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    Pirajean Lees draws on Japanese and Spanish design for Kioku restaurant and bar

    Studio Pirajean Lees paired oxblood tiles with intricate wooden joinery at the Kioku sushi restaurant and sake bar, within central London’s OWO hotel, to reference the head chef ‘s travels.

    Kioku consists of a bar on the ground floor and a restaurant on the top floor of the hotel within the Grade II*-listed Old War Office on Whitehall, which once housed the British government’s military departments.
    Pirajean Lees created Kioku, meaning “memory” in Japanese, to capture sushi master Endo Kazutoshi’s recollections of living and working in Japan and Spain.
    Kioku bar is located on the ground floor of The OWOLocated on the ground floor of the hotel, the single-room bar is accessed via a door framed with smooth timber joinery informed by the traditional Japanese carpentry technique Sashimono.
    Guests are greeted by a bespoke oak reception desk featuring embroidered floral textiles and mesh detailing as well as a light-controlled sake cellar clad with patchwork cork panels.

    All of Kioku’s furniture was custom-made by Pirajean Lees, explained studio co-founder James Lees.
    The bar features a light-controlled sake cellar”We share a passion for storytelling and an obsession with details, from the way your hand touches the backrest of a chair, to the height of the table,” said the designer.
    “From the outset, we knew that the level of attention to detail in the interior had to match that found in the food being served.”
    Japanese records can be played on a bespoke turntableThe bar’s floor plan was subtly stepped to provide “elevated views” for each of its intimate seating areas, rather than relegate guests to hidden corners of the room, said Lees.
    A wide selection of sake is served at an oversized and curved central bar designed with knobbly timber cladding.
    Kioku restaurant is located on the hotel’s rooftopHandcrafted tiles and a gridded carpet finished in oxblood red were used to create the flooring, while deep red dado and natural clay walls also nod to the space’s Spanish influence.
    In one corner, a bespoke turntable is positioned for guests to play a selection of Japanese records from Endo’s personal collection.
    Bow details were carved into the dining chairsThe Kioku restaurant is contained within a long room on the north side of the hotel’s rooftop, with panoramic views of central London. Entered through timber double doors, the eatery features similar design accents to the bar.
    Wooden frames and boxy mirrored “portals” were used to delineate spaces within the main dining area, which includes L-shaped banquettes and oak dining chairs upholstered with Japanese embroidered silk.
    The chef’s table was positioned opposite the open kitchenBow details were carved into the chairs to emulate the seating at Endo’s favourite hotel in the city of Yokohama. Subtle versions of the bow motif are echoed downstairs on the bar’s wooden tables.
    Pirajean Lees constructed a private dining room with a chef’s table at one end of the restaurant, built above an intimate outdoor cigar terrace that overlooks The OWO’s central courtyard.
    Panoramic views of central London can be seen from the main terraceEncased by a curved glass roof, the extension was positioned opposite the open kitchen to allow guests to watch their dishes being prepared. Retractable mesh screens were also fitted for privacy.
    The main terrace includes timber dining tables and chairs with Mediterranean-style terracotta and mustard upholstery surrounded by lush plants.

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    At the end of the terrace, a historic turret overlooking St James’ Park and Horse Guards Parade features another eight-seat private dining room with soft linen curtains and an oak table illuminated by an oversized rice paper pendant light.
    Pirajean Lees chose a striking yellow rug for the circular floor to reference the sun, while the round ceiling was hand-painted with an inky indigo mural by British artist Tess Newall in an ode to the contrasting moon – recognisable motifs found in Japanese mythology.
    A historic turret houses another private dining space”We design to create emotional spaces grounded in their story, rather than interiors purely driven by aesthetics,” reflected studio co-founder Clémence Pirajean.
    Founded in 2017 by Pirajean and Lees, the studio has applied its eclectic style to various other London projects – from the “timeless” interiors of music venue Koko’s members’ club to a Mayfair restaurant with an Arts and Crafts-style design.
    The photography is by Polly Tootal.

