“I SHALL LEAVE THIS WORLD NO LESS BUT MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN I FOUND IT.” - Excerpt from the Ephebian oath of the athenians
I started 19 greek street to break new ground in interior design.
This document is an outline of our intention and ethos. The three parts of our founding philosophy – advancement, integrity and good taste – are the lifeblood of our business. All aspects of the work that we do are grounded in these values, whether it’s conceiving interiors, curating exhibitions, general research or setting up a social enterprise scheme. We invite you to learn more about us.
Marc Peridis Founder
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About us...........................................................................................................................05 Philosophy.........................................................................................................................07 Advancement.......................................................................................................08 Integrity ...............................................................................................................09 Good taste............................................................................................................11 Our inspiration ..................................................................................................................13 Interior design ...................................................................................................................15 poetry ...................................................................................................................16 how we work ........................................................................................................18 some of our interiors work...................................................................................18 Exhibitions & Stories.........................................................................................................18 Contact details .................................................................................................................26
ABOUT US
19 greek street was founded in 2012 as a space for experimentation – a six-floor Soho townhouse incorporating a gallery, an interior design studio and a workshop. Today, it is recognised as a source of innovation and inspiration. Our style is eccentric, colourful and eclectic. We scour studios and ateliers, near and far, that originate visionary and finely crafted products. We regard interior design as a form of poetry. Furniture can tell stories and be orchestrated to create imaginative and intriguing associations.
exclusive access to a bubbling pool of inventive processes and ideas outside the mainstream. The townhouse also boasts its own material research studio, led by designerin-residence Dian Simpson, that transforms discarded alcohol bottles into surface materials.
Present and past clients include Vivienne Westwood, Marc Jacobs, Sketch, Library and Saint Martins Lofts. We work in a small team and believe in a mindful approach, taking on no more than two projects at one time. This allows us to focus fully on each commission, on every shot of colour and intuitive decision about layout, lighting, materials and furniture.
In 2014, we took a leap forward by launching our own charity, 16, which trains disadvantaged people in design and making, and promotes greater inclusion and equality in the industry.
The gallery represents pioneering designers such as Nina Tolstrup, Dirk Vander Kooij, Werner Aisslinger and Karen Chekerdjian, among many others, which gives us first and
Our vision for a beautiful but more sustainable future shapes the approach we take to every project. Each facet of our work bears out 19 greek street’s philosophy and core values, which we think have the potential to create exceptional and truly unique design.
PHILOSOPHY
ADVANCEMENT
You may be familiar with the theory of ‘diffusion of innovations’. It was developed by Everett Rogers in the early 1960s to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. In simple terms, it’s a sociological and mathematic answer to questions like, “Why would someone queue for 14 days in freezing rain to buy the new iPhone on its release day, when they can waltz in and buy it off the shelf the following week?”. The answer is: they want to be the first. But what is so important about being first? Yes, there is the ego-boost attached to telling people, “I had it on day one!”, but the reasoning is pretty thin. According to Rogers’ theory, innovations must be widely adopted in order to self-sustain. The categories of adopters are: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. The early majority and the late majority (representing 68% of the population) won’t be inclined to try anything until someone (namely an ‘early adopter’) has tried it first. Therefore, without that first 16%, the cycle wouldn’t exist, and advancement would be impossible. Innovators and early adopters believe in challenging the status quo, and by doing so they enable ideas that shape the world. The design industry experienced an unprecedented leap forward in the 20th century. Modernists, particularly those at the Bauhaus, dared to innovate, even at the risk of failure. We tend to forget the efforts of designers such as Ray and Charles Eames, who experimented with materials in their Los Angeles apartment in the early 1940s to devise the first moulded-plywood chair. Or Verner Panton. We know him as
the designer of the first injection-moulded plastic chair, produced by Vitra in 1968, but hardly anyone speaks about the fact that Mies van der Rohe had experimented with injection-moulding much earlier, in the 1930s. This invention, which is commonplace now, was initially met with doubt and rejection, and took 30 years to see the light of day. Today, design carries a crucial social responsibility: to prepare the planet for future generations through responsible, resourceful and sustainable practices. Certain studies predict that by 2030, the world’s middle-class will have reached five billion people, a massive increase from the current two billion in a world where resources are already scarce. By 2040, other reports claim that the majority of the Amazon will be wiped out, taking with it 19% of the world’s oxygen and 25% of the 3000 plants from which cancer treatments are derived. Innovation is no longer a nice “to do” but a “must do”. 19 greek street represents nine design collections that are sustainable, finely crafted and aesthetically pleasing. While our concept has been very well received, I have been surprised at how resistant some people are towards experimentation and change. I understand that some of the techniques we promote can appear far-fetched – for instance, creating a chair using a bio-mimicry process, by which a seed is planted in a computer-generated 3D environment, replicating nature (Mathias Bengtsson’s Growth Chair). Yet let’s not forget there was a time where methods such as injection-moulding seemed improbable.
ADVANCEMENT
INNOVATION ADOPTION LIFECYCLE: Everett Rogers, 1962
Where do you stand? When faced with a choice between ‘traditional’ and ‘pushing the boundaries’ design, I urge you to re-evaluate your stance in the aforementioned theory of diffusion of innovations. When you opt for the conventional, you are implying design has reached its full potential. Selecting something more avant-garde means you are part of a progressive minority, open to influential alternatives.
INTEGRITY
“Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless… Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. This is especially true in the corporate world, where often benefits are cut, wages remain stagnant, workforces are slashed… “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories, which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting…”
Pope Francis.
Today, the richest 85 people in the world have more wealth than the poorest three billion. By 2030, it’s predicted that five billion people will be living in cities, two billion of whom will be under the poverty line.
£1.8m. Google’s British business paid £6m to the Treasury in 2011 on UK sales of £395m. Corporate tax rates are near a 60-year low, although profits are at a 60-year high.
During the past five years, uprisings and protests around the world have surged, with social media playing a key role. Yet many of our political leaders, even in the UK, still fail to act on poverty and the causes of extreme social inequity.
To claim that individuals cannot bring about change perpetuates a sense of resignation and powerlessness, which feeds this status quo. While it may seem unrealistic to ovehaul all our purchasing habits, we should at least take time to reflect on whom exactly we are supporting, where our money is being spent and, most importantly, what are the alternatives? Who is doing things differently? For instance, the next time you use the internet, look up Ecosia, a search engine that uses 80% of its profits to plant trees. In only one day of using it, you can help plant several dozen trees without making any change to your routine.
A more immediate way to effect change is to look at our own consumer habits and purchasing decisions, because without us, the loyal customer, the businesses that are cutting wages and slashing workforces would not exist. We must acknowledge that every purchase we make (be it an iPhone, a plane ticket or a book) is a vote in favour of the values of that company or retailer. We are often fully aware of the damage being done by big corporations, yet we still support them. The convenience of getting what we want delivered to our door in 24 hours is alluring. We want the best, we want choice, we want it cheap, and we want it fast.
You could choose to buy lunch at Pret A Manger because, apart from the food being organic, they also run a programme that helps include, train, educate and create jobs for disadvantaged people and ex-convicts. Before buying a smartphone, could we not compare the profit margins of the different manufacturers, and have a quick (Ecosia) search of their workers’ conditions? Which airlines offset the carbon footprint of our flights? If the one we want to use does not, there are great organisations, such as Carbon Footprint, which can help the consumer offset their footprint themselves, by supporting reforestation in Brazil.
