Slow and Low in Farringdon

As someone who seeks out the cheapest cuts of meat, dumps them into my trusty Le Cruset with a handful of herbs and a slosh of something liquid, then leaves on a low heat until morphed into melting submission most weekends – Farringdon’s newest hot spot Lazybones sounded right up my slow-cooked street. Particularly when promised that the selection of gourmet hot dogs, afore-mentioned meat and selection of spicy wings would come with a side of ‘hard’ liquor.

Despite obvious effort to tap into the hearts of Farringdon’s hip mix of media types, first impressions of Lazybones’ are not brilliant. Sat next to a large and rather incongruous for the area Sports Bar, its exterior is a bit of a let down and the interior (90s-looking graphics, loud bursts of loud yellow, fly-posted pop culture images, fairy lights and cinema-style movie screens listing the food and drinks offerings) feels unnecessarily hectic. Perhaps I’ve been ruined by an influx of effortlessly nonchalant London interiors but, for all its design quirks, it leaves me a little cold.

The same cannot be said for the staff however, who greet us like old friends and immediately set about mixing us a Maple Old Fashioned each (a interesting take on the classic which we enjoyed so much we had three).

The short menu is an enticing read of junk food classics, so we quickly order more than we can possibly eat. Ironically as they probably started cooking at the same time I ordered my first morning coffee, the dishes come thick and fast and, it has to be said, are mostly excellent.

One should never be asked to choose between marinades, so we try both the BBQ and Hot Wings – which come slathered in a sweet, sticky tangle of perfect meat and tiny bone. They are sweet/smoky/fierce/tangy respectively – and so addictive we’ve emptied both baskets without breaking a (meat) sweat. Even better is the Chilli Dog, topped with tender beef brisket laced in cumin and gentle heat. If you ever wondered why you’d slow-cook a hot dog this (a frankfurter on pork steroids) is your answer.

The Pulled Pork & Slaw Sandwich suffered in comparison to the other dishes, not to mention its own description (eight hour-cooked pork shoulder in pale ale and served with cabbage, carrot, fennel, beetroot, celeriac, radish and yoghurt slaw) The coleslaw had none of sharpness needed to cut through pork and there was a distinct lack of sauce, leaving the bun and meat to merge in a tasteless mush. Despite being loaded with cheese, skinny fries were unexciting.

Lazybones is one of those restaurants that have it almost right and, if you lived in a town other than London, you’d probably go back without giving it much though. The food was pretty good (and in some cases great), the cocktails are delicious, the bar staff are helpful without being annoying and, having said the interior was hectic, at least two thirds of that hecticness was with actual people. Alas this is London, and I fear for the lovely people behind Lazybones that it will suffer in comparison to the other (slightly) finer examples of this kind of Americanised junk food we are lucky enough to have in our capital. But, if I am totally wrong and the place becomes a hotspot of hot sauce, then I’m perfectly willing to eat my hat. As long as my hat is full of those rather sexy slow-cooked hot dogs.

Lazybones

Unit 5

Cowcross Street

London

EC1M 6DQ

http://www.lazybones.uk.com/

It’s no secret to those who know me (and probably some that don’t) that I am a fan of anything that Scott Collins and Yianni Papoutsis do. I’ve bored people to death banging on about heady Friday nights at MEATeasy – full of five-napkin burgers, Soul Shaker Dark & Stormies and questionable dance moves. I’ve written gushing prose about how brilliantly I thought they transferred that very spirit to MEATLiquor (along with a few notable additions – namely the horribly additive, ‘shit I’ve eaten 10’ fried pickles). Hell, I even went to a launch of Asda’s fashion brand, George last year because I’d heard they were catering it.

But by then, like the fickle mistress I am, my eyes had begun to wonder… Lucky Chip seduced me first with clever names and cleverer toppings, then Patty & Bun did a number on me with their pop up at The Endurance followed by a permanent spot on James Street, then came Tommi’s, and before I knew it, I’d forgotten about the boys that spawned the burger-love within my loins. Then I heard they were planning another place in East London (it opened its doors December 2012 on Hoxton Market Square) housed within an old Victorian Christian mission, and decided it was time to re-examine the brand that started the London burger boom.

Talking about the newest kid on his ever-growing block, Yianni Papoutsis says “After MEATliquor in Marylebone and MEATmarket in Covent Garden, it was a natural evolution for us to head east with MEATmission. Having the opportunity to work in such a beautiful and historic building was the cherry on the cake.”

Apart from its hipster-East-end location, the notable difference to the set up at MEATmission is the fact you can book. Which, if you happen to have experienced the round-the-corner queues of previous ventures, you’ll know ain’t nothing but a good thing. Or so I thought. When we arrived at 7 on a Thursday eve, ‘The Sitting Room’ (the bookable part in which we had a table) was near empty and disappointingly atmosphere-less, in broad contrast to the adjoining ‘Downing Wallace Hall’ (the non-bookable bit) which was rammed not only full of people, but with the distinctive buzz familiar from the other ‘MEAT’ venues. In its defence it did pick up, but first impressions were of being sat at the boring table at a wedding (though admittedly a rather cool wedding).

