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Common Parts Canteen
Project Details
PARTNER: Sue Skeen & The New Craftsmen
PROJECT: The Common Parts Canteen
DATE: September 2017
Launched during London Design Festival 2017, COMMON PARTS | A Collection. A Canteen. A Community, incorporated our new furniture range, a festival canteen, and a community built around a manifesto and a series of events. Working with stylist and imaginer Sue Skeen we collaborated with the makers of The New Craftsmen to create a range of dining furniture for home and hospitality. Our shared vision was to develop a set of timeless designs that would encourage individuality and expression.
The COMMON PARTS Collection consists of five shapes and integrates traditional craft skills, still practiced by makers across the British Isles - from leather and stone workers, to rush weavers and lacquerists. The customisable Collection is available in store and online. For LDF, we transformed our showroom into an intellectual-social hub called the COMMON PARTS Canteen. Styled on the spirit of the art school refectory we provided a nourishing space for ideas, thinking and gossip, created to sooth weary festival wanderers.
During the day, we programmed a series of talks, workshops and debates led by thinkers and makers. Each presenter activated a key design tenant, inspired by the Common Parts Collection, and the dedicated manifesto. In the evenings, we hosted intimate suppers with the online retailer 1stdibs, enabling influencers and tastemakers from art, fashion and design to enter into our world and experience our new Collection first hand.
Outcome
To further enrich these events, we collaborated with chefs Leandro Carreira (of Londrino) and Stuart Andrew (of Clipstone / Portland), who developed special menus responding to our core values – humanity, integrity and imagination. The experiential activation of our space enabled us to launch our new furniture in a unique and memorable way, and celebrate the materials and skills of all the makers involved.
Starting with inspiration from 19th Century ruralist John Clare’s Hollow Tree, we referenced patternmaker Peggy Angus of Furlongs, then discovered odd galactic empires in Ursula Le Guin’s sci-fi for feminist geeks, and listened to echoes from vanished London Bedouin poet Rosemary Tonks. At the Canteen, in exchange for cake we sought to explore all thoughts proffered. This communal activity resulted in some mind blowing, thoughtful jollity.
Artist and Imaginer
To find out more about our creative installations and collaborations, and how you can enlist the minds and techniques of our makers into your projects, please email Kate Collins at [email protected] to make an appointment.