Hasta La Ideas

Hackney design studio Very Good & Proper used glossy tiles salvaged from the London Underground in the Covent Garden branch of restaurant chain Canteen (+ slideshow).

The studio have combined contemporary furniture with vintage details to create an interior that complements Canteen’s British menu.

Diners can choose to sit at an oak table or in a retro dining booth.

The bar area has a zinc counter top and reclaimed Victorian mosaic tiles cover the floor.

Very Good & Proper designed the bar stools and the brass wall hooks, as well as the brass and oak Canteen Utility Chair, which can be found in all Canteen restaurants. Dezeen featured the chair when it launched at London Design Festival in 2009.

The restaurant is located on the ground floor of the Lyceum Theatre near Covent Garden.

Photography is by Ed Reeve.

See all our stories about restaurants »

Here’s some more information from the designers:

Canteen is celebrated not only for its all day menu but also for its progressive approach to design. The restaurant group designs and produces its own furniture, through British design studio Very Good & Proper. The ‘Canteen Utility Chair’ is hugely popular, and is found in each Canteen restaurant, its design and style now instantly recognisable. However, the chair is not solely for Canteen or just restaurant use, it can now also be found in sought-after locations around the world – MoMA Sweden, BBC and Channel 4 creative meeting spaces, and the new Facebook headquarters in San Francisco. The chair is sold through leading international design retailers. The Canteen Utility Chair has been redefined for Canteen Covent Garden with brushed brass metalwork.

With the original façade of the building dating from the 1830s, Canteen’s contemporary design is juxtaposed with the ornate molding around the tall windows and front doors. The bar area is sleek and inviting with its zinc bar top, Very Good & Proper designed bar stools and chairs and reclaimed Victorian mosaic floor tiles.

A slope leads down to the large oak herringbone-floored dining room with booth seating lined against a tiled wall (original tiles used by London Underground); the ‘Covent Garden Chair’ in various colours sits at the round tables, while the brushed brass Canteen Utility Chair lines the long tables beneath the windows.

Canteen Covent Garden is designed by VG&P, currently exhibiting at Clerkenwell Design Week and nominated for Design Museum Design of the Year 2012.
Canteen Hook and Knob – Limited edition brass knob and fire engine red hook
Canteen Utility Chair – limited edition brass frame with oak seat
Covent Garden Club Chair – designed and named specifically for this restaurant
Croquet shelving (new product, available to order soon)

The post Canteen Covent Garden
by Very Good & Proper appeared first on Dezeen.

Illuminated installations inspired by the structures of microorganisms were created for the BUGA festival in Germany by Stoke Newington design studio Loop.pH.

Visitors could walk underneath the large, intricate structures that were made by weaving strong composite glass fibres.

Ground-level LED lights make the fibres appear to glow.

The festival took place in Koblenz, Germany, in May this year under the curatorial theme of Art Forms in Nature.

We have previously featured an illuminated canopy installed in the entrance to London’s Kensington Palace by Loop.pH as part of our Designed in Hackney showcase of creative talent in our local area.

See all our Designed in Hackney stories here »

LICHTSTROEME 2012

LICHTSTROEME returned to Koblenz, Germany after a successful first edition in 2011 during the Federal Horticultural Show (“BUGA”).

The curatorial theme was “Art Forms in Nature” and the curators Bettina Pelz and Tom Groll invited artists who work at the interface between nature and arts in their works. 10 large-scale installations were built from the Electoral Palace along the Rhine banks to the Kaiser Wilhelm I Statue to the Fortress Ehrenbreitstein. All of the sculptures, projections and interventions made use of artificial light as one of their materials, so that they could be seen after dusk.

Design studio Loop.pH used their Archilace technique on a new site-specific installation for LICHTSTROEME 2012 in Koblenz, Germany inspired by the work of Ernst Haeckel, one of the first transdisciplinary thinkers who bridged the gap between art and the sciences.

