First conceived in 2020, Max Lamb’s 'Economy' chair started as an experiment in waste reduction – a theme that has recurred throughout the London-based designer’s practice. Its original form was hand-cut from polystyrene foam using hot wire and is the result of a series of prototypes that led to a structure that left as little waste as possible on the workshop floor. ‘It's taking what some people perceive to be artisanal into something more industrialised, much more practical, pragmatic and efficient.’

Case in point, the chair now makes its large-scale production debut, as part of Swedish design brand Hem’s furniture collection. The new edition, dubbed ‘Min’ is made of pine, a material that perfectly matches Lamb’s intuitive process. To produce it, individual timber elements are cut at diagonal angles and split to become the legs, back and seat, an exercise in material efficiency that speaks to Lamb’s ability to combine a distinctive design language with a particular attention to the possibilities of an object’s construction.

Max Lamb's Min chair for Hem: an exercise in reduction

Creating the chair involves a rigorous process of reduction: 'the design itself has been conceived to use almost half the quantity of material that would be required to make the same chair with square legs,' explains Lamb. 'By cutting the legs in half diagonally to create triangular legs, you end up with two legs for the price of one – or two legs from the amount of material it would normally take to make one.

'What gives the chair its personality and character is not necessarily about using as little material as possible. Rather, it’s about making one piece of material go twice as far as it otherwise would if the legs were square.'

Lamb's practice has historically been focused on hands-on making: his work has ranged from metal furniture bent by hand, to cutting up a tree to make a seating series, to taping up cardboard into chairs. 'The Min Chair has been developed and refined over a lot of iterations: all of the development and prototyping happens within my workshop,' he explains. 'Because I’m first and foremost a maker and run a workshop-based practice, I am able to refine the design in real time. I want to make sure that the design is responsive to material, the properties of the material, and the production process.

'The design is a consequence of the making process and my endeavour to achieve these efficiencies in production and material usage. The outcome is a chair that has personality, has an aesthetic, but that aesthetic and that personality are consequences of those endeavours to efficiency.'

Each May, the Liechtenstein family opens the doors of its medieval Austrian castle, Schloss Hollenegg, to the public. Inside, nestled among layered period interiors – including a Renaissance courtyard and a Baroque church – visitors encounter contemporary works by established and emerging designers alongside historical objects from the castle’s own collection, all united by a shared theme.

‘This is the last of a series of exhibitions dedicated to materials,’ explains Italian-born curator and the event’s founder Alice Stori Liechtenstein. ‘After exploring glass, ceramics, wood and textiles, metal seemed the perfect choice. Metals are the building blocks of our planet and literally hold our world together.'

For ‘Element: Metal’, Stori Liechtenstein has pulled an array of metal objects from the castle’s historic collections – from silver tableware and ornamental pieces to weaponry and architectural fittings – offering insight into the material culture of past centuries. Alongside these storied objects are contemporary works by designers and artists selected for their ‘exceptional craftsmanship, original conceptual approaches, and responsible engagement with the material’. It's hard to imagine a more romantic setting.

Schloss Hollenegg: design's most poetic experimental residence

Born in Milan and raised in Bologna, Stori Liechtenstein founded Schloss Hollenegg for Design in 2015. Each May, the non-profit cultural institution transforms the 21,500 sq ft, 52-room castle – which has belonged to her husband Alfred Liechtenstein’s family for two centuries – into a space for design research, critical thinking and experimentation. Alongside the annual exhibition, the institution runs a residency programme that provides emerging designers with the opportunity to develop new work within this unique historic context.

Of the 18 designers and artists featured in the exhibition, 12 spent time at Schloss Hollenegg during the summer and autumn of 2025, developing site-specific pieces. Finnish jewellery designer Ildar Wafin, sponsored by the Finnland Institut in Germany, collaborated with historic Viennese silversmith Jarosinski & Vaugoin to produce an unusual silver table bell that pays homage to the bells in the castle’s church tower. Its sinuous shape nods to the centuries-old Canadian vine that climbs the courtyard walls.

Elsewhere, Japanese artist Junko Mori, supported by her gallery Adrian Sassoon, has been developing the concept of the frame; American fine artist Elliott Hundley, with support from Friedman Benda, has created a chandelier and mirror for Henriette’s bedroom; while Lithuanian designer Mantas Lesauskas has created a chess board.

Meanwhile, designers Hannah Kuhlmann, Anna Zimmermann and Soft Baroque, supported by Copenhagen-based art and design gallery Etage Projects, have brought recent metal works to the exhibition.

For the first time, the institution has partnered with aluminium and energy company Hydro, which is presenting three projects, by Max Lamb, Philippe Malouin and Sabine Marcelis – works developed to showcase Hydro’s Circal 100R recycled aluminium made from post-consumer scrap. At a time when designers are increasingly reconsidering how materials are sourced, reused and preserved, metal offers a particularly rich lens through which to explore ideas of permanence, repair and transformation.

‘Today we frame recycling as an environmental necessity, but in the past reuse was simply part of everyday life,’ reflects Stori Liechtenstein. ‘Materials were expensive, labour-intensive and difficult to source, so objects were rarely discarded. They were repaired, adapted, melted down or repurposed over generations. This creates a natural dialogue between the contemporary aluminium works and the historic interiors of Schloss Hollenegg. While the new projects openly address sustainability and circularity, the historical objects reveal a long tradition of material care and longevity.’

In another first, Schloss Hollenegg has also partnered with the TransArts department of the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Die Angewandte), offering seven students – Jordi Albers, Klemens Hegen, Lea Liebl, Elena Riener, Luise Lutz & Michels Strümpf, and Lorenzo Zerbini – the opportunity to develop work for the exhibition.

‘I see much more overlap and, for me, the boundaries between design, applied arts, collectible design and art have been slowly dissolving,’ says Stori Lichtenstein, reflecting on how the design landscape has shifted since the institution’s founding 11 years ago. ‘I think categorisations are useful to understand what we are talking about, but ultimately these disciplines are all part of the same cultural ecosystem.

‘I have always been interested in the narrative potential of objects and, in recent years, I have concentrated more on how to present them in engaging ways for the public,’ she continues. ‘Collectible and experimental design are, more than ever, wonderful vehicles for engaging with contemporary material culture.’

'Element: Metal' runs at Schloss Hollenegg Castle until 31 May 2026

schlosshollenegg.at

Tree stumps. Public benches. Swaying treetops. A worker and his bandsaw. Heavy machinery. And five animal spirits preserving the soul of a forest – from a jumping deer to a curious fox.

'A Tree' is a new project in Japan that journeys through a raft of creative perspectives – from the technical and the functional to the otherworldly magical – bringing to life a new series of objects crafted in cedarwood from ancient forests.

Six designers – Siin Siin from Japan, South Korean studio Kuo Duo, Fabien Cappello, working from Mexico, plus London-based creatives Rio Kobayashi, Max Lamb and Faye Toogood – travelled to the deep forests of Yoshino in Nara Prefecture, to explore its centuries-old forestry history and communities, cultivation technology and making practices.

Six designers working with Yoshino Cedarwood

Each creative was given a tree to transform. The end results, from chairs to benches, are now displayed at Ginza Six retail complex in Tokyo, scattered in public spaces to enhance interaction between visitors and objects, forest and city.

Helming the project, architect Keisuke Nakamura of Daikei Mills tells Wallpaper*: 'Following a project I undertook in the Yoshino area three years ago, I became acquainted with the local forestry industry. Whilst I came to appreciate the depth of Yoshino cedar and its significance as a material unique to Japan, I also became aware of the challenges facing the forestry sector –and felt a sense of responsibility as a creator to become more deeply involved.'

Highlighting the connective thread between the designers, he adds: 'They are all creators who, in their craft, demonstrate a passion for exploring materials, place great importance on the creative process and show respect for everyone involved in a project.'

Over the past 500 years, cedarwood from Yoshino, known as Yoshino sugi, has become a near-sacred byword for quality wood manufacturing in Japan, shaping countless spaces and objects, from temples, shrines and residences to sake barrels and bathtubs.

Meticulously cultivated using an ancient plantation technique, Yoshino sugi is used widely among architects, designers and artisans, due to its straight grain, minimal knots, lightweight strength and distinct forest-fresh aroma.

A growing furniture collection

The project collaborated with two timber specialists Houei Forestry and Ohtani Wood in Yoshino, while the works were produced by E&Y. Creations by Lamb and Toogood recently joined the collection, as the second phase of the series.

For Lamb, witnessing the meticulous technical mastery of 'one man and his machine' during his visit into the heart of the forest inspired his sculptural series Cedar is a Soft Wood. As he explains: 'It begins and ends with a tree. In the middle there is Ohtani-san and his bandsaw. Nothing else. What can Ohtani-san do with his bandsaw?'

Toogood tapped into the spiritual depth of the forest and Japan’s innate respect for the natural world – expressed through the magical realism-inflected storytelling of five animal 'spirits'. Timeless and playful, the forest was reimagined in watercolour paintings, poems and eventually five seating sculptures crafted from a single 25m high tree.

Shaped by a primitive simplicity, 'Five Spirits, One Sugi' includes the flowing lightness of The Deer, the rhythmic form of The Woodpecker, the earthy curves of The Toad, the diagonal edges of The Fox and the warm solidity of The Bear.

'My pieces started with a very spiritual response to the forest,' she explains. 'I came back and in my journal, I wrote a poem and did some watercolours of the animals that I'd seen. It was not just my experience in the forest that I wanted to represent – but also the fact that this forest is a habitat for all these beautiful animals.

'Having that context with nature is so important to my work and something I want to bring into a commercial environment. I think that feeling of nature is not only coming through from the material, but also the way you view the shapes. I brought the animals into the furniture – the big bear, the jumping deer – they are all there. For me, it was about trying to let those animals live through the wood and the furniture.'

The full A Tree collection, currently on display at Ginza Six, also includes creations completed last autumn for phase one of the project. Fabien Cappello designed a bench that transforms the act of seating into a shared and public experience, inspired by common typologies found in airports, bus stations and waiting areas. As he explains: 'It explores the questions: can a single tree be transformed to comfortably seat many people, and how to foster comfort and invitation in public seating.'

Ideas of inversion, movement and cultural reinterpretation are written into 'Edisni tuo', a furniture series by Japanese-Austrian designer Rio Kobayashi. One of his first projects to take shape in Japan, having spent more than half his life overseas, the pieces mark a reframing of his perspective of home; 'like inside-out sushi, a Western twist on a Japanese dish'. Added to the mix is an unexpected 'wobble' – inspired by the movement of treetops in the wind.

'The pieces invert what is expected,' he says. 'Bark is kept, cut surfaces are exposed and what’s usually discarded becomes essential.'

For Siin Siin, the starting point was creating a dialogue between material and technique – with traces of splitting wood by axe combined with stainless steel joints inspired by heavy machinery. Meanwhile, Kuo Duo dreamt up Kiri Kabu, a reinterpretation of tree stumps, balancing the material contrast of pale heartwood and rich sapwood. The tree was dissected into a puzzle of nine sections: four corner pieces reassembled to create a cylindrical base, before being turned on a lathe to form a conical form, while the remaining parts were used for structural elements such as seats and backrests.

And just like the life of a forest, the project will continue to evolve. The collections are displayed at Ginza Six until autumn, with a final, as yet undisclosed, phase due to unfold over the coming year.

