8 ★ FTWeekend 13 December/14 December 2014 House Home

B Stellar screen, by Jake Phipps, £19,500 for three panels, jakephipps.com

Interiors | Geometric patterns are no longer limited to tiles, as more designers experiment in using repeated lines and shapes. By Emma Love

The stand of Milan’s Nilurfar Gallery at Design Miami this month — James Harris

WorkHouse has commissioned its first dependingonwhethertheclientislook- seriesofhandmadecementtiles. ing for something classic or contempo- “We’re creatures of fashion so it could rary,”says creative director Nadia Dalle A certain be that we were influenced by what Mese. “For example, our Outland seems to be most popular at the leather can be used on flat or padded moment,” says WorkHouse founder squaretilestocreatea3Dsurface.” Dominick Pegram. “The only brief we Harriet Roberts, co-founder of spe- gave the designers was that the tiles cialisttilecompanyBert&May,believes symmetry must tessellate and we wanted to cap- the appeal of geometric patterns is wid- ture a sense of movement.” The results ening. “Our geometric tile range is one feature linked hoops, warped diamonds of our most requested, particularly in and, in the case of those based on paint- urban tones of grey, black and white. nyone in doubt that geo- around in some guise but, in the last ingsbyartistRoyPegram(thefounder’s The tiles are a way of lending gravitas to metric patterns are back in year, they have really come to the fore- late father), have an op-art feel. “We B Bone china mugs, £16 a space, making it striking but without vogue among designers front of design,” says Hannah Bort, an havehispaintingsfromthe1980sonthe each, alfredandwilde.co.uk taking over,” she says. “The reason we need have looked no fur- independentinteriorsstylist. wall in our east London studio and the M Tea & Mocha spoons, by feel geometrics are having a moment is ther than Design Miami And the interest in geometric design biggest surprise to us was how fresh and Katharine Pooley, £148, because the patterns are now appearing Aearlier this month. Among the new fur- appears to be growing. In the past cou- contemporarytheshapeslook.” fortnumandmason.com onahugearrayofhomewares.” niture on display was Italian designer ple of months, designer Daniel Heath Another company specialising in wall Bort agrees. “Previously, geo- Alessandro Mendini’s curved Orvieto has launched a collection of salvaged coverings,althoughthistimeinleather, metric patterns were mostly table, made using a criss-cross pattern Welsh slate wall tiles in geometric is Studioart, which joined the Rubelli seen on tiles and surface fin- B The Darwin chair of Bisazza mosaic tiles, and the fan-like shapes; design studio Afroditi Krassa group earlier this year. “The great ishes,butnowtheyarecropping in orange Piccadilly Wave cabinet by the Chilean-born, New has released its debut product collec- thing is that we can achieve up on bedding, cushion covers velvet, £350, York-basedSebastianErrazuriz. tion, featuring a monochrome Piano different effects using the and wallpapers too, so it’s more galapagosdesigns. “Geometrics have always been tile; and British furniture company same basic geometric shapes ofacompletelook,”shesays. com

DECEMBER 13 2014 Section:Weekend Time: 10/12/2014 - 16:59 User: woodwardj Page Name: RES8, Part,Page,Edition: RES, 8, 1 13 December/14 December 2014 ★ FTWeekend 9 House Home

