The experience becomes the function: how Sabine Marcelis works with industry

A drawing handed to a factory is where Sabine Marcelis begins, not where she stops. Her studio states the method plainly: she collaborates with industry specialists and brings a strong aesthetic point of view to that collaboration, which lets her intervene in the manufacturing process, push the limits of production and material, and use research and experiment to reach visual effects nobody had seen before. The results are shown in museums and commissioned by commercial clients and fashion houses alike. Two collections of her own make the approach easy to read: the Candy Cubes, in polished and matt cast resin, produced since 2014, and the Soap Tables, in matt cast resin, since 2018. She regards every design as a sensorial experience; her phrase is that the experience becomes the function.

Foam and fabric are a different chapter. Lisse, from 2025, is her sofa and pouf family for LaCividina, and it is through this family that her work reaches an office reception, a hotel lounge or a client waiting area in India. The enquiry goes to La Mercanti, where the choice of pieces is worked out with the architect or the client’s own team before anything is confirmed.