The Power of Cross-Disciplinary Practice

The gaps between creative fields are gradually being bridged. Architects, artists, and designers are breaking the boundaries of their own fields and practicing across disciplines. In furniture-making, for example, architects, fashion designers, and artists are expressing their perspectives on function and aesthetics. The objects in this tour represent the possibility and power of cross-disciplinary practice.

Architect André Fu shapes environments in a variety of ways across scales. For him, designing space and furniture go hand in hand and should be considered in a holistic way. His furniture designs are infused with personal memories of different places and cultures, always conveying his unique vision and attitude to the world.

In the fashion industry, Virgil Abloh—Louis Vuitton's creative director for menswear—is a genius disruptor, a game changer, and an erudite thinker who regularly engages adjacent fields like architecture, music, art, fashion, and furniture. Like everything he creates, this chair breaks the boundaries between art and non-art. Abloh has carved out a niche for himself in the increasingly diverse universe of crossover creativity.

Transmedia artist Daniel Arsham is known most for his “destructive” artistry, as in his Future Relic series. The softer, more organic quality of his Objects for Living series was born out of his need to create furniture for his own home in Long Island.

The architect-design duo Neri&Hu see design as a holistic endeavor. Interdisciplinary research forms the foundation of each of their projects. Architecture is their main focus, but they take on interiors, graphics, and products. Working across scales, they hope that their creations will connect and resonate with the public.

Lina Bo Bardi, one of the most important female architects of the 20th century, designed the classic Casa de Vidro and the São Paulo Museum of Art. She worked as an editor for Quaderni di Domus, founded the interior design magazine Habitat, and experimented with furniture design. She never failed to show off her talent working across disciplines and scales.

The chair for Max Lamb is more than anything else a vehicle for exploring materials, and his obsessive exploration of material possibilities truly unites craft, design, and art. Cutting, carving, casting, and folding: his rough and ready, hands-on approach imbues his work with a singular style and self-evident logic.