blocks lamps
blocks lamps by rio chen studio
The series "Blocks" by Rio Chen explores the symbolism of cubes and boxes as reflections of life's transient nature and the value of time. Inspired by constant movement and relocation between Taiwan, Chicago, and New York, the work delves into the act of packing, shifting, and reassessing belongings—highlighting the physical and emotional weight of these 'blocks' in our lives.
The centerpiece of this collection is a series of table lamps, resembling a city block when assembled. The structured forms, created with a combination of wood bases and textured surfaces, evoke urban architecture and pixelated grids, embodying the modular essence of blocks. These designs suggest both stability and fluidity, as though each piece captures a frozen moment of assembly or transition.
Accompanying the lamps is a series of hand-printed artworks, created using wooden blocks and mulberry paper. The grain textures transferred through acrylic paint create a tactile connection to time's passage, merging the natural patterns of wood with human-made impressions. Together, these works present an object-oriented narrative that contemplates how blocks—whether as obstacles, pixels, or cherished possessions—shape our perception of value, place, and memory within the continuum of time.
arena lamp
8.00x8.00x8.00 in
mulberry paper, steel, and white oak
E26/E27 socket, G16 bulb x1
house lamp
4.75x4.75x8.00 in
mulberry paper, steel, and white oak
E26/E27 socket, G16 bulb x1
tower lamp
custom made
4.75x4.75x13.50 in
mulberry paper, steel, and white oak
E26/E27 socket, G16 bulb x1
library lamp
custom made
6.00x11.00x6.75 in
mulberry paper, steel, and white oak
E26/E27 socket, G16 bulb x2
pyramid lamp
custom made
9.00x9.00x7.00 in
mulberry paper, steel, and white oak
E26/E27 socket, G16 bulb x1
Bagel Sandwich
Bagel Sandwich for NYCxDESIGNxSOUVENIR:
In partnership with Cool Hunting
Curation and Exhibition Design by Boym Partners
at Hudson Yards level 1
The Movement of Diplomacy
‘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
TOFF Exchange Station
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.
TOFF Exchange Station is a part of Furnishing Utopia: PUBLIC ACCESS two-part exhibition @NYCXDESIGN 2023
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。
Stadium Series
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 my 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.
Towers
The ‘Towers’ series paintings are made for the Satellite Project 2022: Security & Surveillance
Towers
2022
Acrylic on paper
Rio Chen’s paintings explore the existence of antenna towers and its means of transmitting communications with the perspective of human’s eye height. Satellite Tower discusses the political influence of misinformation and fake news especially in the region of Taiwan and East Asia.
Same as politics in design, the day-to-day data transmission is invisible and yet indispensable. While we are enjoying the convenience of digital communication at a fraction of cost, there are individuals and even nations suffering from cyber attack and misinformed propaganda. Understanding the realm of the online world became unmanageable when state media intervened in the pool of ‘freedom of speech’. Unfortunately, we are in the age that politics exist in your Twitter feeds, TikTok videos, and even popular Netflix films. When the public distrust their government entities or even the so-called ‘fact-checked’ measurements, it can be extremely difficult to pick the good apple out of thousands of bad ones.
The concept of self-security expands from you and your gadgets (including phones and computers) to the infinite internet (and now metaverse). However, the sense of security originally comes from the physical barrier such as furniture, walls, houses, and borders. We shall not neglect the importance of the devices and architectures that work corresponding to the system of the internet. Rio Chen’s work ‘Towers’ aims to bring attention to the antenna and cell towers that are often disguised as artificial trees or fake buildings in the construction of landscape planning. The architecture that exists in the city and our homes.
Please visit satellite project for further info: randrresearch.com
Rio & Michelle Collaboration
Rio and Michelle (www.mizel.co) collaboration started out by asking the question of what is the definition of art and craft, reflecting the tension of living in this time of uncertainty. As designers coming from different parts of the industry, we've challenged ourselves to question the process of making by integrating contrasting materials and techniques. This evolving progress and exchanges inspired the making in connection to the way of living where our world keeps changing.