It has been reported that Starbucks has paid £8.6m in corporation tax in its 15 years of trading in Britain, and nothing in the past three years despite overall sales of £3bn. Amazon, which had book and CD sales in Britain of £3.35bn in 2011, only reported a “tax expense” of
In the design world, there are numerous organisations and studios turning to socially conscious and sustainable ways of working. A look at our gallery’s repertoire affords an insight into what’s possible today, from Nina Tolstrup’s recycled office chairs to Merel Karhof’s seating
We often attribute responsibility for social inequity to the consequences of the free market and actions of big businesses, but what are the potential instruments for change? How can we all restore, or enable, greater social and economic equality?
Karhof’s seating made from materials produced solely by wind power. Design company Moroso has launched the M’Afrique collection, which employed Senegalese craftsmen as part of a charitable development programme. Fashion brand Marni created 100 chairs made by exconvicts in Chile, and all the proceeds went to an orphanage for children whose parents has been imprisoned for political reasons. Closer to home, Out of the Dark is a social enterprise scheme that trains and creates jobs for young Brits, to pull them out of gangs or other difficult situations. We used their chairs in two of our recent projects, Library and Saint Martins Lofts, and the products have been sold at Heal’s. Hopefully, these schemes will soon be the norm rather than the exception. We are currently in the process of launching our own charity, 16, which will educate disadvantaged people of all backgrounds in design and making. Participants will learn to make select products by three of our designers. The long-term goal is for this programme to become a stepping stone to bigger manufacturers. I am not suggesting that all the products we select for our interior projects are sustainably produced. We use a mix to ensure that we don’t make undue compromises, on style and comfort. We are simply extending an invitation to our clients to consider what is available in the sustainable arena. Perhaps more mindful design can help us all shake the world in a gentle way.
“ 19 GREEK STREET PROVE THAT SUSTAINABLE DESIGN DOESNT HAVE TO MEAN A SACRIFICE OF STYLE. ” WALLPAPER* CITY GUIDE LONDON
GOOD TASTE
While upholding our values is our priority, we consider aesthetics as important to us as sustainability and acting with a social conscience. The third of our pillars, good taste, could be considered the pivotal value.
Insisting on good taste makes our work niche, and involves careful curation. Thankfully, more and more designers are working in innovative and sustainable ways, which allows us to present a diverse, and ever-growing collection to our clients.
When people think about sustainable design, they often imagine they’ll have to give up on comfort and looks. But making a piece of furniture that won’t be used because of poor aesthetics defeats the purpose of creating it.
As Telegraph columnist Henrietta Thompson commented, “19 greek street is where you can go when you urgently need to be uplifted by browsing – or perhaps purchasing – some new, bonkers, or genuinely brilliant design”. This is an achievement we would never want to compromise.
While producing the Re-imagined collection, for instance, we evaluated various upholstery materials for the padding and settled on foam, rather than more sustainable horsehair, because of the comfort level. Regarding the fabrics, we rejected many recycled alternatives because they would not have had the desired visual effect. Kvadrat, our final choice, supplies wonderful fabrics and, fortunately, is also committed to reducing the environmental impact of its production, and that of its suppliers. For the show loft in the Saint Martins project, we selected Jaime Hayon’s Beetley sofa from Sé. This was not the most sustainable option but, for a interiors budget nearing £5m, the brief demanded that the chosen furnishing should be both an ultra-stylish and uncompromisingly comfortable centrepiece for the room. To achieve the right balance, our solution was to set up a dialogue between this statement piece and complementary sustainable designs.
INSPIRATION
DON’T LOOK FOR IDEAS. THEY’LL FIND YOU.
Modern-day experts believe that creativity is innate, and that some people are more creative than others. These people are, so the theory goes, responsible for nurturing their talents. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome, it was thought that creativity did not originate in us but in a “divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from a distant and unknowable source, for distant and unknowable reasons”. Socrates, famously, believed that he had a daemon who conveyed wisdom to him from afar. The Romans called that disembodied creative spirit a ‘genius’, a divine entity that lived in the walls of an artist’s studio and emanated from there to assist in shaping the art. Science, in very simple terms, has shown that creativity occurs when the pre-frontal cortex is triggered, usually by a new experience and change. This is why, for the most part, inspiration can arise when we least expect it. The philosopher William James described the creative process as a “seething cauldron of ideas, where everything is fizzling and bobbing about in a state of bewildering activity”. If we believe in an infinite landscape of unexpected and diverse ideas and our ability to bring them to life (conceive), anywhere and at any moment, we can enable brilliant and truly original thinking. Why limit ourselves to furniture fairs, product catalogues and design publications for inspiration, when a “cauldron of ideas” can be accessed during adventurous and emotive experiences – perhaps when trekking through a rainforest in Australia, visiting a Buddhist temple in Thailand, an art installation in Tel Aviv, or letting blurry flashes of colour catch your eye in the middle of a Bangkok tuk-tuk race. More conveniently, a designer may pop into your gallery carrying a briefcase of limited-edition pieces inspired by a hug marking the beginning of democracy in Chile: enter gt2P’s Taruago vases. PS: When thinking about what inspires us, we might have typed up our thoughts while riding a high-speed bullet train through Taipei. In the studio in London, it just wouldn’t have been the same.
WHAT INSPIRES US
INTERIORS
TREAT INTERIOR DESIGN AS IF IT WERE POETRY.
As with poetry, interior design should evoke an emotive response. Furniture and objects should be drawn together artfully, serving as stylistic devices for telling a story. Eclectic and ironic associations of objects, shapes, and colours can be used to create a resonance between otherwise disparate elements. In interiors, we create layers and form connections not previously perceived.
HOW WE WORK
Experience 19 greek street’s design practice evolved from founder Marc Peridis’ previous studio Montage, which he ran for more than eight years. It completed 500 projects across the world, in countries such as Turkey, Brazil, China and the US, for clients including Vivienne Westwood, Marc Jacobs, Unilever and L’Oréal. During this time, Marc’s growing awareness of the importance of sustainable and experimental design led him to launch 19 greek street. Mission We are dedicated to working on projects that allow us to apply our philosophy in a creative context with no compromise on aesthetics. Whether it’s using chairs made by ex-gang members in a £4.6 million loft, or recycled glass bottles from the streets of Soho for a bar that served Cheryl Cole’s wedding party, we believe our biggest success has been to build bridges between the disadvantaged, the socially conscious, the artistic and the affluent.
Working mindfully We pride ourselves on working in a mindful and focused way. We limit the number of projects we take on at any one time, so we can give a range of ideas proper consideration, and present our clients with unique and innovative solutions. Money must serve, not rule In line with our values of sustainability and integrity, we believe that all money entering or exiting our hands should be earned fairly and spent wisely. We don’t, therefore, over-inflate our fees or charge unfair mark-ups, and are careful about what we spend and whom our money supports. We favour an honest and open dialogue about billing, and have been known to share details of our overheads and profit margins with our clients (when asked). We believe this kind of exchange builds productive and long-term working relationships.
