Geodesic dome structure, Ronald Resch (1971)

One of the questions we are frequently asked is why we chose the name ‘Terrain’ for our studio. Recently we were asked by The Design Society journal to contribute a brief write-up on the origins of our studio name for their latest issue (No. 4).

The Design Society Journal, No. 4

 
Here’s an excerpt:

The name was originally derived from a spelling of the word ‘terrain’ as ‘t-e-r-r-a-i-n’, which alludes to a passage from Marshall McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage (pg. 44, 2008).

As a studio, we seek to employ the use of ideas and models to engage and examine a variety of spheres and contexts: the academic, social, cultural and conceptual. The word ‘terrain’ was chosen as it covered an interesting, expansive range of suggestions: rigour, deliberation, ubiquity and textural depth—to name a few—thus presenting itself to be quite a compact metaphor of what we would like to express.

When applied, the studio’s name then functions as a trope for all platforms that we would like to apply our design method to, the immediate and integrated landscape, c,o,n,t,i,n,u,o,u,s and c-o-n-n-e-c-t-e-d.

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First published in The Design Society Journal No. 4, Design in a Visual World (Singapore, 2012)