The value of an iconic piece of furniture is rarely revealed at first glance. Beyond the immediate impression of its form lies a gradual understanding shaped by design intent, craftsmanship, and the intrinsic qualities of its materials—qualities that become increasingly evident through the passage of time. Long dedicated to introducing distinguished furniture from Europe and Asia, MD STUDIO presents a new curatorial concept at Experience Life 2026, bringing together the Italian design brand Desalto and the Danish furniture maker Fredericia through two distinct narratives. The exhibition reflects on how design furniture, once endowed with character or integrated into everyday life, can come to embody its own sense of vitality and warmth.
➤ In architect Yuan-Yuan Lin’s view, architecture is not bound by scale.
➤ Hand-drawn sketches become a medium for expressing his view of the world.
Beyond the Coffee Table: Micro Clay as a Cross-disciplinary Experiment
Form, material, proportion, and craftsmanship may offer the first point of entry into understanding a design object. Yet within the exhibition Object & Self: Five Reflections on Micro Clay, the sculptural clarity and geometric restraint of the Micro Clay table become a canvas for interpretation through the perspectives of five Taiwanese architects, designers, and artists, transforming the table into a vessel for individual creative expression. For architect Yuan-Yuan Lin, architecture is not defined by scale. It is both part of everyday life and a vehicle through which he expresses his perspective on the world. He imagines the coffee table as a cocktail glass filled with lake water, drawing delicate lines across its surface like a blueprint that outlines the silhouette of a floating house.
➤ Delicate lines traced across the tabletop.
➤ Outlining the silhouette of a floating house.
➤ Chong-Xiao Zheng paints with oil pigments.
➤ Creating a world filled with childlike wonder.
Artist Chong-Xiao ZHENG regards the white coffee table as a three-dimensional sculpture. Landscapes and animals are painted across the tabletop in oil, while the pedestal is finished with wood grain. Viewed from the side, the entire composition resembles a growing tree, with the tabletop becoming a whimsical world hidden within its canopy, echoing the shifting textures and colours of everyday life.
Rather than drawing inspiration from form, industrial designer Hsiang Han Hsu approaches the work through his sensitivity to structure and material. Deconstructing the original CLAY prototype, he overlays its surface with sketches from his reinterpretation, as though recording ideas in the moment, revealing the design process from conception to completion. Presented side by side, concept and finished object allow viewers to glimpse fragments of time before the work assumed its final form.
➤ Hsiang Han Hsu deconstructs the original prototype.
➤ Sketches from his reinterpretation are drawn across the surface.
➤ The visual playfulness created by graphic designer Yeh Chung-Yi.
➤ Emoji symbols form a humorous visual cue.
Graphic designer Yeh Chung-Yi moves beyond the functional identity of the coffee table altogether. By employing familiar emoji as visual devices, he creates playful optical illusions that distort the table's calm and familiar presence, transforming the flat surface into an undulating visual field. A hidden smiling face becomes a subtle invitation to look again at the ordinary with renewed curiosity.
Finally, Hiautue Made equips the table with a self-balancing mechanism, allowing Micro Clay to respond continuously to its surroundings. Though constantly shifting its angle, it remains perfectly balanced. The intervention challenges the conventional perception of furniture as fixed and static, transforming it from an object of observation into one that enters into an ongoing dialogue with its environment.
➤ Hiautue Made designs a self-balancing system for the coffee table.
➤ The coffee table becomes a presence in continuous dialogue with its surroundings.
A House Through Time: Inside the Home of Børge Mogensen
On the opposite side of the exhibition, a series of photographs invites visitors into the home of Danish furniture master Børge Mogensen. Completed in 1958 in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, the house remains inhabited by many of his most celebrated designs. Like a quiet museum of lived time, it preserves the everyday moments of sitting, resting, gathering, and living. A figure reclining across the sofa brings a gentle smile, while chairs arranged beside the fireplace seem almost to resonate with the echoes of conversation. More than half a century later, these interiors have lost none of their enduring character. They continue to carry forward Mogensen's ideals of craftsmanship and design, becoming part of the emotional fabric and daily rituals of contemporary life.
Through this presentation at Experience Life 2026, MD STUDIO explores two complementary perspectives. On one hand, cross-disciplinary collaborations examine how furniture acquires personal meaning after entering everyday life, extending beyond function into artistic expression. On the other, the exhibition returns to the origins of Nordic furniture design, recalling the quiet resonance found within domestic settings. Ultimately, the value of furniture reveals itself not in a single encounter, but gradually through the rhythms of daily use and lived experience.