“ONE THING IS CERTAIN: IT WON’T BE ORDINARY.” FT WEEKEND
SOME OF OUR INTERIORS WORK
LIBRARY London club .............................................................................05 LIBRARY London hotel.............................................................................07 LIBRARY London roof top bar...................................................................08 Saint-Martins Lofts....................................................................................09 Sketch mayfair- Pop-up.............................................................................. 11 Architecture Re-imagined @ 19 greek street ..........................................13 Design cafe @ 19 greek street ................................................................15 Vivienne Westwood Hong Kong & Shanghai............................................16 Marc Jacobs Cafe Paris ...........................................................................18 Unilever- TIGI headquarters ....................................................................18 Unilever- Toni & Guy style bar ................................................................ 18
LIBRARY O N D O N
This newly created London members’ club for the literary and design communities is 19 greek street’s biggest interior design project to date. The club’s “intelligent design philosophy” is borne out by matching style with sustainability. The space features furniture from social enterprise scheme Out of the Dark, pieces from Moroso’s M’Afrique collection, upcycled designs by JamesPlumb, including a bench made from an old sofa stripped back to its frame, and custom-made work by Sé. The reception desk was made using the top of a reclaimed antique console, placed on a functional black plinth and backed by the console’s original mirror. The legs were used to create table bases. 19 greek street’s designer-in-residence, Dian Simpson, created floor tiles, and bar and table tops using old alcohol bottles. The bar top is underlit to create a striking ice-like effect, and the floor tiles complement the confessionalstyle toilets (yes, we used actual confession screens). The pattern of the tiles was inspired by the stained-glass, also reclaimed from a church, used in the staircase.
The club also has five hotel rooms spread across three floors. 19 greek street was asked to design the first of these, for which we chose African and Middle Eastern themes. Set against a beige and vivid blue backdrop, replicating the colours of the Saharan desert and sky, Tord Boontje’s Shadowy chair, from Moroso’s M’Afrique collection, is the sculptural centrepiece of the room. Alongside this, we selected pieces by Beirut-based designer Karen Chekerdjian, including her Papillon chairs and Derbakeh side tables, as well as Moroccan rugs, sourced from Emily’s House, made from recycled North African fabric. A sleek chandelier by London’s Michael Anastassiades adds a refined element, while Noam Dover’s Tailormade vases celebrate the shape of African women and the vessels they carry on their head.
LIBRARY HOTEL
LIBR A RY ROOF T O P B A R
While the club was readying itself for the launch in 2014, we were asked to turn the top-floor guest room, barely 12 sq m, into a pop-up bar. Our solution was a space-saving concept called ‘Take a Seat’, where the furniture dressed the walls and could be taken down and put back up as needed. Some of our gallery favourites, such as Dirk Vander Kooij’s 3D-printed Endless pieces and Nina Tolstrup’s Re-imagined collection, serve as eye-catching artworks.
S A I N T MARTINS LOFTS
SKETCH
Mayfair’s most characterful restaurant invited 19 greek street to curate a popup experience in the main areas of the venue in 2012. The project, entitled Flung, brought together five installations by four designers. The selected works each depict an awkward restaurant scene in which a catastrophe has disrupted normality. Tilted tables, deformed chairs, mummified seating, and a ‘flung’, upside-down suspended restaurant demonstrate how disaster can, unintentionally, create something of beauty.
a rc h i tecture RE-IMA GINED
What if buildings could wear temporary facades like party dresses? Or a curtain-like structure as in stage design? These could allow pre-existing architecture to be re-designed in a more sustainable fashion, using less material resources. This optimisation, favouring a temporary upgrade over a permanent renovation, is an experimental form of upcycling, a major priority for both Studio Aisslinger and 19 greek street. We collaborated with Aisslinger in 2012 for Architecture Re-imagined, a project in which we gave our townhouse a bold new look, dressing it in a colourful outfit of textiles from Danish company Kvadrat for the duration of London Design Festival. The installation tied in with the launch of Nina Tolstrup’s Re-imagined furniture collection, for which the same fabrics were used.
DESIGN CAFE
The launch of our own café in early 2014 was an opportunity to furnish a space entirely with pieces from our gallery’s collection – “Eloquently demonstrating that eclectic design and functionality can indeed go hand in hand,” said Wallpaper* magazine. Highlights include Richard Hutten’s coffee table, crafted from repurposed hardcover books, and an installation by Analogia’s Andrea Mancuso and Emilia Serra made from suspended fishing wire and black wool that ties the space together. True to 19 greek street’s sustainable aims, we invited neighbourhood popup The Full English to serve locally-sourced, organic British food, with a focus on afternoon tea.
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
One of the world’s most socially conscious fashion super-brands, Vivienne Westwood enlisted 19 greek street to develop an interior design concept for their boutique renovations and new shops in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In the Hong Kong store, pale rose taffeta drapes are a nod to Vivienne’s first shop, Sex, on London’s King’s Road, and its original rubber curtains. A lasercut metal panel is a solid interpretation of the brand’s signature squiggle pattern, which was first used on denim. The oversized frame on the carpet evokes the saloon image is frequently used as a trompe l’oeil backdrop in Westwood shops, while the leopard-print echoes one of Vivienne’s most memorable catwalk shows. Accent walls and ceilings were painted black as an expression of her personal philosophy of staying connected to the cosmos. The oversized stage lights remind us of the brand’s strong theatrical element, putting the customer centre stage in a film-set-like environment and, most importantly, reflecting on what happens behind the scenes.
marc jacobs CAFE PARIS
Long before 19 greek street worked with Marc Jacobs on Re-imagined, a collaboration for Milan’s Salone del Mobile in 2013, Marc Peridis and his interiors team were regular design partners of the brand, working on Marc Jacobs shops across Europe and the Middle East. The two also designed Marc Jacobs second café (after the first one in Milan’s Brera district) on the site of an old Starbucks on Rue des Archives in the Marais in Paris. The pop-up café, which opened in time for S/S 2014 Paris fashion week, quickly became a haunt for fashionistas and design aficionados.
When asked to design new headquarters for TIGI (Unilever’s professional haircare brand), 19 greek street chose a strategy in line with Unilever’s objective to reduce their carbon footprint by 50% in the eight years following the project’s inception in 2012. The interior concept was based mainly on waste materials, such as discarded cardboard delivery boxes, pallets, reused shipping containers, and recycled metals and plastics.
TIGI HQ U N I L E V E R
TONI & GUY style bar
Paris-based design studio NOCC are well known for designing the ingenious LeafBed and Help Me Darwin, two collections made entirely from cardboard. The designs come in the form of a template that can be emailed across the world, and printed out as a furniture kit that can help alleviate housing shortages, particularly in Africa. The project was greeted enthusiastically by organisations such as the United Nations, which purchased more than 1000 beds for distribution in Kenya and Nigeria. 19 greek street invited NOCC to use this process for our client Toni & Guy, who wanted a series of pop-up bars to be rolled out across the world. NOCC’s concept made it easy for Toni & Guy to achieve their objective of bars with a consistent design language that could be easily packed and shipped internationally, and help meet parent company Unilever’s sustainable objectives.
STORIES & EXHIBITIONS
Opening exhibition...................................................................................05 Chair farm ..................................................................................07 Pallet project...............................................................................08 100 chairs .................................................................................. 09 Solar Sinter ................................................................................11 Leaf Bed ....................................................................................13 Help Me darwin .........................................................................15 Newspaperwood........................................................................16 Designing the middle east .....................................................................18 Tel Aviv ..................................................................................... 18 Savannah .................................................................... 18 Saj Table ......................................................................26 Rope bench ................................................................. 29 Beirut ......................................................................................... 30 About Karen Chekerdjian ............................................. 39 Endless series ........................................................................................42 Wonderland ............................................................................................ 43 Art with function design without .......................................,.........47 Analogia ....................................................................................50 Well proven chair ......................................................................52 Forces of Nature .....................................................................................56 U stool ..................................................................................,....59 Wind works ................................................................................. 05 Luffalab ....................................................................................... 07 Sunsill ......................................................................................... 08 Desert Storm ..............................................................................09 Masterpiece............................................................................................. 11 Bust chair ...................................................................................13 Transmission chandelier ............................................................. 15 Design cafe .............................................................................................. 16 Tile dust ....................................................................................... 18 Current table................................................................................. 18
19 greek street’s diehard followers will know that our evolution has been organic. The project was born while we were hunting for a Soho building to house a six-room boutique hotel for one of our clients.