Aside from a possibly unavoidable dip in ambience depending on if you’re laissez-faire enough to rock up without a booking, the moodily lit, monochrome interior with blasts of angry red is as darkly appealing as its predecessor (give or take a luminescent stained glass window or two); the waitresses are still easy on the eye; and the soundtrack shouts lustily above the din.

The menu (nattily made to look like a prayer book) features a mixture of the classics which made them so popular in the first place such as The Dead Hippie burger (two mustard-fried patties, with the Macdonald’s-homage Dead Hippie sauce); MEATliquor additions such as the afore-mentioned deep-fried pickes and the horribly effective Cyder Car (a cocktail that brilliantly uses west country cider as the mixer); and some entirely new creations (namely the Monkey Fingers and the-one-that-everyone’s-been-talking-about Roast Beef Sundae).

Though I applaud anyone who puts such a ridiculous arrangement of garlic mash, roast beef, gravy and horseradish cream, with a cherry (tomato) on top, on a menu, I wimped out of the sundae. But, having loved the buffalo wings at MEATliquor, was more than game for the Monkey Fingers. Adding further junk to the truck by taking out the bones, battering and deep-frying the chicken remains, before slathering them in the same lurid orange, hot pepper sauce, these could easily become a nasty habit.

But it is the mighty burger that gave this budding chain so many adoring fans across our fine capital, and it fittingly remains their benchmark. My Bacon Cheese didn’t quite reach the glory days of MEAT ‘juice-down-your-chin’ wagon/easy, but it was still everything you expect from a contemporary London patty n’ bun shop – pink, charred, aggressively seasoned and infinitely satisfying to eat.

For someone that is already well versed in the ‘MEAT’ format, not to mention a large chuck of the menu, the cynic in me wants to tell you not to bother with Meatmission. The booking policy doesn’t feel like it adds value because of the separate rooms, the extra dishes are fun but don’t really add much to the already brilliant core product and, after two years surfing front seat of the junk food wave, the burger trend is finally slowing down and, inevitably, they with it. But I’m no cynic and if the still-nightly queues are anything to go by, I’m not alone in thinking that MEATmission is a worthy addition to Collins’ and Papoutisis’ empire.

And, as Papoutisis says “There’s a few little side-projects we’re looking into but we haven’t got any plans to open any more sites in London for the moment”, you’ve still got plenty of time to enjoy it.

http://www.meatmission.com

Back in Sept 2012 during London design Festival, Daniel opened is workshops in Hackney to launch his “Reflections” range of hand made beds. Aimed at a more discerning market with a taste for craft and luxury, there is a real feeling of the Glamour of Art Deco. The REFLECTION NO.1 bed has a velvet material that uses an original Art Deco pattern. For a touch of glamour and exuberance in the bedroom the four-poster is our favourite design from The Reflection series No.2 which has a strong cubist quality.

Recently selected as a participant on the 2013 Walpole Crafted mentorship programme. His process of 22 years design and craftwork has culminated in Daniel gaining a firm recognition for his fine craft skills.

We asked Daniel about his design background and influences.

Daniel Spring studied at the Royal College of Art 1986 to 1988, where the design movement of Post-Modernism was predominant.

The hip design collaborative Memphis was the design pop star of the moment. Memphis although kitsch took inspirations from Art Deco with the aesthetic for symmetry, proportion and futuristic themes. Via another design movement but similar to Memphis, this was also a design influence on Daniel via the French modernists like Jean Prouvé and Paul Dupré-Lafon.

Daniel was more inspired by the strong gallic craft influence for ‘material led design’. The industrial design chic of the French was strongly rooted in craft which can be seen in Daniel Spring Beds today. Daniel left the RCA moved naturally to craft making and trained as a silversmith and his passion for working in metals began.

Moving forward to the early 90′s Daniel started-up on his own in London working with small crafted products like Candle sticks selling in a few North London shops and Camden market. Daniel was commissioned to up-cycle old metal farmers beds from Ireland. Daniels’ mixture of art college trained aesthetics and his honed skills for metal work inspired him to create his own designs such as Lollypop and Pentonville.

They became an instant hit with design-led individuals and architect types. If you are looking for the “strip down aesthetic” of modernist designed bed for a minimalist interior, the Pentonville bed in particular is unique for it’s architectural qualities. This is individual British design and bespoke manufacturer at it’s best.

Daniel is continually evolving his designs and establishing in collaborations with the design community in London. It is well worth arrange a visits to his studios in Hackney if you are in the market for a hand crafted metal bed. Limited in numbers as each is handmade, there is three ranges to choose from and starting from £1200 for the Pentonville. The Soho range is a modernist inspired Stainless Steel Series that espouses a functional aesthetic with clean, architectural lines.

A modern day classic designed bed can be yours thanks to the passion and commitment of a RCA trained British designer maker.