In a lofty former church hall in north-west London, British designer Max Lamb stages a new exhibition bringing together an array of chairs he has crafted over the last decade.

‘Exercises in Seating 3’ (until 2 November 2025) reflects on the designer’s ongoing exploration of varied materials and production methods through the medium of chairs, and continues a series of shows that began in 2015.

Max Lamb's Exercises in Seating

The first ‘Exercises in Seating’ took place during Milan Design Week, in the industrial space of Garage Sanremo, followed by ‘Exercises in Seating 2’ a year later, staged in the picturesque grounds of the modernist Villa Noailles in Hyères, France.

Now in London, the third iteration continues the concept established 10 years ago. Just as in the previous exhibitions, Lamb has arranged the chairs in a circle – an approach he first adopted at his Royal College of Art graduation show in 2006.

‘It’s quite a personal thing for me, because when I present it like this, there is no hierarchy, and no favourite,’ says Lamb, speaking while sitting on one of the chairs in the installation. Though the works are arranged chronologically, ‘there is no beginning and no end’, he says, with the earliest and most recent chairs placed next to one another.

It’s a format that invites connections. ‘The chair that I’m sitting on is having a conversation with its 30 neighbours and friends in a circle,’ says Lamb. ‘That sort of dialogue between them is really interesting, when you consider the breadth of different materials and the plethora of different production methods and processes.’

Such a range includes a mirror-like chair made using scrap polystyrene and silver nitrate (Silver Nitrate Scrap Chair, 2021), a 300kg forged steel stool (Forge Stool #3, 2017), an armchair made from bamboo and synthetic rattan (Bambooware Chair, 2019/2025) a bulging chair made using pineapple leather (Blob Chair (Piñatex), 2021), and a fluffy chair made from hand-tufted wool (Tufted Pillow Chair, 2021).

Several works harness scraps or offcuts, an approach Lamb relishes for the potential to minimise waste – and to challenge himself to make disparate things fit together. ‘I’m storing up all this material that I don’t know what to do with,’ he says. ‘To be able to turn it into something is important to me.’

Among the chairs on show, materials or methods repeat themselves – ‘I do like to copy myself,’ says Lamb – but he is always searching for new ways to explore them. ‘My mantra is to learn everything I can possibly learn in the way of materiality and transformative processes,’ he says. ‘It’s about trying to stay tuned into the possibilities. I like seeing what humans are capable of achieving with their hands – and seeing whether I’m able to achieve those things with mine.’

The hall the chairs sit in is part of a complex where Lamb and his family live in Harrow-on-the-Hill. Built as a church hall in 1884, in an Arts and Crafts style by British architect E.S. Prior, the space went on to have various uses before it was converted into a plastics factory.

When Lamb and his wife Gemma Holt bought the property in 2018, they sought to return the space to its original design by stripping out partitions and racking systems the factory had installed and repairing the historic wooden beams and panelling. One of the chairs on show – SRM Plastic Child’s Chair, 2018–2025 – is made from waste left behind by the plastics factory, SRM Plastics.

Lamb is keenly aware of the hall’s original life as a place to bring people together, making it an ideal space to invite the local community and wider public into (visits to the exhibition can be arranged by appointment), as well as populate it with characterful chairs. ‘They're just little people,’ he says of the works joyfully. ‘They're like my friends.’

Lamb loves to learn new crafts and skills, and the exhibition also features a football he hand-stitched from mycelium leather. That almost obsessive curiosity, and desire to test out, explore, understand and iterate is what drives him forward – and results in an ever-expanding, and fascinating, body of work.

‘I get greatest satisfaction,’ he says, ‘ from making the things I haven’t yet made.’

To visit ‘Exercises in Seating 3’, please email studio@maxlamb.org. A book accompanying the exhibition, ‘Exercises in Seating: Volumes 1–3’, is available to pre-order

Max Lamb's Exercises in Seating 3: meet the chairs

Max Lamb is attempting to nail the design of functional ceramic furniture pieces at the UK workshops of 1882 Ltd. But pieces seem to be spontaneously crumbling, while others emerge from the kiln cracked and are launched directly into the skip. These behind-the-scenes moments, captured as the designer works with the ceramic brand’s fearless creative director, Emily Johnson, to create a ceramic seat you can safely sit on, demonstrate the steely resilience of material maestro Lamb and his co-conspirator. Together, they are on a mission to master the capriciousness of this age-old material when worked at scale.

‘Crockery’ by Max Lamb and 1882 Ltd at Gallery Fumi

‘Crockery’ – a series of ceramic chairs and stools – is the outcome of their efforts. Currently on show at London’s Gallery Fumi, the confident, sculptural pieces conceal the complexity of their creation.

Aesthetically, the seating designs in white, black and soft pink earthenware extend the tableware ceramics that Lamb developed when Johnson first took creative control of the family kilns some 14 years ago. His haphazardly-hewn jug, bowls, and mugs set the tone for Johnson’s new venture – combining centuries of pottery expertise, both artisanal and industrial – with groundbreaking contemporary design.

Johnson grew up well-versed in the ceramic production of Stoke on Trent, where the Johnson Brothers pottery has been based since 1882. But she is also complicit with the cohort of leading designers she has engaged to work with her. 'Emily Johnson is not your normal manufacturer!' Lamb says emphatically. It is clear that the decision to crack the construction conundrum of a workable ceramic chair was a shared one, and followed years of mulling the idea together.

'The thing about these chairs is they look like they are a solid piece, but they are not,' says Johnson. 'They are four pieces of slip-cast ceramic that are stuck together with what we call “stick-up” clay.' The process began with Lamb creating the forms he would work with by using a hammer and chisel to chip away at plaster blocks. It produces an irregular textured surface as he works. These were then used to make slip moulds. The seat, the back, and the legs are cast as separate pieces, and then fettled together with liquid slip and a knife, which in expert hands, reinstates the chisel-carved surface seamlessly across the joins.

Drying lasts up to five weeks – and takes place naturally, in stable conditions that allow no air movement around them. The chairs are then fired at 1,140°C. 'What is quite astounding and original about them is that all the joined pieces are, in essence, hollow. It really takes the combined centuries of knowledge of all those in the factory to achieve this,' says Johnson.

While Lamb has a longstanding relationship with Fumi, this is the first time the London gallery has worked with 1882 Ltd. 'To be potters now creating work for galleries such as Fumi is pretty special,' says Johnson. There is no doubt, however, that the daring, pioneering nature of this challenging project deserves such a platform.

‘Crockery’ by Max Lamb and 1882 Ltd is on view at Gallery Fumi until 30 September 2025

2-3 Hay Hill, Mayfair, London W1J 6AZ

Potato Head, Bali’s beach club and hotel turned cultural village, has always been a champion of creative cross-pollination. With a building by OMA and furniture collections by the likes of Faye Toogood and Andreu Carulla, it is clear that design is at the heart of the project. At Potato Head, however, it goes hand in hand with environmental responsibility. ‘When we started Potato Head, [one of our goals was] to be sustainable in a beautiful way,’ reads a note from founder Ronald Akili introducing the first sustainability report from the company. ‘We want to create awareness by inspiring instead of preaching. We want to provide experiences and products where people do not have to compromise on beauty, comfort, and accessibility in order to be sustainable.’

Being zero-waste and contributing to a process of local regeneration were similarly important to the founder, and its newly launched collection of objects by long-term collaborator Max Lamb acts as a manifesto of sorts for what Potato Head stands for, and what a model for sustainable manufacturing might look like in the future.

Max Lamb at Potato Head

Lamb has collaborated with Potato Head for a few years: his first visit in 2019 resulted in a series of in-room objects and furniture, circular designs all created in a closed-loop and produced locally by artisans and makers. ‘I was invited to design these products, the idea was that they should be made in Indonesia, as there is already a wealth of techniques and crafts,’ says Lamb. ‘So I spent two weeks travelling to different craftspeople, and what started as a small itinerary soon grew, as we kept discovering more places, from natural dye companies to ceramic producers, to stone workers who work with volcanic rock to traditionally make the small shrines you find in local homes.’

Lamb, whose practice focuses on making and experimenting (his furniture has been made from a plethora of materials, from cardboard boxes to his grandfather’s tree), was right at home in the rich cultural and artisanal panorama of Bali and its surroundings. ‘Before traveling there, I was learning about the local brick and clay industries, and that sparked a research into the geology of the island,’ he says. ‘I was interested in the Ring of Fire and Bali being a volcanic island, and how the rock formations and the general landscape are informed by its geology and the geothermal activity.’

During his visit, however, Lamb started looking at Bali as a place to produce his work. ‘I was trying to experience Bali as deeply as possible to understand what the production and craft and material opportunities were there,’ he explains. ‘But it was also necessarily a conversation between me as a designer and the hotel, to identify all product opportunities to serve the hotel’s guests.’

At the time, Potato Head was already championing a zero-waste model (having gone carbon neutral in 2017, the first hospitality company in Indonesia to do so), and the conversation soon shifted from craft to waste materials. ‘Being hospitality, there is a constant influx of people and products, food and beverages and packaging being generated, and Potato Head recognised this,’ explains Lamb. ‘So what do you do with these materials?’

One of the first products they created together was a chair, made from recycling 833 plastic bottles. Featuring a colourful marbled effect, the chair has inspired a series of small objects made using the same system, from coasters to trays, all with the distinctive multichromatic pattern.

The plastic is all recycled from delivery packaging and confiscated water bottles (guests are not allowed to enter the Potato Head premises with non-reusable plastics), granulated on-site, and heat-pressed into sheets that are then used to create Lamb’s products. ‘What is great is that they built a factory, but it’s not behind the scene, it’s front of house: you get your plastics confiscated, you see it go into the granulator, the heat press, the CNC machine,’ says Lamb. ‘It's a really great reaction to the uncontrollable amount of waste material being generated through running any hospitality establishment.’

99.5 per cent of Potato Head’s waste – including food – is currently recycled and put back into the hotel, with a minimal 0.5 per cent going to landfill.

Wasted Collection 001 by Max Lamb for Potato Head

This month marks the launch of Wasted, a new brand by Potato Head that Lamb describes as ‘an attitude and an ideology for turning waste into new objects for both hotel guests and the wider community of interested people.’

With products designed by Lamb (who is also currently managing the design process and serving as the brand’s creative director), Wasted is an embodiment of Potato Head’s sustainability mission.

The objects on offer form a panorama of craft in Bali, and the opportunities found in recycling. The eight collections include objects made from HDPE plastics, composted organic matter, recycled linens from the hotel and restaurants, broken and re-blown glass, cooking oil transformed into scented and refillable candles, recycled ceramics, oyster shells, and hand-woven Balinese bamboo.

A small collection of ceramic plates and bowls are made in Ubud by a small pottery, using Balinese clay and a glaze made from broken glass from the hotel’s waste stream.

From the offcuts of his HDPE plastic chair, he has created trays and coasters. This way of working by repurposing materials is second-nature to Lamb: thinking in terms of waste, using the negative to his production’s positive has often been the case with his work (and as a young designer starting out, that was a necessity to be economical with materials). ‘I very rarely speculate: I nearly always only make what people ask me to make,’ he adds. ‘I have a sense of responsibility in my practice, I recognise that it’s very difficult to be productive without being destructive. But I'm very lucky in that I have a hungry audience, wanting to consume my work and commission me to make pieces. And I think there's something very, convenient about the fact that I run a workshop-based design practice.’ This modus operandi is now feeding into his work for Potato Head.