What came next was a series of spontaneous events that shaped what we are today: a forum for experimentation and progress in design.
Several impromptu conversations led us to gather a collection of eclectic and radical pieces for our debut in 2012. Werner Aisslinger’s Chair Farm is a small tree grown inside a metal frame that’s later removed to reveal a natural wooden chair, while Breg Hanssen’s Framed cabinet for Vij5’s is made from NewspaperWood, a process developed by Mieke Meijerold that reverts old newspaper into a wood-like material with the use of bio-resin. We were also drawn to Nina Tolstrup’s Pallet Project, which encompasses a template that can be used by anyone to make a chair out of a discarded pallet. The design has since been licensed to charities around the world to raise money for children living in slums. In the same vein, NOCC’s LeafBed is a digital design file developed for use in catastrophe situations; more than 1000 beds have already been purchased by the UN for use in Kenya and Nigeria.
Re-imagined by Nina Tolstrup was a new and colourful take on upcycling. Nominated for a Design Museum award in 2013, the collection is now retailed in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Brazil, Australia, and Germany. In the years since our launch, 19 greek street has become a portal for the most imaginative design thinking – a space where you can expect to find the unusual and the unorthodox. Today, we represent 35 ambitious designers who share an optimistic approach to the future, and most importantly, have the courage to bring their unconventional ideas to fruition. Here we introduce the most interesting and groundbreaking work that we have supported, enabled and, in many cases, helped to develop. Our nine design collections are all sustainable, exquisitely crafted and aesthetically striking.
Opening exhibitioN
Our opening exhibition showcased works from a range of international design studios all with a socially responsible slant:The Pallet Project by Danish London-based designer Nina Tolstrup is an egalitarian design that constructs furniture from the reclaimed wood of unused pallets. An organisation has now been set-up by Tolstrup in Lugano, Buenos Aires to help the locals emerge from this poverty stricken area through design training and development. Parisian studio Nocc present their HM Darwin furniture range, which can be printed from cardboard through a common template and assembled anywhere in the world to provide emergency furniture relief for homeless survivors of natural disasters. 19 Greek street highlighted the sustainable “pop-up friendly” nature of these cardboard constructions in a completely new context. A few pieces from Marni’s range of 100 brightly coloured woven plastic chairs created by exprisoners in Colombia are featured here as well as the Chair Farm project: the brainchild of Berlin’s Studio Aisslinger demonstrating a harvesting process by which design can be “grown locally” and exported globally. Also harnessing nature in the production process, German designer Markus Kayser uses the abundant and untapped supplies of the sun and sand of the Saharan desert to fabricate glass objects through a solar powered 3D printing device. Montage also uses this space to feature its very first collection of wallpapers and patterns printed on cardboard furniture in collaboration with Nocc. Honouring the values of craft, social responsibility, beauty and design storytelling, 19 Greek Street is a space for design excellence, transcending and including the realm of aesthetics.
100 CHAIRS
80
10
10
20 colours, 7 models and 21 variations for chairs, deckchairs and tables - these are the figures of the Marni project for the 2012 Salone del Mobile (Milan Furniture Fair). Chairs and tables made in limited series and sold exclusively in the Marni Boutique at Via della Spiga 50 during the fifty-first edition of the Milan design week. All products are handmade by Colombian craftsmen using salvaged materials: concrete reinforcing bars for the structure and coloured plastic pipes for the seats and backrests. The colours and colour combinations were chosen by the Marni team, thus adding a personal touch to the project and completing the creative process that was initiated overseas. The chairs are part of the art project “L’arte del Ritratto�: products become subject and setting of the 17 portraits by photographer and filmmaker Francesco Jodice. Today we can identify a new community of pioneers accustomed to regarding the city as a place detached from its own history, which may be altered and arranged to allow for the importation of models and suggestions from different cultures. These recent conditions have increased our capacity to invent places, and they have also sharpened our sensitivity in projecting our will onto our surroundings, giving life to a landscape representing the projection of our own desires. In this scenario new players stage their performance of space and adapt places to images and resemblances of their idea of a city. Through the infinite accumulation of these widespread actions, both small and great, the territory is imprinted with a will, transforming form and meaning into places. Often this catalogue of actions takes on a value that we might define as political, as it manifests a form of space occupation, albeit temporary and prefabricated.
THE PALLET PROJECT
Nina is concerned with sustainability and the idea that excellent design can be made to act in a socially positive way. The Pallet Project takes this philosophy to a newly interactive conclusion. It consists of pieces of furniture designed from reclaimed pallets. These ubiquitous, rough pieces of discarded packaging have been transformed into clean-lined furniture that is designed to be reproduced in a unique manner. The assembly guidelines for the pallet pieces can be ordered online for ÂŁ 10, so the furniture can be created from reclaimed pallets anywhere in the world. This collaborative approach bypasses costly and unsound supply chains. The pleasure of making seems to have been forgotten. We have got used to be able to buy more or less everything so cheap that the idea of making anything out of necessary do not make sense anymore. A chair for less than ÂŁ 10 from Ikea or a toaster from Tesco for ÂŁ5. The incentive for DIY or homemade is not to save money or out of necessarily as in the post war years. Today it is much more about environmental issues, social connectivity and the pleasure of making. I have received images of pallet chairs made from my instructions from all corners of the world.
HELP ME DARWIN
Based on a reflection about the evolution of objects and how can Darwin’s theory be applied emergency furniture kit was born. From the cardboard in the bag you build a folding screen fr then a table and then 2 stools. This way you can easily adapt to empty habitat spaces when natural catastrophes or just when you move-out). The carry-on bag unfolds in order to become to give back the human dimension of a home to people that have lost it.
LEAF BED
The LeafBed developed by NOCC for LEAF Supply is a cardboard bedding solution for emergency situations. It’s modular, recyclableand produced as close as possible to the catastrophe zone. The bed is assembled from 4 identical modules that have a very simple inner-structure and outer-shell configuration. A simple folding operation make in volume a bed, a table, a stool, or a treastle. A small hatch on the top of the module also allows people to store personal belongings and secure them while sleeping. The innovation behind the LeafBed is not only the product itself, but also the logistics behind its production thanks to a close partnership with cardboard manufacturing leader Smurfit-Kappa. The beds are produced in the group’s factory closest to where the emergency takes place. Hence shortening the delays of supplying help to the people in need. Lab tests have proven the ability of each module toresist loads of up to 300 kgs in environments with 75% humidity levels and 30°C temperatures. The double-layered corrugate cardboard is the industry’s standard and can be found all over the world. The first field test in Niger held in December 2010 proved the product to be of great help and fit to respond to humanitarian needs. Born as the evolution of NOCC’s « Help Me Darwin » project, the LeafBed explore the concept of adaptability, the idea that objects evolve in the human environment in a Darwinian way as species do in nature. The object that better adapts to the requirements of a specific environment has the most chances of being successful. LeafBed’s ability to “reproduce” itself quickly and in almost unlimited amounts is also an aspect of successful adaptation. Through the LeafBed, LEAF Supply and NOCC have been awarded Humanitech’s 2010 first prize for innovation in humanitarian emergency situations, as well as the VIA 2010 LABEL award. The Leafbed was also part of the exhibition “A Darwin Project” currated by Natalie Kovacs by the Seine river next to Atelier Van Lieshout’s sculpture for the SHOW OFF of 2010 FIAC art fair in Paris.
