Abstract space: BD Barcelona opens first UK space at Clerkenwell Design Week

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Clerkenwell Design Week
BD Barcelona has opened a first UK showroom, in London’s Clerkenwell
(Image credit: bdbarcelona.com)

Yet another design brand has taken over territory in London’s design friendly Clerkenwell. This time, shipping in from Spain is BD Barcelona. Opening its first UK showroom during Clerkenwell Design Week, the brand brings an artistic aesthetic to a gallery setting on Berry Street.

The space is stocked with avant-garde and occasionally eccentric pieces from a long list of collaborations with Ross Lovegrove, Doshi Levien and Neri & Hu. All follow BD Barcelona’s brand credo ’Design meets art’. Among the many pieces on view are designs fresh from Salone del Mobile, such as Swedish duo Färg Blanche’s patterned and sewed wooden armchair, and the Campana Brothers’s aquarium-inspired ‘Aquário’ cabinet.

The opening coincides with the launch of a Salvador Dalí-inspired chair titled ‘Invisible Personage’, which takes centre stage in the space. Drawing on Dalí’s eerie 1935–36 work Singularities, Oscar Tusquets Blanca, an architect and BD Barcelona’s co-founder, designed the chair with the image’s texture in mind, realised in a powder pink hue. The brand began showing Dalí’s works back in 1972 with his abstract lighting; and it has since continued to reproduce his experimental designs, many of which – like the conceptual brass ‘Leda’ armchairs – are on display in the new space.

The rest of BD Barcelona’s works maintain a similar surrealist synergy – as seen in Jaime Hayon’s whimsical ‘King Kong’ mirrors, suspended above Cristian Zuzunaga’s vibrant pixilated sideboard from 2015, ‘Dreams’. The showroom interiors have been given a simple monochrome palette, allowing the fanciful pieces to express themselves.

Clerkenwell Design Week

Launching during Clerkenwell Design Week, the space is set out like a gallery, referencing the brand’s ’Design meets art’ credo

(Image credit: bdbarcelona.com)

Clerkenwell Design Week

The opening coincides with a the launch of a Dalí-inspired chair called ‘Invisible Personage’. Drawn from Dalí’s 1935–36 work Singularities, Oscar Tusquets Blanca, an architect and BD Barcelona’s co-founder, designed the chair with the image’s texture in mind, realised in a powder pink hue

(Image credit: bdbarcelona.com)

Clerkenwell Design Week

The rest of BD Barcelona’s works maintain a similar surrealist synergy – as seen in Jaime Hayon’s whimsical ‘King Kong’ mirror, suspended above Cristian Zuzunaga’s vibrant pixilated sideboard from 2015, ‘Dreams’

(Image credit: bdbarcelona.com)

Clerkenwell Design Week

The showroom interiors have been given a simple monochrome palette, allowing the fanciful pieces to express themselves

(Image credit: bdbarcelona.com)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the BD Barcelona website

Sujata Burman

Sujata Burman is a writer and editor based in London, specialising in design and culture. She was Digital Design Editor at Wallpaper* before moving to her current role of Head of Content at London Design Festival and London Design Biennale where she is expanding the content offering of the showcases. Over the past decade, Sujata has written for global design and culture publications, and has been a speaker, moderator and judge for institutions and brands including RIBA, D&AD, Design Museum and Design Miami/. In 2019, she co-authored her first book, An Opinionated Guide to London Architecture, published by Hoxton Mini Press, which was driven by her aim to make the fields of design and architecture accessible to wider audiences.