Bla Station Presentation

Last week we invited a group of architects and designers to join us in the showroom for a presentation on Bla Station from Ruth Simpson the UK agent. Ruth spoke about the history of the company and explained the thinking behind many of the products. We also learnt how passionate the company is with regards sustainability; many of the products within the range have environmental awards and all Bla Station products are manufactured in Scandinavia.

We had lots of pieces of Bla Station furniture for everyone to try and enjoy such as the Innovation C designed by Fredrik Mattson and the new Oppo chairs, designed by Stefan Borselius and launched in Milan earlier this year. This is the first time they have been displayed in Scotland! There was much discussion about the sense of happiness the products gave everyone and indeed the Oppo chairs were compared to the Teletubbies! All our visitors felt the Innovation C was a great product and had lots of ideas of projects where it could be used.
Once all furniture had been put through its paces we went next door to La Garrigue for an early supper – always a treat!

100% Design

Julian was down south last week to get a taste of 100% Design at Earls Court and London Design Week. 100% Design had its usual mix of new designers, young companies producing everything from wallpaper to concrete lights, building products and a few furniture companies. The focus is shifting and much of the design interest is now centred on showrooms and ‘fringe’ design events around London. Highlights included Tom Dixon’s new showroom at Portobello Dock; a great space which for one week was at the centre of a design event that included products from Swedese, Artifort and Thorsten van Elten.

Elsewhere, B&B Italia’s front window highlighted the products launched at Milan in April. The fantastic Papillo chair had been ‘dressed’ by prominent designers for an auction event and the Jean sofa was shown in various forms (look out for the launch of Jean in Tangram’s showroom at our Open Weekend on 10/11 Oct).

Walter Knoll has opened its new showroom in Charterhouse Square, a lovely light space in which to show off their fantastic range of seating products. Finally, Viaduct held its regular exhibition of the latest products; from Montis (Domino sofa system and variants of the Lotus chair), storage from Pastoe, the Houdini chair form E15 and fabulous steel tables from Zeus.