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2026 Galleries // 2026 Spark: Spring Student // Wu Jian

Wu Jian

Winner - Silver

Competition: Spark: Spring Student
Designer: Yunkai (Kerry) Xu
Design Type: Furniture
Company / Organization / School: Parsons School of Design
Website: https://www.kerryxyk.com/
Team Members: Yunkai (Kerry) Xu

Wu Jian explores how the social hierarchy embedded within traditional Ming-style chairs can be reinterpreted for contemporary living. Historically, Chinese furniture was closely connected to etiquette and ritual, and seating forms often reflected the status and identity of their users. Armchairs such as the official’s hat chair or folding chair were reserved for hosts and honored guests, while stools were associated with servants or people of lower rank. In this system, respect was expressed through hierarchy.
Contemporary Chinese society, however, has undergone significant social and cultural transformation. Ideas of ritual and hierarchy have gradually weakened, while respect is increasingly understood through equality, autonomy, and recognition of individual identity. As a result, traditional furniture forms no longer fully align with contemporary social values and patterns of living. This shift raises an important question: when hierarchy fades, how can furniture continue to express respect?
My project responds to this question through the design of a reconfigurable, multi-directional Ming-style seating system. Rather than reproducing the appearance of traditional furniture, the project investigates how contemporary values can reshape furniture typology itself. Rooted in the structural logic of Ming-style furniture, the design proposes a fluid seating object that shifts between different modes of use according to interaction and spatial context. It represents my vision of a contemporary China that continues cultural traditions while redefining how relationships and respect are expressed through objects.
The project began with historical and cultural research into Ming-style furniture. In A Study of Ming Dynasty Furniture, Wang Shixiang describes Ming and early Qing furniture as the golden age of Chinese furniture craftsmanship. He argues that Chinese furniture evolved through continuous influences from architecture, Buddhism, imported materials, and cultural exchange. Ming-style furniture therefore should not be understood as a fixed tradition, but as an evolving system shaped by changing social conditions.
This perspective became important to my research. While many contemporary reinterpretations of Ming furniture focus primarily on visual aesthetics, I became interested in how changing social values might reshape the cultural logic embedded within furniture. Research on cultural sustainability further reinforced this direction, suggesting that reinterpretation should address broader contexts such as lifestyle, ritual, and contemporary values rather than surface appearance alone.
Historical texts frequently describe how furniture reinforced social hierarchy. Seating arrangements reflected authority, gender roles, and social order. Respect was expressed spatially through furniture forms. Contemporary Chinese values, however, increasingly emphasize gender equality, individual rights, personal agency, and more equal intergenerational dialogue. Respect today is understood less through hierarchy and more through interaction and mutual recognition. My project investigates how furniture might respond to this transformation.
To reinterpret the Ming-style chair, I began by analyzing the contrast between stools and chairs. A stool has no fixed direction and allows the body to approach from any angle. A chair, by contrast, prescribes orientation and behavior through its backrest and armrests. This distinction became a key inspiration. I became interested in what might happen if the non-directional quality of a stool could be introduced into a chair.
Another important reference was the historical Chinese furniture type known as pingji, a ground-based armrest used during periods when people commonly sat on the floor. The form of the pingji resembles the upper structure of a chair, particularly the relationship between armrests and backrest. This observation led me to deconstruct the chair into two independent components: a lower seating platform derived from the logic of the stool and an upper structure inspired by the pingji.
By separating the chair into two elements, the seating object became a fluid system rather than a fixed typology. The lower structure could function as a chair, stool, bench, table, or daybed depending on how the upper structure was positioned. This fluidity challenges the fixed behavioral rules embedded within traditional seating and opens possibilities for more equal and adaptable forms of interaction.
During the design process, I explored multiple configurations through sketch models and scaled prototypes. Some versions allowed the upper structure to transform into a kangzhuo (a traditional low table), while others experimented with detachable sofa-like backrests. Each proposal was evaluated based on interaction, scale, and cultural readability. Because the furniture was intended for contemporary domestic environments, I intentionally avoided oversized lounge-chair proportions and instead pursued a restrained scale closer to traditional Ming furniture.
The final design consists of two overlapping circular seating forms supported by six cylindrical legs. Inspired by traditional round stools, the circular geometry emphasizes non-directionality and encourages multiple approaches to sitting. The detachable backrest can be inserted into several positions across the seating surface, allowing the furniture to shift orientations and modes of use. Different configurations create different social relationships between users, including sitting side by side, facing opposite directions, or sharing the same surface in a less hierarchical arrangement.
Structurally, the chair maintains symmetry to preserve stability regardless of orientation. A major challenge was balancing visual lightness with structural strength. Drawing from the use of negative space in Ming-style furniture, I introduced a gap between the seating surface and supporting frame to create transparency and openness. The final structure consists of seven crossbeams connected to six cylindrical legs, with each backrest insertion point aligned above a beam to transfer structural loads efficiently.
The chair is constructed entirely from solid black walnut without metal components. Black walnut was selected because it is native to North America, performs well in local climatic conditions, and visually echoes the richness of traditional Chinese hardwoods. The final outcome is a full-scale functional prototype handmade using contemporary woodworking techniques. Laser-cut templates, plunge routers, and custom jigs were used to ensure fabrication accuracy and consistency. While production constraints influenced certain details, such as the planar armrests and flat back panel, future iterations will further develop ergonomics and structural refinement.
Ultimately, Wu Jian argues for a reconfigurable and multi-directional approach to furniture design that reflects contemporary understandings of respect, equality, and interaction. Rather than preserving tradition through appearance alone, the project reinterprets the cultural logic of Ming-style furniture and proposes a new relationship between people, objects, and social space.