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    Tutto Bene balances steel and mirrors with wood and leather in Nightingale restaurant

    Design studio Tutto Bene drew on “the sombre elegance of theatre and museum lobby cafes” when creating the interiors for the Nightingale restaurant in London.

    The 60-square-metre space, which opens to a courtyard in London’s Mayfair neighbourhood, references Viennese coffee houses, known locally as Kaffeehäuser.
    “We thought London is missing spaces with the atmosphere that we know Kaffeehäuser for,” Tutto Bene co-founder Oskar Kohnen told Dezeen.
    Nightingale’s interior draws on Vienna’s coffee housesNightingale’s “stage-like” dining room was also informed by “the sombre elegance of theatre and museum lobby cafes”, Kohnen said.
    “Nightingale’s sloped ceiling, abundant drops of fabric curtains, as well as the curtain-like wall panelling play on this idea,” he explained.

    The restaurant has a colour palette that emphasises green and cream colours, with a floor made of cement tiles in various green hues.
    A pale green floor contrasts with white wallsCream-coloured walls and curtains contrast against silvery details, with a monolithic stainless-steel bar functioning as the room’s centrepiece.
    “The courtyard plant life suggested the green colour,” studio co-founder Felizia Berchtold told Dezeen.
    “Based on this we added light and shadow through layers of black and white,” she added. “The surfaces interacting with the daylight create an abundance of hues in an overall calm tonality. It’s simple but dramatic.”
    Tutto Bene added a stainless-steel counter as a centrepieceMirrored, tiled columns add to the theatrical feel of the space, for which Berchtold also designed the sculptural Satellite Pendant, a spinning chandelier.
    It was manufactured by the Austrian brand Kalmar, which has a history of designing lights for Viennese coffee houses, and features pleated cream lampshades that orbit around a steel axis.

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    “I initially drew the lamp during my travels in Japan last spring,” Berchtold said.
    “It was inspired by paintings of sea roses and the craft of fan making, as well as ideas around motion and dance. We developed the design together throughout the year.”
    Felizia Berchtold designed the Satellite Pendant lamp for the restaurantKalmar’s vintage glass scones decorate the mirrored glass columns, while Tutto Bene’s angular Sketch lamp sits on the wait station and its round Oblo lights can be found on the ridged walls.
    The studio also worked with a variety of materials to give the space a tactile feel.
    Nightingale features tables made from burl wood and stainless steel, which was also used for the bar and as a detail on the wait station, where it contrasts against swathes of cream cloth.
    The studio also designed the furniture for the spaceTutto Bene’s Cafe Chair, made from stained wood and saddle leather, was used for seating along with wooden benches in the same style.
    “The material palette balances crisp and formal materials such as steel and tiles with texture and playful warmth, resembled in the ever-changing drapes of fabric, the burl wood tables and saddle leather chairs,” Berchtold said.
    Tutto Bene recently created a Streamline Moderne-informed New York store for eyewear brand Cubitts. Also in Mayfair, design studio Pirajean Lees designed an Arts-and-Crafts inspired restaurant called 20 Berkeley.
    The photography is by Ludovic Balay.

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    Tabitha Isobel gives London townhouse a “surprising and bold” makeover

    Designer Tabitha Organ combined natural materials with metal details to transform this London townhouse into a home with a “slightly futuristic” feel for a client who loves entertaining.

    The five-storey property on St Pauls Road had recently been renovated by a developer using poor-quality finishes, so the client – a young tech entrepreneur and first-time homeowner – asked Organ’s studio Tabitha Isobel to create a more bespoke interior.
    The brief called for a scheme that retains the Victorian house’s original features, whilst layering vintage pieces and contemporary design to create spaces with a distinct character.
    Tabitha Isobel transformed the Victorian north London townhouse”The client wanted a home that would be surprising and bold but also timeless,” Organ told Dezeen. “Amongst his peers, he is a frequent host of parties so he wanted an interior that would be a backdrop to these and bring a certain entertaining ‘vibe’.”
    Some of the original details that survived the previous renovation included detailed mouldings and the wooden window shutters in the living areas.

