As if this year’s London Design Festival hadn’t excited enough of you, an event at Shoreditch Design Triangle-hub Ace Hotel Shoreditch promised super stimulation! Amongst a number of things happening at the hotel last week was Super Stimuli, an exhibition run in conjunction with Modern Design Review that saw four specially chosen designers get to work on personalised projects within Ace’s public spaces.
Bethan Laura Wood, Michael Marriott, Fabien Cappello and Martino Gamper were tasked to respond to the existing functional spaces with their own installations; MDR paired each participant with a functional space based on their interests and personality. Bethan Laura Wood’s work at That Flower Shop is called Alter, [with an ‘e’] and it’s a collection inspired by altarpieces, temples and harvest festivals, that includes her own Rainbow range of vases. St Jerome’s Study is Michael Marriott’s contribution in the Gallery. His brief was to provide a place with seating and storage for magazines, and has worked with Very Good & Proper to fashion a special oak and black steel version of his Croquet shelves, presented with a new table and bench. Comfort and softness are the key principles of Fabien Cappello’s Soft Play Lobby installation. The usual “hard” furniture has been replaced with a landscape of beanbags, modified with a handle and made from fabrics donated by Kvadrat, Maharam, Marimekko, Tio Gruppen and Febrik. In the Bulldog Edition Café, Martin Gamper has continued his interest in the traditional bentwood café chair, creating a modified version called Recto Verso which he is to commercially produce. He’s also contributed a few small dishes to the menu and some natty aprons for the café staff.
Aside from the lovely design on display, Sister Ray celebrated the opening of their new shop with the Mix Tape Project – doing pretty much what it said on the tin, featuring playlists from top design talent like Tom Dixon, Klaus Haapaniemi, Max Lamb, Graphic Thought Facility, and Hunting & Narud.
Bethan Laura Wood
Mix Tape Project
Fabien Cappello
Martino Gamper
Bethan Laura Wood
Mix Tape Project
Martino Gamper for Bethan Laura Wood