All the rights belongs to the creator (Rio and Michelle) in this website and contents of the collaboration work. Do not share or use for any commercial-profit purposes.
Homesick_Italian Design Day 2020
Italian Design Day is organized by Italian Consulate in Chicago and Italian Cultural Institute.
A combination of hometown dinning culture from Taiwan and Chicago famous “Deep-dish Pizza”.
Collaborate with Catherine Wieczorek, this video presents the concept of homesick with family dishes in a convenient frozen food package.
World of Burgers
finished date: 2021 May
material: Fabric, paper, and resin
finished date: 2021 May
material: Fabric, paper, and resin
dimensions: 18 x 18 in
UH is Ultimate Happiness
World of Burgers (WOB) is a board game in which players navigate forces of global labor and macroeconomics using the infamous Big Mac. Inspired by global minimum wage policies and burgernomics–which uses the Big Mac as a price benchmark to illustrate the concept of purchasing power parity–WOB takes cues from Monopoly and places restrictions on players based on real-world concepts like economic inflation and labor violations. A player can win the game by understanding different relationships between labor and time, as determined by the conditions created by globalization.
WOB (2021) is a sequel to Ultimate Happiness (2020) that focuses on fast food culture and its socioeconomic structure in the contemporary world. ⠀
Ultimate Happiness was founded in 2019, focuses on fast food topics with social awareness issues. ⠀
World of Burgers is featured on Wanted Design NYC and Whatnot Studio website.
Photo credits: Johnathan Allen
The World of Burgers by Rio Chen is an extended series of designed objects from the original UH collection 2020 and is part of Whatnot Studio 2021 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Hand Drawings of The Last Tomorrowland
This series of hand drawings include the sketches of each attraction and site plans of The Last Tomorrowland and his visit to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
finished date: 2021 May
material: Paper and ink
This series of hand drawings include the sketches of each attraction and site plans of The Last Tomorrowland and his visit to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
For the proposed plan of The Last Tomorrowland, please visit: riochen.com/works/tmrland
The Last Tomorrowland
finished date: 2021 May
material: Foam, paper, plastic, resin, trash, and wood
finished date: 2021 May
material: Foam, paper, plastic, resin, trash, and wood
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 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 of 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 NGOs 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 into our lives. The last layer of the project shows the blueprints and plans behind the attractions that fulfill the desire and the visual component that attracts the public's attention.
For hand drawings of The Last Tomorrowland, please visit: riochen.com/works/tmrlanddrawings
This work was featured in :
SAIC Gallery in Chicago, USA
Terrain Biennial International Public Art 2021 in Chicago, USA
LiTang Gallery in New York, USA
Ultimate Happiness 2021
finished date: 2020 December
material: aluminum, paper, polypropylene
finished date: 2020 December
material: aluminum, paper, and polypropylene
UH is Ultimate Happiness
The Ultimate Happiness in 2021 continues with the beloved chicken nugget and single packages. “The One” nugget discusses the accessibility of fancy luxury goods which is made from aluminum instead of silicone.
How much should a fast-food meal cost?
“The One” Nugget Pack | 120 x 82 x 25 mm / 4.75 x 3.25 x 1 in
The UH collection was featured in Holy Art Virtual Show in 2022.
Ultimate Happiness
finished date: 2020 May
material: silicone, paper, polypropylene
shop ultimate happiness merch…
finished date: 2020 May
material: Paper, polypropylene, and silicone
Fast-food is our shortcut to Utopia.
When it comes to American culture, fast-food is undeniably dominant and has taken the advantage to expand worldwide with the force of globalization. The ever-growing industry brings the service of convenience and a source of joy, promoted idyllically in advertisements for the young. While under the bright-warm yellow and red signage, the image is often associated with health and environmental concerns. From French fries to hamburgers, people consume fast-food for various reasons. Ultimate Happiness (UH) dives into the irony of fast-food, delivering a product that is even faster, cheaper, and more accessible compared to current business models.