NOCC Juan Pablo Naranjo (born 1981) and Jean-Christophe Orthlieb (born 1982) established NOCC in 2008. Their collaboration is a dialogue guided by a shared scientific mind and conceptual vision. NOCC try not to take an object for granted and focus on adding different layers of understanding by playing with archetypal codes in a poetic yet useful way.
SOLAR SINTER
In a world increasingly concerned with questions of energy production and raw material shortages, this project explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material occur in abundance. In this experiment sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process, that combines natural energy and material with high-tech production technology. Solar-sintering aims to raise questions about the future of manufacturing and triggers dreams of the full utilisation of the production potential of the world’s most efficient energy resource - the sun. Whilst not providing definitive answers, this experiment aims to provide a point of departure for fresh thinking.
MARKUS KAISER Born in 1983 near Hannover, German designer Markus Kaiser studied 3D Furniture and Product Design at London Metropolitan University from 2004 until 2008. Between 2009 and 2011, he earned his Masters in Product Design at the Royal College of Art. Kaiser established his eponymous studio in London in 2011. Kayser’s highly experimental work blurs the lines between science, engineering, and art. In response to current concerns regarding energy and material supply, he explores hybrid solutions that link technology and natural energy to consider new, existing, and forgotten processes and manufacturing methodologies.
CHAIR FARM
“Plant yourself a chair ...” Werner Aisslinger presents his plantation chair at the Milan Furniture Fair Once again in April, the most recognized fair of the furniture industry opens its gates for design aficionados from all over the world. At the Milan Furniture Fair, visitors will witness a small sensation at “Instant Stories”, the special exhibition from Berlin at Lambrate: Amidst the platforms showing the latest in furniture design, a greenhouse is staged. Visitors are confronted with a gigantic box that gives the impression as if it has just fallen from heaven. This laboratory-like stage setup promises to be as spectacular as watching a dinosaur hatch from its egg: A chair is born from a steel corset! The only difference to the egg-comparison is the fact that the shell of the “chair farm” prototype is inside the chair’s structure instead of being outside. After the removal of the corset, a unique chair is revealed – truly singular, because nature cannot beprogrammed to deliver a certain result. The chair is no longer produced in the classical sense of the word. Instead, it grows of its own volition in a greenhouse or on a field. When it has reached maturity, the steel corset is opened and removed, revealing a naturally grown chair. The title of the project by this Berlin-based designer, who imagines huge “product plantations” in the future, reflects
this utopian means of production: the “chair farm”.
WERNER AISSLINGER The works of the designer Werner Aisslinger born 1964 cover thespectrum of experimental, artistic approaches, including industrialdesign and architecture. He delights in making use of the latesttechnologies and has helped introduce new materials and techniquesto the world of product design like in his unique gel furniture withthe collection“soft cell“ and the chaise „soft“ for zanotta in 2000. The”Juli chair (cappellini)”was the first item of furniture to use a new type of foam called”polyurethane integral foam” and became the first German chairdesign to be selected as a permanent exhibit at the MoMA in NewYork since 1964. In the process he has created striking designs andreceived awards from all over the world — from Milan’s Compassod’Oro to the Design Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany, the RedDot Award or FXAward in the UK.
designing the MIDDLE EAST
I want a world where we hold each other in connection rather than safety, greed and fear. Designing the Middle East was a two-part exhibition presented by showcasing, for the first time in the UK, the work of two studios from opposing ends of the conflicting Middle-eastern context. From Israel, the work of Tel Aviv designers Noam Dover and Michal Cederbaum, alongside their longterm collaborator, the London based Israeli designer Yoav Reches and from Beirut, the work of Karen Chekerdjian. The exhibition will explore how contemporary design can respond to a reality marked by conflict and division. It will present an exploration of creative processes within a local context: how do the characteristics of a place influence our use of tools and materials, and what visual forms come out of these choices? This perspective demonstrates a unique link between design, craft and production, formulating a distinctive nature of design and fabrication.
MONOCLE RADIO INTERVIEW Monocle: Despite its long history of conflict, the middle east is proving fertile ground for the regions blossoming arts and design scene. Exhibiting for the first time in the uk, Israel’s Noam Dover, Michal cederbaum and long time collaborator Yoav Reches have created a series of crafted objects that explore the complexities of social issues that have divided the region for generations. We dispatched monocle’s Josh fenet to 19 greek street in London’s soho to meet some designers and talk to curator Marc Peridis about how Designing the middle east exhibition is attempting to open the dialog through design. Marc Peridis: im actually of middle-eastern descent so I have always had an interest in the middle east and have visited the middle east quite a bit. Just kind of visiting both parts of the spectrum, the Israel side and then other sides like Lebanon and Egypt, you notice that despite the fact that there is a conflict, there are still a lot of similarities between the two ciultures. And the biggest one you can see is the passion that these people have. They live in a very difficult landscape. They grow up in a very difficult landscape, they grow up very emotional and turbulent environment. Both sides, and that leaves a very strong impression on a person. It was important for me to show that the result of that was the same , at the end of the day, that the passion that exists on both sides of this conflict is the same one. And when it is reflected in design, it actually comes up in similar forms, similar aesthetic, similar thinking , similar process, on both sides of the spectrum, even though they cant communicate with each other really. Somehow, there is a communication happening in design and art. So the aim here was to try to bring them together in the same show where otherwise it wouldn’t be possible. Also not just seeing what is happening in the media, the destruction, the sadness and the death, but also seeing the beauty that emerges through all of this: the beauty that comes from all the passion and loyalty that exists in these environments. You know this is the only part of the world where people are willing to risk their lives for their
Monocle: in your opinion, does good design have the capacity to unite people with very different opinions, different political opinions, and a long history of division. Is there any sense that good design can be a kind of sounding board for dialog. Marc Peridis: Absolutely. Actually that was the point of this exhibit. To show people that , obviously design has a very frivolous and superficial side, this is what we see in the mainstream. But there is a side that is a lot more passionate and emotional and healing. And that is what we are trying to show here. I think there was also a situation where our tel aviv designers , in design Miami, had sold a piece to a person that was from Lebanon or Syria. The piece was actually the first they sold in the exhibition. And it ended up going to Lebanon and Syria. So it had already started to happen, regardless of whether or not that was the original intention. Because, you know, the references are there, they are the same. And the person felt a specific connection to the piece. I think it is a way to connect the two cultures, but I think it is also, a way to express something to people who are not part of this conflict. People in the Uk, people in France, other people in Europe, people who don’t really understand the magnitute of what is happening in these countries, to see first hand, through a design-led expression was is happening in this part of the world. Also not just seeing what is happening in the media, the destruction, the sadness and the death, but also seeing the beauty that emerges through all of this: the beauty that comes from all the passion and loyalty that exists in these environments. You know this is the only part of the world where people are willing to risk their lives for their beliefs. Nowhere else can we see that to such an extent. That’s huge, that is a tremendous amount of courage and passion and love that these people display. That we are showing through design. Noam Dover: I am Noam Dover. This piece was made with director and designer Amit Drori who is not with us here today, he is in Israel. It is a robotc bowl which is kind of absurd I guess. What it does, it has a few sensors and a motor to it and it opens up to a bowl as you get close to it, then if you go away from it it shuts down again, as a kind of slice of a bowl. And it has a specific sound to it,. And when it is full, there is also a sensor on the wheel which senses that is full and makes it stay as a bowl so it doesn’t dance this crazy dance all the time. Of course its useable, but its not really for use for every day life I thin, as a normal bowl. So what is the idea behind it? Its kind of a clash between this hacking , merging hacking culture, and making cultures, that we are dealing with in also a few other works in this space. You can see other robotoc works out there that are not covered in any way. Systems that are added to 3D printing techniques, trying to hack production techniques and try to claim them back in order to do our own technical design. What is the significance with the fact that the mechanism is uncovered? I mean that generally a lot of product design features things which tries to hide the mechanisms.
