"If only you could design just one good chair in your life...but you simply cannot.”                                              -Hans Wegner

Deceivingly complex to design and very challenging to build, The Chair is a classic rite of passage for designers. I wanted to create a sitting chair. My strongest inspirations came from Hans Wegner, the Eames DCM Chair, Eero Saarinen’s Womb Chair, and random forms I found inviting.

Inspired by the crashing waves of Salt Point, California.

I had first experimented with this color palette and technique when prototyping Friends + Mentors. In the end, I decided to keep it black and white, but returned to those explorations for these pieces.

Paper & paint
various sizes (approx. 7' x 2')

I designed these steel planters to stand alone, as well as nest into each other, and chose gold paint for the interior surfaces to catch sunlight through the leaves. Their forms are inspired by the powerful photography of Camille Seaman.

Each face of this lamp is made of multiple sheets of paper stacked upon each other. I cut shapes into each layer, so when they are stacked, the layers vary the amount of light which shows through, creating these patterns of light and shadow. 

Bikes may be convenient for getting around the city, but they’re not so convenient for city-living. In tighter urban spaces like apartments, offices, and studios, storing your ride can pose a challenge. We were approached by Urban Space Interiors to design and build a stand-alone storage solution for the urban bike rider. I designed this rack to keep your bike and gear accessible, but still keep your space efficient and looking good.

Designed & built by Sarabi Studio

In 2014, I noticed in me—for whatever reason—a changing response to color. It felt like a renewed attraction. Introspecting on my own style, I observed many grays, whites, and natural tones, but not much color. I wanted to explore this refreshed interest, and thereby, hopefully bring it more into my work. At that same time, I fortunately came across the work of artist Jen Stark. As a study of color, form, material, and process, I set out to recreate a piece of hers, and as I played, these Color BOOM!’s burst out.

Recently, I’ve returned to the shapes and patterns I explored for the Lamp; however, rather than creating shape through translucency and shadow, with these swatches, I play with opaque material and large blocks of color.

I created and installed this piece for the Personal Statements event, an annual tradition for the Stanford Design Program. The graduating class is given two weeks to create any piece to express their designer's voice. A homecoming of sorts for the program's alumni, the show ties us together through a shared rite of passage, while also expressing the individuality of the latest class.

Each sculpture is made from a 24" x 36" single sheet of paper.

I have always enjoyed the way public sculptures play a part in a city’s identity and offer us a place to engage with each other and even the city itself. When designing this sculpture, I thought fondly of The Alamo (aka The Astor Place Cube) by Bernard Rosenthal, found in NYC's East Village. It’s a large kinetic sculpture that can be spun around, so it’s different each time you come upon it. That bit of delightful surprise inspired me. I wanted to design a kinetic sculpture that changed with its surroundings.

Inspired by those Sesame St. shorts I used to love growing up, I created this stop-motion video about Teamwork. Themes: ask your friends for help, be resourceful, work together, build on your strengths, and serve as the fulcrum that others can leverage. :)

Structure/Skin

An exercise in formgiving, the prompt was to create two forms out of mondulan block in response to a word pairing, for example, big/small, light/dark, on/off, etc. From the list, I chose structure/skin. At the time, I was studying Rem Koolhaas and used his CCTV building as inspiration.