    Organ sought to emphasise these elements by introducing a carefully chosen palette of complementary colours and materials. Other spaces received a more expressive treatment, including the golden-toned cinema and DJ room in the basement.
    The five-storey property’s renovation adopts a “slightly futuristic” feelThe main architectural interventions occurred on the first floor, where previously disjointed spaces were reorganised to create a large bedroom with an adjoining bathroom and dressing area.
    The bedroom, which has windows on two sides due to the property’s end-of-terrace location, is connected to the bathroom by a walk-through wardrobe containing bespoke cabinetry built from naturally patterned burr walnut.
    New bespoke features include an adjoining walk-through wardrobeThe house’s main living areas are unified by the consistent application of green hues and metal details, which featured in an image of a kitchen given to Organ by the client as inspiration at the beginning of the project.
    “As the living and dining area is open plan with the kitchen, we introduced a Verde Guaco Green fireplace surround that sits on the same elevation as the kitchen so the tones speak to each other,” Organ explained.
    “We also chose a green velvet sofa from Maison Dara that is positioned in line with the kitchen, helping the spaces to feel connected.”
    Green hues and metal details inform the house’s living areasThe designer added that the combination of natural materials and metal surfaces contributes to the scheme’s sense of timelessness while creating a juxtaposition of textures and finishes that adds visual interest to the design.
    “As part of the concept, we wanted the spaces to have a slightly futuristic feel to them,” she pointed out. “Metals are timeless materials and I find they lift palettes, bringing them to life and creating a richness through reflection and depth.”

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    Metal and wood combine in a bespoke solution designed to conceal the television above the fireplace. Eight hand-carved wooden panels are set within a brushed aluminium frame that incorporates bi-fold doors that open to reveal the TV.
    Throughout the home, textiles provide a further textural contrast to the hard metal surfaces. This approach is encapsulated by a vintage metal-framed armchair in the living room that was reupholstered in a boldly patterned fabric by UK brand Schumacher.
    A reupholstered metal-framed armchair provides textural contrastWhile the living area and bedroom are predominantly monochrome, there are moments of bright colour elsewhere in the home – particularly in the en-suite shower room.
    Organ chose terracotta tiles with different scales to bring a sense of richness and warmth to the space. The walk-in shower is lined with cobalt blue tiles intended to introduce a surprising element.
    Terracotta tiles in the en suite shower room provide a sense of richness and warmthA cinema room located on the basement level was designed to resemble a moodily lit members’ club, with a cotton moire wall covering matched to a high-gloss painted ceiling and mid-gloss cabinetry.
    The room is used for hosting parties and includes a concealed home bar with stainless steel shelves set in front of a bronze-tinted mirror.
    Marble and metal wall lights illuminate the textured walls as well as a velvet sofa with oversized cushions, a vintage coffee table and a bespoke walnut DJ console crafted by furniture maker Spinback.
    The cinema room conceals a stainless steel home bar in front of a bronze-tinted mirrorOrgan founded Tabitha Isobel in 2023 after working for a decade as an interior designer for London-based studios Conran + Partners and Sella Concept.
    The designer’s approach focuses on combining historical and contemporary elements to create timeless spaces driven by authenticity rather than trends.
    Other creative townhouse transformations include a Brussels home with a skylit atrium and a London home that was given a 1970s-style makeover.
    The photography is by Genevieve Lutkin.

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    Lanterns dangle through hole between floors in “UK’s most expensive steak” restaurant

    Interiors studio Rosendale Design used paper pendants to illuminate hand-painted red-and-gold walls in the first overseas outpost of Japanese steakhouse Aragawa in London.