The textile products are a good example of Lamb's thinking throughout this project. 'Hotel linens have a short lifespan, they get stains, they tear, and can't be put back on the beds,' he explains. The collection includes large bags, but also smaller textile objects dyed using marigolds (recovered from offerings left at shrines across Potato Head), like compact pouches, pencil cases and sunglasses cases, that can be obtained from smaller scraps. 'By having a range of different scaled objects or products, we're able to best utilize as much of that material as possible.'

Wasted by Potato Head: what's next

The future of this project for Potato Head is very much about collaboration, as the model for Wasted is meant to become an open-source blueprint for harvesting waste. 'It's not about exporting these products, but about exporting this idea of working,' explains Lamb.

'This is not meant to be good design,' he stresses, noting that an elaborate design would defy the purpose of the project. 'I don't want to just adorn or decorate for the sake of it. It's always about the material, and if the form can be as quiet and simple and functional as possible, then the thing that will really shine will be the material. And then that allows the story of Wasted to be told much more.

'It’s meant to be about using a resource that would otherwise be thrown away, and helping Potato Head deal with the waste they generate on a daily basis. And to set the cogs in motion for establishing a new culture.'

Gallery Fumi has crossed the pond to present a six-week exhibition in Los Angeles, California, coinciding with Frieze LA. Dubbed Fumi LA and on view until 9 March 2024, the exhibition is a takeover of Sized Studio in Melrose Hill. Building on its past US successes, from presentations at Salon Art+Design in New York, and Art Basel Design Miami to celebrating 15 years of Gallery Fumi’s boundary pushing design last year, Fumi LA will be its first major debut US show.

Gallery Fumi presents Fumi LA

Fumi LA is a platform for a variety of artists and designers worldwide to display their craftsmanship. American ceramic artist Jeremy Anderson will show his fresh collection of pieces including an eye-catching chandelier installation, 'Space Relics', coupled with table lamps and four ‘Piccolo’ vases, while British duo Jamesplumb will show 'Copper Roots', a beautifully functional floor light.

Design studio Voukenas Petrides, composed of Greek designer Andreas Voukenas and American architect Steven Petrides, showcases a bronze console and sculptural gypsum plaster mirror titled 'Volumetric Mirror 1'.

Spanish artist and designer Saelia Aparicio explores the physical presence and fragility of humanity with 'Esfinge Absorta', a powerful, monumental screen in the shape of a curled-up woman.

Expect to also see works from 6:AM Glassworks, Leora Honeyman, Allan Collins, Francesco Perini, Rowan Mersh, Eelko Moorer, Tuomas Markunpoika, Johannes Nagel, Shinta Nakajima, Glithero, Kustaa Saksi, Jochen Holz, Jie Wu, Lukas Wegwerth ,Casey McCafferty, Sam Orlando Miller, and Study O Portable.

Presenting Box 2 by Max Lamb

Established in 2008 by Sam Pratt and Valerio Capo, Gallery Fumi's debut showcase in Los Angeles will also include 'BOX 2', an entirely sustainable collection by Max Lamb. This is the acclaimed artist and designer’s West Coast debut, and will reveal a design series including two tables, one side table, one coffee table, one console, thirteen chairs and one vessel constructed from sustainable cardboard – an extension to his recent presentation ‘BOX’, shown at Fumi in London in 2023. Exploring the world of craft, Lamb gives value to cardboard: utilising screws, bolts, paper gum and tape to resemble his creations, he elevates what is seen as a secondary material and transforms it into beautiful design and sculptural pieces.

‘With this new collection, ‘“BOX 2”, I am continuing to expand upon the works I have been creating, and drawing lessons from my previous experience,' Lamb explains. 'This ongoing process involves working with consistently varied cardboard as raw material, which naturally leads to greater diversity in my output and marks an evolution in my work.

‘My creative response is influenced by the constraints and possibilities presented by these 'boxes’, and I respond to the inherent qualities of each box I work with. As a result, I ensure that each box is employed thoughtfully and appropriately. Starting this new cycle of exploration, I have the advantage of my accumulated experience, and I will also draw inspiration from some of my past creations.’

Fumi LA is on view until 9 March 2024

BOX 2 by Max Lamb is on view from 19 Feb until 9 March 2024

Sized Studio
526 N Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90004

galleryfumi.com

'Box' is a new body of work by Max Lamb, shown at London's Gallery Fumi (until 18 November 2023) and featuring furniture made from cardboard. 

Throughout his career, Lamb has often experimented with materials usually overlooked in furniture design, or used traditional matter in innovative ways. His past furniture collections have included a series of pieces made using a tree felled from his grandfather's garden, and seating made with boards made of recycled textiles by Kvadrat Really. 

He also often works with materials that we'd consider more traditional in furniture-making terms, but when he does, his approach is unique, as he experiments in his workshop bending metal, creating puzzle-like compositions from wood and stone, and drilling marble. 

Max Lamb cardboard designs: ‘Box’ at Gallery Fumi

Lamb's collaboration with Gallery Fumi dates back to the early days of his career, when gallery founders Valerio Capo and Sam Pratt spotted his furniture made of expanded polystyrene with polyurethane rubber coating. Over the years, his work for the gallery has included Japanese lacquer and tufted pillow-like furniture, as well as an ongoing development of the ‘Poly’ series. 

For this latest body of work, Lamb went back to the single material concept, creating 30 objects (mostly seating and tables) that stem from his interest in sustainability and the challenge of elevating scrap materials through his designs. 

Lamb wanted to experiment with a pile of cardboard that has been accumulating at the studio, including cardboard tubes, corrugated cardboard and delivery boxes, offering a spectrum of colours, shapes and textures. The process involved Lamb cutting, scoring, crushing and reassembling the pieces, using bolts, screws, paper gum tape and a wheatbased glue he developed using flour and water.

By assembling the volumes into layers, he was able to create a structure that has the strength of wood or stone, while exposing the making process and the material's origin. With this method, he created classically archetypal chairs, balloon-like stools, chunky tables as well as designs that recall Lamb's pieces in much different materials.

‘From the early days when we showed Max’s first works at our original gallery in Shoreditch, we've watched him grow alongside us,' says Capo. 'His latest project is a true testament to his talent and creativity and we feel fortunate to be a part of his artistic journey.'

'Box' by Max Lamb is on view until 18 November 2023

Gallery Fumi
2-3 Hay Hill
London W1J 6AS

galleryfumi.com
maxlamb.org

There is something brutal, modest and pure about St John Chrysostom Church in Peckham, says designer Max Lamb, who has created a new altar, sanctuary floor, altar candleholders and a Paschal candleholder for the modernist Anglican church in south London. ‘It’s not adorned with a lot of decorations or carvings as you would see in other churches,’ he adds.

Completed in 1966 and replacing two earlier parish churches that had been bombed in the Second World War, St John Chrysostom has a slanting copper roof, a sawn softwood ceiling and a tower feature above the sanctuary that provides dramatic indirect lighting to the space below. ‘When you’re in the congregation looking at the altar, you don’t see any windows and can’t see where the light is coming from,’ says Lamb. ‘So it creates this diagonal shaft of light which makes for some spectacular effects and shadows.’

Commissioned by the church on behalf of the Diocese of Southwark and produced by art curator and producer Aldo Rinaldi, the project saw Lamb respond to the stark beauty of the building’s architecture and the simplicity of its material palette by keeping his offerings in the same sober but poetic register and sticking to similar materials.

He was keen for the additional elements to have presence, however. ‘When I first visited the church, the original altar was made of brick and wood and the effect of the brick altar against a brick wall backdrop meant it was almost invisible.’ Lamb opted instead for Portland stone for the altar and the candleholders, which not only contrasts well with the surroundings but is also a nod to the fact that one of the previous churches on the site – St Jude’s – had been built out of Portland stone. ‘One of the stone columns from the site was retained and turned into the baptismal font,’ says Lamb. Two other small and unusual elements made out of the same limestone can be found in the church: a cantilevered seat behind the altar and a wall plaque just above it.

The altar is composed of four slabs of Portland stone held together using slot joints and a fifth slab inserted within the four walls. With its cross motifs in the four corners where the legs meet, and its recessed base designed so the parish priest can stand closer to the altar, the finished object looks imposing but has an appealing floating quality despite its weight.

The two candleholders are made of the same sedimentary stone and are cylindrical in shape, while the imposing Paschal candleholder is also cylindrical and made of Portland stone but is quite a bit taller (1.35m) and features a reclaimed teak base for stability that neatly repeats the cross motif of the altar.

The last part of the church Lamb tackled was the stepped, raised sanctuary floor that had been covered in cork and was in a state of disrepair. ‘I am generally very pro cork, but I decided that it was another foreign element in this instance, in that it wasn’t a material that was present elsewhere, so my proposal was not to add something new here but to remove the old and polish the concrete beneath it until it looked honed.’

The new-old floor complements existing concrete elements in the church, such as the original coloured glass and concrete windows designed by Susan Johnson and the large concrete base for the organ pipes. The result, enhanced by highly effective natural and artificial lighting (courtesy of a recent renovation), is a quietly dramatic, uplifting and meditative space with the sculptural altar and candleholders at its heart.

INFORMATION

maxlamb.org

ADDRESS

10 Meeting House Ln
London SE15 2UN

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Max Lamb presents a new body of work at New York’s Salon 94 Gallery (until 21 September 2021): titled ‘Wood, Stone’, this is the third in a series of solo exhibitions exploring ‘a direct, honest, and playful approach to materials’.

As the exhibition title suggests, ‘Wood, Stone’ presents two separate bodies of work; a series of wooden furniture pieces in Western Red Cedarwood, and a collection of chairs in stone, part of an ongoing collaboration with Italian granite specialist Pedretti. The pieces in both series consist in interlocking forms with a mix of straight, curved and scalloped edges, eclectically-formed blocks composed into familiar furniture shapes. 

Max Lamb's puzzle-like designs in wood

For the wooden pieces, Lamb describes his creative process as a puzzle in reverse. The starting point of these pieces are simple blocks of wood, measuring 6x6 or 6x8 inches: Lamb cut them into blocks, rearranged them and then mortised and tenon joined the resulting fragments into functional chairs, stools and benches. Apart from little sawdust, the designer notes, this process doesn’t create any material waste, as each piece that is cut from a single block is then recomposed into the furniture designs. Lamb likens this process to a game of chess, each move precisely planned in advance.

‘Each cut is mapped out and the consequence of the cut is processed before the incision is made, every cut and part generated is essential,’ says Lamb. ‘What is taken away cannot be too big or the grain is weakened, but each cut yields a positive and the benefit of the cut is potential for the block of wood to become something else with a larger surface area with more function.’

Stone furniture in collaboration with Pedretti

Elsewhere in the exhibition, Lamb experimented with the expressive possibilities of stone, with a collection monolithic seats made of gray Tonalite granite and red Dolomite rock. The collaboration with Pedretti was part of an exhibition by Lamb at Salon 94 in 2017:  titled ‘Boulders’, it focused on furniture made from these large stones, which the designer had found during his trips to the mountains around Carisolo, Northern Italy. ‘[...]I collected from the rivers a handful of the smooth rounded pebbles of the same black and white speckled granite found in the quarry,’ the designer recalled of his first few visits to the region. ‘The power of the fast paced river can be heard, felt and even tasted in the air due to the fine spray drifting down the valley from the thundering Cascate di Nardis waterfall. The power of the river is also immediately visible in the way it has carved the landscape over millions of years, and perhaps only slightly quicker, shaped the riverbed and eroded the loose granite rocks as they tumble down stream until they become perfectly smooth rounded boulders.’