Daniel Spring Handmade Beds

Units 7-8, London Fields Studios
11-17 Exmouth Place
London E8 3RW
United Kingdom

Bar Tozino

Maltby Street Market, just a fifteen minute walk from London Bridge, is gathering speed. What started as a handful of stalls (namely the ‘Bermondsey Seven’ – the former Borough Market traders who moved here following disputes and high rents a few years back), has evolved into a full blown gastronomic destination. Centered around The Ropewalk, you’ll find a merry band of stall holders selling everything from cheese and sausages (I would implore you not to leave without a bag of Toulouse from Honourable Sausages) to such gastronomic wonders as argan oil (the rare and incredibly healthy oil of the argan tree with a unique, nutty flavour from South-Western Morocco) from Arganic and Mirabella Olive Leaf Tea (a deliciously delicate tea made from, you guessed it, olive leaves). They take their street food seriously as well, my favourite being a stall which marinates its meat in the award-winning African Volcano peri peri sauce for no less than 24 hours then either slow cooks it into submission or barbeques it just long enough to form a heady crust of spice. Pop ups such as the gin joint courtesy of London distillers Little Bird Gin, sit alongside a couple of more permanent eateries (with more planned): the much-applauded 40 Maltby Street and the recently-added jamóneria, Bar Tozino.

Stepping into Bar Tozino you are instantly lifted from South London and plonked on a back street of Barcelona. It’s not just the legs of aged swine hanging from every possible beam, but the expanse of dark wood that covers the intimate space, the dingy lighting, the clusters of hipsters clinking glasses of straw-coloured Fino and the team of dark-eyed experts slicing Jamón with reverential skill. Despite the fact that it has had little in the way of press, this four-month-old alter of well-fed pigs everywhere, is heaving with loyal followers. Those who aren’t able to pull up a stall at the wraparound counter, simply stand slugging cava or beer tossing fat green olives and crunchy almonds into their mouths. I’m told the place has been like this since it opened (owing largely to the popularity of the Tozino stall that preceded it).

Boards piled-high with fat-dappled wisps of pink Jamón, served with tomato-rubbed hunks of chewy bread, are the main event here and for good reason. The quality is mind bending, particularly their Jamón Joselito Gran Reserva (pata negra cured for 24+ months from what are generally considered to be the best ham makers in all of Spain).

There’s also a small selection of traditional Spanish plates taken mostly from the chef’s childhood. We try a paprika-rich stew of chorizo and chickpea laced with imported dried oregano; a stunningly simple dish of breadcrumbs cooked with jamón and topped perfectly crisp fried egg; and an almost overwhelming scarlet mound of sausage not unlike a Castilian reworking of andouillette.

Surprisingly Manchego is absent from a pretty arrangement of Spanish cheeses adorned with fig and apple (the chef tells me they want to introduce people to the wider range of varieties made in their home country). Instead there’s a similarly crumbly but more delicate version, alongside a piquant blue Cabrales, milk-pale round of goat’s cheese and a highly-addictive soft spread which is just like a grown-up Philadelphia.

Back to the more familiar, the meal concludes with a feather-light Tarta de Santiago scattered with almonds and cream. Leaving us in no doubt that Bar Tozino is another fine string to Maltby Street’s ever-growing bow.

http://www.bartozino.com

http://honourablesausages.com

http://www.myarganic.co.uk

http://www.africanvolcano.com

When the word Autumn/Winter is flashed across my eyes the first thing that comes to mind is cold, dull days grey’s and blacks. We can all agree that although it has its own beauty it is a tad depressing, Fortunately for menswear Autumn/Winter this year is all about colour and patterns, from the show’s I have seen so far at London Collections last week and the reports from Milan and Paris there seems to  be an array of bold check’s amongst hues of grey and orange to name a few.

Craig Green

London based ETautz with its Saville Row heritage presented a very wearable collection with bold cuts whilst maintaining the tailored look it is famous for. One of my personal favorite’s was Agi&Sam who as part of the MAN show presented their A/W line composing of classic English pieces with the signature Agi&Sam palette. Think English countryside meets new wave. They were joined on the catwalk by Astrid Andersen and Craig Green who paired distressed knits with cropped yet wide trousers, not forgetting the controversial headgear which looked like planks off your neighbors picket fence nailed together.

ETautz

Another favorite at the shows was Katie Eary and Katie Eary. Katie seems to have made quiet an impression this season with hot pinks and deep reds. Sibling showcased some beautiful chunky knits which got some major coverage with the local newspapers. The headwear was more akin to turbans and the entire collection had a playful theme throughout it.

Another highlight from the London Collections has to be Matthew Miller who’s all black collection got rave reviews from everyone for its solid pieces that utilized leather to a great extent and took classic key pieces and gave them a modern twist. For his Autumn/Winter 2013 Collection Sir Paul Smith revisited his colourful palette and sharp cuts that have now become a trademark for the brand. These were paired up with patterns such as houndstooth which echoed the brands British roots. Lucas Ossendrijver and Alber Elbaz drew inspiration from sports for Lanvin’s Fall/Winter 2013 line. Slim trousers were paired up with oversized coats giving the whole line a top heavy masculine look, something we have seen as a trend across the other collections. The 1997 movie Gattaca was the driving factor behind Kris Van Assche when he took to the drawing board for his A/W line. Monochromatic in its approach the highlights for me have to be the fitted trousers that were cropped at ankle level and the outerwear with its synthetic finishes. Another stand out for me had to be the Dsquared F/W13 show in Milan. Dean and Dan never do things by halves and year after year their shows have been known for the over-the-top sets and theatrics. This year was no exception with the inspiration from 1920’s clearly showing through the pieces. The duo also made history by using an all black cast of male models. Something that has never been done before. Sharply tailored yet maintaing that DSquared signature we have all come to know and love from the twins.

