Furniture showroom Viaduct is staging the first UK exhibition by German furniture brand Zeitraum. In a dedicated exhibition space, a selection of Zeitraum pieces are presented in collaboration with new magazine Wrap.

EXHIBITION NO.2, 2nd March-2nd April 2011

VIADUCT

1-10 Summers Street, London EC1R 5BD (020 7278 8456)

The exhibition sees the UK launch of the Morph lounge chair alongside other key pieces from the collection, including sofas, tables, lighting and a children’s chair.

New prints from Wrap are being showcased alongside Zeitraum’s furniture. Wrap is a newly launched publication that showcases design and illustration work.

Details and extractions from Wrap’s collaborators are being presented on digitally printed wallpaper and vinyl wall stickers, as well as on soft furnishings, a collection of transfer printed ceramics and a bespoke light shade.

During the London Design Festival, furniture and lighting showroom Viaduct is staging an exhibition titled ‘Northern Lights’, curated by designer Gitta Gschwendtner. Visitors can expect the latest designs from Northern Europe including e15, Montis, Pastoe and other leading manufacturers.

NORTHERN LIGHTS, 16th September-2nd October 2010

VIADUCT

1-10 Summers Street, London EC1R 5BD (020 7278 8456)

A dramatic installation of fluorescent lighting and furniture is encapsulated in a rubberised room to create a new sensory experience. From utilitarian fluorescent tubing to the deluxe sophistication of contemporary design, the show is inspired by the imagination of Dan Flavin.

Gitta Gschwendtner has created an original exhibition with designs from Stefan Diez for e15 as well as pieces from Tom Dixon, Piergiorgio & Michele Cazzaniga.

The lighting within this ‘red room’ alternates between all red and all white, affecting the visitor’s engagement with the objects.

Clerkenwell design showroom – Viaduct – is working with the furniture brands that it represents in the UK to showcase their best new products which were released earlier in the year at the Milan Furniture Fair.

FRESH FROM MILAN, 25th May – 11th June 2010

VIADUCT

1-10 Summers Street, London EC1R 5BD (020 7278 8456)

On show will be Stefan Diezʼs new seating range for E15 – the EUGENE lounge chair (pictured above), BESSY chair and stool and the JEAN barstool, plus the new LONDON table in solid oak and VIER glass side table by Philipp Mainzer.

New additions to Naoto Fukasawaʼs HIROSHIMA range for Maruni – a dining chair (above), designed to look as if it has been hewn from one solid piece of wood, and elegant sideboard.

Viaduct will be showcasing new furniture from Montis, including compact armchair ELLA by Niels Bendtsen (above) and chic easy chair MARVIN by Christophe Marchand.

New products from MDF Italia include the TENSE monochrome table by P&M Cazzaniga (above), and the FLOW chair by Jean-Marie Massaud with quilted NanoSphere fabric seat.

It’s December and the Christmas season is well and truly upon us. The annual dilemma as to what to buy our discerning friends and family is here, and to make life a bit easier, we have searched the stores featured in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE to bring our pick of the top 20 products from 20 great places.

Start as you mean to go on – kick off Christmas day with Champagne and sausages.

Above: Champagne Glasses by Ilse Crawford & Michael Anastassiades. £85 (sold in pairs) from Sigmar, Chelsea (page 19 in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE)

Of course, no day begins properly without a caffeine injection.

Above: Coffee & tea maker by Naoto Fukasawa. £149 from twentytwentyone, Islington (page 119 in LDG)

Right, breakfast over, its time to change out of your dressing gown and make an effort. Its Christmas day after all.

Above: Hinged Facet cufflinks in sterling silver by Hannah Martin. £335 from The Modern Gentry, Mayfair (until 5th December) or online from Hannah Martin London (page 84 in LDG)

And for you ladies, a beautiful ring should do the job.

Above: Grace Round silver ring with crystal by Jacqueline Rabun. £1500 from Jacqueline Rabun, Knightsbridge (page 15 in LDG)

Its not just how you look. What about how you smell?

Above: ‘Standard’ Comme des Garcons Artek perfume (100ml). £70 from Dover Street Market, Mayfair (page 54 in LDG)

Winter days can be rather gloomy so its important that you can see what you’re doing before plunging into that pile of pressies.

Above: Chimney Lights by Benjamin Hubert. £295 each from Viaduct, Clerkenwell (page 106 in LDG)

OK, if the kids don’t open some presents soon, they’re going to climb the walls. Perhaps that goes for the adults too? 

Above: Playshapes by millergoodman. £79 for a set of 74 wooden shapes from Aram, Covent Garden (page 76 in LDG)

Feeling peckish already? Time for a mid-morning snack served in style.

Above: hemDing platter by Andreas Fabian. £109 from Thorsten van Elten pop-up shop, Brompton (2-13 December) or online (page 72 in LDG)

Christmas is a time of celebration so do just that, and assemble and scatter illuminated balloons.

Above: Balloon Lamp by Kyouei. £25 from placesandspaces, Clapham (page 154 in LDG)

Argh, is that the time?! Must be time to start cooking the almighty roast…

Above: Red Wrist Watch by Uniform Wares. £85 from Uniform Wares online store (available from 4th December – its that new!)

