My Perfect Weekend with Wendy Chua of Forest & Whale
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Forest & Whale design studio's founders Wendy Chua and Gustavo Maggio in Berlin with their daughter Lila.
PHOTO: WENDY CHUA
Who: Ms Wendy Chua, 38, co-founded home-grown design studio Forest & Whale in 2016 with her husband Gustavo Maggio, 43.
The industrial designer and educator works with woodworkers and glass blowers and, in 2017, co-edited a book titled The Machinist: The Industrial Artisan Of Jalan Besar, which highlights the relevance and wisdom of the industrial artisan in a world where mass production is fast replacing cottage industries.
She and her Argentina-born Italian husband – the former creative director of design studio and furniture retailer Outofstock Design – are now based in Berlin, where Ms Chua explores the intangible threats of harmful algae blooms at the intersection of marine biology, media arts and design. The couple have a daughter Lila, aged three.
“My weekend begins on Friday evenings, when I pick up Lila from kindergarten and plot our adventures together over the weekend.
The family moved here in 2022 from Singapore so I could pursue a postgraduate degree in open (interdisciplinary) design at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
We are usually awakened on Saturday mornings by Lila’s bouncing energy.
The first order of the day is a stroll to our favourite neighbourhood cafe, Meier’s, for delicious Vietnamese bao, a flat-white coffee and hot chocolate.
Lila has tough choices to make every weekend, such as whether to visit the Anoha Museum playground, which is designed for children to have endless fun, or to take a stroll in Tiergarten, which is Berlin’s most popular inner-city park for viewing ducks along the river Spree.
Lila blossomed into her toddler years speaking Spanish, German and a mish-mash of ‘Lila’s lingo’, which she uses to communicate with birds and rabbits in Tiergarten park.
We usually try to take in a leisurely few hours at Anoha Museum playground. It is a thoughtfully designed stomping ground that introduces the animal kingdom to children through the idea of a ‘Noah’s Ark’ that guards against rising sea levels.
Every animal is made from recycled objects. After Lila plays with the sculptures, she goes on slides and takes up activities that exhaust her so she is able to have a good night’s sleep.
For me and Gustavo, Saturday nights are usually spent catching up on Netflix blockbusters or reading.
I am now watching the hit series His Dark Materials (2019 to 2022), adapted from the trilogy of novels by British writer Philip Pullman.
I also catch up on reading research papers in my fields of interest, such as Marine Phytoplankton Of The Western Pacific by a team of authors led by Takuo Omura, as well as Arts Of Living On A Damaged Planet by a team of authors led by Anna Tsing.
Forest & Whale design studio’s founders Wendy Chua and Gustavo Maggio in Berlin with their daughter Lila. The family recently enjoyed the Easter holidays in the city’s Britzer Gardens, where cherry blossoms and Lila’s favourite wild flowers, the grape-hyacinth, are in full bloom.
PHOTO: WENDY CHUA
On Sundays, after breakfast, I go for yoga and pilates, while Gustavo plays padel, a popular version of tennis in Germany. Lila goes to playgrounds for children around the area, which are designed to give energetic tiny tots a good workout.
We wind down on Monday mornings after dropping our daughter off at kindergarten. Gustavo and I catch an early breakfast and caffeine fix while we enjoy the quiet morning in Berlin’s Mitte district and plan the week ahead.
I think our routine is similar to those of many other parents in Berlin who welcome the beginning of the week, when childcare returns and we have the day to ourselves.
Taking a break on a weekday morning is also a great way to avoid crowds on weekends.”
