Atelier INDJ

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Atelier INDJ

We are an award winning multidisciplinary design studio. Our output spans architectural, spatial, product and furniture design at a range of scales.

I-N-D-J is an award winning multidisciplinary design studio undertaking projects in architectural, spatial, product and furniture design at a range of scales. Atelier I-N-D-J is involved with a diverse range of projects - from interiors to object d’art - this diversity is driven by Ian thus displaying his skill and versatility as a polymath designer; with commissions and collaborations with Swarov

ski, Lane Crawford Asia, The Victoria & Albert Museum London, The Urban Harvest China, The Melbourne Design Festival and the world famous Ice Hotel. Ian’s art output has recently been shown at Aynhoe Park London and solo show ‘Infinite Black’ at The Bund 18 Shanghai. Collaborations include work with Ben Rousseau, SuperNatureDesign and international graffiti pioneer INSA, UK Architects CTHM and the Royal institute of British Architects - RIBA. The studio was founded by Ian Douglas-Jones in 2009. Ian has been internationally published and has practised globally from Europe to Australasia. Present in the China market for some years, Ian’s design dexterity and passion has been implemented to successfully lead large architectural schemes as well as intimate interior schemes, bespoke furniture and objects de’art. Ian graduated as Master of Architecture from the Royal College of Art London - with a distinction for both thesis and dissertation he was subsequently nominated for the Royal Institute of British Architects Presidents Silver medal. He also won the Conran Foundation Award, the New London Architecture Prize as well as securing a Solo exhibition at London’s Building Centre. Ian gained his Bachelor of Architecture with first class honours and was nominated for the Royal Institute of British Architects Presidents Bronze medal by the Birmingham School of Architecture.

29/12/2025

This year, we celebrate our 15th anniversary 🎂, with 10 representative cases. They are not just milestones but the roots that will build our future.

What began as a collision of imagination, audacity, and unlikely materials has unfolded into 636 projects across cities, industries, and scales.

In this fast-moving epic, colours shift, typologies change, contexts evolve — revealing a spectrum🌈:
of colours, of typologies, of brand challenges, of spatial and narrative responses.

Across that spectrum, our grit has stayed constant: to blend design, art, and technology into meaningful objects, places and experiences.

Thank you for following the 15th Anniversary series. The next chapter is already in motion.

Happy New Year!

23/12/2025

Atelier INDJ Details | Patterns

We revisit Snow51 at Shanghai Galeries Lafayette—an indoor snow training and retail venue—where a snow-white palette echoes the stillness of real snow. The perforated spiral staircase diffuses light, softens enclosure, and gently embraces its users, bringing the calm of a winter landscape into an interior experience.

As we share this study on Christmas Eve, we wish our partners and peers a season of calm, clarity, and warmth—held close.

Merry Christmas!

18/12/2025

Atelier INDJ Details | Textures

We deployed a cast-in-place concrete surface using bamboo rods as moulds. Once removed, the bamboo leaves behind cylindrical volumes and subtle node imprints, embossing the surface with a rhythm that is both organic and acoustic-friendly. Applied in a Shanghai restaurant, this texture softens surrounding metallic and industrial finishes, introducing warmth through depth rather than colour.

It appears at the backdrops or partitions—behind built-in seating, on the bar counter, or on the semi-height partitions.

Read about the project that was applied with this detail:
SEN Restaurant at Shanghai HKRI Taikoo Hui
https://www.i-n-d-j.com/design/projects/sen

11/12/2025

How do you transport a brand experience across 10 cities with precision, minimum carbon print and flair?

For the Mercedes-Benz EQS roadshow pop-up, we designed a mobile pavilion that behaves like a product.

Its one-bow silhouette echoes the EQS's design language. Inside, a cinematic journey unfolds from a dark Vision Space to an intimate Encounter with the car, culminating in a transformative public reveal.

Every detail carries meaning, from the phyllotaxis spiral layout (a nod to nature) to the modular "kit of parts" built on our 4R Framework: REDEPLOY, REDUCE, REUSE, RESPONSIBILITY.
Beyond a backdrop, it became a living medium — breathing, transforming, and planting memories.