Craig Green

Donatella Versace sure knows how to keep people coming back from more and this years F/W13 was live streamed online in all its glory. The show was broken up into 3 parts with plenty of references to her late brother Gianni Versace and the iconic era that the brand had during the 90’s when he was alive. Power suits went hand-in-hand with models wearing fur and lace boxers. Something only Donatella can pull off. Once again bold check’s made an appearance on the runway, something we will definitely see a lot off later on in the year. Another Italian power duo Dolce & Gabbana presented an A/W line that drew plenty of inspiration from the past with plenty of catholic references. Beautifully embroidered jackets were more akin to fine tapestry than outerwear. Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s head designer took us all on a safari with an array of animal prints that took over the whole autumn/winter collection, from its iconic trench’s to accessories such as sunglasses and luggage were all given the animal treatment. To sum things up Autumn/Winter this year is going to be very interesting from a menswear point of view. Check’s are definitely in, the larger the better and so is colour. Coats and accessories seem to be larger in proportion teamed with slimmer bottoms to give a more top heavy look.

Gone are the days when winter rails in stores were endless rows of blacks and grey’s. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! But I think its time to extend those colourful pieces from Summer to put some excitement into our winter wardrobe.

Report by: SchoolBoyCouture.com for Futurespace Magazine

Unconventional spaces is a three part feature tapping into the current trend of using spaces they weren’t originally intended for.

Part two features exclusive interview with street art collective Agents of Change

Writer: Molly Flatt

“Oh, there’s a manifesto.” Timid – 41 year old ex-BBC journalist, TV producer, anarchist, dad and spokesman for the street art collective Agents of Change – is reclining in his north London study amongst a riot of books, magazines, historical pamphlets, Japanese cartoon figurines, stacked canvases and, in one corner, plastic containers filled with sulphuric acid. “But we don’t share it.”

He smiles. “What we’re trying to do is something that seems like it has an organic and naturalistic feel to how it progresses, when it fact it doesn’t at all. I think so far we’re succeeding in pulling the wool over people’s eyes. Being underestimated is one of the finest things that can happen to you because you will always surprise people.”

Surprise is central to the Agents of Change philosophy. Other than an image-based website and a Vimeo stream, there’s little digital trace of the huge public installations these twelve international street artists produce. As a crew, the Agents occasionally pop up in the likes of Blueprint, the design and architecture magazine, and they were featured in Honda’s Dream Factory as part of a new wave of ‘Cultural Engineers’ changing our world for the better. But they prefer to let people stumble upon their work.

“We like being discovered”, Timid says. “I can remember the first time I ever decoded a wildstyle in a book. When you read a wildstyle as a layperson for the first time it’s really cool and I love that kind of reaction we get. We don’t publicise what we do.”

So what, exactly, is it that they do?

The crew began to cohere in 2005, via a music and art club night run by Timid and south London graffiti stalwart Remi/Rough in Public Life, a former public toilet in Spitalfields. In 2008, along with artists LXone and System, they were invited to show at the Bridge Art Fair, but arrived in Berlin with “nothing. Absolutely nothing”. So they tore down scores of the battered posters that blanket the city, drew on them, and plastered them around the room. Gallerists and critics loved it, they got a write-up in the Berliner Zeitung, and Agents of Change was born.

Seven years later, they’ve finally decided upon a mission statement; but as winningly simple as ‘twelve artists that attack space’ might be, it really doesn’t give an adequate impression of the scope, originality and sheer emotional impact of an AoC piece.

Take Ghost Village. In 2009, Timid and Remi saw a BBC news report about Polphaill, a concrete complex built on the Scottish coast in the 1970s to house the construction workers for a new oil rig. The rig was never built, the workers never arrived, and the abandoned ‘Ghost Village’, as locals dubbed it, was about to be demolished after decades as an eerie eyesore. Timid got permission from the owner to transform the space and six of the crew flew in from around the world.

Each artist took ownership of an area and stamped it with their inimitable style, from Australian artist Stormie Mills’ haunting figures to Timid’s own 3D paint drip. The result, which you can see on their Vimeo stream online, is an extraordinary journey of colour, imagery and mood.

The project had a huge positive effect on an initially sceptical community. “One guy who could see the village from his house came over daily to see our progress,” explains Remi. “He said: ‘I’ve had to look at this place every day and it’s horrible. You’ve really brightened it up.’ It’s ironic that he’s resented it for such a long time and now we’ve been able to transform it into something he loves looking at.”

This philanthropic element – all their work is strictly non-profit, with any revenue ploughed back into the next project – is extremely unusual. “Graffiti is a private conversation between artists,” Timid asserts. “You think because it’s on a public wall it has something to do with the public. It doesn’t.” The Agents’ combination of artistry and social value is unique; “I don’t know where we fall”, he admits.

