The perfect world. While one person may dream of a place where everyone lives in peace, another may dream of a realisable world in which all the work is carried out by robots. It was centuries ago, in 1516, that the European humanist Thomas More wrote the book Utopia in which the word ‘utopia’ was first used to describe the ideal English state. 

Now, five hundred years later, the term is being celebrated with the theme ‘Utopia by Design’ during the very first London Design Biennale, taking place from 7 to 27 September 2016.  During the Biennale thirty countries from all over the world will be setting out their visions of how design can contribute to a new world. On the invitation of Het Nieuwe Instituut, Studio Makkink & Bey will be representing the Netherlands with the project ‘Design Diorama: The Archive as a Utopic Environment’.

Studio Makkink & Bey examines the term ‘utopia’. “If we imagine an ideal world, then we think of a future world without losing sight of everyday issues,” explains Jurgen Bey. “When creating an ideal world we decided not to focus on the problems or the promises of utopia. We wanted to find out what role the archive would play in such an ideal world. 

To what extent are you dependent on the institutes that maintain these archives and to what extent are we ourselves as designers responsible for generating an archive? But above all how what form would such an archive take?” Prompted by the utopian design for an ideal world, the studio decided to focus on the elements that constitute such an ideal world for people.

‘Making of Design Diorama: The Archive as a Utopic Environment’, Studio Makkink & Bey. Image © Petra van der Ree 

“Each element in our project has its own utopia. By combining all these elements we create a diversity of ideals held by the curator or the collector. Our presentation is thus a compilation of objects, each of which tells its own story. If all these objects are taken together then this leads to connections, contrasts and a network of places, people and skills.”

Image © Petra van der Ree 

Studio Makkink & Bey was inspired by the theme ‘Utopia by Design’, examining the question of how an archive – which is a historical knowledge system – can also be seen as a utopian world. An investigation of traditional archives such as libraries, cabinets of curiosities, museums, botanical gardens and collections has resulted in the project ‘Design Diorama: The Archive as a Utopic Environment’, to be presented in Somerset House during the London Design Biennale. 

Image © Petra van der Ree 

The diorama is a three-dimensional blueprint of the Sunday Room of the Studio Makkink & Bey residential house, executed in blue foam and bringing together various disciplines such as design, architecture and art as well as their own work and that of former studio staff. 

This approach serves to reveal the Dutch designer network and it enables Studio Makkink & Bey to supply their personal utopian vision of an archive. Visitors are given the opportunity on location to discover the links between, and underlying stories of, objects in the diorama.

Image © Petra van der Ree 

Image © Petra van der Ree 

Image © Petra van der Ree 

Image © Petra van der Ree 

Image © Petra van der Ree

Image © Petra van der Ree

Image © Petra van der Ree

Image © Petra van der Ree

> via Studio Makkink & Bey