Micro structures observed in the natural world were blown up to architectural proportions to create an ephemeral and luminous outdoor installation that visitors could walk through and experience on a human scale. The built structures are based on Radiolaria – the intricate skeletons of mineral deposits left behind by ocean microorganisms. Radiolaria was first illustrated and depicted by Haeckel in the work ‘Kunstformen der Natur’ between 1899 and 1904.

Archilace

Archilace is lace-making on an architectural scale with strong composite fibres and is a method to craft space and reflect on the materiality and fabrication processes within the architectural practice. Archilace combines a parametric design process with a hands-on crafting technique. Weaving composite textile structures allows for virtually any imaginable surface to be created from a small number of parts. Recently discovered structures that were previously unbuildable can be fabricated by hand using a textile, curvilinear approach – breaking the rectilinear geometry of our built environment with a non-Euclidean geometry made from curved structural elements tangentially joined.

Loop.pH is a London based art and design studio intervening at an urban scale to re-imagine life in the city.

The studio was founded in 2003 by Mathias Gmachl and Rachel Wingfield, to form a new creative practice that reaches beyond specialist boundaries, mediating between digital & biological media and facilitating participatory environments and urban crafts.

Loop.pH are internationally recognized for the design and fabrication of ephemeral textile architecture and living environments. They create urban utopias informed by ecologically based parametric design and principles of community engagement.

The studio operates on the convergence between biology, ecology, architecture and design. Through intervention based work they create living environments, synthesising living materials and digital tools, and proposing an emerging new role for designers and artists working at an urban scale.

The studio explores the role of art and design in public space and society, and consults on creative strategies and future scoping for industry, start-ups and the public sector, with hospitals, schools and regeneration agencies all commissioning their work.

As a studio actively involved with education they lecture and deliver workshops internationally in a multidisciplinary context.

Their artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY, the V&A Museum, London and Lord Norman Fosters Private Art Collection, Geneva.

Here are some photographs of the Stanton Williams-designed Hackney Marshes Centre, which provides facilities for London’s amateur football leagues and won an RIBA award last week.

Completed last year, the Corten steel-clad centre contains changing rooms for teams competing on one of the 82 grass pitches at the park, as well as a cafe and toilets that can be used by spectators.

Gabion walls line the sides of the two-storey building to encourage the growth of climbing plants, while the interior walls are constructed from exposed concrete blocks.

Above: photograph is by Jim Stephenson

Perforated hatches fold up from the facade to reveal windows, while a glazed entrance leads into a double-height reception that is overlooked by the cafe above.

Above: photograph is by Jim Stephenson

Stanton Williams were announced as the winners of three RIBA awards last week. The other two were for an art and design college campus and a botanic laboratory.

Above: photograph is by Jim Stephenson

See all our stories about Stanton Williams »

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

Photography is by Hufton + Crow, apart from where otherwise stated.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

Here’s some more words from Stanton Williams:

Project Description

Hackney Marshes is a unique place. With its origins in ancient woodland and medieval common land, it remains a vast open space. It is a place set apart from the city by a boundary of trees and by the River Lea. Yet it also connects communities, being an important green space in a densely-populated area.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

In addition, as the London home of amateur Sunday League football, it draws people from across the capital. Stanton Williams was commissioned in 2008 to provide a new ‘Community Hub’ at the South Marsh.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

New changing rooms, plus facilities for spectators and the local community, will be housed in a welcoming, inclusive structure that recognises the special qualities of this place by bridging the boundary between the natural and artificial. It will connect not only with its immediate surroundings and the local community, but also the adjacent Olympic Park and the rest of the Lea Valley.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

The Marshes as they exist today are the product of a series of interventions in the natural environment, and in this respect they recall Cicero’s ‘second nature’ – a landscape shaped by human hands. Part of the ancient Waltham Forest, the Marshes had become common pasture by the Middle Ages. Early twentieth-century maps show the area as a recreation ground, and, after having been used as a dump for rubble during the Second World War, the site was levelled. The result is an open landscape of mown grass, punctuated by the regular rhythm of goalposts and edged by a seemingly more ‘natural’ boundary of woodland and the River Lea. Even here, though, natural and artificial and interlinked, for the river’s course has been straightened to minimise the risk of flooding.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

The Marshes have long been known as the home of grassroots amateur football: the site holds the record for the greatest number of pitches in one place, with over 900 matches played per year. However, by the start of the twenty-first century, the facilities provided for the hundreds of players who come with their supporters each week were in need of urgent overhaul. The London Borough of Hackney therefore developed an ambitious vision for the site, recognising its community value and its pivotal location adjacent to the Olympic Park. The authority sought a piece of high quality, well designed architecture that would recognise the unique qualities of the site, that would instil a sense of pride and ownership, and which could increase participation in sport. Education and community facilities were required in addition to those for players.