Each piece in this new collection celebrates the complexity of the natural stone, whose natural patterns resemble man-made terrazzo. To keep the material intact as a compact volume, Lamb used several stone-cutting techniques to create his chairs: the ‘Wedge Chair’, made from a large slab of Tonalite, is created using an ancient stone splitting technique, known as feather and wedge, consisting of cutting the rock using metal wedges and spacers. Meanwhile, the making of the ‘Campione’ chair prototype combines over a dozen techniques, in which Lamb experimented and tested the versatility and history of stone working.

Far from an isolated creative exercise, the process behind each collection and piece is a combination of concentration and precision. Concludes Lamb" ‘each move is considered, exact and focused whilst also requiring a view on the macro, the whole, the end game.’

INFORMATION

‘Wood, Stone’ is on view until 11 September 2021
salon94.com

ADDRESS

Salon 94
3, East 89 Street
New York
NY 10128

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Max Lamb’s upcoming show ‘Urushi Wajima’ at London’s Gallery Fumi is the culmination of a nearly ten-year love affair with the finest Japanese urushi lacquer, and with the craftspeople in Wajima – in Ishikawa prefecture, on the northern tip of the Noto peninsula – who live and breathe the craft. ‘I’ve been in Wajima four times and just love working with all the craftspeople involved,’ says Lamb. His designs merge generations of tradition with his humorous and no-nonsense approach to the creative terrain between art and furniture.

If one can talk about a hierarchy of lacquer-producing regions in Japan, Wajima comes out on top. Wajima-nuri, as lacquer products from the small city (population 25,000) are known in Japan, are famed for superior durability. Their rigorous production involves layer upon layer of increasingly fine base coats, with careful drying, sanding and smoothing between each layer, until the final glossy top layer is applied, perhaps with some additional decoration in fine gold-leaf or coloured urushi.

Lamb’s first hands-on experience with the tradition was back in 2010, when he participated in an exhibition at the Japanese Embassy in London called ‘Collacqueration’. One of his early three-legged split-wood stools was given the all-over lacquer treatment by a Wajima craftsperson.

Since then, Lamb has developed his own approach to the lacquering process. In traditional Wajima-nuri, the wood grains are almost always completely hidden between the many layers of base coats. It can be difficult for the untrained eye to tell the difference between a wooden or plastic bowl. By keeping the wood grains exposed and doing away with the many layers of base coatings, Lamb manages to keep the true nature of the wood alive, while still keeping the luxurious finish of the lacquer.

Since 2010, Gallery Fumi has exhibited (and quickly sold) many more of Lamb’s Wajima works – including benches, stools and tables – but the new ‘Urushi Wajima’ show is an attempt to push boundaries and commit to an exhibition entirely focused on urushi. ‘This is without a doubt one of the most important shows we have been involved in as a gallery. It’s all incredibly exciting,’ says Gallery Fumi co-director Valerio Capo.

In Wajima, Motoya Daiku, the sixth-generation head of Tsutaya, one of the city’s many lacquer companies, is a key collaborator. In his beautiful townhouse office in the centre of the city, he explains the difference between Wajima-nuri and some of Japan’s other urushi traditions. ‘Wajima-nuri is by far the strongest tradition of Japanese lacquer,’ he says as he brandishes a 50cm-long piece of wood, divided into the 16 different coats in which a rice bowl or carrying tray would typically be covered. ‘And all this within a total thickness of only about 0.7mm.’

At his company’s nearby workshop, craftspeople are busy putting the final touches to some of Lamb’s larger items for the exhibition. There is a pitch-black pirate chest and an impressive bookcase, as well as a striking blood-red low cabinet with two snugly fitting sliding doors.

Lamb is known for being very hands-on, and usually creates most of his works himself, but for this exhibition he has given up some of his creative autonomy to more than 20 craftspeople in Wajima. They are producing the furniture series and a couple of large Wajima-nuri ‘Pillow’ bowls according to Lamb’s design. ‘The level of skill is extremely high,’ he says. ‘I wanted to celebrate the local artisans by handing over the entire process to them; from log to finished furniture.’ Some of the workers only do under or middle coats; others specialise in the final polishing, known as roiro. The ‘Urushi Pillow’ bowls alone, with production methods closest to traditional Wajima-nuri, involved ten people.

The bulk of the collection features roughly split, local noto-hiba (a kind of Japanese cypress similar to hinoki, also known as ate in the local dialect) planks that have been joined together to create simple pieces of furniture, such as the ‘Urushi Twin’ benches (both made from the same trunk), three- and four-legged stools, a chest and bookshelves, and finished in various shades of urushi lacquer. In addition to the ‘Urushi Pillow’ bowls, there is also the large, colourful ‘Urushi Pillow’ table, likewise finished in a combination of colourful urushi by master craftsman Hiroshi Nakakado.

The actual making of the pieces is based on trust between Lamb and the craftspeople. ‘I always start with the material and then design the furniture that will fit the material,’ says Lamb. His sketches are therefore pretty fuzzy in terms of exact dimensions, and he trusts the judgement of the Wajima craftspeople to interpret his vision.

And it’s this wonderful collaborative process, from the splitting (known as hegi in Japanese) of the wood by Mitsuru Kurata to the final urushi top coat by Matsuo Hikimochi, that really makes the pieces shine. Everyone involved brings their own speciality to the final piece, and the result is a testament to the skills of the Wajima craftspeople and Lamb’s understanding of the art.

As originally featured in the October 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*247)

INFORMATION

‘Urushi Wajima’ is on view from 14 September – 26 October. galleryfumi.com; maxlamb.org

ADDRESS

Gallery Fumi
2 Hay Hill
London W1

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

For Max Lamb’s new exhibition ‘Boulders’ at Salon 94 Design, the British designer looked back: to his graduate project, ‘Exercises in Seating’; to the early stone circles of his native Cornwall, England; and even further back to the formation of boulders in the Adamello-Presanella Alps in Italy. Lamb had visited this section of the Alps several times while working on commissions for Pedretti Graniti, an Italian granite quarry. The mountains, the Cascate Nardis waterfall and its rivers all captivated him.

‘The idea [behind this series] was driven by how the river dictates the Adamello mountains. The water slowly moves and shapes this extremely hard, craggy bedrock down the mountain so it becomes these rounded boulders, like beautiful organically carved mini-sculptures.’ To honour this natural process, Lamb preserved the majority of the stones’ exteriors – carving out just enough to create a single seat.

‘Chairs and stools are some of the most prevalent furniture in the domestic space,’ he says. ‘They can be standalone or grouped and are such iconic objects.’ The resulting 11 tonalite granite chairs and nine stools are arranged in two circular formations in the gallery space. ‘Circular motifs allow the pieces to have a dialogue with each other, but also hold equal value, equal weight,’ says Lamb.

‘Boulders’ is the fourth exhibition on view at Salon 94 Design, a collaboration between Salon 94 founder Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Paul Johnson of Johnson Trading Gallery, which launched in March this year.

To honour the natural process of erosion, Lamb preserved the majority of the stones’ exteriors

INFORMATION

‘Boulders’ is on view by appointment only. For more information, visit the Salon 94 Design website and the Max Lamb website

ADDRESS

Salon 94 Design
12 East 94th Street
New York NY 10128

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Step inside the sprawling east London studio space of Peter Pilotto and among the rails of colourful and intricately embroidered clothes, toiles and fabric swatches, you’ll find a spectrum of Martino Gamper’s colourful ‘Arnold Circus’ stools. These angular pieces formed the seating of the brand’s A/W 2017 show space; now, new versions of Gamper’s design, upholstered in the brand’s colourful fabrics, are available to buy at its pop-up design space in South Kensington. The brand’s three-storey takeover of a townhouse in Cromwell Place is part of Brompton Design District’s ‘Other Stories’ initiative for the London Design Festival.

Peter Pilotto’s eclectic installation features an assemblage of exclusive designs from not only Gamper, but a host of the brand’s artist and designer friends. It is an extensive iteration of the temporary space that the brand opened earlier this year, just a short hop away at Thurloe Place.

Resembling both a gallery setup, a vibrant home and a showroom, this curated two-room space featured furnishings seen in its A/W 2017 domestic interior-inspired runway. Held at the Palm Court at the Waldorf Hotel in Aldwych, the show featured a triptych of paintings by Peter McDonald, a Bethan Laura Wood-designed geometric print sofa and colourful tufty rugs by Max Lamb.

‘It’s all about showing people what surrounds us and our brand,’ explains co-founder Peter Pilotto. ‘We are so inspired when we’re in our friends homes or studios – that’s the kind of feeling we want to give to people,' the brand's other half, Christopher de Vos. To wit, the South Kensington installation includes a vast dressing room, populated with colour blocked mannequins, clothes hangers and fabric screens. Upstairs on the third floor, the brand’s colourful A/W 2017 collection can be found on display.

Furnishings and artworks by McDonald, Lamb, Wood and Schmid McDonagh populate the space, amongst ready-to-wear pieces. For A/W 2017, these include embroidered tweed outwear, bright leaf-detail velvet dresses and knitwear with Peruvian motif patches. The space also features delicate vases and jugs by glassblower Jochen Holz, who designed a range of organic curving earrings for the brand’s current collection. A selection of hand-knotted rugs, created by artisans in Ecuador, and graphic blankets spun from recycled yarns from its previous collections also feature.

Artist Francis Upritchard also made the ceramics that are dotted around the space. Peter Pilotto have collaborated with the artist for several years. In 2012, they worked on a series of colourful scarves for Studio Voltaire. For the brand’s S/S 2017 collection, Upritchard’s dinosaur and ‘Grumpy Moon’ illustrations also appeared as colourful patches on denim, caps and gingham shirts. ‘Peter and Christopher both have a fantastic sense of texture and colour,’ she says. ‘I’ve also used some of the patches on my small cap designs, and used their fabrics in some of the clothes for my figurative works.’

‘We were putting all our energy into show sets that the next day were gone,’ Pilotto explains of the decision to bring details of the brand's catwalk set ups into more concrete settings. ‘The space is demonstrating how its elements can be used and translated into different directions, which have more longevity.’

‘Our creative process is very much a conversation and exchange,’ says Martino Gamper, a frequent Wallpaper* collaborator, of his work with Peter Pilotto. ‘Since Peter and Chris are good friends of mine, we spend a lot of time together talking about each other's work. They’ve added their own sensibility to my “Arnold Circus” stool.’

The project also reflects the brand's fascination with the slower, more finite pace of the design world. It exists in a stark contrast to the swift seasonal pace of the fashion industry, where clothing collections are presented during a catwalk show that lasts a matter of minutes. ‘This is why working in London is so great,’ Pilotto says. ‘You have all these people that support fashion, and some of these designers are happy to be part of the world that we’ve created. We dine together and discuss a range of different things. We’re all interested in each other’s worlds.’

INFORMATION

Peter Pilotto’s pop-up is open until 24 September. For more information, visit the Peter Pilotto website and the Brompton Design District website

ADDRESS

3 Cromwell Place, SW7 2JN

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Finding the world’s favourite colour may sound like a ambitious and daunting task, yet it is one that, earlier this year, G . F Smith took on with gusto. A global survey ensued, with thousands of people from over 100 countries worldwide voting for their most beloved shade.

