Blocks Lamps
2025
Debuted at Stockholm Furniture Fair
Blocks Lamps explores cubes and boxes as symbols of movement, transition, and time. Inspired by urban architecture, the sculptural table lamps resemble a modular cityscape, drawing from libraries, towers, and townhouses. Wood grain-imprinted shades transfer organic textures, capturing time’s passage. The interplay of light, shadow, and materiality blurs the line between lighting and architecture, reflecting how objects shift, accumulate, and shape the perception of space and memory.
The Blocks are featured in Corriere Living, Sight Unseen, and has been awarded A’ Design Awards in 2025.
Peace in Motion
2025
at Queens Botanical Garden for Taiwan: the World of Orchids
Peace in Motion captures a quiet moment suspended between action and stillness. Two badminton rackets face each other midair, holding an arc of birdies, each hand-crafted and reshaped into orchid forms. What might have been a fast-paced game is stilled and transformed into a delicate choreography, a floating bouquet in midair.
The birdie, a symbol of movement and competition, is softened through floral reinterpretation. This pairing honors both Taiwan’s recent achievements in global sports and its long-standing cultural identity. The work invites viewers to reflect on peace not as the absence of tension, but as something held in balance. It is felt in the anticipation, the gesture, and the pause between motions.
Peace in Motion is a tribute to Taiwan’s resilience. Here, play becomes poetry and dialogue unfolds in silence.
Created by Rio Jiunyu Chen, a Taiwanese designer based in Brooklyn, Peace in Motion draws from personal memories of childhood family gatherings where badminton, laughter, and togetherness filled the air.
Beauty Within
2024
at Alcova Miami / Invento Spirit
Beauty Within is a poetic exploration of function and form. A red fast-food basket, reimagined as a flower head, cradles a polished mirror at its center, inviting moments of self-reflection. Beauty Within celebrates the unexpected harmony between mundane objects and profound ideas, turning a simple act of utility into a playful experience.
Bagel Sandwich
2024
at NYC x design x SOUVENIR during NYC design week
Bagel Sandwich for NYCxDESIGNxSOUVENIR:
In partnership with Cool Hunting
Curation and Exhibition Design by Boym Partners
at Hudson Yards level 1
TOFF Exchange Station
2023
at Furnishing Utopia: Public Access during NYC design week
TOFF is inspired by the department store (百貨公司 BaiHuo GongSi), providing a space for locals to exchange goods. Made with found objects and construction wood columns, TOFF offers a systematic design language for creators to adjust the measurements according to their needs. The installation in Taichung, Taiwan will feature spaces for recycled plastic bags, rubber bands, tissue papers, hangers, and a LED outdoor lamp. TOFF is currently working as an experiment of public leisure interactive objects in collaboration with the district administration.
See the TOFF Design Instruction here.
TOFF Exchange Station is located in Taichung, Taiwan
24°09'19.5"N 120°37'47.1"E
TOFF 公眾交流裝置為 Furnishing Utopia: PUBLIC ACCESS 於2023年紐約設計週 展出。
TOFF是由百貨公司的意向所設計的，期許能成為社區居民互動的所在。
請於此參考 TOFF 裝置設計理念與設計圖。
（圖面後段有中文版本）
感謝黎明里辦公室提供場地完成計畫。
The Movement of Diplomacy
2022
for the workshop ‘What is the Shape of Innovation?’
by Altimeter Group with The Innovation Cell within
the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA)
‘The Movement of Diplomacy’ is made for the workshop by Altimeter Studio at the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), titled ‘What is the Shape of Innovation?’
Two sides of a story; two sides of the world
One society; one world.
Events and activities in local and regional communities often end up affecting the larger environment. The movement of thoughts and strategies is a linear structure tying us together; nations and nations; entities and entities.
We share the same responsibility to take care of challenges happening in every corner of the world, not because we live on the same planet, but because we are one.
The objects in between the two ends represent communication, challenges, decisions, and responsibilities moving from one end to the other.
Project Website: WHAT IS THE SHAPE OF INNOVATION?
UN DPPA Website: Futuring Peace
Stadium Series
2022
From Ancient Rome to Super Bowl, stadiums have always been the place where the public gathers together under one shared goal: unity. By bringing the essence of architecture to objects with angle-cut edges and round exteriors, this stadium inside homes emphasizes that two scales overlap and integrate the definition of functionality.
Stadium Series is inspired by Rio’s theme park project "The Last Tomorrowland (2021)" and has a unique geometric form that holds items. The precise dimensions reflect the architectural style of Rio’s design.
Check out The Last Tomorrowland here.
