Apart from these design elements, the show is about making our homes brighter, more tactile and more individual, says the director. She continues that “Nicholas Denney’s side tables have this amazing condensed pattern that replicates the systems of natural geological forms – you can get lost in it. The Glasgow Triptych by James Rigler uses the language of grandiose buildings but splices it with humble object types: a shelf, a light, and a bench.” With this collection, it’s about the immediacy of design whilst prioritising comfort.
Stacey Hunter, director of Local Heroes, felt it is important to highlight the new fluidity between workspace and living space for many people, especially those who don’t live in large homes – “It’s more important now than ever to maximise the utility of furniture and lighting. So why not have a dining table that’s also a beautiful work desk?”
Hunter, talking through a few pieces, explains that, for example, the addition of a hidden drawer makes Simon’s Harlow’s piece “multifunctional as well as beautiful,” whilst Walac x Juli Bolaños-Durman have collaborated to create The Isles of WonderGlass, a series of one-of-a-kind lighting sculptures. Hunter relays they are “composed of piled-glass towers and fluted loops, reminiscent of funfairs and abstract scientific devices”, bringing “joy and fantasy into a space as well as the functionality of providing light. So many of the objects are about finding some happiness amidst the scarcity and isolation of the pandemic.”
15 Scotland-based designers have presented 40 new design objects for a vision of this novel hybrid home including furniture, lighting and collectible craft as part of Brompton Design District at London Design Festival. The Future of Home curated by Local Heroes hopes to convey a sense of curiosity and discovery which it says can be found within Scotland’s dynamic design culture. It hopes to do this through new materials, innovative processes and designs on show courtesy of emerging designers and their latest products. The rising designers include Jeni Allison, Walac and Urpflanze.
Now that working from home might look like the new normal for many of us indefinitely, what does this mean for the future of our homes’ interiors? How do we begin to accommodate a new workspace in our living spaces?