The Hull-based paper manufacturer announced Marrs Green – a deep green hue with a tinge of blue – as the winning colour. Submitted by survey participant Annie Marrs who was inspired by the landscape that surrounds her home in Scotland, the teal shade now joins G . F Smith’s Colourplan range as the 51st shade, and is available for use by designers, brands and individuals via their website.

The selection chimes with colour authority Pantone’s Colour of the Year – a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade. Colour theorist Caroline Till, who serves as director of FranklinTill Studio, and editor of Viewpoint Colour magazine believes that the popularity of all things green is no coincidence, saying: ‘In these uncertain times, where political and social upheaval has become the norm, we crave the calming tranquillity of green and its association with the reassuring certainty of nature’s cycles.’

A pop-up shop on Humber Street is selling a range of customised classic British products in the new Marrs Green hue

To celebrate the launch, G . F Smith has curated the exhibition ‘Paper City’ – a showcase of beautiful and surprising installations, that will be on display across a number of locations in Hull where the brand has been based since 1885. Eight leading creatives – including Adam Holloway, Max Lamb, Lazerian, Made Thought, Jacqueline Poncelet, Joanna Sands, Bethan Laura Wood and Richard Woods – were each invited to create inventive paper displays for the occasion.

‘Paper allows us to spend money, end wars, send love, become wiser and communicate to the future,’ reflects Made Thought co-founder Ben Parker. ‘From such a natural, rudimentary and innately beautiful material it has quietly, slowly and assertively transformed our world.’

On show until 9 July, pieces include Colourplan furniture by Max Lamb, who has used stacks of standardised stock paper sizes and weights to create his angular designs; a giant paper codfish sculpture by Lazerian celebrates Hull’s fishing industry as well as it’s famous fish and chips, while a colourful paper tapestry by Made Thought integrates the new Marrs Green stock.

Adam Holloway’s organic paper sculpture demonstrates how paper can be made into fluid forms, and a floor-based installation of cut and folded paper by Jacqueline Poncelet uses the full Colourplan range. In an old smoke house, Bethan Laura Wood has created paper seaweed from laminated papers; Joanna Sands has conjured a series of curved paper tiles that snake across the floor, while Richard Woods’ architectural-scale graphic brickwork interventions can be found along Humber Street. 

Also on Humber Street, visitors will find a pop-up shop selling a range of customised classic British products saturated in the new Marrs Green hue  – think teal Anglepoise lamps, Sunspel clothing and Cambridge Satchel Company bags.

Not only does ‘Paper City’ celebrate the launch of the new colour, it also forms the latest in the Look Up programme of public artworks being produced throughout the year for Hull UK City of Culture 2017 – a series that aims to challenge people’s perceptions of Hull and offer different ways to experience the city.

INFORMATION

‘Paper City’ is on view until 9 July. For more information, visit the G . F Smith website

ADDRESS

Humber Street Gallery
64 Humber Street
Hull HU1 1TU

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

It's hard to find any breathing room during the frenzy of Frieze in New York, but Salon 94 and Maccarone galleries, along with the newly minted Salon 94 Design, have created a moment of reprieve with a mammoth exhibition of design and art set on the second floor of the iconic Lever House. Entitled ‘Midtown’, the show brings together sculpture, vessels, paintings, furniture and tapestries from over 40 artists, all elegantly framed by wraparound windows that boast views of both Park Avenue and the building’s inner courtyard.

Set amidst such swanky, storied environs, the exhibition’s cross-section of contemporary creativity hits an even more poignant note. A cast foam recliner by Urs Fischer is juxtaposed by a table by Isamu Noguchi, while Gaetano Pesce’s epoxy resin and dacron cloud lamp sits on the floor. In another part of the sprawling space, complex, woven sculptures by Korean artist Kwangho Lee and gestural paintings by Alex Hubbard invoke equal appreciation.

Together, the exhibition collectively poses the ever-evolving question of how to define art and what contributes to a piece’s value – a debate made all the more given that the Lever House is also permanently home to numerous investment, real estate and brokerage firms, including its owner, Aby Rosen’s company RFR.

Aside from the Ghost Dog at Salon 94 Bowery last month, this exhibition marks the first official showing of Salon 94 Design – the gallery’s recently launched design-art enterprise headed up by dealer Paul Johnson, who previously operated his own space. Under Johnson’s direction, specimens by longtime collaborator Max Lamb from over the last decade also make an impressive appearance. 

‘Putting contemporary designers in the same arena as contemporary artists was the basis of the merger between myself and Jeanne,’ explains Johnson. ‘Not that we want to define design as art at all – rather the opposite, as we want it to be appreciated as exceptional design works. To be able to do it in such a landmark location was just something that made it all the more special for our big first collaboration. The space defined the show.’

INFORMATION

‘Midtown’ is on view until 9 June. For more details, visit the Salon 94 website

ADDRESS

Lever House
390 Park Avenue
New York NY 10022

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

The setting: an undistinguished Swedish town park outside Stockholm. The project: to create an installation of ‘Superbenches’ by tend leading designers as part of a wider urban development programme in the area of Järfälla, one of the country's fastest growing municipalities.

The idea behind Superbenches – curated by Felix Burrichter, the New York-based German creative director and founder of architectural magazine PIN–UP – is to involve the local people through the installations and give them a voice in the plans for the area’s future housing and landscaping programme. In doing so, he has made an eclectic mix of design practices reconsider the concept of the traditional park bench while retaining its basic function of providing an urban setting to meet, relax and be inspired.

The benches could either be upgraded existing versions or entirely new ones. ‘I wanted the group of designers to be varied in how they approach the idea of what a bench is – and what it could be. They’re a pretty heterogeneous group, with different cultural backgrounds, and I think that is reflected in the different bench designs,’ says Burrichter. ‘These benches are also thought of as mini social incubators, allowing people to come together, and develop a sense of community and pride in a park that up until recently was kind of forgotten and neglected.’

Italian architect Luca Cipelletti’s ’Primordial’ bench employs the Giga Bricks concept he created for The Shit Museum – think a sustainable clay-composite of processed, odourless cow dung. ‘The idea is to build a new archaeological find, a ruined architecture formed with a primordial material which brings together the principles of transformation and environmental sustainability, introducing a new relationship between objects and users,’ he explains.

The London-based design practice Soft Baroque – helmed by Saša Štucin and Nicholas Gardner – has created a polished stainless-steel bench mounted on spring feet, a slick grown-up version of a playground toy. ‘We wanted to create something that can physically communicate with the visitors,’ they say.

Other names include Dutch duo Scholten & Baijings, who redesigned five existing benches on site to create a dialogue with the colours of the surrounding area; Philippe Malouin’s offering aims to revitalise the interaction between the people and the neighbourhood; Max Lamb continues his site-specific approach with a chair using materials found on location. They are joined by the likes of Chinese designer Naihan Li; Märta Hägglund and Sanna Gripner from Sweden; New Yorker Leon Ransmeier; Jonathan Olivares from Boston; and Nigerian designer Ifeanyi Oganwu.

Next year, locals will vote for their favourite designs to be made permanent fixtures as a true testimonial to the designers’ concepts.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Kalejdohill website

ADDRESS

Kvarnbacken
Jakobsberg
177 64 Järfälla

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

‘It was time to take a fresh look at everything we did with denim,’ explains Acne Studios’ creative director Jonny Johansson of the Swedish brand’s decision to relaunch its denim line earlier this month. To mark its new 'Blå Konst' range- meaning ‘blue art’ - the brand have opened an equally masterly outpost in Shibuya, Tokyo, entirely dedicated to its new selection of men’s and women’s styles.

‘Blå Konst is a very personal project for me,’ says Johansson, who first moved into fashion design over a decade ago, when Acne Studios, then a creative agency, designed 100 pairs of raw denim jeans for its friends and family. ‘It was important to debut the concept in a place that was special,’ he adds. Like each new denim style that is created from scratch, the new 68m2 store features interior finishes exclusive to the space. Bright accents, including a sky blue carpet and an iron staircase painted signal red, are juxtaposed against metallic furnishings, like reflective stainless steel cubes, gold metal baskets and rails.

Juxtaposition is central to Acne Studios’ retail aesthetic. In its Max Lamb-designed Madison Avenue flagship, which opened last November, the space included bronze furniture and gold accents, contrasted against organic custom-made rugs which were hand-dyed in Lamb’s London studio and hand-tufted in Sweden. This interest in contrasts is highlighted in the Shibuya store too. Two Doric lamps created from NSEPS material, hang above the shining surfaces. They also accentuate the grainy canvas fabrics and speckled materials used in Blå Konst’s accompanying accessories offering, made up of every day totes, backpacks and and trainers.

This sense of the everyday, intrinsic to the idea of denim, is echoed in the store's inclusion of rotating vertical metal blinds and office-like overhead strip lighting. Outside, the facade of the store boasts a blue neon sign with a more stand out message: ‘we are here’. It highlights the second arrival of a brand that marked its initial entry into fashion with a ubiquitous yet utterly distinct item. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Acne Studios website

ADDRESS

1-10-8 Jinnan Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 105-0041

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

‘The design community has always been progressive, pioneering,’ says Kvadrat CEO Anders Byriel. ‘I think we forget how much impact it has – creating the products we all use and our surroundings. It can change the world.’ With that mission in mind, Kvadrat is coming to Salone del Mobile with a new material it hopes will prove a breakthrough for sustainable design. The textile giant has partnered with Really, a Danish start-up producing Solid Textile Board – a material made using recycled ‘end-of-life’ fabrics, mostly cotton and wool. The board is a first in the industry, and Kvadrat and Really have enlisted designer Max Lamb to create a collection that expresses its potential.

Long passionate about sustainability and recycling, Byriel now heads up the company his father co-founded in 1968; and these passions inform his decisions. ‘At Kvadrat we have always been obsessed with sustainability, and our audience is into it, too,’ he says. ‘As a business, you need to be progressive, move out of your safety zone, move faster.’ At Kvadrat, the aim is to reduce environmental impact in terms of resources, production and distribution, and to balance quality, social responsibility and environmental concern. It was such concerns that first attracted Really co-founder Wickie Meier to Kvadrat. Meier, who has taught sustainability in fashion at Esmod Berlin since 2011, had launched Really in 2012 in collaboration with Klaus Samsøe, co-founder of fashion label Samsøe & Samsøe and a pioneer of Danish fashion and recycling. Their ambition was simple: to give new life to end-of-life textiles.

Samsøe had learned that in Denmark alone, 1,000 tonnes of textiles is thrown away each year and incinerated. This is mostly cotton waste from the hospitality industry, but also denim and wool. Samsøe and Meier started thinking about how they could do something more with the waste than simply recycle it in its textile form. They wanted it to work on an industrial scale and landed on the Solid Textile Board idea.

The process behind the Really boards is simple and the technology it employs is not new. Samsøe and Meier simply devised new ways to use it. The raw material comes from different sources: cotton from Danish industrial steam laundries and a large Italian fabric recycler, as well as leftover wool from Kvadrat. The textiles are granulated into smaller fibres and ‘airlaid’ using steam machinery – a process that binds the short fibres – then flat-pressed to become hard board. No water or dye is used in the process and each board is produced in a standard size with a white, dense core made of cotton fibres and top layers that can be achieved using cotton or wool. The boards are available in white, blue or slate, depending on the material used. At the moment, they are being produced in a converted barn in Ebeltoft, near Kvadrat HQ, but Meier and Samsøe insist that production could be adapted to any location in the world.

