Studio 2

Studio philosophy

A journey of discovery that shapes and influences your desires for the rest of your life. 

Le Palace "wasn't a club like the others, it gathered together in an original place pleasures ordinarily scattered: that of the lovingly preserved theatre, performing the gaze; the excitement of the Modern, the exploration of new visual sensations due to new technologies; the joy of the dance, the charm of possible encounters. All of that together offers something incredibly ancient which is called the Celebration, and which is entirely different from Entertainment: a whole range of sensations designed to make people happy during the space of a night. The novelty was that impression of synthesis, of totality, of complexity: I am in a place which is sufficient unto itself."

Roland Barthes, Au Palace ce soir, 1978. 

The studio will investigate the language of desire, escape and adventure and ask you to empathise with the devotee, the customer, the visitor and the resident taking them through journeys and spatial experiences that will delight, thrill and energise. Each project scenario will ask you develop and explore ideas, materials and details that describe a narrative, a depth and connection to the brand, cultural and historic references, the contemporary and indeed the unexpected, the extraordinary and the avant garde.

Industry Practice
This studio will cover three sectors of the interior design industry, Retail, Exhibition/Event and Hotel design where the spatial experience is key to commercial success but each will ask you to think about the individual, the public and the family group, all bring scale, ways to connect and belong. 

In each project the brand identity will provide you with an ethos, a starting point but all will require you to design inspiring spirited responses creating imaginative and innovative destinations. 

We will be closely working with Household Design agency, Jack Morton and Gensler who all create emotionally connected, high performing customer experiences, they will guide and critique throughout the year developing your professional skills as well as your critical design thinking. 

Study Trip
Our study trips will take us to Paris but we will also investigate London, as a tourist. 

Lectures/Workshops:
Household Design: household-design.com
Insight and Innovation, Brand Communications, Customer Journey planning
The future foundation: futurefoundation.net
‘We transform strategy, marketing, research, service, innovation, customer analysis and training to strengthen businesses to not just understand the changing world around them but thrive in it’
Brain Juicer: brainjuicer.com (defunct)
We're an unconventional agency, reinventing market research to help our clients better understand and predict people's behaviour.
Jack Morton: jackmorton.com
Global experience agency Exhibition designers
Gensler: gensler.com 

Collaboration:
Hunan University China & Dong Yang Mirae University, Republic of Korea contributing to the Hidden Space book series.
Jewellery & Silversmithing Studio: Bespoke plus Make.

Project 1: Desirable
Brief: an individual experience

Following your in depth research of the Christian Louboutin identity, you are asked to design a Louboutin store and focus upon the spatial experience that will allow the Louboutin followers to immerse themselves within the brand values and realise a sensory encounter that creates a lasting memory of their visit. The interior should consider more than just the merchandise, creating an atmosphere and a journey that delights, intrigues and pampers the devotee, creating peeks and glimpses that tantalise, revealing the opulence and adornment of the shoes and the interior.

From the approach, threshold and moving through the interior, using furniture, objet d’art, textures, colour and lighting treat the customer to a sensory and tactile experience that triggers a unique and individual event, fashioning an exclusively desirable happening.

Project 2: Le Desirable - boot up
Brief: a community experience
Design a Pop Up installation/exhibition/event where you both elaborate the essential qualities of the Louboutin brand and bring awareness to a chosen charity or cause. 

You will need to explore the synthesis of the two identities and how they both build a new story that challenges or enlightens others. This brief is not a commercial brief but will be energised through celebrity, legend and reputation. You will be required to design the story board that brings the event to the public, how it connects interacts and engages them through curiosity, intrigue and participation. This should be both immediate and as the store design, reveal layers or depth for the visitor to take away and communicate to others. 

Project 3: THE FAIRGROUND
Brief: association of the individual and the group
The Fairground is an adventure orientated hotel for families, groups and individuals.  The hotel is based in Haggerston, over-looking the Kingsland Road to the front and the East London line to the rear. The challenge is to create an environment that allows the customer to use the hotel as a springboard to explore London; it asks you to assess the facilities provided by hotels and inquire into the needs of the customer but also asks how this could be defined for the adventurous holiday makers and the intrepid explorers.  The essence of the hotel interior should work to inspire, re- invigorate, rejuvenate the psyche whilst offering a restful haven for the visitor to return to. 

The word fairground conjures up a collection of many offerings, some need skill and some are bazaar, it tells of travellers and caravans moving constantly. The hotel would like you to develop satellites or out posts where the customers can either stay or remain in for part of the day. They could be spaces within spaces, secret hideaways, cosy camps, picnic places, bird watching hides, reading settles, elevated viewing platforms, chic cabins and shabby shacks or mobile caravans etc. These Firework spaces will build a network of spaces for the visitors to station, rest, study or make.