The Designers Behind the Company
Haque Tan is a design studio led by Ling Tan and Usman Haque, who were both trained under the Architecture discipline. Operating in London, Marseille and Singapore, the Studio specialises in providing holistic approach to architecture and art, combining the urban environment, technology systems and interactive experiences to form the responses to social and cultural topics.
Both designers have many accreditations and awards which revolve around implementing technologies to enhance a design through human interaction. Haque had co – led Starling, which aimed to improve pedestrian safety by observing and identifying behaviours of road users to control and effect surrounding road infrastructure.
Tan is also the lead artist and designer for Low – Carbon Chinatown, which aims to engage public participants with the climate crisis, though food. The project brings together Chinese diasporic food culture and food scientists to reimagine popular foods through an eco-friendly lens while retaining the cultural essence of each dish.
‘Another Life’ – Ling Tan and Usman Haque (HAQUE TAN – Another Life)
‘Another Life’ for the Mirror Pool
Looking at the backgrounds of both designers and the projects under their design studio, they reflect a lot of what I aim to achieve with my design and business practice: Involving and engaging people and community with the design and formation of solutions which serve the public. A community led approach to design.
One of their projects is especially relevant to Bradford as it has become a key landmark within its city centre. An network of sensors, lights and water geysers, ‘Another Life’ enhances the Mirror Pool to react and interact with the public. Lights will appear as people walk through, and water jets can intensify and diminish by the proximity of people.
Taking Action with Interaction
From an architectural perspective, Another Life is a perfect example of how interacting solutions can be implemented in an invisible yet intuitive way. It enhances the surrounding structures by existing as part of the structure, engaging our sense of spatiality which stationary structures don’t typically achieve.
By studying the many ways Haque Tan have incorporated technologies to transform input data and influence the output has shed light on how technology should be used to add conceptual depth to a project. It has encouraged my own business practice to implement technology that goes deeper than the superficial trends of the market, to make direct impacts through it’s implementation.
