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DIY
Studiomama
Outdoor Kitchen
You can build this outdoor kitchen by Studiomama yourself, A-Team fashion, out of stuff found in your garage – as long as your garage contains a copper pipe, a plastic bowl, a watering can, a garden hose, a cast iron single gas burner, a gas flask, a large sheet of 6mm plywood and a few other bits and pieces. It was part of the Ten exhibit at 100% Design and Studiomama is publishing the instructions for how to build it on its website. “When the weather is up for it, I love
to cook outside,” says Nina Tolstrup of Studiomama, and that’s how the kitchen was born. It’s carefully thought through and appealing in its simplicity – it even has a chopping board and a drawer for all your utensils.
LIVE
Established & Sons Limited
Design Against the Clock
Established & Sons’ CEO, Alasdhair Willis, announced his departure from the company on the eve of the London Design Festival, threatening to steal the limelight from the company he helped found. However, Established & Sons had a few tricks up its sleeve. It acted pub landlord at the Wenlock Arms, it showed the new collection, launched in Milan, in its London showroom. But its best venture was Design Against The Clock at its gallery in St James’s. There was a real air of concentration as you entered the space, where artists and designers including Gavin Turk and E&S’s design director Sebastian Wrong spent a day making something, turning the gallery into a workshop. Our favourite was the arch that design duo Committee built out of the leftovers of consumer culture and the multicoloured sticks suspended from the ceiling by Tord Boontje.
credit Nick Ballon
NEW VENTURES
RCA
Design Products Collection
There was a lot of debate about whether the Design Products department at the RCA did the right thing launching this commercial venture dedicated to selling its graduates’ work. “We want to be supportive of our alumni by creating a bridge to help our graduates to realise projects that maybe otherwise wouldn’t be commercialised,” says Tord Boontje, head of the Design Products department. “It’s also a new way of publicising the course and our students’ work.”
The debut collection contained 14 items selected by Boontje and Gareth Williams. Many of the projects can be recognised from previous year’s graduation shows, such as Greetje van Helmond’s precious Sugar Jewellery or Oscar Narud’s Keel stool, as well as recent graduate Hye-Yeon Park’s digitally animated In-between Clock. The collection is now on sale, both directly to individuals and to stores, and will travel to Milan in April.
credit Dominic Tschudin & Tom Jarvis
NEW VENTURES
Studio Toogood
Assemblage 1
“I think we need to start caring about where design comes from,” says Faye Toogood of her studio’s venture into furniture design. Studio Toogood’s first collection is called Assemblage 1 and includes a series of lights, two tables, a chair, a stool and a cupboard. Using simple geometric forms, the focus is on the skill of the craftsmanship, cleverly and beautifully revealed in the details. “There are no gimmicks here,” says Toogood. “The ingredients are clean and so are the forms.”
The Spade chair in English sycamore merges a three-legged milking stool with a backrest that resembles the handle of a spade. The details are in brass, making the object come across as more precious. The backrest has a removable roll to support the back. “Having moved from the world of interior styling for media to doing interior design for real homes made me look at furniture differently,” says Toogood. “I want to create furniture that people can put their own imprint on.”
credit Studio Toogood
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Image
London Design Festival
Words
Anna Bates, Douglas Murphy, Johanna Agerman Ross
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