    Set across two floors in a Mayfair townhouse, the restaurant is widely credited as serving the “UK’s most expensive steak” – a £900 cut of wagyu beef from Shiga prefecture.
    Rosendale Design created the interiors for a Japanese steakhouse in MayfairCharacterised by a rich palette of deep reds, golds and dark woods, the interior of the steakhouse was “heavily influenced by traditional Japanese architecture and design”, Rosendale Design founder Dale Atkinson told Dezeen.
    “We gave it a contemporary twist in a subtle way so it didn’t become kitsch,” he said.
    Pendant lights dangle through a void between the ground floor and basementUpon entering Aragawa, visitors pass through an archway that frames a wood-panelled reception area painted in pale green.

    From here, a corridor leads past a wine display cabinet that wraps around the back wall with skylights providing natural illumination.
    A private dining room with seats for 12 guests is accessed through glass and wood doors, with a slatted wooden screen partially obstructing the view into the space.
    A Japanese kiln is surrounded by blue tiles in the kitchenPendant lamps that take cues from traditional Japanese paper lanterns hang through a mirror-lined void between the ground floor and the basement, providing views of the main restaurant below.
    “The lanterns are one of the key features that are first experienced at ground level but drop down through the opening in the floor and are then a prevalent feature in the main dining room,” said Atkinson.
    “We looked at traditional Japanese lanterns and gave it a bit of a contemporary twist.”
    More lanterns hang from the latticed ceiling in the dining roomStairs lead down to the restaurant past an open kitchen, divided from the seating area via an uplit rough-textured counter.
    Cornflower-blue tiles clad the walls in the kitchen, where Rosendale Design installed a Japanese kiln.

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    Used to prepare Aragawa’s speciality, Japanese Kobe beef, the kiln was modelled on the model found in the original Aragawa restaurant in Tokyo, which opened in 1967 and became known as one of the priciest steak houses in the world.
    “The feature kiln is the main connection between the restaurants in Tokyo and London,” said Atkinson.
    “We worked with a local manufacturer to copy as best we could the kiln in Tokyo but dress it in a way that matches the London design ethos.”
    Hand-painted red-and-gold panels line the walls of the dining spaceMore lanterns are suspended from the dark wood lattice ceiling in the primary dining space.
    “The feature ceiling is referencing traditional Japanese castles,” explained Atkinson.
    Soft lighting illuminates the red-and-gold panels that line the walls of the dining area, hand-painted with patterns derived from Nishijin silk kimonos.
    Rosendale Design opted for crimson-red velvet-lined seatingThe red colour palette is continued in the red velvet-lined seating, contrasting against white tablecloths.
    “We made sure to play with the saturation of colours to make it more dramatic and romantic,” said Atkinson.
    Other Japanese restaurants recently featured on Dezeen include a noodle restaurant in a century-old townhouse in Kyoto and a restaurant in Alberta that combines Japanese psychedelia and cabins.
    The photography is by Justin De Souza.

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    Gubi opens first UK showroom in London townhouse takeover

    A Georgian townhouse filled with period details is now Gubi House London, the first dedicated showroom that the furniture brand has opened outside Denmark.

    Gubi partnered with Danish surface design studio File Under Pop to reimagine the listed building as a showspace for its collection, which includes furniture by designers such as GamFratesi and Space Copenhagen.
    Gubi House London occupies a listed Georgian townhouseA curated colour palette combines with material finishes including Spanish clay tiles and Italian lava stone to create four floors of rooms with a contemporary feel.
    “To be in a townhouse is a unique opportunity,” explained Marie Kristine Schmidt, chief brand officer for Gubi.
    Furniture is on display across four different floors”We could create something very domestic in feel. We have smaller rooms where we can create different experiences and we can tell different stories on each floor,” she told Dezeen.