In fact, it’s easy to underestimate how boundary-traducing these friendly, articulate and, well, normal blokes are. Where graffiti is individualistic and competitive, collaboration and play are at the heart of AoC. “Most of us are not interested in the mainstream,” Timid explains. “Everyone’s personality comes together to form something that is collective and non-ego driven. And a lot of people find that incredibly difficult. There is an art director for each piece but as an individual you don’t get to shine.”

With members living in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Berlin, New York, LA and Australia, AoC also traduce graffiti’s territorialism. It’s a logistical nightmare, and partly accounts for the infrequency of their projects, but it gives their art a vibrant inter-cultural dialogue.

Another reason why Timid believes the crew stand out is their emphasis on research. His own academic background – two degrees in political science and political theory, and an open offer of a Fullbright scholarship to study social anthropology at Berkeley – drives him to delve deep into the history and culture of every space they approach and use it to inform their design.

For example, in 2010 they took over a factory in Manchester for the FutureEverything Festival. Using viral videos and a livestream to showcase their work in progress, they encouraged viewers to guess their location. “The fact that we used big hands as a motif was to do with the history of the area and the factory’s use of manual labour”, Timid explains. “This factory was now being adapted for, effectively, digital manual labour. The hands showed the link with how commerce has been driven in the area.”

The Agents have just finished creating central London’s biggest street art installation in a hotel near King’s Cross. They’re obviously ambitious to push their own capabilities as well as our attitudes. So without intruding on those secret plans, what does the future hold?

Exploitation of new technology is high on the agenda. “We are very keen to use stuff in a different way than what it was intended for. I ‘ve just been talking about turning a whole book into a USB key, experimenting with codes and GPS tagging. And we’re talking about augmented reality with some dev guys in America.”

Above all, they’re eager to blast through public assumptions about street art. “Having the ability to do something in a big traditional museum would be wonderful,” Timid admits. “If somebody like the Baltic approached us to do a room that would be a big leap for us. In the end we have the imagination, we just lack the resources and funds.”

Let’s hope the big boys are listening.

Photos credits:

Megaro Project Photo Credit Hagen

Megaro_Photo_©_Ian_Cox_2012

Ghostvillage 8 Photo Credit Ian Cox Artists Derm and Stormie Mills

Ghostvillage 4 Photo Credit Richard Kenworthy Artists System and Stormie Mills

FutureEverything 2010 Photo Credit Bootroom

FutureEverything 2010 Photo Credit Bootroom

Megaro_Photo_©_Ian_Cox_2012

Megaro_Photo_©_Ian_Cox_2012

http://agents-of-change.co.uk

Urban agriculture is a trend many cities are experiencing. Spurred on by the drive for countries to be able to feed themselves, feed more people, import less and serve the increasing preference for food that’s local and seasonal, urban agriculture is having more than just a practical impact on built up areas. It’s changing the face of cityscapes as we know them. Part 1, The Architecture of Urban Agriculture.

Writer: Mark Hogan

Urban agriculture is not a new invention, but it has taken off in popularity in the past few years due to a combination of factors including advances in technology and a slowdown in real estate development due to economic recession. Architects have embraced the trend, with proposals for vertical farms and landscape urbanist plans for vast tracts of urban agriculture appearing in competition entries and student projects around the world. Looking at a variety of installed examples around the world shows that progress has been made and the reality of ubiquitous urban agriculture may be just around the corner.

In London, Capital Growth is a campaign to create 2,012 growing spaces in London by the end of 2012. One of the most innovative examples is FARM:shop in Dalson. Created by Something & Son LLP, “an eco-social design practice,” the enterprise seeks to develop a network of city residents growing their own productive crops and turning a profit doing so. They also intend to link farms in the countryside with cities, and to grow food commercially through their own network of FARMs and sell the produce through the FARM:shops. Their current location in Dalston produces agricultural products sold in the on-site cafe. There is an on-site aquaponic fish farm, rooftop chicken coops, and indoor allotments. By focusing on allowing individual farmers to turn a profit by providing a market, nearly all of London holds the possibility for cultivation as the critical mass of land area is provided by the accumulation of many tiny plots.

In some cases, architects have designed tiny plots into otherwise unused spaces in urban buildings from the beginning. David Baker and Partners Architects of San Francisco has used this approach on numerous high-density residential projects in California. The most notable example is on the roof of Curran House, a social housing project in the center of San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin nighbourhood. Residents often must join a waiting list to obtain access to one of the rooftop container plots that were designed in collaboration with Andrea Cochran Landscape Architects.

Plant Chicago represents the opposite approach to urban farming, where the food production network thrives within one large building instead of being distributed throughout the city. Located in a vacant four story meatpacking plant in Chicago’s Back of Yards neighbourhood, the focus is on creating a zero energy incubator for urban agriculture. One third of the building is devoted to aquaponic growing systems with the rest of the building providing low-cost space for sustainable food businesses served by low-cost power and a shared licensed kitchen. By reusing a very durable existing building, the owners not only have saved money but have conserved the energy invested in constructing the building. Spurred by $1.5 million grant, The Plant will go off the grid via an anaerobic digestion and a combined heat and power system that will take waste from the building and surrounding food businesses to generate electricity and heat. While the sturdy brick exterior doesn’t look groundbreaking, The Plant is taking advantage of cutting-edge technology to economize food production and eliminate waste in the process, breaking new ground for systems thinking in architectural projects elsewhere.

