Kwan Lam Ma (Karl)
(He)
I am a designer interested in integrated and product design, exploring objects that evoke narratives through human behaviour, material clarity, and refined simplicity. Through observation and reduction, I explore how subtle interventions can shape atmosphere, perception, and human connection.
Midden
Cities leave traces in stone, hardware, and the ordinary forms we gradually stop noticing. Midden begins with these fragments of Glasgow and asks how they might return as everyday objects. Drawing from chimneys, escutcheons, tiles, and site residue, the project transforms construction waste into a small collection of ceramic objects and packaging. Rather than borrowing the image of heritage, Midden works with what remains: forms, textures, and fragments that quietly carry memory. Each object carries the postcode of its material source together with its own piece number, linking it `details, bringing them back into daily use through objects that are both useful and characterful.
Family products
The Lum Series begins with chimney forms found across Glasgow rooftops. No longer central to daily life, they remain as quiet markers of the city’s silhouette. Reworked as modular ceramic pieces, they can be stacked, rearranged, and interpreted in different ways, allowing one family of forms to hold multiple uses and characters.
The tile series is inspired by an escutcheon found in old Glasgow tenement buildings. After removing the cover and screws, a small, face-like form appears. What is usually hidden becomes the starting point for a new ceramic and graphic language. Recast as tiles, these overlooked details return with warmth, character, and a slight sense of play.
The packaging stays quiet on the outside and more vivid within, reflecting how Glasgow can feel muted at first yet full of character beneath the surface. Natural tones sit within the project’s material palette, while die-cut openings reveal stronger colour beneath. Blind embossing and debossing draw on details from older Glasgow objects, bringing texture and depth to the packaging.
Pacakging detail