    The showroom is located on Charterhouse Square, a garden square framed by cobbled streets, and will be open by appointment.
    Danish surface design studio File Under Pop oversaw the colour and material paletteGubi was founded in 1967 by furniture designers Lisbeth and Gubi Olsen, who later handed it down to their sons, Jacob and Sebastian Gubi Olsen. Jacob is still a shareholder and a member of the board.
    The London expansion was first mooted in 2020, not long after the once family-owned company was acquired by Nordic private equity group Axcel and the Augustinus Foundation.
    Furniture on show includes the Croissant Sofa designed by Ilum Wikkelsø in 1962Schmidt said the UK is a key market for the brand as it looks to expand its intentional profile.
    “London is a melting pot right now, particularly in the hotel and restaurant scene, so for us, it is a really important city to be in,” she said during a tour of the building.
    “I think there is a lot of untapped potential for us here.”
    A ground-floor dining room features hand-painted forest-green wallpaperEach floor of Gubi House London has its own character, drawing on different influences reflected in the materials and fabrics that feature in across the product collection.
    The ground floor, described as “boutique chic”, features a trio of spaces designed to emulate the sense of comfort and luxury of a boutique hotel.
    Also on the ground floor, a blue fireplace sits behind the Moon dining tableKey details include a fireplace colour-blocked in a deep inky shade of blue, which serves as a backdrop to the brand’s Moon dining table and Bat dining chairs.
    Also on display here are several reissued 20th-century lamps, including designs by Finnish designer Paavo Tynell, Danish architect Louis Weisdorf and Swedish designer Greta M Grossman.
    The first-floor rooms take cues from the 1970sTowards the rear, a room with hand-painted forest-green wallpaper serves as a dining space.
    The first floor takes cues from the 1970s, with an earthy colour palette.

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    Key pieces here include the Pacha lounge chair, a 1975 design by the late French designer Pierre Paulin, upholstered in a striped fabric and a cascading arrangement of the Semi Pendant lamps, designed in 1968 by Danish design duo Claus Bonderup and Torsten Thorup.
    This floor also includes a bar, which serves as a centrepiece in the smaller of the two rooms.
    The second floor was envisioned as a co-working environmentThe second floor was envisioned as a co-working environment, with furniture that emulates a contemporary bistro, while the uppermost level offers a more bohemian feel.
    “We wanted to create a space that is inspiring,” said Schmidt. “It wouldn’t be right for our brand to go into a commercial space.”
    Gubi House London is located at 12 Charterhouse SquareThe experience is different from the warehouse feel of Gubi’s Copenhagen headquarters, which occupies a former tobacco factory in the waterside Nordhavn area.
    “This is how we see Gubi in the context of the UK,” added Schmidt.
    “It was fun to play with a building that is so pleasant and give it a very fresh, modern, contemporary look.”
    In Copenhagen, Danish brand &Tradition took over a townhouse during design festival 3 Days of Design, while fellow Danish brand Hay unveiled its renovated Copenhagen townhouse in 2021.
    The photography is by Michael Sinclair.

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    Olivier Delannoy creates mirrored “English garden” for Daroco Soho restaurant

    Paris-based restaurant group Daroco has opened a London outpost with mirrored, curving interiors designed by French architect Olivier Delannoy.

    Delannoy, who has worked on Daroco’s previous projects, reproduced the mirrored ceiling from its two Paris restaurants for the Daroco’s latest location in Soho.
    “Though the layout maintains an orderly appearance, the reflection of the mirror creates an anarchic, enchanted dimension to the space,” he told Dezeen.
    The restaurant ceiling is covered with a large mirrorA wide range of designer lighting was placed throughout the restaurant, with arm wall-mounted lights by Penta, flower-shaped wall-mounted lights by Leucos and suspended glowing discs by DCW Édition. Together they were placed to create a softly lit interior that complements the mirrored ceiling.
    “We approached this project with the aim of mirroring an English garden,” Delannoy explained. “In evoking the garden, the lighting fixtures were inspired by plant motifs such as flowers, water plant stems and tree branches.”

