Interview | Albi Serfaty | Aqua Creations

Industrial Influence

Designers at Holloway Li create an Industrial Revolution-inspired multi-use retail showroom and co-working space for furniture and lighting brands in London, UK.

Images: Nicholas Worley

Holloway Li, a London-based design studio, recently completed an experience-led showroom and co-working space in Clerkenwell inspired by the lost forms of the Industrial Revolution for bathroom brand Coalbrook. Coalbrook takes its name from the town of Coalbrookdale in the Midlands, the site of the world’s first iron bridge and cradle of the Industrial Revolution. Taking inspiration from this, Holloway Li’s design evokes industrial forms and materiality: the chimneys that towered over the skylines of cities, the searing heat of the furnaces and engine rooms, and rough chiselled quarries. Blurring the boundary between historicism, decoration and digital process, Holloway Li worked closely with a network of master craftspeople to subvert the materiality of these industrial backdrops, eschewing traditional expectations of a showroom to form a surreal internal landscape. Researching the history of industrial forms and processes that form Coalbrook’s identity, the studio produced a unique way to engage with the brand’s narrative. The ground floor is designed to

appear like a landscape of industrial chimneys, with ghostly casts of Victorian bathroom wall panels in piercing orange and amber resin. The basement is a dark, watery space with the atmosphere of a subterranean engine room, occupied by two oversized industrial boilers and wall panels moulded from cast iron. Other collaborators-in-residence exhibiting at the space include Danish furniture supplier Menu, lighting manufacturer Phos and The Stonemasonry Company, as well as housing Holloway Li’s own studio. Speaking of their involvement in the project, Co-Founder Alex Holloway tells darc: “We were approached by Davroc, the parent company of Coalbrook, to design a space to consolidate their various brands in a London-based space. The client wanted to communicate their history in British manufacturing in the Midlands, where they still own and run two factories. “The space was also an opportunity to tell Coalbrook’s story as a brand spatially. “The design process lasted around four months, and construction took another four months.” Telling darc about some of the challenges the studio faced when turning Coalbrook’s brief into a workable project, Co-Founder Na Li adds: “The design was ambitious given the budget, required a number of specialist fabricators and the timeframe was very compressed. To deliver this, the project was procured through an unusual route. The main construction contract was restricted to structural, electrical, plumbing, and decorative works,” she explains. “The remainder of the work was taken out of the main contract and tendered to specialist fabricators and suppliers, who we established relationships with early on before the main construction contract began. The metalwork display items, resin display panels, cast iron display panels, stone staircase, lighting, controls, mechanical work, and furniture were all taken outside of the main contract. Due to the nature of the project and its involvement of multiple collaborators in the shared spaces, it could be assumed that the brief would be difficult to stick by. However, Project Architect Praveen Paranagamage reflects that “unusually, the brief remained relatively fixed from the beginning”. “This allowed us to evolve each of the specialist elements with fabricators, and maintain the integrity of the initial concept," Paranagamage continues. “As mentioned, the project was born out of multiple collaborations, of which each entered into the project at various stages. The brief had to be tailored to suit the desires and capabilities of each as they entered the project.” Looking at the lighting used throughout, Holloway explains how each space had a “particular atmospheric quality and material palette”, and as such, the decorative lighting was chosen in accordance to suit. “For instance, the co-working spaces have a more domestic feel, and

the basement lighting feels more industrial with raw cast and rolled metals,” he says. “As the decorative lighting is more visible as objects, we also considered how to draw the eye to particular elements as customers move around the space.” Li adds: “The decorative lighting is by Menu Space, which entered the project as another collaborator-in-residence. In addition to the primary function as a showroom for Coalbrook, the space acts as a showcase for Menu’s furniture and lighting. “The co-working spaces each have a visual identity, which ties back to the overall concept. While the gallery spaces have a raw industrial feel, the co-working areas feel softer and more domestic, in Robert-Adam style blue and pink. The decorative lighting in the co-working spaces were therefore chosen from Menu’s domestic range and are not specifically suited as workspace lighting.” Balancing the decorative lighting elements from Menu, the team integrated pieces from Phos for the architectural requirements. Holloway explains further: “The architectural lighting by Phos creates the general atmosphere in the spaces and are also used to light specific design features. They provide more ambient lighting and are not designed to be specifically looked at. “The decorative lighting by Menu on the other hand is used to draw the eye to the lights themselves.” Lighting played a key role throughout the showroom to help define the various spaces and form the ambience in each. “We wanted to create a marked shift between the lighter upper galleries and co-working areas, and the moodier, darker ambience of the basement meeting rooms and boiler room,” says Paranagamage. “The architectural light fittings by Phos were custom-coloured to suit each space. They also light up the display panels in specific ways. For example, in the basement, a hidden, amber-coloured LED strip washes the pavement walls with an orange glow, reminiscent of industrial furnaces. “We did not work with a lighting designer specifically. However, we worked closely with the Phos team to specify appropriate lighting fittings to achieve the atmosphere we wanted to create, but also to allow Phos to exhibit a range of different types of light fittings. “[At Holloway Li] we often specify both the architectural and decorative lighting on projects, but where project budget allows, we see the benefit to working with a lighting designer. On a project such as The Market Building, where creating a particular atmosphere, as well as lighting the display items in a very specific way was key, our collaboration with Phos was crucial to the success of the lighting design.” Commenting on how the project differed to their portfolio of designs, Holloway adds: “The project was set up in an unusual way, with

