JinYe Coffee Table

French architect Virginie Moriette and Chinese designer Xu Ming of Studio MVW draw on their distinct backgrounds and cultures for collaborative pieces that elegantly reimagine expected forms of furniture. The duo uses eclectic materials and sculptural forms for creative pieces as well as in their designs for interiors and architecture.

Moriette and Ming are especially inspired by nature as something that links both Western and Chinese design. Ming studied at Penninghen Graphic Arts and Interior Architecture High School in Paris as well as with designers including Didier Gomez, Eric Raffy and Paul Andreu before returning to China in 2004. Moriette studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-La Villette and likewise worked with Andreu, meeting Ming while working on a project in Shanghai. Their first furniture designs came out of the pieces they were creating for their own home, such as wooden bookshelves that evoked the shapes of tree trunks. Together they cofounded Studio MVW in Shanghai in 2006.

Moriette and Ming now work on smaller scale projects like limited-edition objects and individual furniture pieces as well as entire interiors, regularly harmonizing disparate materials such as bronze, jade, marble and lacquer. Their Jinye series, for instance, features tables made from Patagonian quartzite while their JinShi console involves discs made of pink jade that are illuminated from within. Their architecture and interior designs include the Aoyama Lab Dessert Bar in Beijing, which juxtaposes glass and mesh with wood and stone, and the Shanghai showroom for Pierre Cardin where circular portals frame the housewares.

As they told Design Anthology: “Whatever the object or project, we draw inspiration from its context, the client’s needs and personality and always from nature, with the objective of giving all projects a special identity with a hint of poetry.” Studio MVW’s work has included designs for Giorgetti, Roche Bobois and Richemont Group.

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