studio-am just finished this interior alteration at a townhouse in Melody Lane in Highbury, London, with Ham Builders.
The wall you are looking at used to be a mezzanine with a plasterboard balustrade at the edge, open to the ground floor and the triple height void at the centre of the house. The client wished to extend the mezzanine and infill the balustrade wall, mainly for acoustic reasons.
Instead of closing off the room, we decided to keep a visual link with the ground floor by providing a frameless glass window and a framed sliding glass door. The sliding glass door allows for privacy if closed and for verbal communication with the ground floor if opened. The proportions of the timber frame match those of the existing slot window to the corridor and attempt to form a coherent design matching the new with the old. Quite extensive structural work – seen the small size of the job - had to be done with the help of Fluid Structure Engineers to extend the mezzanine.
Thanks Niamh & Richard for the nice commission, Rachel (Fluid) for the calcs and Clinton Ham (Ham Builders) for the fab detailing!
Richard Shed Studio recently finished a commissioned project for the Shoreditch Trust in East London. They designed and fabricated chairs, armchairs, tables and cabinets for their Eco-Conference facility.
Shed & Co put the final touches on the furniture in the office that they share with some Belgian friends of mine and turned the place into a fabulous ‘tafel-land’ with about 60 chairs and tables.
Richard Shed: ”The design of the collection references both traditional wood working methods and modern detailing achieved by calculated digital manufacturing. The chairs are milled from solid ash. The back rests are rolled metal parts clad in a thick, warm natural felt. All metal details, fixtures and fittings are powder coated in a striking sulphur yellow. The entire commission was produced in our East London workshops and where possible we worked with local suppliers and manufacturers, using natural materials from sustainable sources.”
Photo Credit: Richard Shed Studio
Nice weekend read: link to the Sightunseen blog which has a post on the witty Greek design trio Greece is for lovers. Their work is based on Greek cliches. The skateboard below put a smile on my post-Friday-night-hangover face!
Sightunseen: ‘The idea behind their products is to reflect an outsider’s naive perspective on Greece, perpetuated by tourism campaigns like “Greece Is For Lovers” in the ’70s and “Build Your Myth” in recent years.’
Work by Greece is for Lovers: Athens antennae & Gladiator skateboard for Greek Skateboard company Propaganda.
Title: Tom Foulsham – The table that can tell stories and other contraptions
Location: 123 Pancras Road London NW1 1UN
Link out: Click here
Date: 13th November – 5th December 2009 : Visit the show and talk to the artist : Thursdays + Fridays 1pm-7pm Saturdays 10am-6.30pm weekly.
RSVP essential – see link out
Info by gallery: An intriguing insight into the workings of mechanisms, everyday science and the interaction and play between machine and spectator.
A first UK solo show of Tom Foulsham’s machines and an insight into his process.
Tom Foulsham born in 1981 studied Architecture at the Bartlett and was an architectural assistant at Arad Associates.
He went on to study Design Products MA at the Royal College of Art, graduating this summer 2009, under the tutorledge of Ron Arad.
He exhibited his ‘ Balancing Shelves’ at Pecha Kucha ICA in 2007.
He showed his ‘ Candle Balance’ as part of the V&A group exhibition ‘In Praise of Shadows’ in September 2009
The PechaKucha circus halted in London last Monday and brought a varied – to say the least – bunch of speakers to the stage. Great concept, speakers get to show 20 slides at a speed of 20 seconds per slide. Mix this with a friendly atmosphere and cold beer and you have a pleasant night out!
Moritz Waldemeyer’s presentation is online now and worth checking out. His work is a fusion of technology, art, fashion and design. He talked us through projects for clients ranging from the Flos/Starck/Baccarat/Jenny Holzer combo to Wallpaper and U2. He also worked with A listers Ron Arad and Zaha Hadid and worked on those great mechanical dresses for Hussein Chalayan in 2006. Find out more on his website.
Scoop! This is “Home Disco” a brand new project that will be featured in the next Wallpaper Magazine.
Flos/Starck/Baccarat/Jenny Holzer collaboration and Stage Jacket for Mr. Bono.
PechaKucha in the words of founder Mark Dytham (of Klein-Dytham Architects):
PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.
‘Installations by architects, experiments in building and design’ seems a book worth adding to the shelf – and worth reading for that matter!
I picked it up from a book review on the great we-make-money-not-art blog, which has in-depth info and great illustrations from the book.
We-make-money-not-art is the brainchild of Belgian Régine Debatty. She writes about the intersection between art, design and technology on the blog as well as in several European design and art magazines. She also curates art shows and speaks at conferences and festivals about the way artists, hackers and interaction designers (mis)use technology. Worth bookmarking!
Book Cover: ‘Installations by Architects: Experiments in Building and Design’, by Sarah Bonnemaison and Ronit Eisenbach. Available via Amazon USA and UK.
‘Walking in the Park’ Project: Asher DeGroot, David Gallaugher, Kevin James, and Jacob Jebailey. Photo credit: Andre Forget.
Last week, we visited the New Professionals Conference in London with our course. One of the presented papers was about iconoclasm. Helen E . Scott elaborated on all kinds of levels of iconoclasm, but she clearly forgot the ‘do-it-to-yourself’ category, as illustrated in ‘Vitrine’ by Niek Audenaerd (NL) below. Visit Niek’s website for more of his intriguing designs based on life and death, read sex and suicide.
