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Agak-Agak

A Little More, A Little Less

Three rulers, three bodies, three measures.

Before scales, recipes and rulers, there was Agak-Agak, a way of knowing by feel. Rooted in memory, intuition and the body, it asks: when did we stop trusting what our hands already know?

The Body as a Measure

“Agak-agak,” a Malay colloquial expression meaning “roughly” or “to guess,” frames this exploration of intuitive judgment as a form of measurement. Rooted in everyday practices such as cooking without recipes, it centers sensory awareness, memory, and embodied knowledge over standardized systems. The project questions whether standardized units have overshadowed the value of bodily experience, and whether measurement truly captures what the body already knows.

A series of hand-crafted steel rulers, weights, and an hourglass reimagine precision through intuition rather than external standards. These tools function as a self-defined system of measurement, used to produce accompanying objects: Enzo Mari Sedia chairs constructed from these dimensions, alongside with Kuih Lapis, a traditional Nyonya multi-layered steamed cake, formed through embodied understanding of proportion. Together, the works challenge the authority of fixed metrics, proposing that the body itself holds a precise and experiential knowledge of measure.

About Agak-Agak Unit

Agak-Agak Unit is a design collective founded by three female designers from Goldsmiths, University of London. Our practice explores softer, more intuitive and inclusive approaches to design, bringing perspectives often overlooked by conventional systems. Working across research, objects and experiences, we use design as a way to question established ways of thinking and propose alternative ways of seeing, knowing and making.

Built by hand, measured by intuition.

When intuition becomes the ruler.

A weight made from what the hands remember.

Between each layer, a measure of intuition.

West area, PLAN-B, Hurksestraat 19 , Map No. C4
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Partially Wheelchair Accessible
Wifi available
Dogs allowed
Toilets available