“I Don’t Have A Strategy, I Just Do What I Do” – Sabine Marcelis On Making The Impossible Happen

“In Rotterdam, there is this mentality, well, it’s actually a Dutch saying, that means ‘don’t whine, just clean’”, she tells us. “So, if something isn’t here people will find a way to do it, and I really like that—the people here aren’t spoilt, the city is very working class”. Built around one of the largest harbors in“If something isn’t here people will find a way to do it, and I really like that—the people here aren’t spoilt.” Europe, Rotterdam is an important industrial location; the runoff of which is a design milieu composed of people who prize proximity to factories and manufacturers above the scenes in other cities. For Sabine, whose complex design practice is intimately bound to production processes and materiality, access to such people is vital. Being based in Rotterdam allows her to work closely with those who help bring her ideas to life—so closely, in fact, that she has a shared studio space with one of the companies she frequently works with. “I’m very fortunate to have a few companies that I always work with”, she tells us, “we’re like a family, and we’re equally as interested and invested in making projects work. So you share in the success of them, or you share in the shit—it’s really a team effort”.