Pasona 02 takes a similar approach to reusing obsolete space, but does it underneath the city of Tokyo. Located in a square kilometer of underground bank vault, this project seeks to address Japan’s food deficit and train youth in food production in a country where most farmers are elderly. A variety of crops, including rice, tomatoes, and flowers are grown under artificial light. Little attention has been paid to energy efficiency, but efficiency of production is a priority through use of high-tech, fertilizer-free systems.

The absence of architecture also provides a context for urban farming. In San Francisco, the Hayes Valley farm has appeared as a temporary installation on land formerly used as the entrance ramp to an elevated roadway. Slated for development prior to the recession, building plans went on hold and farmers moved in. Because of the limited investment needed to start an outdoor farm like this, little is at risk when the developers return in a few years as the market turns around. In Buffalo, New York long term economic decline has resulted in thousands of vacant buildings and parcels across the city. A variety of “silver bullet” architectural proposals have been made over the years in attempts to turn the city around, but small-scale farmers have begun the process on their own by farming the voids left where houses once stood and selling produce at local markets and to restaurants. The Massachusetts Avenue project has a aquaponic farm in a temporary building surrounded by outdoor planter boxes in the midst of a West Side neighbourhood. Projects like this take advantage of the opportunity afforded by economic and architectural decline and use temporary structures to keep investments low.

While urban agriculture has started out relatively small and has taken advantage of unused built and unbuilt niches in the urban environment, some researchers are thinking bigger. Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor in Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University in New York, is leading the push towards true vertical farming. He stresses the efficiencies inherent in indoor crop production and the lack of additional agricultural land available worldwide to meet population growth. His research appears on the website http://www.verticalfarm.com yet the site is noticeably short on the realities of financing these schemes.

In coming years, increased pressure on the world’s food supply and soaring land costs in cities worldwide will be competing forces to help determine the future of urban farms. In the meantime, enterprising gardeners and entrepreneurs in cities around the world will continue to experiment and perfect a variety of approaches. Urban agriculture at its current scale has more in common with the pop-up pavilion than it does with the Burj Khalifa, but with the amount of progress that is being made, it would not be surprising to see it scale up within the next decade.

Stock, Look and Listen

The London restaurant scene has a new love and it comes from excellent stock. I am, of course, talking about ramen – one of Japan’s best-known dishes and, according to those in culinary know, the next big thing to hit our sprawling capital.

As is such with a London trend (I’ve stopped trying to keep up with burger-based openings for health reasons) many ramen joints have sprung up over the last couple of months. One of the forerunners in terms of its opening and column inches is Tonkotsu – a specialist ramen bar from the team behind London chain Tsuru (who, incidentally, did a brilliant Japanese Scotch Egg a couple of years back that I still think about on a scarily regular basis). Located on Soho’s Dean Street, the aim at Tonkotsu is to deliver something akin to the ramen dens of Tokyo, where grabbing a noodle-based hit day or night is as part of life as cat cafes and karaoke bars. Mindful of this tradition, owners Emma Reynolds and Ken Yamada ran a ton of pop up restaurants before opening Tonkotsu (all of which sold out) and, if the heap of praise laid at its feet is anything to go by, the effort seems to have paid off.

My knowledge of Tokyo is woefully limited to watching Lost In Translation and an overnight stop over at Narita airport, so it was hard to tell from the interior if they had captured the look of a traditional ramen bar. But, to the untrained eye, the dimly lit, packed-out space adorned with simple sharing tables and benches seemed like a perfectly agreeable spot to slurp springy noodles with greedy relish.

The menu is pleasingly short, with a few handmade gyoza, four sides and the three of the four varieties of traditional Ramen – Tonkotsu, Tokyo Spicy (from the variety Shōyu, a soy sauce-based ramen) and Miso (here enriched with Shimeji and Shiitake mushrooms). Not one to turn down any type of fried chicken Japanese or not, I ordered the Chicken Karaage – which was plump, crisp and generally delicious plus some crunchy Edamame to pass the time waiting for my Tonkotsu.

Traditionally Tonkotsu (the dish not the restaurant) comprises of a broth made from boiling pork bones – giving it its thick, cloudy appearance – spooned over thin noodles and topped with pork belly, some vegetables and a soft-boiled egg. Tonkotsu’s (the restaurant not the dish) version is undoubtedly one of the best I’ve tried – from their gloriously pig-rich stock made on the premises in giant vats to the oozing slabs of swine on top.

I’m trying to think of the best compliment I can give Tonkotsu. It has a great central London location, slick service making the most of a space which has rarely been anything but rammed since they opened and a clear dedication to serving their compact menu of authentically-made, delicious food. But all I can think of is my last slurp of that ramen – so good I wanted that genius bowl of liquid fat to last forever.

