational x Intuitive Thought”. The exhibit is the first time that the firm explored furniture and object design. This is also a different take from the firm’s identity in creating distinctive luxury interiors which were known worldwide like Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Barneys and Park Hyatt and their collaboration with Ian Schrager.

“People often have the impression that we only do really high-end work. Our furniture design practice stems from a more personal place than our interior practice, because the furniture collections are not designed for a specific client. So the results reflect our multi-faceted personalities. This gives us the change to explore and develop ideas we might not delve into otherwise,” explained Glenn Pushelberg.

The exhibit tapped a larger audience with its inviting and personal arrangement of spaces.

“Rational x Intuitive Thought” featured collections for Stellar Works, Pampaloni and collaborations with The Rug Company, Avenue Road and Van Rossum. Each work for every collection showed the motivation and the consideration given by the design for each of the companies they worked with.

The “Sea Creature & Man Made” collection for Pampaloni included tabletop curios that were influenced by silver in a liquid state, making the objects take the organic and liquid form of water.

Another example is the “Blink” collection wherein the hand, the eye and a perfect circle became the motif of the furniture pieces. The design team developed patterns and shapes that symbolized the human approach of the built environment.

All throughout the exhibit gallery, bespoke designs became the continuous theme, making the transitions blend into each other while the individual pieces stand on their own.