creative spaces :: foldability - confessions of a design geek

This article was published 12 years

I’ve been wanting to visit the East London studio of folding fanatic Kyla McCallum for absolutely ages, so I was delighted when I finally managed to squeeze a trip into my schedule last week. Kyla’s design studio Foldability is based in the Limehouse Art Foundation, a warehouse style building that was once home to Poplar Technical College – the ceiling height and huge windows alone make it perfect for the artists’ and designers’ studios it houses. Kyla’s space also has a cunning little mezzanine level, providing a great space for storage, keeping her workspace clear.

Foldability is a design studio specialising in meticulously folded paper and fabric lighting, products, and site-specific installations. Kyla’s glass table, sourced on eBay for 99p, is the perfect centrepiece for her studio – its surface is easy to keep clean and makes paper and fabric easy and quick to move, so Kyle can fold quickly – her installation for the Lighthouse in Glasgow had 4,931 modules! Her newest collection, Equi, is a range of lighting designs and textiles that are made using folded metallic fabrics, combining the newest materials with some of the oldest production techniques learnt from one of only four pleating factories left in the UK, which has been creating intricate folds for the fashion industry for over 50 years. Kyla says she likes her space because it’s peaceful, and despite the fact it’s based on an industrial estate in East London, she’s right – it is quiet, the high ceilings make it feel bigger than it is, and it’s flooded with natural light. The perfect space in which to create.

Further reading for the especially geeky:

Further eye candy for the especially visual:

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