created for London’s Imperial War Museum to commemorate the start of thefirstworldwar. Life’s little Bespoke furniture designer Chris Turner has created a series of veneered marquetry pieces, including the Ameri- pleasures can walnut Tabitha coffee table, the Revolver cabinet, designed to display Continuedfrompage1 vinyl records, and the Credenza 13 cabi- B From left: WH Tone Row and Tempered Pitch tiles, by Roy Pegram, £180 per sq metre; net.Thelatterhasmorethan660pieces household. There are no tablets or Gradient Beam tile, by Jethro Macey, £205 per sq metre, workhousecollection.co.uk of wood, all individually placed and games consoles. Take a look at the vari- hand-cut to fit. “It’s a bit like putting a ous websites for US or British jigsaw together; it’s very therapeutic,” doll’s-houseenthusiastsandtheyreflect says Turner. “The fact that aworldthathaslongdisappeared. using veneers in furni- That cosy, nostalgic domesticity is, ture is also becoming however, at odds with an unsettling more popular again senseofatoo-realworldofreduction.In B Push bowls, in steel, means that as a maker, the remarkable 1957 film The Incredible copper and brass, you can experiment a lot Shrinking Man, the protagonist finds €16 to €48, more with designs that wouldn’t be himself getting smaller each day and thefundamentalshop.com achievableinsolidtimber.” ends up living, for a while, in a doll’s GermandesignerElisaStrozykexper- house(untilthecatchaseshimout).Itis iments with geometric patterns in unu- an eerie echo of a childhood fantasy of sual ways by creating half-wood, half- living vicariously through the tiny con- textile flexible surfaces that can be used tentsofanimaginaryworld. ascurtains,rugs,andtablerunners.The Artist Rachel Whiteread collects old wood is sanded, stained and laser-cut dolls’ houses, not as antiques but rather into small triangular pieces which are as miniaturised simulacra. The subur- then applied to a fabric base. “When I ban houses, cutesy cottages and mini- startedexperimentingwithwoodItried mansions exude an existential angst of lost childhoods and unloved abandon- ‘Wedon’t want to ment. The houses piled into an uneasy, twilit suburb of empty dwellings create B The Bartolomew chair overcomplicate our a powerful, evocative image. Henrik in angel cubes, £625, I Velvet throw, ideas so simple geometric Ibsenalsoexploitedthissenseofunease galapagosdesigns.com by Margo Selby, intheimplicitcomparisonofthelifeofa B Revolver display cabinet, by £385, forms make sense’ wife trapped in a dependent, bourgeois Chris Turner, £3,400, treniq.com margoselby.com lifestyle to an existence in a doll’shouse inthetitleofhismostreveredplay. The beauty of geometrics, Bort adds, design duo Custhom. Their Palladian different shapes — circles, honeycomb From the Wunderkammer to the is that “because of the repeat nature of collection of blue-and-white porcelain patterns, squares — but then I realised favoured toy, the doll’s house delivers a the patterns they are manageable in our and Hayward range of textiles are both triangles worked the best in terms of sense of control over an idealised envi- homes. You can blow them up and go as inspired by London architecture. Phil- movement,”she says. “The small trian- ronment. It presented a God’s-eye view wild as you want or just add a small- pottandOoiputtheirgeometricleaning gles allow the material to be sculpted in with its owner as God, rather than scale pop through accessories here and downtotheirrespectivebackgroundsin a3Dwaythat’snotpossibleotherwise.” merely inhabitant. For the child it is there”.TextiledesignerMargoSelby,for graphicdesignandscreenprinting. Equally, the Stellar series (featuring exactly the same but more so. Children example, has put geometric prints on “There’s been a lot of talk about the side tables, a mirror, a console and a lack the control over their everyday cushions, throws and bed linen, while rebirth of geometrics and block colour- screen) by designer Jake Phipps is the lives so the ability to dictate the details Woven Ground has a new range of geo- ing but for us, our shapes are more resultofinnovativethinking. of existence in the doll’s house provides metric,monochromeleatherrugs. about a visual language that we’ve “From a manufacturing perspective, asenseofagency. Another interior designer using geo- evolvedtogether.Wedon’twanttoover- it’s interesting because there’s the abil- The doll’s house has lasted because it metrics is Katharine Pooley who often complicate our ideas so simple geomet- itytocreateorganicshapeswithstraight allows our adult and our infant selves to features cubist-style paintings by artist ricformsmakesense,”saysPhilpott. lines. 3D curves cost money so by laser- imagine a level of perfection, complete- Bianca Smith in her clients’ homes. “A It is an approach echoed by Grace cuttingflatsheetsofstainlesssteelintoa ness and control so conspicuously lack- lot of Bianca’s work is geometric. She Winteringham and Anna Murray of geometric arrangement you can pro- ingfromthechaosofouractuallives. uses clean lines, which I think are a Patternity, who are known for their duce a 3D curved object,”he says. Each calming, beautiful antidote to our busy monochrome geometric patterns. “Our piece is inspired by the precious quali- ‘SmallStories:AtHomeinaDoll’sHouse’ lives,”shesays.Pooleyhasalsodesigned trademarkprint—circles,lines,squares ties of naturally forming amethyst opensthisweekendattheV&A’sMuseum an art deco-influenced dinner service — is a rearrangement of those funda- geodes and machine-cut diamonds ofChildhoodinLondon,andrunsuntil for Fortnum & Mason, formed of geo- mental shapes that make up all matter. (each panel of the screen consists of September62015; metricpatternsingoldandsilver. It represents the infinity of pattern,” more than 1,000 individually sized and museumofchildhood.org.uk Art deco lines crop up on geometric- says Murray. The pair’s most recent angled mirrored sections). “I’ve cer- based collections by Nathan Philpott B Dean Credenza with storage project is their Fleet of Dazzle range of tainly tried to push the construction EdwinHeathcoteistheFT’s and Jemma Ooi, who together form unit, $13,000, volkfurniture.com artprints,fashionandhomeaccessories boundaries,”saysPhipps. architecturecritic

DECEMBER 13 2014 Section:Weekend Time: 10/12/2014 - 17:00 User: woodwardj Page Name: RES9, Part,Page,Edition: RES, 9, 1