A glowing tube weaves its way through a grid of exposed metal, held together by parts that most designers would typically hide. There’s no attempt to mask the wiring or smooth out the connections. Instead, the piece invites you to see it fully with its structure, its system, and its light. In Yaazd Contractor’s work, illumination isn’t an afterthought but a natural outcome of how it’s built; he views the world through a lens of ‘raw precision.’ Having graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), he has a creative DNA, a hybrid of Mumbai’s resourceful, craft-based culture and the rugged, do-it-yourself industrial landscape of the American Midwest. His career is defined by The Back Studio, a design lab he co-founded with Italian artist Eugenio Rossi that treats the scrap heap like a gallery.
While most designers hide the bolts, wires, and brackets, Yaazd and his team at The Back Studio bring them into the spotlight. A rising star in the global design circuit, he has made his work a centrepiece at Milan Design Week (Alcova), New York Design Week (WantedDesign), and galleries across Chicago. He is recognised by major design authorities, such as Dezeen and Lampoon, for pioneering a regenerative aesthetic that uses recyclable glass and metal components assembled rather than fused, allowing for a lifetime of repair, intervention, and evolution.
Q1: You’ve made neon central to your practice. What made you recognise its potential as an artistic medium?
Yaazd: That’s a funny story! I was at the School of Art Institute studying art and technology, and one of my friends told me to check out the NEON summer course. What sold it to me was that it was nine to four, five days a week, for three weeks during the summer. It sounded like a perfect summer: earn credits, take a little class, and enjoy the summer as well.
I was offered a job as a TA in the NEON and Light Lab for the three years of my college career. I was in charge of putting the gas into the tubes, which is also called bombarding. In the end, you got this beautiful vessel with glowing gas, and you feel like you are bringing something to life. That specific process of bombarding enticed me into the craft. I could create a finished piece from nothing. It was an amazing experience; that entire process is what introduced me to neon as a medium.
Q2. Your work brings hardware components to the forefront rather than concealing them. What draws you to making the mechanics of construction visible?
My family – my parents, my sister, and my neighbour are all either interior designers or architects. I have been surrounded by this, getting to experience start to finish: foundation, bare bones, electricals, all the things that are hidden but make the building work.
I think they have a utilitarian beauty. I’m removing them from behind the walls and bringing them to the forefront, using them in ways they weren’t intended. The idea of standardisation, how things can fit and match even though something is for plumbing, but the other thing is for electricals, is what brings them to the front. They’re recognisable but not known to everyone. I want to show their usability in a different way.
Q3. You’ve worked across cities around the world. Does a city play a role in inspiring you for the pieces you create? How does something as fleeting as the city’s everyday chaos translate into a resolved piece in your studio?
Cities have a huge impact on our work. Light and space go hand in hand, and the space the work occupies has a significant impact as well.
There are certain things about just how cities work: sourcing material, the feasibility of what is available, and cost. But also inspiration, like how the industry is out here. A big example is scaffolding. In India or Hong Kong, we’ve got bamboo scaffolding, which is a very industrial material. In New York or Europe, you’ve got metal scaffolding, which has its own charm.
Seeing these temporary structures and how things are put together – even how trucks are held, with a rope zigzagged with hooks instead of being ratchet-strapped – there’s a different beauty to both. Seeing what we’re surrounded by is a big inspiration to our work.