a number of ‘collaborators’, who each effectively had a stake in the final space, and numerous specialist display items, which sat out of the main contractor’s scope. This required an additional layer of coordination from us as lead designers, but also gave us the opportunity to develop these specialist items more directly with fabricators. It was satisfying to become involved during the construction stages to this extent. “We particularly enjoyed working on the cast resin panels, which we 3D modelled digitally and were fabricated by a company which makes moulded interiors for London buses. The lighting underneath the resin panels allows them to glow in an almost otherworldly way.” Upon reflection on the project, the team are really pleased with the overall scheme. “The final design was very close to our initial concept. It has been well received by the Coalbrook’s clients and has instigated a series of collaborations between the various companies that were involved. We hadn’t envisaged that it would create a community in this way, and that has been nice to see,” says Paranagamage. The only thing the team would have approached differently is the natural lighting of their own office: “Our design studio now occupies one of the rooms in the basement area, and we wish we had allowed for a little more natural light into this room!” concludes Paranagamage. hollowayli.com Design Details

Coalbrook's, London, UK Interior Design: Holloway Li Lighting Specified: Menu Lighting, Phos

Taking inspiration from the Industrial Revolution and Coalbrook's rich coal history, the new showroom and coworking space in Clerkenwell presents various brands' pieces in a well-thought out design journey from the ground floor down to the basement. Lighting played a key role in creating atmospheric feelings for visitors, taking them on a theatricallydesigned tour of the showrooms, evoking colours and experiences of coal furnaces. Decorative lighting from Menu fills the co-working spaces as well, which in turn act as physical displays of their products.

This January, Israel-based Aqua Creations reached its 30th anniversary. Looking back at some of its iconic designs, darc Editor Sarah Cullen sits down with Founder and Creative Director Albi Serfaty to reflect on their third decade of lighting creation.

Born in Jerusalem, Serfaty grew up in a “handy family”, with one brother a watch maker and another a painter. As the youngest, he was keen to assist with the various building projects, which acted as his “formal” education. By the age of 13, he received a dark room and camera as a present from his brothers and became a self-taught photographer. Serfaty describes his hands-on childhood as one that was “all about problem solving in an aesthetic way”. He continues: “I love the need for the new, but also admire the old. My favourite object is over 200,000 years old; a working tool from the Stone Age, and it is perfectly handmade. Often, I think about the prehistoric person as a designer by need. I never decided to become a designer, I just became one, and I am also a designer by need.” Taking photography into career, Serfaty became a Still Life pro in the advertising world. But eventually his creative disposition found other avenues to explore. “It became boring for me to take photos of tea bags and such. All I wanted was to work and look at cool things. I opened a creative studio named Communication Factory, which was a group of photographers, copywriters, and graphic designers, offering creative services for advertising companies. After a few successful months we merged with an advertising agency, and one year later as creative director I understood three things: The advertising world is not for me. My passion for photography doesn’t get satisfied here, and it is going to be a long race with lots of mistakes and it’s better to have my own company. “With this in mind, Aqua Creations came to life straight from the coral reefs of north Sinai (Egypt) and up until today I have the opportunity to make wonderful objects and to take their photos.” The coral reefs mentioned are located in the Red Sea, which Serfaty discovered while on a snorkelling trip. The “underwater life, organic

shapes and natural forms” are what inspired his first collection’s design. “It is incredibly beautiful, and the ever-changing nature never fails to inspire. 30 years ago, there was very little organic and sculptural design around, and we felt we had something special on our hands.” The Aqua Creations studio resembles Serfaty’s childhood experience and is led with a strong family ethos, comprised of members of his family and close friends. “We are a family,” he states. “Some have been with Aqua from the beginning. We are a part of each other’s daily lives and major life events such as weddings, and we see each other’s children grow up.” It was at Milan Design Week 1997 that Aqua Creations was first shown to the design world and general public, rubbing shoulders with the likes of “Ingo Maurer with his endless creativity, Ron Arad with his poetic metals, Droog Design with their ideas - design was also around,” reflects Serfaty. Displayed at the InterNos gallery, Aqua’s products stood out among very minimalist “white on white” products, as described by Serfaty. “We were with the wrong products at the wrong time, but in the right city. Milan loved us and we were gracefully welcomed. To this day I still feel an appreciation for this city and its elegant and free-minded people.” Further to their time at Milan Design Week, he adds: “When we first presented our works, the public and art scene loved our designs as much as we did ourselves. The sculptural, organic, and emotional design is what’s still at the core of Aqua Creations’ DNA today. “There was a crazy amount of creativity in one place. Also, the Italian companies like Cappellini, Flos, and Luceplan were exploding from creativity. We all felt part of a new design movement. Our contribution in this new world was the use of organic forms, soft materials, and