    “The curved resin light tubes were designed to resemble the stem of a phosphorescent water plant,” he continued.
    Suspended glowing discs by DCW Édition illuminate the dining space

    The English garden concept was extended to other design elements such as a large pizza oven covered in blue butterflies and the flooring.
    “We designed the floor to be inspired by the undulation of the first raindrops on a landscaped pond,” said Delannoy.

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    Within the restaurant’s dining areas Delannoy used a diverse range of materials with marble and wooden table tops paired with crushed-velvet seats.
    The colour composition of the fabric used on the seating is intended to “evoke the flowers, earth and vegetation of the water’s edge”.
    A large pizza oven is decorated with blue ceramic butterflies
    Delannoy also drew inspiration from the Italian Renaissance for the restaurant, which serves Italian food.
    The mirrored ceiling bounces light around the interior and creates the illusion of a larger space, “such as that of a renaissance hall,” he said.
    Visitors are met with brass arches informed by the structure of Florence’s basilicas and a large counter that directly references the Baldachin – a large bronze canopy in St Peter’s, Vatican City.
    Looping acrylic light tubes and brass arches conjure evokeDelannoy co-founded Reinh Agency in 2016 and its completed projects include a Parisian cocktail bar and a restaurant in a former Belgian brewery warehouse.
    Other restaurant interiors recently featured on Dezeen include a pizzeria in a Finnish ski-resort,  a |cathedral of fried chicken” and an art-deco informed restaurant in New York.
    The photography is by Julie Spicy.

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    EBBA references modernist architecture at WatchHouse coffee shop

    Architecture studio EBBA has completed a store for coffee brand WatchHouse that draws on modernist design to provide a calming environment in the heart of the City of London.

    Situated in the 30 Fenchurch Street building of the Square Mile financial district, the store was designed by EBBA for coffee company WatchHouse, which has several cafes around London and also sells its own roasts.
    The store interior references modernist architectureHaving previously completed several other stores for the brand, EBBA was tasked with transforming an empty unit in the landmark office development into an inviting space aimed at attracting visitors from the adjacent lobby.
    “This store offered the opportunity to think carefully about how to make a high quality and calming retail environment that also caters to the flexible operation of the visitors and the building in which it sits,” EBBA founder Benni Allan told Dezeen.
    The space aims to offer a calming environmentThe project brief called for a space focused on retail that also integrates a bar for serving customers. The interior has a more open and relaxed feel than the brand’s other locations, which operate more like typical coffee shops.

    With ample comfortable seating available in the adjacent atrium, EBBA chose to incorporate different settings where customers can rest while waiting for their coffee.
    Furniture including lounge chairs arranged around a coffee table and bar stools at the counter allow the space to be used in a variety of ways.
    Wooden seating is provided in an adjacent atriumElements of the shop’s design are informed by European modernist architecture. In particular, Allan drew on the large lobbies of banks and civic buildings such as libraries, which he said seem to “carry a particular feeling of calmness”.
    Referencing the work of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, EBBA used grid patterns and clean lines to bring order to the interior, while sculptural objects help to partition the space.
    “The overall concept was to create the sense of a box within a box,” Allan added. “The reference to Miesian buildings can be understood in wanting to establish a clear logic to the space through its grid and making objects that help to demarcate space.”