‘This is a really serious material,’ says Lamb. ‘These raw materials haven’t been put together in this way before. It has amazing potential and properties, and therefore implications within the industry.’ Both Meier and Byriel say Lamb was the natural choice to help launch Solid Textile Board. He has a history of radical thinking with raw materials, including a dissected tree (from his grandfather’s garden), which he turned into furniture with minimal interventions on the trunk, and a series of polystyrene chairs titled ‘Scrap Poly Pastel’. ‘Each material has its own set of possibilities,’ says Lamb. ‘My work is about trying to extract the best of a material, in the simplest way; it’s about how little I can do to it to achieve the most.’

Having been involved with Really on the development of Solid Textile Board for over a year, Lamb got to grips with its composition and potential; experimenting with it back at his London studio allowed him to understand what he calls ‘the material’s personality’. One important feature, he notes, is the nondirectional composition of the fibres, which renders the board more flexible than other examples on the market.

Lamb chose the bench as the ideal piece of furniture to explore the material’s versatility, and produced 12 different designs that investigate its full potential. ‘The bench is a medium that really shows off the board. And also a bench is to be sat upon, and I want many people to sit on it, and become physical and intimate with the material,’ he says. The designer also stresses that almost every inch of the material was used, but that the Really system allows any offcuts to be recycled and incorporated into new boards.

Each bench will make use of the board’s 3.1m length, and their shapes are achieved using a variety of techniques: Lamb layered boards or cut them and slotted the pieces into each other, shaped them using different CNC cutting techniques, bent them to exploit the flexibility of the material, applied V-cuts and folded them into boxes for extra stability.

‘We thought that Max could release the materiality of Really,’ says Byriel. Meier agrees: ‘His contribution is not about seeing the object, it’s about seeing the potential,’ she adds. For her, intelligent design is essential to convey Really’s sustainability message. ‘Design is communicating, it’s problemsolving, it brings interaction,’ says Meier. But in the long run, it also has to help us make things more sustainable. ‘Design is needed to bring sustainability to that convenience level that we need to achieve to get things moving.’

Curated by Jane Withers, the Milan presentation will be accompanied by a book edited by Christien Meindertsma, offering an in-depth look at Solid Textile Board and Really’s role in its development. The brand’s name is a result of the process, and of Meier and Samsøe’s incredulity at seeing the board become a reality. ‘We were looking for a name that sounded happy: when you work with sustainability everything can be very serious,’ explains Meier. ‘And then we realised we kept saying that word: “Is this really happening? Are we really doing this?”’ They did, Really.

INFORMATION

‘Really: Designing Materials for Circularity’ ran from 3 –9 April at ProjectB Gallery in Milan. For more information, visit the Kvadrat website and Max Lamb’s website

Acne Studios' stores are ‘small personal time-stamps’, says Jonny Johansson, co-founder and creative director of the Swedish brand. For each location, Johansson calls upon a different architect, designer or artist to make their mark on the brand’s aesthetic – whether that’s Sophie Hicks in Seoul or Bozarthfornell Architects in Stockholm.

For the brand’s new flagship on Madison Avenue in New York, British designer Max Lamb created a furniture concept revolving around polycarbonate elements with gold accents and aluminium fittings with electrostatical gilding. ‘I always aim to work with creative people that I feel inspired by in some way’, says Johansson. ‘I prefer working long-term with different artists that are active in the world of art and architecture, not just fashion.’

Lamb regularly creates furniture that borders on art, and utensils that are made with labour-intensive techniques. He has also explored newfangled materials, such as man-made marble. For Johansson, it’s the often-unexpected results that make these collaborations worthwhile. ‘I enjoy seeing what they come up with. The surprise element for me is important.’

Sculptural bronze furniture are dotted around the store, while the structural pillars that stand in the space are scattered with semi-precious coloured stones. An organic touch that offsets the space’s signature gold accent is the custom-made rugs. Made of yarns hand-dyed in Lamb’s studio in London, and then tufted at Kasthall in Sweden, they are all different as the result of each tufter working with one yarn until finished – letting the material determine how the rug unfolds.

With women's and men's ready-to-wear, denim, bags and accessories on offer, the store is akin to a gallery in the sense that it is fully wrapped in glass to allow complete transparency; apart from a golden aluminum partition that divides the public front and private back area. ‘I like juxtaposing materials like that’, says Johannson. ‘It’s more about the combination of the materials and the feeling you get from combining them, rather than the materials themselves.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Acne Studios website

ADDRESS

926 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Opened in January on South Kensington’s Launceston Place, See••Ds is one of the most interesting design projects to have emerged in London in the past months. Owner Natalie Azzi has worked with Milanese studio Actant Visuelle to create a design that combines conceptual visual research with a retail dimension.

The latest effort of the gallerist features a collection of pottery pieces by Martino Gamper and 'friends’. Titled 'No Ordinary Love', the selling exhibition features an array of ceramic shapes created by the Italian designer as well as associates such as Bethan Laura Wood, Max Lamb, Tiago Almeida, Gemma Holt and Silo Studio, among others. The group of designers, who had been friends for a long time but had never collaborated on a project, took to an English workshop to create objects in clay, working as a collective and presenting work united by a sun-shaped logo.

The exhibition questions the concept of authorship and its importance in the design panorama. The curation (by Gamper in collaboration with the duo behind Actant Visuelle) asks several questions relating to the pieces’ signatures, wondering whether authorship is in fact more important than an object’s aesthetic or function.

To create a conversation around this concept, the three curators devised a series of rules for the collection, the first of which was unveiled on the exhibition’s opening. Each piece has been signed by the collective, and sold at a starting price. A buyer can accept this price and the somewhat anonymous origin of a piece, or request to know the author but pay double the starting figure.

The second part of the exhibition features further new projects by the designers, using a variety of media and materials, and expressing each creator’s aesthetic. These include a series of solid, hand-bent aluminium chairs and furniture by Max Lamb, neon light shapes by Jochen Holz, an etched glass cocktail set by Bethan Laura Wood and steel furniture by Faudet Harrison.

This double project strengthens the gallery’s engagement with design on a deeper level, creating a broader movement while at the same time presenting new work by an exciting roster of designers. 

INFORMATION

'No Ordinary Love – Martino Gamper with Friends' is on view until 20 January. For more information, visit the See••Ds website 

ADDRESS

3 Launceston Place
London W8 5RL

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

The 'Brompton Cocktail' has a dark and somewhat disturbing history: a London legend, the concoction was administered as palliative care to the local hospital since the 1920s, and included a mix of morphine and cocaine that acted as a painkiller. 

The blend inspired curator Jane Withers, who used it as a focus for the Brompton Design District’s latest project. The 'Brompton Cocktail', explains Withers, is about transformation, which is also the theme for the district’s 10th anniversary: ‘From diverse ingredients into a potent formula, from base materials into thoughtful ideas and objects, from one state of mind to another, from one world to the next.’ The project celebrates the area’s transformation, and its diverse creative offering, ranging from independent design destinations to the large furniture showrooms existing in close connection. 

Withers invited a group of London designers to create modern-day interpretations of the lethal cocktail (which was administered until the 1970s, and served as inspiration for the Italian Futurists, and more), and the resulting menu, she notes, reflects the diversity of the district’s collaborators. The fantastic range on offer is an inspiring look at creative mixology: from Tomàs Alonso’s ‘Rusty Nail Sbagliato’, to Max Lamb’s Cornwall-inspired 'White River', Martino Gamper's 'Gingerini', a conceptual beer experiment by Peter Marigold, and de Allegri and Fogale’s 'Flora Gin', among others.

Presented through an installation by inventive gastronomic studio Arabeschi di Latte (who themselves contributed a cocktail, the 'Pretty Hanky Panky'), and served in specially developed glassware by Bitossi, the project is accompanied by a recipe book, should anyone wish to recreate the creative cocktails at home. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Brompton Design District's website

We’ve always been partial to outstanding woodwork, championing craftsmanship and design that uses the noble material, spanning both the end result and the creative process behind it. So, when the shortlist arrived for the annual Wood Awards, we couldn’t help but sit up and take notice.

The 2016 awards are, as always, chock full of timber gems, including large (buildings) and smaller (furniture) scales, as well as installations and anything in-between.

The building categories include work in several typologies: commercial and leisure (such as the Stihl Treetop Walkway in Gloucestershire by Glenn Howells Architects), education and public sector (such as the Maggie’s centre at the Robert Parfett building by Foster + Partners), interior (such as the Christ Church Crypt in Spitalfields by Dow Jones Architects) and private house (such as Ansty Plum in Wiltshire by Coppin Dockray). A special section is dedicated to small, but perfectly formed projects, such as the likes of Zeller & Moye’s Hollow installation at the University of Bristol.

Furniture and product are equally well represented; nominees include two bespoke designs (like the 'Log Stack Cabinet' by Byron and Gomez), six production (such as the 'Planks' collection, designed by Max Lamb and made by Benchmark) and four student designs (including the 'Velo Chair' by Jan Waterston).

The 20 buildings and 12 product and furniture pieces that have been shortlisted will now go head-to-head through a rigorous judging process, in a competition seeking to honour excellence in architecture and product design involving the material. The final winners will be announced at the annual Wood Awards ceremony at Carpenters’ Hall in London on 22 November.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Wood Awards website

Now in its ninth year, the Design Guild Award recognises the best in contemporary design from British designers working in the UK and abroad.

The Marks & Spencer depot behind Westfield, in the wastelands of White City, is not where you'd expect to find Britain’s greatest furniture designers. But once a year, this is where they convene, to take part in and judge the Design Guild Mark awards.

Now in its ninth year, the award, granted by the charitable Furniture Makers' Company, recognises the best in contemporary design from British designers working in the UK and abroad. This year, the initiative saw 39 entrants – spanning sectors from residential to contract, to retail and hospitality – with 19 granted the award. The winning designs go on show during London Design Festival this September.

With judges on the hunt for excellent design, materials, manufacture and function, each entrant had to present their work and undergo a Dragons’ Den-style interrogation. Among them was Max Lamb, with his 'Planks Collection' table for Benchmark; David Irwin with his 'Hardy Chair' for Another Country; and Jo Wilton and Mirka Grohn of &New with their consoles, coat hooks and side tables. 

All nine judges agreed that the quality this year was higher than ever, thanks to a new emphasis on volume production. Handmade pieces in wood, such as the kitchen by Sebastian Cox for deVOL, dominated, reflecting the continuing trend for craftsmanship. British furniture designer John Makepeace, who was present to select a winner for his forthcoming design innovation prize, spotted some gaps: ‘I would like to see more technology and design in there with the bespoke pieces, as furniture incorporates both things. And there’s a lack of pieces aimed at 25–35-year-olds who too often have to rely on IKEA.’

Sebastian Conran, director of Conran + Partners, was among the judges. ‘It’s good to see some of the finest British designers explain the thought, detail and craftsmanship that goes into their designs,' he says. 'Often it is the intangible things that are the most important and yet difficult to discuss, as it is often a question of that ghastly word, “taste”.’

Jeremy Myerson, Helen Hamlyn chair of design at the Royal College of Art adds, 'Furniture has its own relationship with space, with people and with objects. The judges saw excellent designs in all three categories, which is encouraging for the sector.'

This year, the initiative saw 39 entrants – spanning sectors from residential to contract, to retail and hospitality – with 19 granted the award.

