Studio
Minofmeer

Minofmeer makes furniture and objects that carry a story , built from research and prototypes in wood, bamboo, rush grass and metal. Founded in Taichung in 2017.

01Bio
Biography

Minofmeer /ˈmɪn.ɔf.mɪər/

Afrikaans. From "min" (less) + "meer" (more).

Idiom: more or less. Adj: somewhere between minimal and maximal.

Riaan Burger founded Minofmeer in Taiwan in 2017, after studying Chinese and industrial design. The name is Afrikaans for more or less, and it is the working method: design adapts to its context, sometimes taking away, sometimes adding. Nine years on, the process has not changed: research into prototype into an object that had to earn its form.

2017Founded in Taiwan
3Languages: Afrikaans, English, Chinese
±Wood, bamboo, rush grass, metals, and hybrid materials

How the studio works

01

Design more or design less

Subtract where honesty serves the work, add where it needs holding up. The judgement is knowing which one is being asked for, and that only comes from having got it wrong before.

02

Triangularities applied

Afrikaans, English and Chinese, and Riaan designs from all three at once. A Ming round-back chair on a Bamileke throne holds because the two traditions were read properly before either was touched.

03

Active art

Making is thinking. Boiling koa for a month, cutting ten templates by hand, rebuilding a joint that failed: the bench teaches what a drawing cannot, and it carries forward.

04

Halleluja (!)

The moment structure, material and story click into one thing. It is rare, it cannot be planned for, and every project is a search for it.

05

Embrace all change

Test it, break it, build it again. Durability is what survives that, and so is meaning: what lasted is what failed early and got fixed.

06

Narrative is king

Every object starts with a story, whether it is a Song temple roof or an African birthing chair. Find the one already there, or what you have is just a shape.

03Focus
Areas of focus

Furniture balancing structure and comfort, usually drawn from a historical reference and worked until the reference is present without being literal.

04Work
Selected work

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