The New Zealand Native That's Taking Over Rotterdam

Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis grew up in New Zealand and started her design career a bit late, after trying her hand at competitive snowboarding. She eventually made it to the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven, where her graduation project was a glass table that morphed from translucent to opaque with the flip of a switch. Marcelis has quickly risen to the top of the competitive Dutch design world, collaborating with everyone from elite fashion houses like Céline to Rem Koolhaas's architecture firm OMA. She moved to Rotterdam in 2010 to intern at Studio Roosegaarde, and fell hard for the port city, which has become a laboratory for cutting-edge architecture and design. "I like how it’s rough and sexy," she says. "It’s not like other Dutch cities with the canals and cute little houses."Age: 30