The winning designs go on show during London Design Festival this September.

Samuel Chan's 'Magnus' chair, for Channels. With both of the designs, Chan wanted to play with basic forms, whether cubes or multiple strips of wood

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Furniture Makers’ Company website

Nike's vice president of global design, John Hoke, recently gave ten progressive designers – including Sebastian Wrong, Max Lamb, Martino Gamper, Greg Lynn and Lindsey Adelman – a simple brief: 'To help explore and abstract, question and challenge the notion of mobility, motion and movement.' 

After working closely with a creative, collaborative team of people 'who could challenge us and vice-versa', Nike is now exhibiting the results of its 'The Nature of Motion' project in Milan as part of Salone del Mobile 2016. 'Each piece is a unique exploration, a piece of poetry expressed either by form and surface, scale, equilibrium, the nature of gravity or rhythm, how the body reacts to heat and cool,' says Hoke. Any materials were allowed – and any medium of expression permitted.

British furniture designer Max Lamb has contributed the brutal surreality of an installation made up of super heavy aluminium, granite and polystyrene blocks levitating above an invisible skirt of compressed air. The air enables each apparently immovable object to glide across a white rink at the lightest touch, challenging our perceptions of weight, effort and movement.

Best known for his lighting, British designer and creative director Sebastian Wrong conceived an ergonomic chair formation, intended as communal seating for team sport. A longstanding champion of the futurist art movement, Wrong was inspired by Umberto Boccioni’s 1913 painting Dynamism of a Soccer Player, abstracting the colours, movement and dynamics of the canvas on to Nike's Flyknit textile which he wrapped around a hollow, hexagonal steel frame. 'When we went to Nike’s HQ in Oregon to talk about the projects, they referred to us as "artists", not designers, and this made me think, I don’t have to deliver a practical solution here... I can be indulgent!' explains Wrong. 'Ironically, I went on to produce one of the more functional exhibits. It’s a "sling thing" made of weather-proof fabric, designed for sports teams to rest on before or after a game. The construction is very simple so it can packed down to nothing and easily adapted to a single chair design.'

Viewed from above, Wrong’s energetic interpretation of Boccioni’s soccer artwork provides a goal mouth scramble of swirling colour. 'The futurist manifesto was all about noise, action, agitation, intervention. I tried to get a bit of that energy in this piece also.'

Inspiration for Martino Gamper’s contribution to 'The Nature of Motion' came from the unlikely source of veteran rock drummer Ginger Baker. Gamper watched a documentary about the legendary Cream drummer (2012's Beware of Mr Baker) and also saw the 76 year old percussive genius play live. 'He can’t walk any more but he can still drum!' says Gamper.

When asked to contribute to Nike’s project, Gamper decided on a collection of drums and drum kits that creates a commentary on the rhythm of 'natural motion' by combining technical Flyknit textiles and Nike laces with laminated plywood forms. 'I was thinking of the Rio Olympics, the drums of the carnival,' says Gamper, striking a nearby snare with a blue stick. 'We made special weaves of Nike Flyknit material with areas of different densities and colour, like you see on steel drums. We stretched the fabric over the drums as skins.' A professional drummer will be behind Gamper’s kit when the exhibition opens officially today.

Dutch designer Bertjan Pot’s work is propelled by an impulsive curiosity concerning materials, techniques, structures, patterns and colours that leads him to push conventional manufacturing boundaries and experiment with textile and weaving techniques. Rotterdam-based Pot’s series of resting pods takes the notion of the wheel – a symbol of momentum and movement – as a structural starting point.

By upholstering the inner tubes of a car, wheelbarrow, truck and tractor with ropes, Nike laces and belts, he has initiated an unexpected but effective meeting of artisanal hand-weaving techniques and high-performance materials. “The first idea was: Nike makes you tired. Nike wants you to participate in sport,' says Pot. 'Nike wants you to come to Milan, walk around all day and look at their exhibition. So how about I create something that encourages rest and relaxation instead of activity.'

Pot did the labour on the Polynesian/Indonesian-influenced, basket-woven pieces himself, sometimes with the help of a single assistant. 'Thirty-two days of weaving! Most pieces are made of just three or four lengths of continuous fibre wrapped around each tyre or tube. For the bigger pieces I would stand inside the tyre passing the roll of material up and over, back and forth, inside and out to my intern.' There's art in action at 'The Nature of Motion'.

INFORMATION

’The Nature of Motion’ is on view until 17 April. For more information, visit Nike’s website

ADDRESS

Via Orobia 15
20139, Milan

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

After more than a decade spent as spectators at Salone Del Mobile, the Oregon-based Nike design team has finally decided to make its own contribution to Milan Design Week.

For its spectacular debut project – 'The Nature Of Motion' – Nike's vice president of global design, John Hoke, invited ten progressive, contemporary designers including Sebastian Wrong, Martino Gamper and Max Lamb to explore natural motion through various mediums. Some works are conceptual, foreshadowing future technologies, while others are more practical. In many cases, materials unique to Nike, such as Flyknit, have been applied. The project’s intention is to illustrate the potential of the human body through a synergy of form, function and motion. Nike’s obsession with 'natural motion' persists and with each innovation, the gap between product and body lessens.

The unique collaborations – which variously reference, heat, energy, light, lightness, movement, rest, rhythm and percussion – are housed in a vast industrial space (100m down the road from the Fondazione Prada, south of Central Milan) transformed into a sensual, experiential Nike journey. From huge video installations and touchy/feely synthetic horticulture, to kinetic sculpture, drum kits and outlandish shoe prototypes, each collaborative exhibit is separated by sweeping white walls, constructed by hand from thousands of Nike shoe box bricks.

Wallpaper* sat down with John Hoke to discuss the genesis of the project, handpicking designers and the company's obsession with form and function.

W*: The shoe box walls are a bonafide sculptural wonder. How many Nike shoe boxes were used exactly – and how did they get here? 
JH: I think there are between 20,000 and 25,000 boxes. Let’s just say it’s a lot.

You trained as architect and sit on the board at Herman Miller, so Salone del Mobile has long been on your radar, but why is it important for Nike to be at Salone in among all the furniture and kitchens? 
The Nike team has come to Salone for many years as observers and we felt, because of the nature of the focus on design and creative excellence, and unique innovations, it was time that we presented something ourselves. For us, 'The Nature of Motion' is a discourse, a point of view – a dialogue with the city of Milan and its assembled, creative minds. It’s our position. The exhibit is focussed on three things: collaboration, sports innovation and the notion of imagination. To begin to get a glimpse into the not too distance future, showing where we think the world of design is going.

The exhibition has been two years in the planning, right? 
Yes, almost two years. But really, this is a journey we’ve been on for 40 years and it’s a journey that is never complete. It’s a pursuit of thinking about how we study the body, how we create products – footwear, clothing etc. Our mission is to create a symbiotic, one-on-one relationship that is in perfect harmony with the body in motion. Where the athlete is free from distraction. It’s dynamic design; we operate on the principle that if we can design a cohesive system that works together, we can effectively reduce or eliminate all meaningful distractions and allow the athlete’s mind and body to focus solely on performance.

Some of the conceptual pieces in the exhibition are pretty wild. As outlandish as they are, do you see some elements or design details of those concepts becoming integrated into Nike production models in the future?
The concepts take us to the edge of what’s possible. It’s all about letting your dream of design overtake your logic of design. What I see are glimpses in those exhibits, details and ideas that will begin to point us in certain directions in the future. Many of them deal with the sensation of sending signals up through the body via the soles of the feet and that is something that is very fundamental to us at Nike. Yes, some of the shoes are absurd – but if you are honest as a designer, dreaming unencumbered by logic is the right way to be. 

How did you arrive at the collection of collaborative talent for the exhibition?
They are all people with whom we believed we could engage and exchange, people who could challenge us and vice-versa. They are helping take us someplace new, helping us with our dialogue.

What brief did you give the collaborators exactly?
The brief was pretty simple; help explore and abstract, and question and challenge the notion of mobility, motion and movement. Each piece is a unique exploration, a piece of poetry expressed either by form and surface, scale, equilibrium, the nature of gravity or rhythm, of how the body reacts to heat and cool – all of which happen to be narratives synonymous with the narratives of athletes, by the way. Each one has taken us into a different vein of thinking.

Away from nature, what else has influenced the Nike design team recently?
Nature and the body is always a foundational thought for us but we will study anything that moves… anything that has intentional motion that involves power and grace. Recently, we went to Kyoto to study the intention of craft and how craft works with nature. We’ve also visited lots of different engineers, artists, designers. We are wide open – we have spent time with zoo keepers, to look at animal movement, with couturiers, tailors, automotive designers. Even Google.

You talk a lot about 'performance and beauty'...
At Nike we are problem solvers – function. And we are taste-makers – beauty. And we believe that the unique juxtaposition and harmonising of those two ideas is Nike’s distinct advantage. We don’t sacrifice either beauty or function. For us, the goal is goose bumps, a visceral reaction to something beautiful, because the best design should captivate at first glance We want to make iconic, hypnotic products so that people will be inspired by the form and surface, but also thrilled by the intention and function. The perfect balance of art and science. When we do it really well, it’s hard to know where one starts and the other stops.

INFORMATION

'The Nature of Motion' is on view until 17 April. For more information, visit Nike's website

ADDRESS

Via Orobia 15
20139, Milan

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Delfina Delettrez Fendi, the latest in a line of creative female entrepreneurs with her surname, set up her jewellery company in 2007, at the age of 20. Her unique aesthetic, combining the surreal and contemporary with classic goldsmith techniques, made her the youngest designer to be included in the permanent collection of fine jewellery at the Louvre’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Judging our awards was, she maintains, a fun and inspiring experience: ‘I appreciate the idea that design can embrace so many different categories and visions.’ Among her prize picks was the Lattice House by Sameep Padora & Associates: ‘The material doesn’t look like timber but almost a metal, and the house doesn’t look like a house. It looks impenetrable from the outside, but from the inside it is the complete opposite. I loved to imagine the dancing movement of shadows changing with the light during the day.’

Delettrez is also a fan of our Best City, Copenhagen. ‘Its architecture is expanding in a smart way, using natural resources and avant-garde design,’ she says. Meanwhile, Milan provided her with her Best New Public Building, the Fondazione Prada. ‘I observed when I first visited the complex on a grey and rainy day that an enormous amount of light in the form of reflections changed the perception of the whole area. So not only the foundation tower, but many of the surrounding buildings seemed golden.’

Many of the Judges’ Awards nominees were inspiring, says Delettrez, especially those designers she hadn’t come across before: ‘I was happy to discover Max Lamb’s work. Especially the 'Marmoreal Black' bathroom. Divine!’

As originally featured in the February 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*203)

See the Design Awards 2016 in full – including our extra-special Judges' Awards - here

Those familiar with Max Lamb’s designs—created as functional furniture that double as sculptural pieces of art— will know that they are as much about the process as the finished product. Such is the case with the designer’s latest body of work Man, Rock, Drill, which makes its debut at the Johnson Trading Gallery in New York City this week. The 26-piece marble collection started with the conceptual idea of a man in a van with a drill, looking for stone.

'For this collection, I wanted to work in a more independent way. I still have to collaborate; I still have to find the materials, so I have to find the quarry, but I wanted to do all the work myself,' says Lamb, who completed the collection—made with marble from one single quarry in Danby, Vermont—in less than a month.

