Going full circle | Pendulum thinking | Happy birthday twentytwentyone

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Tomorrow’s work

Introducing Bureau – London’s newest members’ club and workspace for the creative industries.

Bureau offers freelancers, start-ups, studios and remote workers an array of state-of-the-art workspaces, made by creatives for creatives, spread across two of Design District’s architect-designed buildings (one by HNNA, the other by Barozzi Veiga). With an identity by Graphic Thought Facility and ‘utilitarian but sophisticated’ interiors by Roz Barr architects, the spaces are designed to foster collaboration and nurture the exchange of ideas – from as little as £80 a month!

New client alert! Happy birthday twentytwentyone!

Hip hip hooray for the home of modern design.

For 25 years, twentytwentyone in North London has been an exquisitely laid out treasure house of 20th and 21st century furniture, lighting and accessories. Since it was launched by Simon Alderson and Tony Cunningham in 1996, the brand has become a go-to name for modern design classics and a renowned platform for emerging contemporary talent. 

To mark the year the brand at last grows into its name, twentytwentyone is releasing a series of exclusive, small-batch products which we expect will fly off the shelves. (Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know.) Zetteler is thrilled to be representing them – and we’ll make sure you’re the first to know.

Norwegian Presence 2021

Exploring sustainable design, craft, and the interiors of tomorrow.

Sustainability and circular design. The line between craft and manufacture. The breakdown of the aesthetic divide between home and work. Next month, Norwegian Presence 2021takes on the hottest topics in design, with the first of three online events on Thursday 18 February at 1pm (London) or 2pm (Oslo)... we could go on, you’re welcome wherever you are in the world!

Bringing together leading designers and trailblazing manufacturers from Norway and beyond, the half-day programme of round tables, panel discussions and film will attempt to square the circle of closed-loop design and mass production, showcasing sustainable production methods, responsible resourcing practices and socially beneficial business models.

Tickets are FREE

Sunny delight

Note Design Studio x Gunilla Allard for Lammhults.

The new versatile Sunny seating system is the result of a team-up between legendary Swedish designer Gunilla Allard and the wonder team at Note Design Studio. Moving away from the conventional dimensions of contract furniture and instead following the proportions and contours of the human body, Sunny comprises a cushion-topped tubular steel frame, giving it an unusually light aesthetic.

The collaboration was conceived when Allard reached out to former mentee, Note’s Kristoffer Fagerström, as the two had met 15 years earlier while both working in the film industry – Gunilla as a set designer and Kristoffer in digital post-production. This shared experience in cinema is only too evident from Sunny’s visual collateral.

New client alert! We’re back with HØLTE

Bringing bespoke, affordable style to your kitchen.

Having worked with HØLTE founders Tom and Fi Ginnett a couple of years ago, we’re thrilled to be reunited with them as they continue to take their studio stratospheric. Their foundational idea – to create high-quality, hand-finished fronts and worktops for IKEA’s METOD cabinet system – offers homeowners and architects the look and feel of bespoke kitchen design for a much more accessible price, and their simple, timeless and brilliantly engineered designs can now be found in countless standout kitchens around the UK – and, of course, in their beautiful Broadway Market showroom.

The post-pandemic workplace

Design District director Helen Arvanitakis speaks up.

When the pandemic is over and the dust settles, the world of work will be very different. And there’s no getting around it, for many of us in the creative sector, the road to recovery will be hard. Published by OnOffice this month, Design District’s Helen Aravanitakis argues that workplace providers have a key role to play in rebuilding the economy, and that returning to the old, inflexible office-rental model is neither helpful nor viable in the long run.

Read it for yourself here.

Pendulum thinking

Takram outlines a different way to look at design

“Design is inherently a speculative activity. All of our work is speculative in nature because we're exploring transformation; we're proposing something new that's never been seen or done before. If it's not going to transform, why do it?” – Yosuke Ushigome, London studio director, Takram.

As a studio, Takram’s approach is underpinned by a coherent, progressive philosophy of design rooted in what they call ‘pendulum thinking’. This describes a holistic mindset that considers every problem or project from multiple perspectives, oscillating between designer, engineer and user in order to discover, develop and deliver imaginative solutions to complex problems.

Takram outlined this approach in a series of pieces for Core 77, covering topics as diverse as prototyping as a critical tool, to anxiety in the Anthropocene, and how you can often improve the solutions by reframing the initial problem. The fascinating series brilliantly articulates Takram’s unique design methodology – be sure to check it out.

Renovate, good times, come on

Russian For Fish reinvents a Victorian.

Architects Russian For Fish has a reputation for sensitive and spatially ingenious residential extension and renovation projects, and the firm’s recent transformation of a Victorian detached home in Brixton is its most ambitious and extensive to date. The team have completely renovated and reconfigured all three floors of the property for modern family living. The level of detail, the material palette, the seamless integration of period and contemporary – every facet of the project is extraordinary.