Hasta La Ideas

We check in with one of the U.K. artists tapped by Wagamama to serve its customers some culture

Step into a Wagamama restaurant and you expect friendly service served alongside contemporary Asian dishes. U.K. visitors to the chain will now get a taste of nine emerging English artists too. Working with Moniker Projects, the new program goes by the name Art and Eat.

With Moniker, Wagamama started placing installations in their restaurants last month, also splashing the art on placemats and bookmarks that come with your check. The upshot is an initiative that both supports U.K. artists, while giving customers an engaging cultural moment as part of their meal.

When I sat down with one of the featured artists, British abstractionist Remi/Rough, he explained his position on the extensive history of corporate commissions like Wagamama’s. When brands approach artists, “sometimes there is artistic freedom,” he explains, “but other times they’ll ask you to work around their logo, to which I often say no.”

For his mural in Wagamama’s Royal Theatre Hall restaurant on London’s Southbank, “they didn’t ask to see my design,” he confirmed, pointing out the company’s generous creative license with the artists. “I chose colors that do not appear anywhere in Wagamama—except black—and I played with the idea of making stairs, as though they’re steps into the Hayward gallery on the other side of the wall.”

Pictured here are works from Mark Lykin, Malarky, Matt Sewell and Pam Glew. Other participating artists include Inkie, Patricia Ellis and Holly Thoburn.

Moniker has a short release of about 25 prints for sale and, as in Remi/Rough’s case, hand-painted pieces from each artist (£109 in the U.K., or £119 to ship elsewhere) as well. All proceeds go to the artists.

Wagamama will also give away prizes to people who include the hashtag #artandeat in their tweets during the span of the program, which runs through October 2011.

London architects Buckley Gray Yeoman have converted a fire-damaged former market hall in Shoreditch into Corten-clad university offices.

The Grade-I listed Moorish Market building sheltered street traders at the start of the twentieth century for just four years before it was closed down.

The glass and Corten steel extension rises up behind the original facade, adding two additional floors to the two-storey building.

Concrete walls in the atrium of the Fashion Street building remain exposed, while glass balustrades surround mezzanine balconies.

We’ve published a number of Corten-clad buildings on Dezeen in recent weeks, including a winery in the south of France and a see-through church in Belgium – see all our stories featuring weathered steel here.

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

The following information is from Buckley Gray Yeoman:

Situated within the trendy City fringe of East London, Buckley Gray Yeoman’s redevelopment and refurbishment of this former Moorish Market provides four floors of new University accommodation and a striking addition to this fashionable area of London.

The existing Grade ll listed building required extensive work, following a major fire which demolished the entire rear section of the structure. Buckley Gray Yeoman reinstated the original structure, whilst carefully retaining the original façade of the building that remained largely intact.

In order to maintain the unique character of the market, the practice’s approach to site was one of preservation rather than restoration. The new build element stands independently from the original building aspects, with each structure maintaining its own structural identity.

A layer of Corten steel is wrapped around the concrete framed building to provide a level of depth and layering to the façade, whilst responding to the rich urban industrial character and heritage of the area.

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This industrial palette is continued internally, where fully exposed in-situ concrete is complimented by warm Sapele timber panelling and glass balustrades across the atrium to allow top light to filter down throughout the building to ground level.

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C-Mine by 51N4E	Grifols Academy by TWO/BO and Luis Twose	Vol House by Estudio BaBO

Architects Grimshaw have completed an installation for London department store John Lewis that’s made of suspended cardboard tubes.

The tubes vary in length and sit in the circular holes cut from two vertical sheets of clear acrylic.

The design will debut at John Lewis’ Oxford Street shop for two months before moving around the UK to stores including Cardiff, Edinburgh and Liverpool.

The modular nature of the design allows for various configurations at each department store and designers can either use the tubes to display garments or as screens to enclose their collections.

Other projects by Grimshaw include bus shelters in New York, the RIBA Stirling Prize nominated Bijlmer Station in Amsterdam and an extension to the Excel Exhibition Centre in London.

Photography is by Lim/Grimshaw.

Here’s some information from Grimshaw:

John Lewis approached Grimshaw to provide a temporary exhibit and event space capable of showcasing a variety of designers within their store on Oxford Street.

This unique ‘pop-up’ installation called for an innovative proposal which fused exhibition design and architecture, whilst enabling John Lewis to express their brand in an exciting and striking space.

The installation will be initially located on the first floor at Oxford Street, and will subsequently travel to other John Lewis stores in the UK.

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Comprised of simple cardboard tubes suspended in clear Perspex sheets, the modular panel design creates a flexible and enclosed environment of varying transparency. This flexibility allows for various configurations to be explored in different locations around the UK. A solution is formed with three easily fabricated panel types resulting in an events space which both draws the public in and screens off its surrounding environment, offering a degree of privacy.

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The long-standing relationship between John Lewis and their collection of fabrics and materials is expressed with a selection of each wrapped around a tubular cardboard spine. The installation celebrates these objects and organises them in an unfamiliar way by creating views beyond and between the different panels. The tubes vary in both length and diameter; each one is suspended within two vertical sheets of acrylic, along with transparent joining rods which are visible amongst the tubes. The range of tube sizes creates a kit of parts whereby designers can choose to display within them or simply frame their exhibited retail range.

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Paper Tower by Shigeru Ban	Mirror of Judgement by Michelangelo Pistoletto	Karis by Suppose Design Office

London Design Festival 2011: British designer Sebastian Bergne has constructed a greenhouse out of Lego in London’s Covent Garden.

The pitched roof and walls of the hut are made entirely from transparent pieces of the toy brick, allowing it to function like a conventional greenhouse.

Behind these plastic wall,s vegetables and flowers emerge from a bed of brown Lego blocks.