Why has the decision been to keep it exposed? I guess when you buy a piece the mechanisms are hidden inside because they are uniform with the product, they are one thing. Here all the robotics is kind of hacking an element and growing on it, kind of like an outside growth. It stays out there for you to understand this idea. They are not unified as one object, they are actually two elements living together, influencing each other. Yoav Reches: My name is Yoav Reches. I am a product designer. |I have been working with the other designers for several years. Collaborating on specific pieces which we exhibit together. One piece which is exhibited here is the saj table. Saj is a dome made out of iron that is usually used to cook pita bread. And I would say local middle eastern cultures use it on a daily basis. Here we try to collect these pieces, unify them in a composition. They are united in a way that they become a table top, a very elaborate patterns of circles, which have the capacity to contain any liquid or element that we want it to hold. Can you tell us a bit about how its manufactured? Hwo you go about making it? Since this product we manipulated this saj is bought on the side of the road, we decided of the composition and we very carefully marked the connection between the pieces,. So we lay out the pattern in a 2-dimensional drawing. So we decide which pieces we should cut and they should intersect with the other pieces. So each saj is being cut to fit the other pieces. So you will have a unification or a combination of several of them. We are looking at a combination of 9 pieces. You will see there is also glass which is cast in the bottom of it to represent the similarity to water in onev of the cavities. So its like a small puddle. \interesting to add, the legs are also made from recycled old furniture, which we chop down and re-assemble it. It’s a clash of cultures because the saj is generally associated with Arabic culture, not Israeli. And the structure that supports it, the legs is made out of old recycled Israeli furniture which is no longer relevant from a design perspective. We buy it in flea markets and we assemble it to fit this clash of cultures. We hope it represents a clash of cultures in one piece. That was Yoav reches talking to our correspondant today.
SAJ
T A B L E
Hand crafted steel tables in varied compositions, constructed from spun steel domes called “Saj�, usually used for making thin pita bread. Used Saj plates are found in markets and welded together. The compositions are then hung upside down in the rain to rust naturally. They are then laquered to stop the rusting. The legs of the tables are made from parts from old furniture pieces found in german flea markets. Glass plates representing puddles can be used to make teh table more conventionally functional.
SAVANNA
A Possible Landscape
A new interdisciplinary piece by Amit Drori, based on the stage animation of a hand crafted robot and mechanical animals. An imaginary landscape is being created on stage, it reflects a recognized fauna and yet suggests the image of a mythical garden in which life has just begun. The landscape of “Savanna” is an intensive yet delicate world that brings together two different forces: one can look at it as an image of paradise where life is being created for the first time; on the other hand, it is a scary possibility of an artificial nature, that could only exist in a room, isolated from “real world”, a lost paradise. In this piece, man master nature, creates it, operates it and manipulates it. In return, the landscape and the animals that inhabit it reflect a mirror image of human thought and emotion. The mechanism of the theatre is the environment of this world: the materials and technical elements that are normally hidden back stage take their place on stage and transform themselves into elements of topography and action. In this theatre of images, the story is told in the space between the image and its creation. The robotic animals are handcrafted objects, technological yet constructed as very personal sculptures. The clear line that divides nature and civilization is breaking down here, in the attempt to treat the machine as a sensitive creature. Unlike the industrial world, where machines are made for functional use, the only function of these robots is to reflect human emotions and imagination. These are poetic robots. The animals had to go through a training process, in which we created banks of behavior patterns, actions and expressions. On stage, we recall it to express human thought and emotion: curiosity, loneliness, empathy, grief and intimacy.
Noam Dover + Michal Cederbaum Noam Dover and Michal Cederbaum initiated their joint studio in 2009. Coming from different fields of design and often working with other artists and designers, their creative dialogue strives to be a broad and multidisciplinary one. Together, their work has so far spanned furniture and hand-made objects, scenography, interior design, urban design, graphic design, street art and theoretical writing. They are engaged in questioning the traditional boundaries between design, crafts and production; fusing techniques and materials; addressing the cultural origins and baggage of materials and techniques; and hoping to create objects that reveal the process that brought them into being.
ROPE STOOL
TENSILE FURNITURE Stools and benches that consist of sheet elements held together by rope tension. The rope is guided through a pattern of grooves which cross over the different faces, embracing the elements into a rigid structure. The Rope furniture was developed as an alternative method to assemble flat pack, knockdown furniture, offering a simple, toolless assembly process.
YOAV RECHES Yoav Reches is a London based designer whose work explores conceptual and practical applications of product design, in various disciplines such as furniture, consumer products, tableware, scenography and time-based installations. Yoav is a graduate of the MA Design Products course at the Royal College of Art, London (2010), followed by a residency at the MIT Media Lab as a visiting researcher in the Fluid Interfaces group. He received a BA in Industrial Design from the Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design Jerusalem (2004) and was a member of the performance group Zik since 1995. He also taught at Shenkar College of Design, Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design and the School of Visual Theatre.
ENDLESS SERIES
With his revolutionary process (appropriately dubbed the “endless process”) award-winning visionary designer Dirk Vander Kooij turns the plastic parts of discarded refrigerators into chairs which are magically built up using a process similar to a coiling single long rope according to a 3D drawing. An old 3D printer inspired Dirk’s graduation assignment at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, where he studied between 2005 and 2010. The main drawback those printers had, was that they couldn’t produce large objects like pieces of furniture. Dirk, the very first person ever, did succeed in printing larger objects. Dirk found the state of the art, latest generation printers tedious; on the contrary, it was an old technique that caught his imagination. “This principle has been around for thirty odd years. The older machines were less accurate. That’s why one could carefully examine that process, one could identify how the shape was being formed with a very thin thread that was meticulously moved to and fro, building up the shape very efficiently and without waste. If you accept the low resolution structure and you try not to hide it but rather treasure it, it becomes a beautiful and fair ornament”, explains Dirk. Simple as toothpaste, solid as oak, and now also at an attractive price. The endless process continues in 2013- now hailed as the ultimate in sustainability.
Dirk Vander Kooij At Studio Dirk Vander Kooij developing new techniques for new designs is an ongoing job. Dirk (1983) considers ways of developing a new design just as interesting as the new design itself. It requires constant readjustment of techniques until the form Dirk has in mind appears. Dirk works on the interface of design, craft and production.
