How long have you worked from home? And where is home? I have been working from home since 2007 when I started teaching. At that time, my husband and I owned a live-work loft in downtown LA, which we built out ourselves. Then came the birth of my son and we moved to a more wooded community in Los Angeles to give my son greater exposure to the outdoor environment. I started designing the current line for Yeh Design Lab at home in 2010, just before my son turned two.

When you set up your home/work space what did you have to keep in mind? Were there any particular obstacles to overcome? When a former-student started working for me, I became aware of a psychological barrier — the notion that “working from home” made me feel a little “unofficial.” I was embarrassed about the fact there is a domestic presence to the studio even though my intern and I utilized the domestic area such as the kitchen and the books in the living room during our work hours.

A project I worked on with my husband’s architecture firm Lookinglass A+D changed my view of working from home. For more than a year, a filmmaker client would come to our place for a meeting once a week. The meetings were very long, but because they were supported by an endless supply of tea, seasonal fruit, and good snacks, they were also good. I started to embrace not only the efficiency but also the idea of a live-work home.

What drives your creative decisions? While working on my architecture school graduate thesis, a friend introduced me to a book called Flatland.  Written by Sir Edwin A. Abbott and published in 1884, Flatland invites its readers to consider the outrageous possibilities of space beyond three-dimensions. The novel accomplishes this by portraying the perceptual limitations of the inhabitants of a two-dimensional world who are unable to imagine, and do not want to imagine, the third dimension. To me, the importance of this fable lies not in its literal explication of geometrical and dimensional issues, but as a cautionary tale about a collective complacency in culture, and by extension, all of life. Ever since then, in my work I have been interested in devising ways of challenging common sense, collective intuition, and perception.

What about your work has changed since becoming a parent? I try to spend at least five waking hours a day with my son during work days. It is important to shift gears and focus my attention on my family in the evening, although I must admit I have not fully mastered the skill yet. 9pm is usually the start of the “night shift” of my “work day.” I think the working life of creative parents is inevitably chopped up into chunks of shorter hours.

Aside from the work hours, being a parent made me become more thoughtful with my designs. I can now easily imagine people who are parents wearing my designs and I am aware of their greater need to feel unburdened by what they wear.

How does working from home impact your work? Work becomes part of the cycle of my life rather than independent from it. Although work has a different rhythm, that rhythm has many layers/scales. One of those layers has to fit into the cycle of the home routine, constant cleanup, and constant “mode switching.”

What would you change about your workspace? How do you keep it organized? The “official” home office, where the desks for Yeh Design Lab reside, is located on the mezzanine floor with only 145 square feet of space. When there were two interns here, we were all tripping over each other to work. We turned the dining table and kitchen counters into work surfaces on a daily basis. However, sometimes I would need the largest surface I can find. That is when I turned to the floor — especially for the layout and cutting of cow hides. I always fantasize having a 4’ by 10’ long table that is multi-functional.

Currently, stackable storage that I can grow and easily move is one of the things that is keeping me “sane.” In addition to raw materials and products, my studio produces many studies, one after another. New fully-baked designs don’t come out that often, but studies and prototype pile up quickly. Stackable storage keeps things, I would not say “organized” but “under control.”

Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet right now? We have a few Eames Aluminum Group Management Chairs and Stool_One by Konstantin Grcic in the home office. I would love to own another piece of Grcic’s work such as the Medici Chair Outdoor. It will not only encourage us to take breaks during the work day, but might feed our souls a bit in the process. We have a lot of mid-century modern furniture here, but in the last five years or so, every other piece of furniture that caught my eyes turned out to be Grcic’s.

Who inspires you? So many people and their work inspire me, past and present. However, I find myself repeatedly going back to the works of Yaacov Agam, Gordon Matta-Clark, Naum Gabo, Erwi Hauer, and Pierre Charreau. I am also in awe of Eero Saarinen and would like to understand and connect to his work in a deeper way.

Photos: Yi-Hsiu Yeh

A contemporary interpretation of the classic Adirondack chair, the outdoor version of this semi-reclined design uses thermo-oiled ash, a finish that employs a new process of heat-treating and hand-oiling to seal the wood and keep it moisture-resistant. Get it just in time for the new spring season at the Herman Miller store.