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    EBBA designed and built all of the furniture for the store, including the eight-metre-long stainless steel counter that forms the centrepiece of the space. This monolithic element is used for coffeemaking as well as providing a communal workspace.
    The large coffee table made from blocks of solid oak is intended to resemble stacked timber. Its construction echoes the grid of slatted timber panels cladding the ceiling.
    EBBA chose a material palette that reflects WatchHouse’s goal to create places people want to spend time in. Warm and natural tones and textures offer a respite from the busy urban setting.
    An eight-metre stainless steel counter centres the space”We opted for warm oak panelling, which gracefully cocoons the space, and a unique Ceppo stone floor, which enhances the store’s gridded pattern whilst complementing the feeling of civic grandeur,” said the architects.
    The rear wall is lined with full-height cabinets that conceal the necessary utility spaces, adding to the store’s sense of cohesion and simplicity.
    Minimalist shelving used to display WatchHouse’s simply packaged produce blend in with the relaxed setting.
    All of the furniture was designed and built by EBBAEBBA has worked with WatchHouse on several of its venues, including another site within the 30 Fenchurch Street building that also looks to balance contemporary aesthetics with nods to the City of London’s heritage.
    The studio, founded in 2017 by Spanish architect Benni Allan, has completed a number of projects in London including a temporary education centre built using only reusable components and a residential extension that combines brutalist-style materials with details inspired by a Roman villa.
    The photography is courtesy of EBBA. 

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    Hemingway Design and James Shaw create furniture from recycled clothes for Traid

    Local studio Hemingway Design collaborated with designer James Shaw to transform a London store interior for charity retailer Traid, which features colourful furniture created from leftover second-hand clothes.

    Hemingway Design renovated Traid’s Shepherd’s Bush branch as part of a wider rebrand for the retailer to mark its 25th anniversary, including its visual identity.
    Hemingway Design has redesigned the Traid store in Shepherd’s Bush, LondonTraid sells donated clothing and accessories in 12 stores across London to fund global projects that tackle the issues caused by producing, consuming and wasting textiles.
    As part of the Shepherd’s Bush store refurbishment, Hemingway Design worked with Shaw to create furniture out of poor-quality clothes salvaged from the Traid sorting warehouse that the retailer deemed unsellable.
    James Shaw created furniture and lighting made from recycled clothesShaw, whose practice centres on repurposing waste materials, created curved pendant lighting from the leftover clothes, which were shredded back to fibres and combined with a plant-based binder.

    The designer applied this method to make the rest of the furniture. One piece is a low-slung bench for trying on shoes, upholstered with a yellow, green and blue patchwork of old denim jeans and corduroy trousers.
    Shaw designed the bench’s lumpy legs in his trademark extruded HDPE plastic, finished in the same colours as the patchwork seat.
    This included changing room door handlesElsewhere in the store, boxy pinewood changing room doors feature multicoloured handles created from the leftover clothes, defined by a speckled appearance thanks to the combination of shredded fibres.
    Silver scaffolding previously used for a different purpose in the original shop layout was used to create a “staff picks” clothes rail positioned at the front of the store.
    The designer combined shredded fibres with a plant-based binder. Photo by James Shaw”To align with Traid’s manifesto of reducing waste and prolonging the lifespan of items, a fundamental objective of the refurb was to reuse and repurpose existing fixtures and fittings within the store where possible,” explained Hemingway Design.
    British designer Charlie Boyden created chunky pastel-hued plinths from other offcuts and materials salvaged from the strip-out. They display merchandise in the shop window illuminated by more of Shaw’s clothing-based pendant lighting.
    Existing silver scaffolding was used to form a “staff picks” clothes railSwirly linseed-based oil-stained pine also characterises the geometric cash desk, fitted with an accessible counter and positioned in front of an existing timber stud wall painted in bold pink.
    Next to the counter, bespoke bright green Unistrut shelving creates additional space for hanging clothes and displaying shoes.

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    According to Hemingway Design, Traid has put 228 million garments back into use to date, saving 622,059 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 105.3 million cubic metres of water.
    “The charity retailer maximises the potential of the clothes you no longer wear, demanding change from a throwaway, fast fashion culture that continues to destroy this planet,” said the studio.
    Charlie Boyden designed display plinths using off-cutsShaw recently applied his extruded plastic designs to another store renovation in central London for shoe brand Camper, which includes a jumbo foot sculpture.
    Hemingway Design previously created a minimalist but colourful logo to celebrate 100 years of the Dreamland amusement park in Margate, Kent.
    The photography is by French & Tye unless stated otherwise. 

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