The Last Tomorrowland
2021
SAIC Gallery,
Terrain biennial
The Last Tomorrowland proposes the blueprints and planning for a theme park resort constructed on the largest floating trash island between California and Hawaii. The project unveils the intricate meaning of trash that underlies the vivid colors of the amusement park while showing the business exploitation from a socioeconomic perspective. This is the Last Tomorrowland: all the highlights of our human inventions of past, present, and future are gathered in one big, bright ticket in your hand.
The project narrative is executed with a corporate perspective of a theme park resort development proposal commenting on the geopolitical dynamics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the socio-economic behavioral effects from business exploitation of natural resources. The proposal suggests that in the foreseeable future, corporations would be able to bring capital to the middle of the Pacific Ocean by densifying the ocean debris into a floating island and further on constructing infrastructure for profits. The only way to prevent the island from sinking is to generate a stable source of waste which will be fulfilled by the theme park resort. The circular economy model soon brings in support from NGO and government funding to fast-pass the construction. And for millions of families in the United States, this vacation resort just a three-hour flight from the west coast is destined for success.
The relationship between trash and theme park is the first layer of this joyful journey with environmental awareness and colonizing natural resources issues. The reconstituted trash waste seems nothing harmful while supporting the foundational economic formula of this development. The great contrast hides under the similarity between the endless need for waste and the endless desire for revenue. The second layer brings the audience into the amusement park atmosphere while emphasizing the dissonance of the trash-themed park. Whether a resort island full of trash could provide enough attractions and entertainment for families to spend a day or two will remain questionable, but the efforts of branded facilities and corporate sponsorships are the golden template of how capitalism finds its way to our living. The last layer of the project shows the blueprints and plans behind the attractions that fulfill the desire and visual component that attract the public's attention.
- Overview of The Last Tomorrowland scale model
- Trash Mountain Ride
- Ultimate Happiness Restaurant
- Galactic Journey Ride
- A discarded car at a corner of the park
- The ‘On-Time Prime’ Experience
- DUO LOOP South Station
- A discarded drink ware at a corner of the park
- - 13. Hand-sketches of the park
Ultimate Happiness
2020
In this fast-paced era, people embrace convenience and consume a massive amount of fast-food in spite of the environmental and health consequences. The UH collection materializes the cheap, happy spirit of fast food culture and also the waste, junk, and unhealthy nature of our beloved comfort food. Silicone and aluminum molded foods, pre-dipped single servings, and over-packaging comprise the objects in the UH collection and underscore the sentiment that utopia is embedded in deep-fried culture.
UH… is Ultimate Happiness.
- Ultimate Happiness Meal
- UH Fry Pack
- UH Nugget Pack
- UH ‘The One’ Nugget Pack
- UH Veggie Pack
Rio makes designed objects in conjunction with architectural language and popular culture. He communicates through objects, graphics, and casual conversation. Graduated from School of the Art Institute of Chicago Masters degree in Designed Objects, and Taiwan Tech Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design. Rio’s award-winning practice has been featured in publications including Sight Unseen, Taiwan Architect Magazine, Living Corriere della Sera, E-flux Architecture, designer interviews, and more. From Taiwan, now based in Brooklyn, NY
you can reach Rio at @riochendesign via instagram, info@riochen.com via email, or catch him in real life.
exhibitions
2025
Stockholm Furniture Fair @Stockholm
NYC x DESIGN x Souvenir @New York
A’ design award competition @Italy
Taiwan: a world of orchids @New York
2024
Alcova Miami @Miami
NYC x DESIGN x Souvenir @New York
2023
Public Access by Furnishing Utopia @New York
Terrain Biennial International Public Art @Taichung
2022
Fiction Beyond Nonfiction International Juried Exhibition @Litang Gallery
Security and Surveillance by Satellite Project @Online
What is the Shape of Innovation? by United Nations Innovation Cell @New York
2021
Terrain Biennial International Public Art @Chicago
SAIC Graduate Exhibition @Chicago
Site Gallery Director’s Show @Chicago
Whatnot Studio at Wanted Design - ICFF @New York
2020
Italian Design Day by the Italian Consulate @Chicago
Whatnot Studio at Wanted Design @New York
2019
Taiwan Tech Design Show @Taipei
academic
2025
Guest Critic: Summer Intensive for Industrial Design @Pratt Institute
2024
Guest Critic: Time and Movement @Pratt Institute
2023
Guest Critic: Intro to Designed Objects @School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2022
Workshop Lecturer: Architecture Department @Beaconhouse National University
Lecturer: Satellite Online Residency Program @randr research institute