umum+ is a London and Hangzhou-based studio founded by curator Dan Huang and architect Shutong Fan in 2025 at their home in Kensal Green, London. We work across curation, spatial design, publication, object design, and situated research under one theme: Craft.
Craft is understood not as the preservation of tradition, but as a mindset for approaching the world. We attempt to reintroduce, recontextualise, regenerate, and readapt craft for a contemporary life context, bringing it to a wider audience who might not have been interested in craft before.
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We collaborate with a cross-disciplinary group of creatives: makers, artists, writers, graphic designers, architects, archaeologists, and filmmakers. Together, we translate overlooked materials, objects, and designs into curated encounters framed by displacement and recontextualisation. We approach design as a connective framework. Each project develops from attentive research into its cultural context, constructing a ground where stories surface and unfold through sustained dialogue.
umum+ grew from umum objects. The original idea was to adapt a private living space into a communal space for contemporary craft. Now, the practice has grown into an object gallery, umum objects, and a studio, umum+. The studio has been invited to host exhibitions and events in London, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Hunan.
Our collaborators include: Saltriver Studio, Arisu Ange, Slowdance, Gegend Gallery, Common Divisor, Zephyrus Art, and Storyage.
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umum+ grew from umum objects. The original idea was to adapt a private living space into a communal space for contemporary craft. Now, the practice has grown into an object gallery, umum objects, and a studio, umum+. The studio has been invited to host exhibitions and events in London, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Hunan.
Our collaborators include: Saltriver Studio, Arisu Ange, Slowdance, Gegend Gallery, Common Divisor, Zephyrus Art, and Storyage.
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Project
- Used to Use #2: Garden, Kitchen, Game
- 7-day Wonder II: Isobel Napier
- 7-day Wonder I: Marian Bijlenga
- Drifting Home
- Ready-to-Pot
- British Household Curios
- Used to Use #1: British Silverware Curios
- Zhàngwù: Youyou Wang
- Crafted Escapes
- The Art of Repetition
- umum x common divisior
- Reading Room #2
- Reading Room #1
Library
Chen Bao: A Conversation with Clay and the Past
Contact
77 Fulham Palace, London, England, W6 8AF
Coming Soon
We welcome portfolios from graphic designers, architects, product designers, sound artists, construction consultants, stage designers, filmmakers, and craft researchers. Please share your work with us at hr@umumobjects.com
info@umumplus.com
Press
press@umumplus.com
Type: Exhibition
Collaborator: ATE SIMO Space
Location: Shanghai, China
From 14 to 23 August, Used to Use Vol. 2 will be presented at ATE SIMO Space in Shanghai. It marks the second chapter of“Used to Use,”an ongoing research project by London-based umum+ studio into “outdated design,” and the third instalment of ATE SIMO Space’s curatorial programme“RESONANT.”The exhibition brings together nearly 80 old objects once found in gardens, kitchens and places of entertainment across Europe and Asia, rearranged according to their original settings of use and height.
“Used to Use” begins with questions of how objects are used and designed, and how they gradually lose their original meaning over time. The project looks at objects that have fallen out of everyday life, inviting us to reconsider them. The first chapter,Used to Use Vol. 1, was presented in London in collaboration with two British antique silver collectors, selecting more than 40 everyday silver objects from the Victorian era from a collection of tens of thousands of pieces. This journey of “Used to Use” now continues in Shanghai.
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“Used to Use” begins with questions of how objects are used and designed, and how they gradually lose their original meaning over time. The project looks at objects that have fallen out of everyday life, inviting us to reconsider them. The first chapter,Used to Use Vol. 1, was presented in London in collaboration with two British antique silver collectors, selecting more than 40 everyday silver objects from the Victorian era from a collection of tens of thousands of pieces. This journey of “Used to Use” now continues in Shanghai.
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The exhibition does not provide any labels or explanations for the old objects. Instead, they are arranged according to their original settings of use across four different heights:the tabletop, the kitchen, the farm, and the ground. Each object is accompanied by a specially written “clue”. “Solid milk” appears beside a butter pat, while “Chasing for Pi (π)” is placed beside a donkey’s eye mask, inviting visitors to guess and interpret the objects for themselves. The answers are hidden inside a fold-out exhibition booklet that continues the visual language of Vol. 1. After making their guesses, visitors can unfold the booklet to find the corresponding illustration and the correct answer, extending the experience from guessing into a small act of discovery that can be taken home.
Team
Curation: umum+ studio
Collaborator: ATE SIMO Space
Makers: Cinque, qīqíqǐqì studio
Photography: Shutong Fan