We live in an age of chaos, light-speed pace, and unrelenting noise. We seek out fantasy, nature, and calm in this never-ending storm. We crave distraction; a sweet relief to recharge our spirit.
We go in search of light; light that twists and turns, light that dances around the room, bathing it in it’s warm embrace. We either revel in the brilliance of the light, or take shelter in its dim glow. We choose what to illuminate, and what to keep hidden in the dark of night.
Carwan gallery invites you to explore the works of selected designers who have a shared interest in the relationship between the fantastical and the real.
Apparatus Studio Our new collaboration with apparatus studio in new york, shows a new way of working where aged brass, etched glass, leather, and porcelain are combined to create lighting fixtures that fuse sculptural form with hand-worn materials. The result is a warm glow that is at once timeworn and thoroughly modern. each individual fixture is assembled by hand in the apparatus studio. raw brass components are meticulously finished to reveal layers of uncommon beauty. Molded and blown glass components are etched and painted to achieve the “perfect imperfect”.
Bec Brittain Bec Brittain, established name in the new york design scene, creates lighting system using the spare beauty of thin led tubes to define the edges of the light shape; in this way the function of the piece is created by its form and vice-versa. Every piece is hand assembled by the studio team and personally inspected by the designer.
Daniel Rybakken Born in 1984, Daniel Rybakken grew up in Oslo, Norway. He studied design at the Oslo School of Architecture and the School of Arts & Crafts in Gothenburg, Sweden. On graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in 2008 he opened his own design studio in both Oslo and Gothenburg. Rybakken has received numerous awards, including the ‘Best of the Best’ Red Dot Award in Singapore, 2007; the Anders Jahre’s Cultural Prize for Young Artists in Oslo, 2008; and the Design Report Award for best designer at Salone Satellite in Milan, 2009. The work of Daniel Rybakken occupies the area between art and design, forming limited editions, art installations and prototypes for serial production. His main focus has been to work with daylight and how to artificially recreate its appearance and subconscious effect.
Garnier & Linker Guillaume Garnier and Florent Linker are two French creators based in Paris. Their work is about giving a contemporary design to rare materials and savoir- faire. All pieces are handmade in small series by French master craftsmen. As designers, they get their inspiration from decorative arts and sculpture, to create pure-shaped forms revealing their materiality. With their background in interior design, they offer objects that meet all demands of modern interiors, with bespoke options according to architects and decorators needs.
India Mahdavi Architect, designer, and scenographer India Mahdavi was born in 1962 in Tehran, Iran. Raised by a Persian father and Egyptian-English mother, Mahdavi lived in Iran for the first year and a half of her life, then spent the rest of her childhood traveling with her parents, living in the U.S., Germany, and France. This culturally diverse lifestyle is reflected in her inspired, eclectic designs, which range from homes, hotels, and commercial spaces to airplane interiors and furniture.
Garnier & Linker Guillaume Garnier and Florent Linker are two French creators based in Paris. Their work is about giving a contemporary design to rare materials and savoir- faire. All pieces are handmade in small series by French master craftsmen. As designers, they get their inspiration from decorative arts and sculpture, to create pure-shaped forms revealing their materiality. With their background in interior design, they offer objects that meet all demands of modern interiors, with bespoke options according to architects and decorators needs.
Mischer’Traxler Katharina Mischer (1982) and Thomas Traxler (1981) form mischer‘traxler studio. Based in Vienna they develop and design objects, furniture, processes, installations and more, thereby focusing on experiments and conceptual thinking within a given context. Balancing between handcraft and technology, they envision whole systems, new production methods and kinetic or interactive installations that question topics, tell stories or open up new ways of doing things.
Sabine Marcelis Sabine Marcelis is a Dutch/New Zealand product designer who has her studio based in Rotterdam, (NL). After graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2011 she has been working as an independent designer and has received several awards for her work including the 2012 Braun Prize. The importance of collaborations are a big part of Sabine’s vision for design, she has undertaken various collaborative efforts with other designers, industry and brands. Sabine works across a varied field within design but always strives to create a dialogue between the object and the user. She sees her designs as experiences, not mere static pieces; with functionality complimented through aesthetics at the core.
Karen Chekerdjian Karen Chekerdjian is an object and product designer. She graduated from Domus Academy in 1997, where she studied under Massimo Morozzi, a founding member of the legendary 1960’s design studio, Archizoom. In 2001, Karen Chekerdjian returned to Beirut and opened her own atelier, which is divided into two parts: the Studio and the Store. Her work has also been displayed at a number of international exhibitions, amongst them Utopi (Copenhagen), Beyond the Myth (a pan-European show), Salone del Mobile, Lights (Tokyo) and ECHO (Beirut) and The Issey Miyake Foundation (Tokyo) and Spazio Orlandi Gallery and Nilufar Gallery (Milan) and Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Beirut). Karen’s catalogue continues to grow. Karen’s work was described as ‘Industrial Handicrafts’.Creative Mapping discussed with Karen Chekerdjian the design approach and her creative process.
Vincenzo De Cotiis Trained at the Politecnico di Milano, Vincenzo De Cotiis combines the architect’s sense of space with a sensitivity towards tactile surfaces. He forges pure forms – either design objects or spaces – by following an organic process that allows the final product to retain traces of the process. Touch is as important as sight and generates structures and solutions. Crystalline, pure lines are charged with a new energy in the counterpoint of textures and parts. Materials – precious, raw, sometimes wild and always with an intense and evocative power – characterise every single project. Style results from the raw precision of the finishes, the unexpected associations of parts and a choice of faded colours that incorporate the signs and scratches of time. De Cotiis’ aesthetic is all about perfect imperfection.
Joseph Dirand Dirand studied architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville.As of April 2014 he lived in his own restored flat in the 7th arrondissement with his partner and their two daughters from previous marriages. Dirand works in Paris. After receiving the commission while still a student to do the interior design for Junko Shimada’s Paris shop, he started his own interior design firm in 1999, when he was 29, and drew public attention with his redesign of a flat facing the Place de la Concorde. After his creation of the new shop for Balmain on rue François-Ier, which has been called “the most beautiful fashion store in Paris”, he came to be in demand as an interior architect for fashion companies. Bespoke furniture by Dirand was included in the inaugural AD Collections exhibition in 2015. Later that year he held his first exhibition of his furniture, which is manufactured by craftsmen at the Ateliers Saint-Jacques and which he describes as a homage to modernist architects who are “heroes” to him, such as Carlo Scarpa, Alvar Aalto, Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier.