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Our London-based editor Justine catches up with the latest action from the London Design Festival!
Stunning. It really is all about the details in this beautiful wooden steamer trunk. Method furniture created ‘The Journeyman’, a modern portmanteau steamer trunk for a jeanmaker. The trunk was created in collaboration with Denham and is a modern take on a classic design to be used for both display and transportation of stock. The framework of the piece is constructed of solid ash and gently curved rather than straight, almost canoe-like, creating greater rib-strength and allowing the trunk to rest comfortably on its side. The design is thoughtful and elegant throughout as well as lovingly constructed by hand with over 200 interconnected traditional joins and over 150 hand-Japanned custom engineered fixings. See pictures of it from London Design Week as well as the making-of video, pics, and sketches on the next page…
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Our London-based editor Justine catches up with the latest action from the London Design Festival!
Another fun architectural piece I adored this year was this beautiful, delicacy filled indoor glasshouse by VONSUNG for Tramshed 2011. The Glasshouse was designed by Joseph Sung, Michiko Ito, Jing Chen, Gernando Cavalli and Grace Hsu and served as a pop-up cafe. Sung describes the Glasshouse as design nurturing the relationship between construction and innovation, forming an ‘incubator’ for the food within. From outside, the polycarbonate structure looks like a hybrid between a polytunnel and a glasshouse, with soft lighting permeating its translucent walls. It somehow manages to be simultaneously eerie and inviting. Great touches follow within as well, like the playful Peter Pan rabbits from Ligne Roset, and of course plenty of tasty treats as well (Vietnamese delicacies from Viet Hoa). More photos on the next page!
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Our London-based editor Justine catches up with the latest action from the London Design Festival!
One of my highlights of this year’s 100% Design event would have to be finally seeing the amazing animal chairs from
Maximo Riera in person! You may remember his octopus chair which we
previously featured here and more recent rhino and walrus additions. These beautiful throne-like pieces of furniture are even more amazing to behold in person. The detailing on the animals is exquisite and incredibly realistic. Another feature that is evident upon seeing the chairs is their enormous size! Like the animals they are designed to reflect, these pieces are truly colossal. More photos of the beautiful walrus, rhino and octopus chairs on the next page!
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Our London-based editor Justine catches up with the latest action from the London Design Festival!
I’m a huge fan of the work of Noma Bar, who does wonders with negative space and always achieves so much with clean lined minimalism. So I was very excited to hear about his project ‘Cut-it-Out’ at Outline Editions as part of this year’s London Design Festival, especially when I heard we would have the chance to take part and make our own cut outs with his incredible dog (and cat and rat) shaped cutting machine!
The image making machine is a a 2 m high die cutter that weighs over 750 kg and applies 4 tonnes of pressure when the joysticks (located in the dog’s mouth) and depressed. Visitors during workshops can create their own Noma Bar patterns by selecting an A3 sheet of paper (in any of 36 colors) and their favorite of 8 designs. The paper is then careful set between the die and board and swivels the dog’s head into cutting position. Then, a quick and steady push of the joysticks applies the pressure and cuts the image. Great fun and a beautiful way to create a stunning piece of art. More pics of Noma’s screenprints and cut outs, the stunning machine, and our own die cut experience on the next page!
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Another London discovery from Justine!
An unexpected discovery on the way to FARM:shop, the Dalton Eastern Curve Garden looked irresistibly welcoming. The unexpected wildlife friendly garden is a beautiful sanctuary from the busy streets, like a big communal backyard complete with butterflies and bees drifting from flower to flower, children playing and locals relaxing in the sunshine as the pizza oven was being fired up.
The garden is situated on the abandoned Eastern Curve railway line. The area was transformed into a green space by the Design for London initiative Making Space in Dalston. The collaborative EXYZT built the ‘Dalston Mill’ for three weeks as part of The Barbican Centre’s ‘Radical Nature’ exhibition and returned to create the pavilion in 2010. The gardens opened just over a year ago in July 2010.
“A meeting place for people and plants”, the garden hosts courses, events, workshops and all sorts of activities for children and adults, it is a wonderful space and perfect way to escape for a few hours. More photos of this spectacular urban garden and pavilion on the next page.
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Here’s the latest discovery from Justine based in London!
20 Dalston Lane in the heart of East London seems an odd address for a farm. But Dalston’s FARM:shop is literally a farm in a shop. Once a derelict store, the shop is now a shop/cafe/meeting place and farm all in one. It is home to hundreds of growing plants arranged in every setup imaginable from a backyard polytunnel to hydroponics setup where plants are fed by the fish. It is even home to a flock of rooftop living chickens!
A perfect combination of public spaces/projects with urban farming, I knew this one would be right up our alley, and when I heard about the hydroponics and chickens on the roof, I knew it would be one not to miss. More photos on the next page!
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A few weeks ago, Eric Yang of Gear Patrol, was nice enough to step in for me and go on a British adventure with Bentley on behalf of NOTCOT ~ of the MANY pictures he returned with, one of the first to catch my eye were these from Heathrow’s Terminal 5 at the entrance to the First and Concorde Galleries lounges… Troika’s “All The Time In The World” from 2008 looks beautiful. This 22m long electroluminescent wall “extends the conventional notion of a world clock, which commonly concentrates on capital cities in different time zones, by linking real time to places with exciting and romantic associations like far-away places, exotic wonders and forgotten cultures.” The way the text is drippingly formed is fun to watch ~ take a peek at it i the video and pics in the next page.
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Seed Pills! It seems like such a natural fit ~ everyone should be prescribed some seed pills to do their part and add a little more green to our world! Another project we encountered as part of the Selfridges’ GROW Concept Store and Guerilla Gardening Windows - Vanessa Harden’s seed pills. In addition to these clear pill capsules filled with seeds (which are purchasable in store), she has designed a series of “Subversive Gardener” concepts to do everything from launch the seeds from an umbrella’s top (as seen in her window display) or a bag to drill holes into the ground or a camera to launch seeds… as well as a “Horticulturalist Series” with seeds shooting out of a gun, or a walking stick… and more! Gel capsules with tiny seeds - melting down dispersed throughout the world, the idea of prescribing more green is just what some of us need! Take a peek on the next page…
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It seems i left london just a few days too early… luckily Justine was able to experience the wonka-esque waterfall of chocolate for us! Check out her adventures below…
Our friends Bompas & Parr are at it again, just in time for Easter. When I heard they were creating a five tonne chocolate waterfall in the middle of Whiteleys Shopping Centre in London, I had to check it out.
As I made my way to waterfall, I could smell the chocolate. It seemed surreal that what looked like a simple storefront could house a five tonne waterfall of chocolate, but the heady, overpowering scent of cocoa suggested we were in for a real treat… you won’t believe your eyes when you see the madness they set up (and the souvenir you get to bring home too!) ~ pictures and video on the next page!
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London silliness - When browsing the produce section, spotted a strange item among the berries. Pineberries! They look like inverted strawberries and are known as pineberries (a hybrid of Fragaria chiloensis and Fragaria virginiana). The original pineberry was a South American species which went extinct in the wild, but which has since been hybridized and cultivated in the Netherlands.
Although they debuted at Waitrose last year, the berries still seem hard to get a hold of and have just come back into season and we had to try them. Though they are meant to taste a bit like pineapple, ours were a bit more watery, with a texture similar to a strawberry. But our bunch may not have been fully ripe (some of their seeds were still green rather than red). Not sure they’ll make it into our basket again, but they definitely have the novelty factor and look like no other fruit! For more about how they taste, see the Guardian’s review and for more pics (including inside them! and the fun packaging!), check out the next page!
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Photo credit: Tom Swain
On more awesome London window discoveries, Justine has been working on this post all week ~ but we got a bit distracted while running around in Paris!
“The craftsman’s heart rate will be monitored while he works and transferred to a computer, which will in turn convert the data into commands for a sewing machine.” Interactive installation art from Fendi over at Harrods! I spotted these gorgeous windows at Harrods and was intrigued by the intricate leatherwork and prominently featured machinery. While many of Harrods’ other windows are under construction, window number five features the work of British artist-designer Rowan Mersh and artisan Cyril Letellier. The collaborative performance and is a part of Fendi’s global project, ‘Fatto A Mano’, which translates to hand made. From leather to heart rate to machine to more machines… the out put is a fascinating sculptural form of sorts… see it all in action on the next page!
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On more zoological inspiration… Justine went to explore the newly reopened Grant Museum of Zoology, and here’s what she has to share!
The Grant Museum of Zoology has always been one of my favorites. Tucked away on Gower Street (near Euston Square tube), the Grant Museum is open to the public on weekday afternoons. The eclectic zoological museum is part of University College London’s teaching collections and one of only a handful of university zoology museums.
I’d visited the museum before and was amazed by the hidden gem, packed full of spirit collections and skeletons. When they closed 8 months ago for refurbishment, I have to admit I was worried about what changes it would bring. I have a soft spot for the quirky, cluttered, Wunderkammer style it had embodied. So when I re-entered the newly refurbished museum today, I wasn’t sure what to expect; but as you can see from the photos, they’ve done a fabulous job of creating a great space that plays to the strengths of their weird and wonderful collection. Take a little tour through the fascinating collection and space on the next page!
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Catch up with the latest from London with our UK-based editor Justine.
Our London-based editor 
Our London-based editor 
Our London-based editor 
Our London-based editor 
On fun new features over at 
Ferrari parts, tiny abstract people, and architecture - how can you go wrong? 
We’re not really sure what’s going on with these yet… but 
We’ve been busy here at NOTCOT tweaking and building and designing secret things we’re rolling out as they become ready ~ live testing and debugging ~ silly things like that… one of them you may have noticed over at 
London always has the best windows! And 
Tanks of liquid nitrogen! Kitchen Aid Mixers! Swings! Lab coats! ICE CREAM! So many awesome elements come together at 
Dog lamps! And Doggie portraits! Justine just sent some awesome pics over of “A Shoe Is A Dog’s Best Friend” with assemblage dog lamps by 
