Established by Italian architect Chantal Martinelli and her French husband Julien Desormeaux, Mad Atelier is a little pocket of Mediterranean style transported to London’s East End.
Opened in late 2017 on Lower Clapton Road, the store specialises in hand-selected playful pieces by contemporary designers, as well as vintage finds picked up by Chantal and Julien from galleries in Milan, Paris and Barcelona. The mix is constantly evolving as the duo discover new workshops, studios and craftspeople to collaborate with, often on exclusive pieces.
A reflection of Chantal and Julien’s instincts rather than current trends, Mad Atelier’s vibe is a melting pot of Southern European and Northern African aesthetics – much like the Mediterranean itself. This sun-kissed oasis is also home of Chantal’s architecture and design studio, established in 2013, which has excelled in giving characterful and historic buildings a contemporary reimagining. Mad Atelier’s home, for example, is a former East London boozer that had been empty for 12 years before the couple gave it a new lease of life.
Projects
- Project 133The project is a result of a strong sensibility between the lived-in and the surrounding built environment and of a desire for re-conceptualising living space in a not-traditional way and for exploring typological hybrids. The two uses, live and work, are deliberately separate and their spatial organisation different. The studios extend on the ground floor reaching, at the back, a shared private courtyard; with little outlooks they have an internal vernacular nature and a meditative essence. The
- London Design Festival 2018Twelve years ago, the Lord Cecil in Clapton closed its doors for the last time, ending an era of sticky floors and lock-ins, punk and reggae gigs, and good old-fashioned East End boozing. The pub was a repository of stories, and to this day, many locals cherish fond and/or outrageous memories of their one-time local’s colourful past. Mad Atelier moved into the premises in November 2017, after over a decade of dereliction and a few months of renovating the space to accommodate our design boutique
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Projects credited in
- The Making of Mad Atelier: Q&A with Julien DesormeauxFor over a decade, if you wandered up Lower Clapton Road in Hackney, you were often confronted by the rather sad sight of the Lord Cecil, an old-school East London pub that took its last orders in 2007. Then in November last year, something happened. The steel shutters came down. A long-absent staircase was restored. Many of the pub’s original features were rescued from dereliction. Light and colour began pouring forth from the inside of the Georgian building. Mad Atelier was born. Click here t7
- MAD ATELIERAtelier is a little pocket of Mediterranean style transported to London’s East End. Opened in late 2017 on Lower Clapton Road, the store specialises in hand-selected playful pieces by contemporary designers, as well as vintage finds picked up by Chantal and Julien from galleries in Milan, Paris and Barcelona. The mix is constantly evolving as the duo discover new workshops, studios and craftspeople to collaborate with, often on exclusive pieces. A reflection of Chantal and Julien’s instincts rather than current trends, Mad Atelier’s vibe is a melting pot of Southern European and Northern African aesthetics – much like the Mediterranean itself. This sun-kissed oasis is also home of Chantal’s architecture and design studio, established in 2013, which has excelled in giving characterful and historic buildings a contemporary reimagining. Mad Atelier’s home, for example, is a former East London boozer that had been empty for 12 years before the couple gave it a new lease of life. WHAT WE DO FOR MAD ATELIER Meetings with Mad Atelier tend to stretch into riveting, in-depth discussions of the fascinating stories behind its products and their makers, so we’re ecstatic that we’ll have the opportunity to share these tales far and wide. We’re working with Chantal and Julien to promote the newly launched destination, its exclusive collaborations and quarterly exhibitions, as well as amplify the work of Chantal’s architectural studio. mad-atelier.com