From the Spoon to the City: Designing Contemporary Life with Su Wu, Dung Ngo, and Catherine Bailey, in Conversation with Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher

Join us at Heath San Francisco with for an evening with writer/curator Su Wu and editor/publisher Dung Ngo, whose new books—Mesoamerican Modern: Ancient Ideas in Contemporary Mexican Homes and Knife Fork Spoon: Modernist Cutlery 1900–2025, respectively—will inform a conversation about contemporary design. The talk will be hosted by Heath's Catherine Bailey and moderated by Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, SFMOMA’s Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture of Design. 

Inspired by Italian architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers’ belief that good design should be scale-agnostic—he wanted his vision to span “from the spoon to the city”—the discussion will explore the connection between the objects we use every day and the spaces we inhabit. 

The conversation will take place on November 17 from 5–7pm in the Heath San Francisco showroom. Books will be available for purchase, and refreshments—including tequila from Siete Leguas—will be served.

Spots are limited—RSVP Here.

If you love the history of design in everyday life, you won’t want to miss this! 

For our friends in Los Angeles, join Dung in celebration of his new book on November 14. Get the details.

Event Details
November 17, 2026
5pm–7pm
Heath Ceramics San Francisco
2900 18th Street

About the Author

Dung Ngo is a design writer, the editor-in-chief of AUGUST Journal, a print magazine on travel and design, and the publisher of August Editions, a bespoke publishing house with a focus on historical and contemporary visual culture. For over a decade he was the creative director and senior editor at Rizzoli International Publications, where he worked on the definitive monographs with such designers as I.M. Pei and Andrée Putman. He is the author of several books, including Bent Ply, a history of 20th century plywood furniture and Tom Kundig: Complete Houses (2025).

Su Wu is a writer and curator whose work explores contemporary art, architecture, and design. Her new book, Mesoamerican Modern: Ancient Ideas in Contemporary Mexican Homes, looks at remarkable contemporary residences throughout Mexico and the ways architects and designers draw on the country’s pre-Hispanic architectural traditions, materials, and ways of living.