How do centuries-old crafts find their place in the contemporary design landscape?
Are tradition and innovation truly dichotomous? Far from being opposing forces, heritage craft is not merely an accumulation of past wisdom, but a vital spring of contemporary design. Moderated by Dylan Kwok, author of “Open Birdcages”, this dialogue brings together deTour 2026 co-creators Ultramar Studio by Ewan Lamm and Didi NG Wing Yin to unpack their respective works, “Rite of Passage” and “Wood As It Is”.
Born in Hong Kong and now based in Europe, both international co-creators revisit their cultural roots through the materiality of wood, opening up a cross-cultural conversation on craft and design. Re-imagining woodcraft, their practices range from listening to wood grains as axes split along natural flaws, to reconstructing wooden fibres using translucent 3D printing. As heritage techniques converge with material innovation, how can everyday objects help us rediscover our intuitive connection with raw materials? Join us for an exploration of materiality and creation—proving that design is a continuous journey until the material finally speaks back.
Ultramar—Latin for “beyond the sea”—is a Madrid-based furniture and object design studio founded in 2023, inviting you on a journey through narratives and folklore from across the sea.
Our studio creates objects through a dialogue between culture, architecture, material, and technology. We look to what has been crafted before us—not for how it appeared, but for why it existed—extracting principles rather than reproducing forms. A shape becomes a principle; a ritual becomes a structure; an artefact becomes a language.
Material and process are integral to the design itself, not subsequent steps. Constraints become features, while technical anomalies are elevated into aesthetics. Moving between furniture, sculpture, and architecture, the work often demands time to fully reveal itself.
The past is material for the future.
Didi NG Wing Yin (b. 1989, Hong Kong) is an artist and maker based in Helsinki, Finland. Working primarily with wood, his practice explores materiality, transformation, perception, and the relationship between human intervention and material agency. Through splitting, carving, and surface manipulation, NG engages with wood’s inherent structures and natural irregularities, allowing the material to guide each work’s evolution rather than adhering to a predetermined form.
Evolving from a background in industrial and furniture design towards a material-led, sculptural approach, NG treats craft knowledge and the act of making as modes of artistic inquiry. He holds an MA in Interior Architecture with a major in Furniture Design from Aalto University. His work has received international acclaim, including selection as a finalist for the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2025, winner of the Dezeen Emerging Designer of the Year Award 2024, and winner of the Rising Star of the Year Award at the Scandinavian Design Awards 2024.