The 2014 London Design Festival is upon us! I thought I’d ease you in gently with a few things I spotted at Friday’s previews. First up, Lars Beller Fjetland‘s Cloche lamp for Wrong for Hay. Its heavy sand-cast iron base counterbalances the light spun aluminium shade, with a copper finish, to make it seem to defy gravity. The original prototype previewed at 100{ff546b69e23b1524d799f96c6ba7a638e1f677053b0a2a1568b05315fd5f8fc7} Norway last year.
I also really liked The Bottle, a simple understated design by the in-house team at Wrong for Hay.
Defying gravity on another scale entirely was Double Space designed by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby for BMW to create a new way to experience the V&A’s Raphael Gallery. “We generally design objects that have a shape, that are to do with how you hold them, or how you use them, so this was a real a departure for us, because we wanted to create an experience, something which is constantly changing which changes the way you perceive the space” said Jay. Two huge polished aluminium structures are suspended from the ceiling and slowly rotate creating a changing view of Raphael’s Cartoons. Each one measures 15 metres by nine metres and weighs just 15 kilograms per square metre.
Ama 2014 was Michael Anastassiades’s lighting installation for Flos, made from mouth-blown glass and brass, and inspired by the pearl diving ‘mermaids’ of Japan, women who have dived for seaweed, turban shells and abalone in the sea surrounding the archipelago for thousands of years.
I am particularly excited about the Wishlist project which paired new designers with established names and let them loose in Benchmark’s workshop with a load of American hardwood. The project started when Terence Conran asked Alison Brooks, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Allen Jones, Amanda Levete, John Pawson, Alex de Rijke, Richard and Ab Rogers and Paul Smith what they had always wanted but never been able to find. Their answers became the brief for the rising stars.
Above is a section of fruit bowl / serving platter Win Assakul designed for Amanda Levete’s 4.8 metre long dining table. Amanda describes Win as “quite exceptional as a designers, thinker and communicator,” saying, “It is rare to find these qualities in one so young.” In fact she was so impressed she offered him a job, which he accepted.
Below is Paul’s Shed. Sir Paul Smith’s brief to Natalie de Leval was simple: “My shed”. The result is quietly spectacular. Based on the proportions of Paul Smith’s first shop in Nottingham, it has one side entirely made of glass and rotates through 360 degrees. “It’s incredibly low tech, which I like,” Natalie said. “It’s a flat pack. But it was a lot of work!”
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- out and about :: guide to the london design festival 2014
- out and about :: radical geometry
- out and about :: usf bergen
- out and about :: temple of agape