1. The can’t-be-missed photos in “LIFE With Charles and Ray Eames: The Simple Art of Beauty” at life.time.com.

2. A look at the Miller House archives at The Fox Is Black.

3. The eclectic Copenhagen home of designers Camilla Ebdrup and Andreas Stenmann at Design*Sponge.

4. The clever Architecture for Dogs site, including Konstantin Grcic‘s design for a poodle.

5. In other Konstantin Grcic news, his Medici Chair for Mattiazzi recently won the Icon Award 2012 for “Best Furniture Design.”

6. 10 Beautiful Buildings Shaped Like Triangles from Flavorwire.

7. This design-focused gift guide from the Society of Publication Designers.

8. The sleek new Ovale cutlery designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec at Dezeen.

9. This color-packed Romanian home design featuring Eames Molded Plastic Chairs and Wire Chairs (via Decoist).

10. The Domus Civita renovation project (complete with grottos and caves) by Italian architecture firm Studio F at ArchDaily.

Photo: Francois Dischinger for Herman Miller / Medici Chair Outdoor by Konstantin Grcic for Mattiazzi

Above: The “terrace” in Konstantin Grcic’s Munich studio, a spot where he and his team can step outside for a breather and relax in their choice of chairs, from Grcic’s own Chair One and Myto designs to classic Plastic Molded Side Chairs by Charles and Ray Eames.

Photo by: Oliver Mark / Dwell

1. Triangle Brush, Veronika Becker - Crafted in Germany by blind artisans, this unique desktop implement combines a metric triangle ruler with a hand-wired boar’s hair brush for dusting away the refuse of the creative process. Get one from Canoe.

2. Magis Chair_One Stacking, Set of 2, Konstantin Grcic - From triangles comes comfort in this distinctive seating modeled after the combined planes of a soccer ball. Sold in sets of 2. Choose from grey, red, and white seating on painted or polished aluminum legs. Get yours at Herman Miller.

3. Extraction Series: Extruded: White, Matthew Shlian - Through his most recent collaboration with Ghostly, Matthew Shlian incorporates energetic motion, rotation, and extrusion, creating shapes that strain to release themselves from two dimensions. Limited edition of 30, available now from The Ghostly Store.

4. Triangle to Triangle Small, Mike Perry - Mike Perry’s hand-drawn work knits and fastens together an intricate weave of shapes and colors. Like his hand-painted Eames Molded Plastic Chair, the effect of his complex illustrations is both beautiful and hypnotic. Get this and more at Mike Perry Studio.

5. Grimm’s Magnetic Play: Triangles - If you’re interested in creating your own triangular complexity, try the 64-piece set of birch plywood magnetic triangles. Arrange them into faces, landscapes, or abstract patterns for a perpetual exploration in color and shape. Pick one up at Module-R.

6. Triangle Notebook, Tan Mavitan - Looking to escape the tyranny of the square or rectangle? At first glance the Triangle Notebook does just that… until you open it to form a perfect square on which to write and draw. Consider it the best of both worlds. Available at MoMA.

P.S. We couldn’t resist adding a few extra triangles. Enjoy some pizza on these triangular Pizza Plates from Uncommon Goods.

Photos: Linked within the text.

Above: The Eames Aluminum Group outdoor pieces, Konstantin Grcic’s Corian hearts for the Design Love exhibition and auction, Andree Putman’s Corian sail boat bowl and an illuminated Luminaire.

Also on display is the Design Love exhibition – a collaboration between DuPont, Intramuros magazine and well known designers including Ingo Maurer, Andree Putman, Jean-Marie Massaud, Patricia Urquiola and Konstantin Grcic (whose wonderful Chair One and Stool One are part of the Herman Miller Collection and grace the halls of Art Basel). The works are all in Corian and are exhibited together for the first time at Luminaire. You can bid for them in an online auction here until December 3. Sales will benefit the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami.

Photo credit: The image above of the Luminaire sign is from Worldredeye – check out their site for some great coverage of Design Miami.

For more on his Munich workspace check out Dwell’s excellent slideshow, written by Sally McGrane and shot by Oliver Mark. The portrait above is from the slideshow.