Thirty spokes surround one nave, 
the usefulness of the wheel is always in that empty innermost.

You molded clay to make a bowl, 
the usefulness of the bowl is always in that empty innermost.

You cut out doors and windows to make a house, their usefulness to a house is always in their empty space.

Therefore profit comes from external form, but usefulness from the empty innermost.  

 

(Lao Tzu)

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Over twenty years ago, in 2002, graduate designer Philip Offermanns discovered his fascination with the “aesthetic of emptiness.” The result was a series of artworks titled “The Imprint of Nothingness.” This body of work materializes the moment where inhalation and exhalation meet 'Kumbhaka', where the sea foam of a breaking wave draws back from the shore – that instant when the wave is no longer a wave, yet has not yet returned. The exact turning point, that split second in which time seems to stand still. The transition, the moment of highest tension just before reversal – the nothingness, the zero point, the emptiness – 'Shunyata'.

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Two years later, he happened upon Lao Tzu’s philosophy by chance, which profoundly shaped his approach. While open to interpretation, the core idea remains clear.

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The idea not to create the external form, but the space, the void, the emptiness – a space that serves the human being to act, create, and live – has profoundly influenced his design process until today.