Lamb’s process – which included recently purchasing a core drill to make this exercise independent possible – began a month earlier when he landed in NYC, loaded his equipment into a van and drove to Vermont. He then spent the next three weeks making friends with the quarry workers and choosing the stones that would ultimately become the collection. 'This process was so enlightening as to what I could physically manage myself… and it was just me, a drill, and some wooden rollers,' explains Lamb.

Using marble was a departure for the designer, who usually works with more common materials like sandstone, limestone and granite. 'I had sort of stayed away from marble. But if I could bring back an honesty to the object and a lack of refinement in a way, then I could make marble not seem super luxurious—that’s not what I want,' says Lamb. The range of pieces, which Lamb designed and created based on each stone’s characteristics, are sanded but left unpolished, playing to that lack of refinement that Lamb was seeking. 'These will be around forever, and they’ve already been around for 3 million years. It’s just now they look a little bit different,' says Lamb. 

INFORMATION

Man, Rock, Drill is on view till 15 December. For more details, visit Johnson Trading Gallery’s website

ADDRESS

Johnson Trading Gallery
72 Franklin St
New York

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

PAD, the unofficial sister event to Frieze Art Fair, opened this week for its annual gallery gathering in London's Berkeley Square. This year, the Mayfair location factored in more high design than its antique-heavy preceding years, celebrating an exquisite mix of 20th century and contemporary works.

The usual flurry of clean cream and light wood decorated stands were given a run for their money by interior design dame Rose Uniacke. The London-based gallery displayed Scandinavian furniture including Hans Wegner and Mogens Voltelen's seating against a dramatic blue backdrop and darkened, weathered floors.

Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery presented Wendell Castle’s ergonomic seating, entitled ‘Veiled in a Dream’. Produced in the gallery's new research hub, the bronze furniture reflects the American artist's boldly sculptural vision fused with humour.

French designer Hervé Van der Straeten displayed his new abstract origami furniture pieces, inspired by spaceships and flowers, and German photography gallery Daniel Blau calmed the tone with a display of exhilarating NASA photographs, taken from space missions in the 1960s and 70.

Elsewhere, Gallery Fumi collaborated with I Vassalletti’s Francesco Perini, who divided their set up with an artistic patterned wooden screen that complimented the organic works (which included an LDF favourite in Max Lamb’s 'My Grandfather's Tree' chair).

It was New York’s Friedman Benda gallery who exhibited perhaps the biggest highlight of the show – Paul Cocksedge’s 'Freeze’ desk. The futuristic, metallic model contained a conceptual line up of copper, silver and gold panels on the tabletop; by being quite so reflective, you couldn't help but stare.

INFORMATION

PAD London is on view until 18 October

ADDRESS

PAD
Berkeley Square
London, W1

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

To mark the not insignificant occasion of our 200th issue, we at Wallpaper* have expanded our Power 100 list of the world's pre-eminent design talent into a leviathan and (even more) comprehensive Power 200.

Inevitably, our list is stuffed with consistent old-hands and longstanding design royalty. But as part of this exploded approach, we've also curated a concise selection of the finest practitioners under 40 – not so much the stars of tomorrow as precocious dazzlers. Some have nudged and shunted design in new directions, others have laid claim to tropes and traditions, refining and redefining as they go.

Among the ranks are familiar faces such as (Wallpaper* award winner) Philippe Malouin, Paul Cocksedge, Fabien Cappello and Daniel Rybakken, as well as the cutting edge likes of Studio Glithero (who revel in reimagining design as performance art), Formafantasma, mischer'traxler and Alexis Georgacopoulos, the director of ECAL – Europe's most innovative design school.

Unsurprisingly for a generation so imbued with an appreciation for natural asceticism, minimalism and sustainable practice are a common theme here, from the artisanal excavations of Max Lamb, Anglo-Japanese duo Studio Swine's found-object product design, the recycled wooden birds of Lars Beller Fjetland and the deceptively simple designs of Nicolas Le Moigne, Nao Tamura and Konstanin Grcic alumnus-turned-accessory designer Pauline Deltour.

There's playful decadence here too, though, be it in Bethan Laura Wood's flamboyant work with pattern and marquetry, the midcentury-leaning designs of Beirut duo David & Nicolas, the unabashed modern glam of Lee Broom, Sebastian Herkner's elegant technicolour creations or the reliably skewed designs of London's Raw-Edges, designers of the iconic 'Stack' drawer.

Finally, Gesa Hansen – founder of The Hansen Family – tops off the pile with a smattering of warm Nordic modernism.

Our 20 under 40 are already designers on the top of their game – where they'll go from here (and where they'll end up in next year's list) is anyone's guess.

See the Power 200 in full here

INFORMATION 
See the Power 200 in full

Precisely 90 years ago, Le Corbusier debuted his ground-breaking Pavillon de L'Espirit Nouveau at the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, best known for Art Deco masters such as Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann. At the time, the architect’s cube-shaped housing unit distinguished by stark white walls and an open floor plan sparked considerable outrage. Now, in tribute to Corb’s visionary project, the Swiss Institute is staging 'PAVILLON de l'Espirit Nouveau: a 21st century show home', referencing his revolutionary approach through the eyes of more than 30 cutting-edge global architects and designers.

The show is curated by architect Felix Burrichter, the founder of Pin-Up magazine, who anchored the project within the Soho Swiss Institute’s stylish two-storey quarters, once the home of Jeffrey Deitch’s gallery.

‘I’ve created an environment that expands on Le Corbusier’s setting but rather speaks of our age with a pronounced emphasis on both escapism and surveillance,’ explains Burrichter. Architect Shawn Maximo designed the exhibition, bringing in 12 surveillance cameras that capture the gallery visitor walking through the show. They can even be found perching on actual pieces of design: from Max Lamb’s coffee table composed of marble scraps set in resin; to Piero Lissoni and Paul Kopkau's Carbon Frog Chair; and Ifeanyi Oganwu's sleek stainless steel shelving.

‘As to the design, all it was produced in the past 15 years,’ notes Burrichter who commissioned work by Josh Bitelli and Bethan Laura Wood. Other designers include Jasper Morrison and Joris Laarman, plus a host of new names.

Yes, standard domestic spaces like the bedroom and kitchen fill the gallery but Maximo ramped up the stakes when he created a ‘Power Room’ complete with a climbing wall made up of Josh Bitelli’s silvery mirrored glass chunks.

The Swiss Institute director Simon Castets best sums up this creative endeavor. ‘As to totality, Felix’s creation is about stepping into the future while blurring the lines of reality and fantasy,’ he says. So if you’re hankering to take in an immersive experience with interiors and design of the moment, the Institute is place to go.

INFORMATION

‘PAVILLON de l’Espirit Nouveau: a 21st century show home’ is on view until 8 November

Photography courtesy of l'Espirit Nouveau

ADDRESS

Swiss Institute
18 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10013

TELEPHONE

1212 925 2035

British designer Max Lamb was inspired by a tree in his grandfather’s garden in Yorkshire for his latest project – titled My Grandfather’s Tree, appropriately – which is showing at London Design Festival this week in collaboration with Gallery Fumi.   

The tree in question was a female ash tree, ‘born’ in 1822 and so tall, the designer explains, that from its top you could see York Minster, a full 25 miles away from his grandfather’s house. In 2009, the tree started to rot and it became necessary to take it down, inspiring Lamb to give it a new life and shape with a poetically-conceived furniture project.

‘The typical afterlife of a felled tree is very sad,’ the designer says, explaining that an old tree’s fate is usually as firewood. ‘A quick and sad ending for these incredible structures of nature, and a waste of such a wonderful material containing so much potential.’

To offer a design-led afterlife to the tree, Lamb collaborated with tree surgeon Jon Turnbull, who helped section it in a way respectful of its structure, branches, knots and crotches. ‘I wanted the tree to remain integral to the wood and to maintain the story told by its 187 annual growth rings,’ Lamb explains. The rings gave the tree’s history a well-documented identity, illustrating not only its growth but also the humidity and temperature of each of its epochs, the direction in which it grew and the climatic condition of each growing year.

The result of the collaboration is a collection of 131 pieces, including stools, small tables and chairs. ‘Learning by collaborating is the essence of what I do and the language I speak,’ says Lamb, whose work is often inspired by the craftsmen, engineers and makers he learns from – in this case, Turnbull, who was instrumental in helping him understand the material at hand.

Lamb’s participation in the Festival includes another project working with wood. His collaboration with Benchmark also looks at the life of a tree, sectioning it in a different direction to create long tables using a single plank from a tree’s trunk. Both projects highlight the designer’s talent for working in wood, establishing a testimony to his keen craftsman’s sensibility. 

INFORMATION

My Grandfather’s Tree is on show at Somerset House until 27 September

ADDRESS

The Embankment Galleries
Somerset House
Strand
London, WC2R 1LA

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

For Design Miami/ Basel's 10th edition, the pioneering fair returned to its Herzog & de Meuron-designed fairgrounds, once again offering an excellent selection of participating galleries and collateral projects, and initiating a wide range of design conversations. 

'It's hard to believe that a decade has passed since the first edition,' said the fair's co-founder Craig Robins, inaugurating from the confines of Jean Prouvé's 'Total Filling Station'. In 2005, he worked with Ambra Medda, Patrick and Laurence Seguin, and Didier and Clémence Krzentowski to develop an event that would act as an international platform for collectable design. The market has since grown, he adds, 'thanks to the efforts of those visionary dealers who helped us launch the inaugural edition, held in a church in Basel'.

As executive director Rodman Primack (celebrating his first anniversary in the role) explained, the number of participating galleries has more than tripled; 46 separate participants now make up the Design Miami/ family. He also noted how the fair had evolved beyond the solely commercial realm, becoming a bona fide 'forum for design'.

The variety of work on show over the week clearly exemplified this concept: from 'Design At Large''s prefab debate – coordinated by André Balazs – to the 'Design Curio' platform, which Primack defines as 'little slivers of the design world which don’t necessarily fit into the market commercially'. The latter included Belgian gallery Maniera – establishing an intriguing design language with editions of products by architects – and Dzek's bathroom booth, constructed in black marmoreal by Max Lamb and Brent Dzekciorius.

At the far end of the fairgrounds, Tom Kundig's 'Outpost Basel' lounge took the shape of a pavilion pairing architectural prowess with a wider discourse on sustainability and design. Nearby, the three Swarovski Designers of the Future – Elaine Ng Yan Ling, Tomás Alonso and Studio Swine – offered an inspiring insight into the contemporary design landscape, giving new life to crystal and showing their three practices’ signature styles in a new light.

The galleries on show provided a strong combination of fresh projects, installations and older pieces, with highlights including Demisch Danant's artfully presented carpet collection – created by artist Sheila Hicks for her 1971 exhibition in Rabat, Morocco, and not publicly displayed since – which was shown alongside pieces by Michel Boyer, Pierre Paulin and Maria Pergay as 'Radical Rabat'. Carwan Gallery's solo installation of works by Beirut-based Karen Chekerdjian highlighted the designer’s sinuous and graphic language, her monumental light pieces effectively stealing the show. 

Finally, New York gallery R & Company reminded us of how design can combine an iconic aesthetic with both humour and a noble purpose. Gallery founders Evan Snyderman and Zesty Meyers worked with German designer Renate Müller (whose toys for children with mental and physical handicaps were first developed in the 1960s), presenting a new collection of therapeutic soft toys that were entertaining, elegant and thoughtful.