WONDER LAND
Wonderland, a new collection of eclectic design pieces from emerging and established designers, celenbrates the space for innovation, experimentation and limitless creativity which exists between the worlds of Art and Design. The aim was to create a playground for courageous free-thinkers who dare to challenge the status-quo of design.� 18 pieces by 12 designers make up this experimental landscape where art borrows function from design and design burrows abstraction (possibly even dysfunction) from art..
art with functiON design withOUT
Art with function - without design is a design concept and method created by danish furniture designer Rasmus Baekkel Fex in 2099. It is a different way to work process oriented. By removing functionally from design, designers are forced to think in a new way. The goal is to reach a new aesthetic in which objects are both art and design.
RASMUS B. FEX 1981 | Denmark Graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art School of Design (KADK) 2012th. Fex works with conceptual furniture design that lies in the borderland between art and design.
WELL PROVEN CHAIR
Understanding that there is 50% to 80% of timber wastage during normal manufacture, we looked at ways of incorporating waste shavings into design using bio-resin. A curious chemical reaction occurs when it is mixed with the shavings, expanding it into a foamed structure. By adding colour dye and varied-sized shavings from different workshop machines, a colourful, lightweight and mouldable material was created, reinforced by the fibres in the hardwood shavings. The porridge-like mixture of resin and shavings are applied to the underside of the chair shell by hand, building up the material wherever extra strength is required. The mixture then foams explosively to create its own exuberant form, anchored by the simple turned legs of American ash. This chair was developed with the support of the American Hardwood Export Council it was one of the first pieces of furniture to be subjected to Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), measuring its total environmental impact across its production and usage
Marjan Van Aubel (b. Netherlands, 1985) is a designer of materials and objects whose practice spans the fields of science and chemistry. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art Design Products (MA) and the Rietveld Academy (BA) Designlab. Her research process blends scientific precision with sensory responsiveness to develop aesthetic solutions for the future. Van Aubel’s objects make tangible the potential of technology and energy-harvesting for the benefit of the living environment. At the heart of her collection is a series of innovative materials, from foam porcelain to integrated solar cells based on the properties of colour. Intuitive and inquisitive, she believes interdisciplinary practice is the way forward for design. Vuorivirta was recently nominated as the Young Designer of the Year 2013 by Design Forum Finland.
FORCES OF NATURE
“The force that moves your fingers is the same force that makes you dream. It’s the force that opens a flower, moves the wind, and creates a tornado. There is only one living being.” Don Miguel Ruiz Presenting a bold vision of sustainable design, Forces of Nature, running from March 13 to April 28, offered some stylish answers to big questions about resource allocation and reusability. From light-reflecting sills to chairs sewn with energy collected from a windmill, these objects exude a lightness and playfulness that belies their potentially serious impact on the environment. “We’re looking at aesthetics, process and clever thinking,” says gallery owner Marc Peridis. “We want to focus on sustainability and experimental thinking, but not sacrifice style.” In many ways, the exhibit offers a picture of what 19 greek street, located in a Victorian townhouse in Soho, wants to become. Peridis, an interior designer, founded the space a year and a half ago to pursue and support more creative projects. His vision now includes a showroom and gallery, with a materials library and materials workshop devoted to sustainability opening soon. In short, it’s about evolving into an incubator and being a point in the chain between makers and retailers that helps shepard sustainable, future-forward designs. “We want to be a platform,” he says. “The next challenge is making these things work, making them things people can use.”
Patrick Sisson Dwell magazine
U STOOL
How is consciousness brought about, and how are relationships formed? In this world there may be countless means. I would first search the answer to that within myself. Then I choose to mould that answer into visible shape with my own hands. Next, how does the consequence affect the external world? Through experimentation in this whole process, I am reinterpreting this from my perspective. Did these works come about from recollections of my past occurrences? Or they may have come from other reasons. Either way, my intention in this work is not only about function or efficiency, but more about the work connecting the individual with the world in a harmonic relationship. As an artist, I wish that, in the space where the viewer and the work exist, a finite moment can be imagined.
Hamajima Takuya Born 1987 in Aichi, Japan, Hamajima Takuya studied at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo where after his degree founded his own studio. His approach is based on experimenting new expressive modes through combining ideas and chemistries and through seeking organic connections. The designer hopes that in the space where the viewer and the work exist, a finite moment can be imagined.
LUFFA LAB
Luffa Lab is an award winning project lead by Brazilian born designer Mauricio Affonso, a recent graduate from the Design Products program at the Royal College of Art. Luffa Lab explores new applications for luffa material. Although usually associated with scrubbing your back in the shower and being constantly mistaken by a sea cucumber, luffa is actually a fast growing tropical vine plant from the same plant family as the cucumbers, pumpkins and courgettes. Working in collaboration with a luffa community in Bonfim, a city in Minas Gerais Brazil, Mauricio learned about the origins of luffa from farming communities, artisans and trading experts. Concerned with the environmental sustainability of materials, and with the lack of connection most designers have with the development of materials, Mauricio has even been growing his own luffa. Little explored beyond its conventional use as a bath sponge, Luffa is a natural smart material. “I was inspired by the astonishing properties of Luffa” he says. “Luffa fibres form a complex network of cellulose that act like an open cell foam material that is both extremely strong and lightweight”. Its vast range of properties also include being highly absorbent and antimicrobial – features that Mauricio discovered make it a viable material for applications such packaging, filters, low cost splints and acoustic insulator. The Luffa splints for example, are made by stretching the luffa fibres when wet and compressing them into a mould. Since little process is involved in creating these devices they can be made at a very low cost, providing an affordable solution for people living in countries with limited or no access to health care. The benefits of Luffa splints is that they can perform better than synthetic splints using expensive materials. The Luffa splints are also strong, light weight, breathable and completely biodegradable. Mauricio also demonstrates how Luffa can be used to soak up toxic dye waste from the denim industry. The resulting coloured luffa can then be moulded to form luffa acoustic wall tiles for home and commercial interiors. “It is not often that a designer will stumble upon a material that can offer so many possibilities”, Mauricio explains, “The goal of Luffa Lab is to combine innovative designs that advance sustainable materials and practices that will entice a positive social and environmental outcome.” Mauricio is now developing the luffa acoustic tiles and also hopes to continue his research into the luffa fibres with the goal of finding a new wide range of applications for this material while helping develop the community economies that are build around luffa. He has been recently nominated for the Design Museum Designs of the Year 2014.
KITE
STOOL
The Natural Grain Kite stool is a supercycled delight that grew from a desire to create a mold using a classic shape (in this case Blakebrough+King’s own classic aluminium Kite Stool) and stuff just about any waste product that you could think of into it, to create a functional piece. In this way it is a work in progress, and we may revisit it down the track. The mold is stuffed with food by-products - ie. the stuff left over from food production - wheat straw and rice straw. But the experiments continue and are a lot of fun with very rewarding results... We particularly like the way the raw material is trapped in the resin and its roughness contrasts with the clean geometric form.
WIND WORKS
Windworks is a collection of upholstered furniture pieces, of which the wood, upholstery, dyeing and knitting of the yarn are all made with a free and inexhaustible energy source; the wind. Ever since I made my first knitting factory I had the wish to use the harvest of the factory to upholster chairs and stools. And what better place to do this than in the world famous windmill area, the Zaanse Schans in The Netherlands. To create a collection of furniture, I initiated a collaboration between three millers: a saw miller, a colour miller and a knitting miller (myself). The Zaanse Schans is an area located on the river ‘Zaan’ in the province of Noord Holland and is home to a collection of wellpreserved historic windmills. Each one of these produces a different kind of raw material. There is a colour mill called ‘De Kat’ (the Cat), which has been fitted out to grind colouring materials, as well as a sawmill ca led ‘Het Jonge Schaap’ (the Young Sheep), that saws planks from trees to old Dutch measurements. For the occasion of this collaboration, Karhof designed a series of furniture pieces. The wood is sawn by the wind and assembled at the sawmill; from there it is transported by water to the pigment mill. Here yarn is dyed with natural dyes, grounded by the colour mill. After the dyeing process, the ‘Wind Knitting Factory’ knits the yarns, and with each harvest, the wood structures are upholstered. Finally, the upholstery is constructed from little pillows, each representing the amount of time needed by the wind to make it.
