Design That Works

A great product is one where form, function and experience come together, says Nils Uellendahl, design director at Designworks’ Shanghai studio.

- Daryl Lee

Nils Uellendahl, the design director of the Shanghai studio of Designworks (a part of the BMW Group) has been there and back again. After joining Designworks in 2008, he left in 2014 for Chinese manufacturer Great Wall Motors, only to return late last year, a decision he says was motivated primarily by the “diversity and the opportunity to work on a range of very different projects”.

Uellendahl waxes lyrical about his favourite object, matchsticks made of twigs designed by Kaoru Mende, something that “gives me goosebumps every time I see it”.

It’s not the only thing that excites him, though. Even something as mundane as a fridge could set him barrelling down a path of creativity.

“Fridges can be really exciting if you think about how people store food, how they live in the future and how other objects in the house are organised. From there, you go back to the fridge. Do people still store food? Do they cook? Do they get food delivered?”

What would your fridge of the future look like?

In China, not many people do their own grocery shopping. That means someone would have to deliver the goods to your home. So that opens up interaction between the delivery person and the fridge. Maybe the front door has a fridge for the delivery person to deposit the food. Or maybe a fridge that opens from both the inside of the home and outside, so food can be delivered more easily.

How would the design process for it go?