Black + White. march 2002

ENLAI HOOI

History:
Hooi won the Sydney Morning Herald's - Young Designer of the Year 2000 for his folded Tyvek room divider, called Screen, [now called shell 3] while still completing his honours year…

His first exhibition: Experiments in Folding was held at Sydney's Kirketon Hotel…

Design philosophy:

The composition of ideas in form: designers turn ideas into objects and speak though their skills of composition.

Greatest influences:

1930s Italian engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, The American psychologist Mihalyi Cziksentmihalyi, and Donald Norman's 'The Psychology of Everyday Things'

Burning ambition:

"To be experimental about design but also work for worthy causes … to design with consciousness and conscience."

Most wanted commission:

To design emergency shelter for disaster relief. It would encourage investigation and experimentation into new materials and ways of doing things, especially if the design had specific cultural requirements.