The Dutch design collaborative Studio Makkink & Bey is led by architect Rianne Makkink (b. 1964) and designer Jurgen Bey (b. 1965). Supported by a various design team, they have been operating their design practice since 2002. The studio’s various projects include interior design, product design, public space projects, architecture, exhibition & shop-window design, research projects and applied arts.
Their products, furniture, interiors and public spaces are often produced in collaboration with companies such as Prooff, Droog Design, and Moooi and other professionals from their local and international network. Based in Rotterdam, their work has appeared in several museums and is part of their collection, amongst others the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Fnac, the V&A in London, the Central Museum in Utrecht,in the USA and in Asia.
Clients include commercial & private clients like Spring Studio’s Londen and New York, Industries like Vitra and Hermes, governmental & cultural institutions, fashion designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, gallery’s like Pierre Berge in Brussels etc. The designs of Studio Makkink & Bey have been awarded with several prizes and their vision is adopted by colleagues, both within the Netherlands and abroad, through education, many lectures and exhibitions.
Rianne Makkink & Jurgen Bey are known as critical designers, driven to understand the world and to question it in a unique manner. To this end, their design team analyses content in search of the relation between objects and their users through composing narratives to find connections. The Studio is extremely interested in the future of the new working landscape, they introduced a new on line magazine; Proofflabmagazine, that aims to define the future working culture.
Jurgen Bey was director of the Sandberg Institute, the Master of art and design of the Rietveld Arts Academy in Amsterdam (2010-2023).