Above: photograph is by David Grandorge

The Hub has been developed after discussion with local stakeholders and consideration of the needs of users. It is firmly embedded within its landscape setting: it is not an ‘object’ at odds with the surrounding environment. It is located on the south-eastern boundary of the pitches, defining a threshold between the South Marsh and the car park beyond by plugging the gap between an avenue of trees to the south and a coppice to the north. The Hub’s overall massing minimises its impact on the site. Its height has been kept as low as possible, creating a pronounced horizontal emphasis that complements the open, flat nature of the site.

The changing rooms are located at ground-floor level. A number of possible layouts were developed in order to arrive at the linear arrangement of the final structure. This option has the advantage that it avoids undue encroachment on the pitches, as would be the case for a more compact, back-to-back layout. The entrance has been located part-way along the structure to avoid excessively long corridors within. The community and spectators’ facilities, located at first-floor level, are placed at the northern end of the Hub, close to the tall trees of the coppice, into which they merge.

Materials have been chosen for their ability to weather into the surrounding landscape and also for their durability, as there is a particular need to secure the building given the lack of natural surveillance that results from its isolated location.

The ground floor envelope is treated as a landscaped wall. Gabion blocks, more usually associated with landscaping or civil engineering projects, are deployed in a fashion that recalls agricultural dry stone walls. They will weather well, are resistant to vandalism, and form a good structure for climbing plants.

The result will be a living, ‘green wall’, through which light will filter into the changing rooms beyond. Elsewhere, weathered steel is used. This is an industrial material that recalls the manufacturing traditions of the Lea Valley and which, in its contrast with the more ‘natural’ landscaped wall of the lower level, recalls the combination of nature and artifice that gives the site its particular character. But it, too, has a natural quality.

As a material which changes over time, weathered steel has a lively appearance and a rich textural finish. It will be deployed not only to clad the upper level of the structure, but also to form secure gates, louvres and shutters. Punched openings will allow light to enter by day and will also create controlled night-time views into the building, which will glow welcomingly as light emerges through the shutters and the gabion walls.

Entering and using the building will celebrate the acts of arrival, changing and spectating. The main entrance opens into a double- height reception area with views through to the pitches beyond. A corridor to each side leads to the changing rooms. The ends of the corridors are glazed, not only bringing in natural light but also allowing further views out.

The changing rooms themselves are configured so that they can be connected or separated as required. They have been designed to be suitable for use by groups of different ages and genders, with provision for disabled players. The principal finish is fairface concrete, left exposed in the interests of robustness and honesty.

The café is visually connected to the entrance by the double-height reception area; panoramic views out provide a link to the pitches. External shading will prevent overheating whilst passive ventilators on the roof provide natural ventilation.

Click above for larger image

The flexible teaching spaces, meanwhile, have an aspect toward the coppice and the River Lea, emphasising the rich local biodiversity. An acoustic screen can be folded back to create a larger space for conferences or seminars.

The way in which the Hub seeks to reconcile the natural and the artificial through its massing, materials and location embodies a broader aim to synthesise sporting activity and the natural environment. Sports venues often demonstrate something of the tabula rasa in their approach, replacing natural materials with tarmac or artificial hard surfaces, and permeable boundaries with fences.

Click above for larger image

As a result, playing becomes a solely physical experience. Instead, the Hub emphasises the ritualistic nature of sport. Within it, individuals are fused into teams, emerging onto the pitch to demonstrate their collective and individual skills, and to gain sensory and even spiritual stimulation from this rich location.

