This week, we are thrilled to reveal the six design teams and partner brands who have been selected to participate in our 2021 Showroom Showcase competition. This exciting project will see each of these designers create a unique, architectural paper installation, to be displayed in the showroom windows of some of London’s biggest design brands throughout June.
As showrooms begin to welcome back visitors and customers, the competition invited emerging architects and designers to transform these showrooms with an imaginative and innovative take on branding and window display designs. Now, each of the selected teams is responding to a bespoke commission by their partner showroom, to create a display that both reflects the design brand and encourages passers-by to pause, enjoy and discover more. In using paper art, the project also offers the opportunity for the designers to showcase their creativity, skill and craftsmanship, demonstrating the intricacies and design potential of a seemingly simple material to a broad public audience as part of the vibrant LFA public programme.
The six teams and their partner showrooms are:
Delve Architects for Fisher & Paykal (at Halcyon Interiors)
Delve is an architecture practice with a diverse team of designers based in south London. They aim to bring a fresh, personal approach to their designs, investigating the project brief, site context and the relationship to the public realm. The practice’s work is driven by the belief that well designed spaces encourage joy and connectivity, and that exploration and a deep-rooted connection to the natural environment leads to the creation of meaningful spaces. For this project, Delve is collaborating with Jasper Stevens, a designer who specialises in using AR and VR to create interactions between physical and digital spaces.
Fisher & Paykel has been designing appliances and products to change the way people live since 1934, and has grown into a global company with products sold in more than 50 countries around the world. The company’s design heritage is founded on a pioneering spirit and a culture of curiosity that has challenged conventional appliance design to consistently deliver products tailored to human needs.
Halcyon Interiors has been designing beautiful kitchens since 1981. Based across 2 showrooms in London, Halcyon Interiors create timeless kitchens, designed to perfection, built to last. Their flagship design centre on London’s Wigmore Street presents 10 stunning displays over two floors, including appliances from Fisher & Paykel.
Inclume for Gaggenau (at Wigmore Street)
Inclume is a creative architecture and design studio based in Cambridge. Taking an imaginative, energetic and collaborative approach to design, the team work on projects of all scales, across architecture, interiors and installations. Since inception, Inclume have developed a growing portfolio of works which are characterised by an understanding of natural light, material quality and a passion for detailed, crafted finishes – often using paper as a tool for creating immersive and wondrous objects in a fun and dynamic way.
Gaggenau is a manufacturer of high-quality home appliances and acknowledged as an innovation leader in design and technology “Made in Germany”. The company, with a history dating back to 1683, has revolutionised the domestic kitchen with its internationally acclaimed products. Gaggenau’s success is founded on technological innovation and a clear design language combined with high functionality.
Nathan Ward for Smeg
Nathan Ward is a London-based image maker, set designer and director who graduated from Kingston School of Art in 2020. With a particular interest in handmade objects as a vehicle for realising ideas, he works extensively within the field of paper-craft and enjoys pushing the possibilities of paper as a material. In his home studio in South London, Nathan creates intricately crafted paper illustrations and animations, including large-scale sets, window displays and I nstallations.
Paying homage to Smeg‘s Italian design pedigree, the brand’s state of the art London flagship store is situated in the newly redeveloped St James’s Market, SW1. The space, split across three floors, showcases hundreds of Smeg’s built-in, freestanding and small appliances and accessories, set in a bright and airy contemporary environment thanks to stunning high-rise ceilings and expansive windows; the longest spans of retail glass in the capital – showcasing Smeg’s most cherished and sought-after products, soon home to the exciting showroom showcase project window for LFA.
Ten Tectons for EH Smith (in Clerkenwell)
Led by architects Michael, Eric, and Marcin, Ten Tectons is a collaborative, cross disciplinary initiative seeking to deliver fun and unexpected moments in everyday life. With a profound interest in the witty, imaginative, and (at times) political capabilities of storytelling, the trio applies their joyful, open minded approach to the entirety of the project, from concept to fabrication. Now as practicing architects in the UK, their shared vision and passion for storytelling and narrative design has evolved to encompass various scales and diverse project types, ranging from small public interventions to large scale masterplans.
EH Smith have been an integral part of the brick supply chain for just shy of a century (established in 1922) and have always focused on adding value. Our Clerkenwell Design Centre is the only purpose built brick and rainscreen display centre in the UK designed by Architects, for Architects.
Unit 8 with VitrA (in Clerkenwell)
Unit 8 are an emerging architecture collective, established by Sonam Dahya, Austin Joseph and Armor Gutierrez Rivas while participating in the Unit 8 MArch Studio at the University of East London (UEL). Following their graduation in 2019, Sonam and Austin have also founded CAST – a collaborative studio exploring experimental architecture. Austin combines his experimental work with his role as a head of the modelmaking workshop at Karakusevic Carson Architects. Armor is the tutor of the Unit 8 Studio and combines his academic work with his role as co-founder of Atelier La Juntana, a workshop focusing on creative fabrication.
VitrA creates beautiful bathroom products combining captivating design and innovation. From ceramic sanitaryware to furniture, taps and tiles, VitrA is one of the few global bathroom manufacturers to produce the full suite of bathroom products, both for commercial and residential spaces.
Urban Radicals for Poliform (on King’s Road)
Founded in 2019 by Nasios Varnavas and Era Savvides, Urban Radicals is an architectural collective that is driven by collaboration and looks to examine the notion of community from a variety of perspectives. By working across disciplines and through the broad skill-set of its collaborators, the duo is able to generate rich projects, rooted in place and context. With a growing portfolio of carefully resolved yet playful projects, Urban Radicals are passionate about uniting elements of art, storytelling, architecture and engineering into a rich tapestry expressing the historical and social idiosyncrasies of London. For this project Urban Radicals is collaborating with architects Mariza Daouti and Eftychios Savvides.
Poliform is a quintessentially Italian contemporary furniture manufacturer dedicated to the highest level of creative expression. Our core products are kitchens, wardrobes and modular system solutions with a vast range of soft furnishings continually updated with new ranges and complements. With two directly operated Showrooms in the heart of London at 278 King’s Road and 51-61 Wigmore Street, we are committed to delivering furnishing solutions for the entire home.
With LFA2021 taking place in a hybrid format this year, we’ll be presenting the showroom window displays in their physical form and in a digital showcase. In line with COVID-19 guidance, each installation has been designed to be enjoyed from both inside the showroom and street level.
Each of the design teams is currently working with their partner showroom to develop a bespoke display design, ready to be revealed at the start of June – watch this space!