According to the CDC’s data in 2018*, low-income individuals are not major fast-food customers. While poorer neighborhoods are more likely to have higher exposure to fast-food, people consume more when their income levels go up. This affordable indulgence is especially popular among young adults aged 20 to 39, who also make up the largest share of the US labor force. As simple as it seems, a quick-served meal may deliver more than we could imagine; it also shows how different social classes react to the issue inside a box of nuggets.
Speedy mass-produced food serves more purposes nowadays than just filling up travelers' and workers' stomachs. Our impressions of fast-food may be a lot more delightful since these businesses tried their best to shift our focus from pre-made foods to something fresh and healthy. Packaging has always been a vital element when it comes to take-aways. The UH collection brings the sale price down by single-packaging the nuggets and fries with pre-dipped sauces while highlighting the quantity with health measurements. Single pre-dipped nuggets and fries are cheaper and faster to produce by default, but the over-packaged design generates unnecessary waste.
‘The One’ nugget pack further emphasizes the rarity of collectible fast-food with a premium touch of metallic texture; the veggie pack gathers the most nutritious but undesirable part of burgers and sandwiches. The dystopian reality of fast-food culture is the irony of Ultimate Happiness. The making of UH collection is cohesively related to the mass-production technique with the repetitive process and low-cost materials involved. By proposing an alternate reality, audiences are expected to explore the possibility in response to the current social structure with the world of fast-food. Through visual exaggeration, UH hopes to bring both the good and bad elements of fast-food into one small packaged item.
UH… is Ultimate Happiness.
Fries Pack | 108 x 63 mm / 4.25 x 2.5 in
Nugget Pack | 120 x 82 x 25 mm / 4.75 x 3.25 x 1 in
Veggie Pack | 171 x 120 x 31 mm / 6.75 x 4.75 x 1.25 in
Citation:
Fryar CD, Hughes JP, Herrick KA, Ahluwalia, N. Fast food consumption among adults in the United States, 2013–2016. NCHS Data Brief, no 322. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2018.
The idea of UH is about structuring the realm of ultimacy in fast-food and its contradictory component in the socioeconomic perspective.
Receipt : Paris Agreement
finished date: 2019 December
material: paper
finished date: 2020 January
material: Paper
What is the value of climate agreements?
Our presidents and ministers sign their signature on a paper that people refuse to read. This action of printing the Paris agreement on the receipt is to draw attention for people who do not take care of their power as a signature will affect our life. The fact that we do not feel the way our president does when they are signing the agreements and protocols. Is climate change an issue or is it just a random title we saw on news and television? We hand our earth on around two hundred people’s hand and we feel nothing about it.
Discover Unknown : the potential of Rosin
finished date: 2019 May
material: Rosin ( Colophony )
collaborate with : Yu-Ling, Lien
finished date: 2019 May
material: Rosin ( Colophony )
collaborate with : Yu-Ling, Lien
Demonstrate the potential of rosin resin with experiment record and share the accessibility with the public.
In twentieth century, people start to use resin, a huge amount of plastics are made for our daily life. Improvements in chemicals decrease the production cost but proliferate the durability as well. Flash back to nearly one century, may we start again : This is an experimental record of Rosin, a reboot from the beginning of material.
Nowadays, resources are aggressively consumed, we regard material as a foundation of an object. It plays a pivotal role in not only gently slowing down the vicious present tense but also opening a new era. Trace back to the root, we tend to dig out more possibilities in the use of source material. Natural resin is one of the most popular raw materials we use for decades and rosin has the potential in versatile phases and beautiful luster. Rosin has marvelous color and luster like an amber but more ubiquitous in our lives. We present different phases of rosin in terms of daily product application through trials over and over again. Raw material transform into multiple shapes and forms via unique process with delicate arrangement. Converting the primitive feature of material and establish a new stage for it.