Project Team
Client: London Borough of Hackney Project Manager: Arcadis AYH
Main Contractor:John Sisk & Son Architect: Stanton Williams
Civil and Structural Engineer: Webb Yates
Building Services Engineer: Zisman Bowyer & Partners Cost Consultant: Gardiner & Theobald
Landscape Architects:Camlins
CDM Coordinator: PFB Consulting
Lighting Design: Minds Eye

Designed in Hackney map:

.

Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands
Green = street art

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.

Calling creative businesses in the London borough of Hackney! As part of our Designed in Hackney Day on 1 August, we’re offering twelve FREE stalls at an indoor market at Hackney House on Shoreditch High Street.

Designers, makers, stores, brands and anyone else based in Hackney who has goods for sale, products to demonstrate, performances to perform or any other creative ideas for the market should get in touch (see below for details).

The day-long market will take place alongside Designed in Hackney Day – a FREE event featuring talks, discussions and debate by leading creatives from the borough. The day is being curated by Dezeen and Beatrice Galilee and full details of the line-up, and how to get tickets, will be released soon.

We have a dozen trestle tables (dimensions TBC) to give to people who submit the most interesting and most creative proposals.

If you’re interested, please email a short proposal (including text and images) to us at submissions@dezeen.com with “Designed in Hackney Market” in the subject line by Wednesday 4 July.

See the plan of Hackney House for the layout of the market (tables marked in pink):

Designed in Hackney: illustration collective Le Gun have collaborated with footwear designer Tracey Neuls to create a range of shoes inspired by items discovered inside a suitcase in a Hackney basement.

Le Gun created a drawing based on the objects and the life of their imagined owner, and each shoe in the limited edition is covered by a different part of the image.

The interior of Tracey Neuls’ Shoreditch shop is decorated with Le Gun’s illustrations and their work is exhibited alongside the shoes.

The shop opened at the end of last year on Redchurch Street, beyond the Hackney border. Le Gun have their studio by London Fields and Neuls lives in Hackney too.

See all our stories about Tracey Neuls »

Here’s some more information from LE GUN:

“Its of the trout tickling, dada loving, jazz pirate George Melly at a parade inspired by James Ensor’s painting ‘Entry of Christ’ into Brussels. The LE GUN version is: The entry of Marvin Gaye into Brussels… Marvin Gaye is riding into town on a donkey. He spent a lot of time in Belgium trying to get off crack. We have done a series of drawings based around the contents of a suitcase we found in the basement of a masonic cobblers in Hackney, which we believe belonged to the late George Melly. The drawing reflects our affection for the often overlooked cultural suburb of Belgium. We like the idea of a young Belgian surrealist wearing our Tracey Neuls shoes while becoming slowly intoxicated at A La Mort Subite…” – LE GUN

Here’s some more information from Tracey Neuls:

Tracey Neuls and LE GUN

Pioneering and of a single mind, Tracey Neuls choose her new shop where there is already great spirit and individuality – not unlike her original footwear. Building on the success of her West London Marylebone shop, she embarked on her second space – Eastside!

To celebrate this new venture, Tracey Neuls, famous for her creative collaborations has teamed up with the London illustration collective LE GUN.

Often described as ‘the gutter looking up to the sky’ LE GUN is responsible for some of the most thought provoking illustration work.‘Parade’ was one such piece that caught Neuls’ eye. “The idea of bringing the illustrative subject matter into movement via the actual body part was irresistible.”

LE GUN painted the shop walls in their signature style, ink in one hand paintbrush in the other – an instant freestyle application of meandering illustration. They treated the retail space like a gallery. The combination of using another artist’s drawing with a Tracey Neuls shoe design makes for a perfect collaboration. It’s an enjoyable experience seeing a drawing being translated onto a shoe. Neuls, known for her keen eye for detail saw the instant potential of translating the art work to textile. Each limited edition shoe has a different part of the drawing, so therefore tells a different part of the story. The print was recreated as wrapping paper, so the narrative continues inside and out!

Designed in Hackney map:

.

Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.