The Dictionary of Acoustics lists words in the semantic field of the word sound. It’s a growing lexicon in which we add anything relating to sound or the sense of hearing, especially words that link to objects or space. It serves as reference book and catalog of links filed in alphabetical order with definitions and sometimes images.

Many designs by Studio Makkink & Bey turn out as a collage of ideas and forms that are carefully pieced together to deliver a coherent result. After an inventory of resources and needs in terms of people, materials, tools, and processes, ties are made between these real world conditions and our designer’s insights and imagination. One of the resources we consult for input to frame new concepts, is this database. The mode of construction in applied arts is very much like constructing language and building coherent sentences. To transfer content, in case of design: meaningful forms, you need a broad vocabulary of the determinants of form. These are the constituent words of a sentence, in this metaphor, of a design. Syntax provides coherent organization to give meaning to a design. It orders information about hierarchy, value, characteristics, time, place, origins, motive and other additives that influence design constituents.
In a basic ‘subject – verb – object’ diagram, ‘acoustics – to muffle – armchair’ represents the #001 PROOFF Earchair that insulates sound with its big, soft ears.

Because of the alphabetical accumulation of words, there’s less bias toward the value or meaning of a word, which allows insignificant terms equal access to lexicon and the design process. Aside from a reference body of words, the Dictionary of Acoustics also becomes a driver of experimental ideas.

By: Studio Makkink & Bey
This line drawing of a Polderscape maps out a typical Dutch polder: a gridded topography that closely resembles its real-life rendition. Our studio’s projects, products, small pavilions, furniture and public space projects are fit inside this diagram. Each piece has its own plot of virtual land and together they form a library. The virtual database provides a basis for new concepts for social design, new strategies and well-tailored products. In each design, Studio Makkink & Bey tries to connect elements of different scales and from different origin to create new utopias. The Polderscape was made for Sotheby’s New York, to benefit the Farnsworth House and the Glass House.

Work Light stems from a product range made for Prooff and is the creative foundation from which Studio Makkink & Bey develops new office furniture and products. These pieces generate visual strategies by enclosing and giving space, offering a double meaning or function. The Work lights’ beams encircle a small area, gently delineating that space. It can also be read as an artificial sky, bringing the outside, inside. At the same time it can be put outside to function as a lamppost for office events in the open air.