The greenhouse will be on display until 25 September as part of the London Design Festival.

See all our stories about the London Design Festival 2011 here and see more stories about Sebastian Bergne here.

Here’s some more text about the project from Lego:

LEGO ‘Greenhouse’ by Sebastian Bergne Comes to Covent Garden

Exhibiting in North Piazza, Covent Garden, from 15th to 25th September 2011

LEGO commissioned the award-winning designer, Sebastian Bergne, to create a public installation using the iconic bricks, as part of the London Design Festival 2011. Entitled the “LEGO Greenhouse”, this large-scale installation will be on display in the North Piazza, Covent Garden, a world-renowned cultural district, from 15th to 25th September 2011.

Since its first interlocking brick was launched in 1949, LEGO has become more popular than any other toy in history. LEGO, by its very nature, is all about design and creativity, stimulating imaginations and inspiring the builders of tomorrow. The interlocking principle with its tubes makes it unique and offers unlimited building possibilities. With about 3,900 different elements in the LEGO range, plus 58 different LEGO colours, all LEGO elements are fully compatible and six eight-studded LEGO bricks can be combined in 915 million different ways.

Choosing Covent Garden as the location for this installation was no accident as the area has previously hosted some of the most exciting cultural content in London. From partnerships with Tate Modern and Somerset House to exhibitions from the likes of Sam Taylor Wood and Banksy, the area is firmly on the design trail and has a long history with the London Design Festival.

Industrial designer, Sebastian Bergne, has run his own design studio in London for 20 years. Having generally designed consumer products including lighting and furniture, Bergne’s LEGO creation uses the iconic bricks to demonstrate the possibilities of LEGO in a public space. Inspiration has been drawn from Covent Garden’s design heritage and cultural history. Bergne has also looked to the design community in London itself, reflecting the overall Festival programme.

The LEGO Greenhouse is a functioning greenhouse built entirely from LEGO. The walls, the floors, even the earth is LEGO. The plants and vegetables growing inside are however, entirely real.

Standing in Covent Garden in front of the famous covered market, this temporary greenhouse seems out of place yet somehow fitting. Its pitched roof references reflect the architecture that surrounds it, while the plants inside bring nature back to this area once famous for its garden trade.

In daylight, the structure looks very much like an ordinary suburban greenhouse dropped into a new environment. Yet at night, it assumes another character entirely. It is transformed into a magical box, glowing and lit it seems, by the life of the plants it contains.

Though a temporary installation, the LEGO Greenhouse’s functionality hints at the possible potential of LEGO to bridge the gap between toy and useable construction for the real world.

Sebastian Bergne comments, “It’s been a pleasure to be involved with this project for LEGO and Covent Garden. What instinctively appealed to me, was that I would finally have the chance to live out a childhood dream and build something huge and usable out of LEGO.

“As with the majority of my work, I enjoy taking a material or process and pushing the boundary of what can be done with it. This time we have created an interesting juxtaposition of a natural environment growing in an almost digital, mass-produced LEGO structure, and it makes you look at LEGO in a new way.

“In my work, I love to make something special from the ordinary, and I hope that’s what has happened here. It’s an everyday function, made of a material we know, in an ordinary environment, but together they make something extraordinary and I think it is going to be quite magical.”

Bergne has worked closely with the LEGO Build and Technical Teams and Covent Garden to realise the project, with the final design built and installed by Duncan Titmarsh, the UK’s only LEGO Certified Professional.

The LEGO installation will be exhibiting in North Piazza, Covent Garden, WC2 (on the corner of James Street) from 15th to 25th September 2011, as part of the London Design Festival 2011. Free admission.

Watch this movie over on Dezeen Screen »

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Mocha Mojo by Mancini Enterprises	Habit Makes Us Blind by Espai MGR	The Wright by Andre Kikoski Architect

Designer Hugo Eccles unveils four smart ways to ensure social downtime in a London Design Week group show

While many designers are working hard to develop new applications that would foster more streamlined social networking, the group behind the London exhibit Slow Tech are intelligently conceptualizing how to take time off. Created by Wallpaper Magazine editor Henrietta Thompson and Protein, the group show “encourages people to take time off from their little shiny screens,” explains participant Hugo Eccles.

Working with designer Afshin Mehin, Eccles’ eponymous design office created four concepts that “jam the communication channels.” Starting with a friendly egg timer-styled device, Eccles explains the Social Timer is “the kind of thing your mum would use.” Intentionally using iconic forms throughout the project to help illustrate the point, Eccles and Mehin envisioned the Social Timer as a tabletop object that would disable a particular type of communication for a shorter amount of time, such as a family dinner. The timers also have Facebook and Twitter symbols on the top like salt and pepper shakers, as a subtle reminder of their purpose.

Functioning as an activist, the Social Bomb forces everyone to take a break by covertly cutting off all forms of technology. The bomb works best in places like the cinema, a wedding or other group setting where the social addict refuses to be polite by shutting off their device.

According to Eccles, the “most representative” concept the duo developed is the wall-mounted Social Thermostat. The variable device could be used in different rooms in the house, allowing the living room to be more socially warm while the bedroom stays socially cold. LED lights along the top of the unit display the room’s social temperature.

The Social Sentinel is undoubtedly a favorite among bosses. The device’s intensity is pre-set before it is mounted on a ceiling, keeping employees from tampering with it. A “watchful eye” lets people know when it is active, cutting them off from Twitter or Facebook during office hours.

The four Hugoeccles®designoffice concepts are on view along with the products from nine other designers, including Héctor Serrano, Samuel Wilkinson and Nic Roope, during London Design Week. Check them out at the Kiwi & Pom-designed Protein pop-up space 18 Hewett Street.