TL;DR
Get furniture and decor delivered free with Prime
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
- Member-only deals all year
Design Milk’s Friday Five profile features Jiun Ho discussing three objects he created for Unbound, a limited-edition capsule collection that debuted in September 2026. Ho connects the designs to China’s Yuanyang rice terraces, Japanese kintsugi and washi paper, and the number eight’s cultural symbolism.
San Francisco-based designer Jiun Ho created three objects for Unbound, a limited-edition collection that debuted in September 2026, drawing on travel, craft and cultural references. In a Design Milk Friday Five profile, Ho explains how China’s Yuanyang rice terraces informed a side table, while a silkworm cocoon and the Japanese repair art of kintsugi shaped a pendant.
Ho invited four designers to collaborate on Unbound: Francis Nicdao of Pembrooke & Ives, James Hunter of The Wiseman Group, Jamie Drake and Nicole Fuller. The brief set a maximum size of 36 inches in each dimension. Each designer was asked to make a one-of-a-kind object drawing on their area of practice, such as furniture, lighting or textiles, and to incorporate one of two crafts: hand-painted wallpaper or cloisonné by Lala Curio, a creative partner of Ho’s.
Ho made three pieces rather than the single object requested of each participant. The YuanYang side table has a cinnamon-bronze-finish metal surface and cloisonné-covered steps along its sides. Ho says its form and decoration refer to the water-filled terraces carved into mountainsides by generations of farmers in Yuanyang County, in China’s Yunnan province.
The Whisper pendant takes its shape from a silkworm cocoon, according to Ho. To create its surface, his team tore handmade Japanese washi paper into pieces, reassembled it and traced the seams in gold leaf, referencing kintsugi, the Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery with gold. The third object, the Forma pendant, draws on the number eight, which Ho describes as a symbol of good fortune and prosperity in Chinese culture. He also points to its resemblance to the infinity symbol when turned sideways; the shade is finished in gold and silver leaf.
Travel Becomes a Design Method
The profile offers a view into how Ho translates personal experience into specific design choices, rather than treating travel as a broad source of visual reference. The collection connects the shape of a pendant to a cocoon, its surface to a Japanese repair technique, and the construction of a table to an agricultural landscape. For readers interested in interiors and product design, those explanations show how a designer can combine material decisions with references to place, craft and symbolism.
Unbound also brings together five designers under a shared, deliberately compact brief. The size limit and craft requirement give the participants common parameters while allowing each to work in a different discipline. Ho says the project was intended to show the collaborators’ craft and their capacity for customization; that is his stated aim, rather than an independently assessed outcome of the collection.
Products Worth Considering
Philips Hue Smart Light Starter Kit with Bridge and 4 White and Color A19 Bulbs
Ring Alarm 5-Piece Kit
Philips Hue Festavia Globe Outdoor String Lights, 8 Bulbs, 22 ft
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
From Kuala Lumpur to Global Practice
Ho recalls growing up in a lower-middle-class family in rural Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s, with little exposure to art or architecture. His first trip outside Malaysia came at age nine, when he visited Japan. He says its buildings, craftsmanship and sense of history made a lasting impression, although he did not then know interior design was a profession.
His career later brought him back to Kuala Lumpur to work on the interiors of architect César Pelli’s Petronas Twin Towers, a project Ho describes as among his best. A residential commission in Taipei, 26 years before the profile, led him into product design: after completing an apartment, he was asked to create furniture, lighting and rugs. Ho says he presented 35 watercolor sketches, and the client wanted all of them produced. The source describes his studio as a global lifestyle brand working across residential, hospitality and restaurant interiors, as well as furniture, lighting and textiles.
Ho says he has visited 135 countries. That number is his account in the profile; the source provides no separate verification or date range for the count. He describes travel as a recurring source of ideas, saying he returns from trips wanting to make something.
““I could be poor in life, but I should never be poor in experiences.””
— Jiun Ho, quoted in Design Milk
Details Beyond the Profile
The supplied profile does not give prices, availability, production quantities or sales information for the individual Unbound pieces. It identifies the collection as limited edition and says it debuted in September 2026, but does not specify where it can be purchased or how many examples of each object were made. The article also does not give a publication date, and it provides no independent assessment of the collection’s reception or commercial performance.
Descriptions of the objects’ inspirations and intended meanings come from Ho. The source does not report comments from the other four designers about their contributions or provide further detail on how the collection was exhibited at launch.
Availability and Collection Details
The collection has already debuted, according to the profile. Readers seeking current purchasing information, edition sizes or exhibition details will need to consult Jiun Ho’s studio or the collection’s retail and gallery channels; those details are not included in the supplied report. No later launch event or additional release is identified in the source material.
The next development to watch for is any public information from the studio or collaborators on availability and production. Until then, the profile establishes the collection’s design brief, participants and Ho’s stated inspirations, but not its market reach or reception.
Key Questions
What is Unbound?
Unbound is a limited-edition capsule collection involving Jiun Ho and four invited designers. It debuted in September 2026, according to the Design Milk profile.
Which designers collaborated with Jiun Ho?
The profile names Francis Nicdao, James Hunter, Jamie Drake and Nicole Fuller as the four designers Ho invited to collaborate.
What inspired Ho’s three objects?
The YuanYang side table references China’s Yuanyang rice terraces; the Whisper pendant draws on a silkworm cocoon, washi paper and kintsugi; and the Forma pendant uses the number eight’s associations with fortune and infinity.
How large could the Unbound pieces be?
The project brief set a maximum of 36 inches in each dimension. The profile does not provide the exact measurements of Ho’s finished objects.
Where can the pieces be bought?
The supplied report does not state where the collection is sold, its prices or the edition size. Current availability would need to be confirmed with Ho’s studio or a retailer representing the collection.
Source: design-milk.com