OK, pots and pans to the ready…

Above: 20cm Casserole by Jasper Morrison. £38 from Jasper Morrison Shop, Shoreditch (page 131 in LDG). The other products in the image are also available from Jasper Morrison Shop.

So, who is going to set the table for lunch?

Above: Tonale tableware range by David Chipperfield. Prices from £13 from Alessi, Mayfair (page 52 of LDG)

After a long boozy lunch, it is time for a snooze on the sofa wrapped in warm blankets.

Above: Nos Da cushions, throws, and blankets. £60, £160, and £275 from SCP, Shoreditch and Notting Hill (pages 31 & 136 in LDG)

Wake up sleepy head!

Above: Braun Alarm Clock AB5 by Dietrich Lubs. £29.95 from Design Museum Shop, Bermondsey (page 150 in LDG). Be warned – these clocks are out of production and have been sourced from a savvy collector in Japan, so they are strictly limited!

If you’re not the snoozing type, have a read of your latest cultural tome.

Above: Anish Kapoor, published by Phaidon. £59.95 from Phaidon Store, Mayfair (from 6-7pm on 11th December, Anish Kapoor will be signing books in the store. To secure a place in the queue, pre-order your copy with a 20% discount)

Time for some Christmas cake already?

Above: Pedastal (grey) by Harri Koskinen for iittala. £329 (limited edition) from Skandium, Brompton and Marylebone (pages 20 & 42 in LDG)

Of course, you can’t have cake without a cup of tea, right?

Above: Adonde stoneware teapot. £79 from Mar Mar Co, Brick Lane (page 134 in LDG)

OK, revived, its time for some more presents. 

Above: Wallet by Porte Monnaie, made from paper-like flash-spun high density polyethylene. £69 from Darkroom, Lamb’s Conduit Street (new store opening 8th December)

Wow, a knockout sculptural centrepiece if ever I saw one.

Above: Yellow Loop by Merete Rasmussen. £780 from Contemporary Applied Arts, Fitzrovia (page 89 in LDG)

At the risk of being really boring, I’m off to bed…

Above: French tin candle box with drawer of refills. £19 from Few and Far, Brompton (page 14 in LDG)

So that’s the end of our pick of 20 great Christmas presents from 20 great places. Explore over 100 more fantastic design destinations that are featured in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2010 – buy your copy for Christmas! Only £10 directly from this website.

We’ll leave you with a nerdy statistic: each year Britons spend on average £435 on Christmas presents, but now researchers have calculated £36 of that will not be appreciated. Last year, eBay saw two million unwanted Christmas gifts listed, but a huge number are discarded and end up in landfill. 

It is predicted that Londoners will be given £86 million of unwanted gifts this Christmas. Don’t be one of them. Buy well, buy quality… don’t buy crap.

Source: Western Union via Evening Standard

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

One of Japan’s most celebrated furniture manufacturers, Maruni, is now available for the first time in the UK exclusively through Viaduct, in London’s Clerkenwell.

Maruni Wood Industry was founded in 1928 in Hiroshima. Their slogan “Industrialising Craftwork” sums up their ability to create great works of craft using the industrialised methods of production.

Maruni is a well-established company in Japan, with its own factory and several showrooms in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Hiroshima. 

Since 2004, the company has been building on its reputation as a master wood manufacturer by introducing international designers including Naoto Fukasawa (images of Hiroshima table and dining chairs), Jasper Morrison, Harri Koskinen, SANAA architects, Shin Azumi, Tomoko Azumi, amongst others.

For Viaduct’s full contact details, see page 106 in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE, otherwise click here.

This exhibition is a physical manifestation of The New Modernists – one of the five groups that make up the ‘Design Tribes’ editorial feature within LONDON DESIGN GUIDE.

THE NEW MODERNISTS

 17th-26th September 2009

Viaduct, 1-10 Summer’s Street, London EC1R 5BD (020 7278 8456)

A LONDON DESIGN GUIDE exhibition in collaboration with Viaduct. This is an extract from the Design Tribes chapter of LDG:

“Year after year, designers vie for the attentions of manufacturers in the hope that their new design proposal will come up trumps against the rest. Mass production still represents the holy grail of success. Yet amid a sea of competition and marketing noise, it becomes rather easy to miss the designs that are most likely to sustain the industry on a commercial level. Provocative, entertaining and sensationalist design – a tiny but loud segment of the market – has tended to overshadow the more pragmatic work of hardworking designers.

That said, there is still a pulse in the area of commercial production that concerns itself with subtle – as opposed to seismic – improvements and advancements in our everyday material landscape. Refined, pure and formalist. Classic and timeless in visual language. Pragmatic in functionality, sometimes with a smattering of irony. This is the work of the New Modernists.”

Taking the concept of The New Modernists, Viaduct is celebrating their 20th birthday with an exhibition that celebrates everything that Viaduct stands for: timelessness, quality, refined aesthetics and an ability to spot enduring talent.

Viaduct will be showing the diverse designs of Maarten Van Severen, Bertjan Pot, Studio Job, Stefan Diez, Arik Levy, Jasper Morrison, Simon Pengelly and introducing British design dynamo Benjamin Hubert.  Viaduct will show exciting and eclectic work from some of the most influential names in modern furniture design – the show is more about the future but does give a quick reverential nod to its twenty years in business. The New Modernists manufacturers include, amongst others, Cappellini, e15, Montis, Pastoe and Zeus.

Entry: free