All photos: Paul Winch-Furness

http://www.tonkotsu.co.uk

Tonkotsu, 63 Dean Street, London W1 4QG

Bethan Gray at DesignJunction

It is 4pm on the first full day of DesignJuction, and Bethan Gray has only just managed to grab a quick lunch in the Transport for London-inspired Canteen designed by Michael Sodeau. This is the first opportunity she has had to sit down all day. “We don’t have any chairs on our stand,” Gray laughs. “I will have to do something about that for next time.” A glance at her CV confirms that she  is not prone to idleness: having graduated from De Montfort University and winning New Designers’ Habitat Innovation Award in 1998, she went on to spend nine years at the company – the last four as head of furniture. Leaving Habitat in order to start her own studio in 2008, Gray has since produced collections for John Lewis (she is a member of the retailer’s Design Collective, which showcases talent from the UK and abroad), The Conran Shop and Case, and she has now arrived at DesignJunction in order to launch the latest item from her brand-new G+T collection.

Just 15 years into her career, Gray has experienced plenty of success, but there is nothing haphazard about it: her design ethos and business philosophy are firmly in place, and she isn’t surprised that her collections are popular with a wide range of consumers, spanning an equally wide range of budgets. “My design isn’t too scary,” Gray tells me. “It’s timeless, elegant, raw and contemporary – but warm. I have commercial appeal – people like it and people buy it – because of the balance of all those things.” The Brogue coffee table that she is here to launch is a case in point: a three-legged solid wood table inspired by traditional cricket tables in her native Wales (the three legs allow it to balance on uneven slate floors), it is covered by treated top grain leather, and was inspired by a pair of shoes. “My friend was wearing these beautiful white Church shoes with amazing detailing,” Gray says. “I’d never really thought about it before, but I really wanted to work with leather and I love the detailing.” The table – handsome and intricate at the same time – has a perforated edge that runs along its side and fits perfectly within the small but growing G+T collection, which also features the marble-topped Carve table in four sizes and shapes.

Gray’s career started with of a love for three-dimensional design: even as a child, she preferred making collages to paintings. “Sculpture isn’t for me,” she says. “I knew I wanted people to use my designs.” That acknowledgement led her all the way to Habitat, where Gray was in charge of several iconic furniture collections, and where she met the T in G+T: furniture developer Thomas Turner. Turner now oversees factory development, pricing and shipping, allowing Gray to focus on creating a small number of products using high quality materials sourced in regions that have a long history of working with them. The use of solid wood, marble and leather makes G+T more expensive than much of Gray’s previous work, and the provenance of the materials play a great role in the final designs: “It’s like mix and match depending on the historical skills [in a region],” Gray says. “It’s nice to work with the countries that have the history.”

A female furniture designer fronting an eponymous company, Gray holds a rare position in what is still a very male-dominated industry (just three out of the 13 members of John Lewis’ Design Collective are women; the other two, Maggie Levien and Bluebellgray’s Fiona Douglas, both represent the traditionally female-dominated world of textile design). At Habitat, where the gender balance in the studio was closer to 50/50, Gray rarely thought about her position, but her recent involvement in Nokia’s Remarkable Women project has made her more aware of the issue. “It seems like an obvious thing and a lot of people have said it, but it’s only now that I’m kind of seeing it” she says. Gray has recently discovered that her great-great-grandmother was an early pioneer and role-model in the industry. “She was a cabinet-maker, and that must have been quite difficult in those days,” Gray says. “We have a corner cupboard [that she made] that my mum gave to me as a wedding gift, and we always knew it was by someone in the family, but we just did a bit of investigation into it. [Finding out] was very cool.” Gray hopes to see her own furniture collections become part of a treasured inheritance too:  “I’d love to think that the Carve table could be passed on to future generations,” she says. “I would love it if the things I’ve designed are still in people’s houses in 30 years time – it’s all about longevity.”

Not that she is sitting around waiting for that to happen: having gone from strength to strength with her freelance collaborations, and succeeding where other design businesses – including her former employer – have faltered during the recession, Gray has also taken her talents into other areas, working as a trends consultant for Stylus Media Group and as a visiting lecturer at Central Saint Martins, where she guides a new generation of furniture designers towards creative and commercial success. She recently helped CSM’s BA Product Design students develop designs and prototype tables for John Lewis, six of which will be going into production. “It is a great experience for the students, and it’s great for John Lewis to support young designers,” Gray says. “It just goes to show how talented the students are, and I’ve really enjoyed mentoring them.”

So what’s next? Gray is currently looking forward to developing more pieces for both G+T and John Lewis (the latter has just launched her grey leather Casper bed and oak-and-leather Noah desk), but she is still keen on finding more collaborations. “I really enjoy working with people,” she says. “I’m all about long relationships, and I’d like to continue like that.” Somehow, we have no doubt that Bethan Gray will continue to succeed.

www.grayandturner.com

http://blogs.csm.arts.ac.uk/snapshot/2012/09/18/csm-ba-product-design-john-lewis

http://remarkablewomen.co.uk

There is more to Danish style than mid-century classics

Denmark, a tiny country with a population of just over 5.5 million, has for a remarkably long time been one of the world’s most celebrated producers of stylish furniture. But although Danish design is still closely associated with mid-century masters like Arne Jacobsen, Poul Kjærholm and Finn Juhl, DesignJunction showed that their 21st century counterparts continue to create goods that have all the hallmarks of becoming future classics.

