A Second Life exhibition

A Second Life exhibition London Design Festival 2019 at sketch, London Matter of Stuff, the leading design and manufacturing consultancy, is proud to announce the launch of A Second Life exhibition at sketch for London Design Festival 2019. Commissioning one architecture and three design studios, Matter of Stuff is presenting an array of experimental new works made from a single raw material. Hosted by sketch, the iconic artist-conceived food and drinks destination in London’s Mayfair, the exhibition will run from Monday 14 September through to November 2019. In preparation for the exhibition, PiM.Studio, Brodie Neill, Matteo Fogale, and Studio Furthermore have transformed 5,000 cylindrical pine dowels provided by Matter of Stuff to make a resolute and ongoing statement about the infinite possibilities of sustainable design, upcycling and waste avoidance. “By injecting new life into waste material to create varied and extraordinary sculptures for an iconic venue, we want to make a statement that goes beyond the importance of sustainable design practices,” says Matter of Stuff co-founder, Simona Auteri. “Through four different iterations of reuse, we seek to redefine waste as a legitimate raw material with enormous potential for creative renewal.” The dowels measuring 2,400mm in length with a 15mm diameter were originally used by Matter of Stuff in 2018 for a pop-up gallery it opened in Kings Cross. Hand punched and threaded with a string, each dowel was hung individually from a ceiling mesh to create a floating vertical wall that divided up space while keeping each ‘room’ relational to the other. Today, in place of recycling the material through mulching, Matter of Stuff commissioned four designers to reinterpret, explore and experiment with the material to create new sculptures while maintaining some of the structural integrity of the original. PiM.studio Creating a dynamic, new spatial experience within the sketch entrance, RIBA award-winning architects PiM.studio has used the pine dowels to create temporary walls. We’ve been very happy to work on this project; sketch is a great location full of creativity and very inspiring. But most importantly we have been happy with the request to re-use the pine dowels that were part of a previous Matter of stuff exhibition. It is very important to re-use and to give a new life to materials, recycling is great, of course, and important, but re-using is much better and the creative process of using something in a very different way is a nice design challenge for us as designers and it shows that a material or an object simple as the dowels are very flexible and can be reinvented in many new beautiful, elegant designs. We wanted to create a welcoming and warm space for this exhibition, yet elegant and simple by using as little material as possible, we cut some thin steel shapes to hold together the dowels which are the real protagonists in the project. The warmth of the natural wood and the see-through nature of the screens enable the space to be transformed with its zig-zag layout. The lighting plays with the transparency of the screens and helps to change the space atmosphere through the different times of the day. The zig-zag recesses create these tiny and playful spaces and at the same time integrates some of the elements like the furniture. A bespoke exhibition lighting design by SEAM complement and enhance the installation. To celebrate the London Design Festival, sketch mixologists will create a special cocktail called A Second Life, available throughout the festival week. Named after the Matter of Stuff exhibition, it is inspired by last year’s creation Blown Away – the cocktail, which was a twist on a classic Venetian aperitivo will see its recipe re-imagined for the occasion. A mix in the making, A Second Life’s main component will be Japanese Gin Rokuit. Installation design: PIM.studio PiM.studio TEAM: Martin De Pablo, Maurizio Mucciola, Maria-Chiara Piccinelli, Laura Nabergoi Exhibition Curation: Matter of Stuff Partner: sketch Lighting design: SEAM Design Pieces by: Brodie Neill, Matteo Fogale and Studio Furthermore