Balance to us,
is the result of
careful consideration.

Never of compromise, but of layering, weighing, adding and omitting. About contrasts that please and layers which tease. Using solids and voids is a way for us to achieve that balance, juxtaposing what is and what isn’t to create experiences rather than spaces.

Project 001

Location — London

Eykyn Maclean Frieze Masters

In 2018, we designed a booth for Eykyn Maclean gallery at Frieze Masters in London. While most booths act as an art display, stacking as many artworks as possible, Eykyn Maclean chose concept over commerce, using a theme of solids and voids to showcase works by Archipenko, O’Keeffe and others.

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Our intervention was simple: we cut an opening in one of the dividing walls. This way, we created a void, an oversized peephole with a view of Georgia O’Keeffe peering through a slice of cheese.The cut-out shape has highlighted red edges and has been made into a pedestal.

Art fair booths are paid in expensive square meters, which means designing them is an exercise in maximization. In curating the works as if it were an exhibition, however, Eykyn Maclean chose to swim upstream. Naturally, our design followed suit and aimed to make the underlying theme even more apparent, without stealing the works’ thunder.

Project 002

Location — London

Somerset Studio

Matthew Stephenson’s Somerset Studio is a gallery, an office with a library and a storage space—all in a 32 square meter space in a grade A Georgian building, smack in the center of London.

Our first challenge was to fit such a heavy program in such a small space. To do so, we borrowed some trickery from the performing arts: moving panels, blocks that can be pedestals or stages or storage cabinets, and double-sided curtains. Here is a room that changes like the weather.

Transparency and mobility play a big role in the space’s setup. The vertical sliding system has mesh panels. When lit from the front, you see the panel, not the books. When lit from the back, the books reveal themselves.

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Matthew is a worldwide representative of the Alexander Archipenko Foundation. He mainly deals in his works and needed space to show sculptures. We met through the Frieze Masters exhibition, which gave us another chance to play with solids and voids.

The second challenge was to deal with the limitations of renovating a grade-A listed building where, just to give an example, we couldn’t perforate the ceiling. We looked for technical solutions and decided to let them show.

This way, there is a stark contrast between the ornate Georgian style and the industrial shelving in bare, honest materials. The result is an architecture of contrast, which ends up bringing balance to the space.

Storing in a gallery space.
Showing in an office space.
Working in a storage space.

Project 003

Location — Brussels

Brugmann

In the middle of Brussels, a young family of three asked us to design a bespoke cabinet complementing their interior. The building, a historic twenties townhouse, has detailed ornaments and rich materials such as original plaster moldings and natural marbles. The rooms in the house had a clear division, separating breakfast room from the entrance room.

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Our intervention was based on three points: spatial, functional and material.

Spatially, we created an 8-meter-long low horizontal floating volume, that pierces through the dividing wall. Vertically we added a series of shelves, referring to the previously demolished chimney and to the existing fireplace in the living room. As such, we didn’t only visually connect the breakfast room with the entrance room, but also included the living room.

Functionally, their main request was to have additional storage space, a dry bar with library and two desks for homework. To have a continuous look, we integrated both desks in the volume, and they reveal themselves when opening the cabinet doors. The dry bar and library are integrated in the vertical shelving.

For materials, we opted to complement the existing palette, but use it in a different way. The cabinets are walnut, with a brass edge that wraps around the countertop. The countertop is made of different slabs of natural stone, each handpicked and from a different region of the world.