In fact, the Danish design scene has always been from static and has continued to evolve over the past half-century, a point illustrated by Gubi, one of the Copenhagen-based companies exhibiting at DesignJunction. Founded in 1967 and still family-run, the company discovers and showcases iconic designs that it hopes will defy time – regardless of whether they are Danish or not. At DesignJunction that meant that visitors were shown French Adnet mirrors and revitalised British Bestlite lamps alongside founder Gubi Olsen’s own Grand Piano chaise longue in the company’s second-floor space, and while legacy is important, innovation is clearly high up on the agenda. “It is extremely important for us to communicate that we are not just a company revitalising icons, but that we offer a unique combination of very brand-new and often unknown designers mixed with the forgotten,” says Louise Zastrow, Gubi’s Creative Director of Brand & Communication. “It is a constant journey that we’re on and the result is an eclectic, intercontinental collection that blurs the lines between the past and the future.”

Another company that successfully navigates the border between heritage and contemporary design is Fritz Hansen, whose DesignJunction stand featured Arne Jacobsen’s iconic Ant and Series 7 chairs, designed in 1952 and 1955. Manufacturer of some of the most iconic products or the mid-century era (apart from Jacobsen, it also represents Hans J. Wegner and Sidse Werner, to mention but a few), Fritz Hansen continues to develop new and potentially timeless collections. “We are blessed with our design history and have a very important role to play with regards to our heritage,” says Jan Vejsholt, Fritz Hansen’s Vice President of Sales for the UK and Ireland. “But we are constantly working with and discovering new talented designers. What is important to us is that the new designers understand our DNA and our view on the best possible craftsmanship and timeless design.” Recent launches include Kasper Salto’s NAP stacking chairs in 2010 and Cecilie Manz’s Essay tables from 2009 – the designers both graduated from the Danish School of Design in the 1990s – and Vejsholt adds that longevity is a key element to the company’s success. “Fritz Hansen has never designed a product just for now; our products are for life. You never throw out a Fritz Hansen product, you pass it down, and that is what the UK audience is now realising. In Denmark, people entertain in their homes more than going out and that’s reflected in how we are living, and the UK is catching on to that.”

Salto and Manz are part of a younger generation of Danish designers who build on the country’s design inheritance without being intimidated and stymied by it. Another member of that unofficial group is Nils Sveje, who set up Inoda + Sveje with partner Kyoko Inoda in 2000, and who came to DesignJunction to exhibit exquisite chairs and tables for De La Espada. Inoda + Sveje is a truly international company: in 2003, the business relocated to Milan, and the production takes place in Japan (“it’s surprisingly hard to find producers capable of a modern production and handcrafted finishes,” Sveje says. “So the collaboration with Miyazaki Chair Factory – and especially Mr Miyazaki himself – is extremely important to us”). So how does Sveje feel about being lumped together with and compared to all other Danish designers – young and old? “The association with mid-century classics isn’t a problem for us; it is a very important reference we have to build on,” Sveje says. Instead, he adds, the challenge is to make use of advances made in furniture production over the last half-century: “If we want to be acknowledged for our contribution to furniture history, we will have to not only use those [production] possibilities to their very limit, but also transmit those changes back to the public.”

Inoda + Sveje shared De La Espada’s space with Søren Rose, another Dane whose eponymous Copenhagen-and-New York-based studio works on everything from interior and furniture design to architecture. Like Sveje, Rose doesn’t mind being pigeon-holed as Danish. “Architect Bjarke Ingels is building a skyscraper in Manhattan, and the most prestigious design award, INDEX/Design to Improve Living, is Danish,” Rose says. “So it’s an understatement to say that the world is taking notice [of Denmark]. I like to call it a ‘New Nordic’ movement, which is driven by our unique Scandinavian approach to both design, lifestyle and functionality.” Rose too uses Denmark’s design legacy as an inspiration for his every day work process: “We’ve created a method where we use our projects as a kind of incubator to develop new and interesting designs, much like the old masters did,” Rose says. “It’s a wonderful approach, and leads to more innovation than just trying to design yet another chair.”

Gubi’s Louise Zastrow explains Danish design’s current – and seemingly perennial – popularity with the fact that “it isn’t overpowering, but it still sends a strong message that whoever buys it is very style-conscious – the way you live and how you choose to decorate is becoming more and more important.” But, as Jan Vejsholt is keen to point out, the key to the country’s success doesn’t just lie in the provenance of its designers. “What is fashionable goes out of fashion,” Vejsholt says. “Things like The Killing; Noma being the world’s number one restaurant; Danes being known as the world’s happiest people, and having a super cool capital like Copenhagen all helps promote Denmark and Danish living but, ultimately, it is about the product, and only the very best products remain in focus.”

http://www.gubi.dk

http://www.fritzhansen.com