Atelier INDJ transforms brand values into tangible, unforgettable spaces.
Client: Mercedes-Benz
Lead Agency: Uniplan
Construction: U-TRUST
Digital Content Production:
Structure design: Zhang Min
Location: 10 cities in China
Area: 250 m2
Year: 2021

10/12/2025

ARTWORKS丨Optical Illusion

In this first edition of the Optical Illusion series, we explore a field of precision-cut prisms that refract sunlight into shifting bands of colour.

As the piece rotates or the viewer moves, its geometry fractures the environment into multiple planes—splitting, doubling, and reassembling the landscape.

What appears structural becomes ephemeral; �what seems static reveals constant motion. This study examines how optical behaviour can transform perception, turning a simple alignment of material and light into an experience that is both scientific yet sensorial.�
Artwork name: 'TOTEMIC SPECTRUM' series
Artist: IAN DOUGLAS-JONES Douglas-Jones
Read more:
https://www.i-n-d-j.com/art/art-works/totemic-spectrum

04/12/2025

MASTER Part 5 - Techno in Toilet

To shape MASTER’s energy curve, we introduced a spatial twist: a bathroom designed to function simultaneously as a dance floor.

The oval room is encircled by around 20 cylindrical WC cubicles, forming a perimeter around a central DJ that anchors the space.

Behind the main backdrop, a hidden circular male washroom shifts the tone into darkness. Drawing from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the adjacent “powder room” heightens the surreal with upside-down furniture, flamingos, and Romantic-Era paintings — an immersive collision of the absurd and the theatrical.

The full project:
https://www.i-n-d-j.com/design/projects/master

03/12/2025

MASTER Part 4 - Main Room

Technology and art are amplifiers of expression, elevating a space from "good" to "unforgettable.

Light becomes a building material through our design with teamLab / チームラボ’s performance consultancy.

· 30-piece Funktion One sound system.
· Full 35m wide LED screens�
· 3000 moving headlights.�
· 80 lasers.�
· 10 smoke machines.�
· CO2 cannons.

The room is a multi-genre performer, shifting from brand launch venue to livehouse to full club. Design becomes strategy, enabling an 18-hour operational cycle.

The full project:
https://www.i-n-d-j.com/design/projects/master

02/12/2025

MASTER Part 3 - Anteroom

It deepens the transition as guests move from the sense-cleansing entry into an anteroom that appears warm and familiar, yet subtly unsettles.

Behind its amber glow and familiar materiality, the space reveals an otherworldly character — subterranean space volume, timeless formality, tech-jump details, and mythical installations that feel both domestic and alien. This moment blurs comfort and strangeness, grounding visitors while keeping them suspended between realities, preparing them for the main room ahead.

The full project:
https://www.i-n-d-j.com/design/projects/master

28/11/2025

MASTER Part 2

Transitioning from the bustling mall into the venue, we shift in sound, light and materiality to make an escape from the everyday and leave the known world behind.

The full project:
https://www.i-n-d-j.com/design/projects/master

27/11/2025

Wonder how active the "Night Economy" in China is now?

In the next few posts, we will walk you through how we designed MASTER, a downtown Shanghai event and club venue that became a phenomenon and an industrial benchmarking interior project.

The full project:
https://www.i-n-d-j.com/design/projects/master

26/11/2025

Atelier INDJ "DETAILS" | Ceilings

We developed a modular gypsum ceiling for SOL37 restaurant at the Suzhou W Hotel. Inspired by the surrounding lake's undulating surfaces, the ceiling comprises of wave-like scalloped units that soften the acoustics of the main dining area. Light grazes across the curved surfaces, creating subtle gradients that evolve throughout the day. More than a backdrop, the ceiling acts as an atmospheric landscape — shaping intimacy, rhythm, and flow within the dining floor.

Read more about the project that applied the ceiling:
https://www.i-n-d-j.com/design/projects/sol-37-at-w-hotel-suzhou

Address

100 Yejiazhai Road, E260
Shanghai
200060

Website

http://www.i-n-d-j.com/

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