Space Tripper I
finished date: 2018 July
material: plastic, SLS printing
collaborate with: Te-Yen, Hsu
finished date: 2018 July
material: plastic, SLS printing
collaborate with: Te-Yen, Hsu
Back to the 60s, people boldly thought of what our life would be like in the millennium; How far could we achieve and progress in the technology? Approximately after four decades, We mankind are under a completely different era, but our curiosity and imagination cannot maintain as we did forty years ago. Our plant is covered with a gigantic net consisted of industry, technology, political power, and desire. We ponder on our future when we are sober. We keep asking ourselves about the pathway to our destination, our goals, and what do we really care about, but most importantly, the genre of design that we pursue.
Living Laboratory
finished date: 2018 January
material: bamboo, cement
collaborate with: Shiue-Yi, Su
finished date: 2018 January
material: bamboo, cement
collaborate with: Shiue-Yi, Su
We use the Taiwan native bamboo ''Phyllostachys edulis''(or tortoise-shell bamboo). After being light polished, bamboos are ready for the cement filling. The most crazy and innovative part of the project is the balloon. People take advantage of creative balloon to shape form out of their ideas. Therefore, we use balloon to fill the cement, with the diversity of its possibilities, we are looking forward to achieve the unexpected form. We put bamboo and cement together, which is the same as the LEGO's combination work. With the help of drilling machine, we cut off the edge from the bamboo. And we curve it into round-smooth shape afterwards. Form follows function. Plus, we aim to make the product useful and handy. From candlestick to newspaper rack the variety of the living-space products we create are just to name a few.
City Forest
finished date: 2017 June
material: electric component, SLS printing
technique support: Shiue-Yi, Su
finished date: 2017 June
material: electric component, SLS printing
technique support: Shiue-Yi, Su
“The world needs more warm design instead of cold, heartless electronic products.”
City forest, a shrinkage of the urban scenery on a floated city, includes the City Soundwave, Transfer Forest, Charging Plain, Magnetic Basin, and a Circular Pen Holder. City Soundwave is a built-in bluetooth speaker; Transfer Forest includes three USB 3.0 cable; Charging Plain is a wireless charging plate for the mobile phone and wearables; Magnetic Basin is a place for people to put paper clips; Circular Pen Holder has a 40 degree angle from the bottom in order to make sure every pen is on the right direction.
Would Bag
finished date: 2017 May
material: wood, leather, plastic ABS
collaborate with: Shiue-Yi, Su
![blue_4[3347]300dpi.jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5e00d9ee08d7000182da53/1567958547669-XTHSYUKRNB69HHIXEIE5/blue_4%5B3347%5D300dpi.jpg)
finished date: 2017 May
material: wood, leather, plastic ABS
collaborate with: Shiue-Yi, Su
The memorability is the vital step we aim to achieve,
what will remain the same when we leave?
For this project, I am honored to collaborate with Taiwan's top wood craftsman Su. At first, Su and I tried several ways to achieve it, we used thin wood board and bent it with steam. When it was almost being done, the tiny crack occurred, and that couldn't satisfy us. In the end, we chose the original way, the logs. Cutting logs into the shape we designed was not hard, but leaving too much unnecessary margin was adding too much weight to the bag. We used the milling machine to help us reduce up to eighty-five percent of the wood of our bag. In order to create a spacious bag, this step was indispensable. Finally, the process of rounding off corners and grounding down the surface of the bag were the most time-consuming process. However, they are worthy of recalling, since they are marvelous works.
![4[3347].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5e00d9ee08d7000182da53/1566622904463-OJMDEL1QJ4MP7717O569/4%5B3347%5D.jpg)
![3[3346].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5e00d9ee08d7000182da53/1566622904220-R0YDQ4P8DWDKD9MJBFMP/3%5B3346%5D.jpg)
![1[3344].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d5e00d9ee08d7000182da53/1566622906423-24WPO6YLTECZ2HHYB30I/1%5B3344%5D.jpg)
