Sabine Marcelis and How Rotterdam Makes It Happen

Getting something done today – it creative, entrepreneurial, or cultural work – is no longer merely a question of personal talent; it's increasingly a question of the conditions around it. We live in an age of seemingly boundless possibilities, but one in which all too frequently the path from idea to realization is blocked to us by bureaucracy, inability to find space, precarious networks, or insufficient institutional capability. In this context, a city or country's true energy shows in how well it supports and brings ideas to life. Talent exists everywhere – but it can only grow where it’s given the space and care to take root.

In this sense, Rotterdam stands as a compelling example. Much more than a hub and port city, it has reshaped its image by continually investing in young people, creativity, and a forward-looking orientation. Its motto – “Rotterdam Make It Happen” – isn’t just a catchy slogan, but a genuine declaration of intent: a collective invitation to act, supported by robust infrastructure, progressive urban policies, and a cultural mindset grounded in making things possible. It is not a question of destiny or individual fortune, here, but a matter of collective responsibility between creatives, citizens, and institutions. It's a social co-responsibility that allows talent to bloom – not the big exception, but the norm of success. In this fertile soil, Sabine Marcelis has her place: a designer and artist who makes material into light, and light into a compelling language.

Born in 1985, raised in New Zealand, and educated in the Netherlands, Sabine Marcelis chose Rotterdam not just as her base, but as a creative partner – an extension of her practice. She embodies the spirit of the city: experimental, radiant, and grounded. Her work moves seamlessly along the border between art and design, guided by a unique sensibility that transforms industrial materials like glass, resin, and neon into objects that are both poetic and functional. What stands out is her ability to make aesthetics converse with technology, to balance the ephemeral and the solid, to shape light as if it were matter itself.

Her own studio is in what was formerly a signifier of heavy industry – now remade as a playground of experimentation, where designers and artists build new futures. Amidst repurposed shipping containers, open workshops, and raw post-industrial environments, Marcelis has fashioned her own vocabulary: surfaces that have the texture of liquid, volumes of light, colors that shift as the hours pass. It is a design practice that is not hesitant to seduce but is grounded in an architectural precision that gives form to feeling.

Projects like Candy Cubes and the iconic Soap Tables show just how much care and sensitivity Sabine Marcelis brings to her work. She doesn’t just design objects – she creates experiences through texture, color, and light, inviting people not just to look, but to feel and immerse themselves. Her collaborations range from major global names like Fendi and IKEA to Aesop and the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, where she created a stunning site-specific installation inside the Depot – one of Rotterdam’s most striking new buildings.

Recently, Sabine took on a new kind of challenge – working with fabric, or at least a soft material. She’d been intrigued by the donut shape for a while, and this curiosity led to the creation of the Boa Pouf for Hem. Designing something soft and sculptural like this isn’t simple – seams usually get in the way, breaking up the shape and interrupting that smooth, flowing feel. 

The real challenge was finding a way to wrap the fabric so it looked seamless and kept the form clean and continuous. For Sabine, the charm of the pouf is all in its versatility – it feels just as at home in a cozy apartment as it does in a big, open space. It comes in four soft tones: Pine, Sulfur Yellow, Cotton Candy, and Oatmeal.

But Sabine Marcelis’ success isn’t solely the outcome of exceptional talent – it’s the result of an ecosystem that gave her the time to explore, the space to create, and the freedom to fail. In this sense, Rotterdam has been more than just a backdrop; it’s acted as a true amplifier of vision, able to absorb risk and return it as opportunity, turning a culture of making into a real engine of possibility. Maybe that’s what Make It Happen really means.

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Words: Simone Lorusso

Images courtesy of Sabine Marcelis and Hem