DESERT STORM
Made of desert sand and iron with LED lighting. The use of sand as the main material plays on the tension between its wild nature and the delicacy of the molded end design. The shape of the sand-molded lamp shades brings to mind primitive desert structures, while the fixtures overall figure resembles that of plants that blossom in the Mediterranean seashore.
SUN I L L
The human body has evolved over millions of years to be in tune with the light that comes from the sun. Too little sunlight can be as much of a problem as too much. Sunlight improves our mood and health by triggering the production of essential hormones that are critical for our body’s equilibrium. Over the last 200 years, due to urbanisation and our change in lifestyle we now spend a higher percentage of time indoors – often subjected to a greater amount of artificial light than natural light. What if you could move your window throughout the day and harness more natural sunlight, becoming happier and healthier as a result? Sun Sill is a device mounted under a window to automatically track and redirect sunlight indoors, which can then be reflected to wherever it is needed. This stolen sunlight maximises the health benefits of natural light and reveals the changing beauty of the sun’s light quality throughout the day whilst also reducing the reliance on electric lights that unbalance our natural bodily rhythms.
MASTER PIECE
Masterpiece, our most visionary collection yet, gathers 8 highly-experimental pieces from designers who share an optimistic outlook on what lies ahead for design and sustainability. Each piece is unique, a one-off, limited edition, and was selected for its degree of complexity, its innovative process and its meditative nature. “And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven And, there, plucked a strange and beautiful flower. And what if, when you awoke, you had that flower in you hand. Ah, what then?” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge
B U S T CHAIR
Studio Libertiny’s designs are a result of curiosity and investigation of nature, technology and science. Tomas innovates and experiments with new technologies and crafts and translate them into functional objects, poetic statements or future concepts. In collaboration with a talented group of individuals the studio realises projects where power of context and innovative approach in materials and building technologies is crucial.
TOMÁŠ LIBERTÍNY Born in 1979, Libertíny studied at the Technical University Košice in Slovakia focusing on engineering and design. In 2001, he was awarded George Soros’s Open Society Institute Scholarship to study at The University of Washington in Seattle, where he explored painting and sculpture. He continued his study at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava in painting and conceptual design.After receiving the prestigious Huygens Scholarship, he enrolled in the Masters program at the Design Academy Eindhoven where he received his MFA in 2006. He founded his studio in 2007 in Rotterdam. There he is focused on exploring conceptual and physical strategies in design and construction of objects.
TRANSMISSION CHANDELIER
Originally designed to represent Kavalier’s know-how and technical possibilities, especially glass welded connections. Transmission is made of prefabricated glass flasks originally used in chemical apparatus Spheres are now cut and welded in to a new composition. Transmission offers unpredictable and surprising lumino kinetic effects from any angle of view. Is the younger brother of Transmission Light sculpture. Hanging this extraordinary light object from a ceiling creates a new perspective. The excellent quality of borosilicate glass Simax which is usually used for technical and laboratory products gives special features to the chandelier.
Studio deFORM Studio deFORM was founded by Jakub Pollรกg and Vรกclav Mlynรกล in 2011, during their studies at Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Studio deFORM focuses on product design, furniture design, interior design, exhibition design and creative advertisement. Enjoying every challenge, they are willing to broaden their horizons with new interesting approaches they have never tried before. They seek to balance their work between commercial and independent creative projects. Main goal is always the same: To give the additional value to their products.
DESIGN CAFE
In June 2014, 19 Greek Street’s experimented with the launch of its newly launched on-site café on the 1st floor of the gallery. Aside from offering delicious teas and cakes, the café was also home to some of the best pieces from the gallery’s collections. Highlights include Marjan Van Aubel’s Current Table, a desk or workstation that also functions as a source of energy to charge your iPhone or iPad; Liane Rossler’s Superblown, small vases blown directly from used bottles of alcohol; and Andrew Simpson’s Junk Press, bowls fashioned from discarded post.
CURRENT TABLE
Current table is a piece of furniture that also functions as a source of energy. It gathers and harvest energy from daylight to charge your appliances, all within one room. While you read a book or write emails, you can use your table to charge your appliances. The glass table surface contains a Dye Sensitised Solar Cell. Based on photosynthesis it uses the properties of colour to create an electrical current. Unlike classic solar cells, these coloured cells don’t need direct sunlight and are able to function under diffused light. This makes Current Table the first piece of furniture that is harvesting energy indoors where utility and aesthetics are combined in everyday objects.
Marjan Van Aubel (b. Netherlands, 1985) is a designer of materials and objects whose practice spans the fields of science and chemistry. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art Design Products (MA) and the Rietveld Academy (BA) Designlab. Her research process blends scientific precision with sensory responsiveness to develop aesthetic solutions for the future. Van Aubel’s objects make tangible the potential of technology and energy-harvesting for the benefit of the living environment. At the heart of her collection is a series of innovative materials, from foam porcelain to integrated solar cells based on the properties of colour. Intuitive and inquisitive, she believes interdisciplinary practice is the way forward for design. Vuorivirta was recently nominated as the Young Designer of the Year 2013 by Design Forum Finland.
TILE
D U S T
‘Tile Dust’ is a collection of screen-printed geometric wooden shapes that sit in a base of bio resin, which all got their colour using ground recycled roof tiles. Continuously fascinated by windmills, Studio Merel Karhof made a new design using this time the harvest of historic colour mill ‘De Kat’ in the Netherlands.This windmill has been fitted out to grind materials into dust. One of the Windmill specialties is recycling discarded Dutch roof tiles into powder, which then can be used as pigment. In ‘Tile Dust’ Merel made water based paint from the ground roof tiles, which she screen-printed onto plywood. For the pattern she took inspiration from her two-month residency in China, she got fascinated by the daily view from her 8 floor high apartment. Every morning she made a picture of the sky and noticed that there is almost never a clear sky in Nanjing. This is because particulate matter, better known as dust, was blocking the view. On regular walks trough the city she noticed dust patterns being formed by the particles swirling back to the earth. ‘Tile Dust’ consists of 3 objects a mirror, a fruit bowl and a magazine rack. The dust pattern is printed on plywood using the recycled roof tile paint. Each object has a base made of terracotta powder mixed with bio resin, which perfectly fit into each other.
MEREL KARHOF Merel Karhof, born in the Netherlands (1978), lives and works in London. Already at a young age she travelled through Europe and lived regularly for longer periods in different European countries. Travelling has given her the opportunity to sharpen her curiosity, as well as discover local manufacturers, and it continues to inspire her to make products in a dialogue with her surroundings. With her designs, she reveals the unnoticed and creates awareness of obvious things such as the daily variable colour of the water in Venice, or the urban wind, which she uses as an energy source to knit scarves.
“FIVE FLOORS OF CUTTINGEDGE FURNITURE WITH AN IMPRESSIVELY EXPERIMENTAL ATTITUDE AND COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY.” Louis Vuitton City Guide, London
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