{"id":103857,"date":"2025-10-29T08:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T08:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/103857\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T08:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T08:48:09","slug":"crafty-past-of-londons-east-end-informs-norton-folgate-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/103857\/","title":{"rendered":"Crafty past of London’s East End informs Norton Folgate offices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Universal Design Studio<\/a> has brought in weavers, enamelers, and other creative makers to decorate workspaces<\/a> within the Norton Folgate development in east London’s Spitalfields neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Norton Folgate<\/a> is a 330,000 square foot mixed-use site comprising a total of six buildings, three of which have interiors curated by Universal Design Studio<\/a>: 16 Blossom Street, Nicholls & Clarke and 15 Norton Folgate.<\/p>\n

\"NortonUniversal Design Studio asked Lara Pain to weave custom curtains for the offices<\/p>\n

The buildings all date back to the Georgian or Victorian period, and are situated on the fringes of Spitalfields \u2013 a part of the capital that has drawn craftspeople since the 17th century, when it became a hub of the textiles industry.<\/p>\n

The studio wanted to celebrate this history by incorporating contemporary makers into its design scheme.<\/p>\n

“At the heart of this project was a commitment to craft, storytelling, and the art of making,” it said. “By integrating skilled makers early in the process, we ensured artistry, materiality, and narrative became intrinsic to the outcome.”<\/p>\n

“This approach allowed for bespoke, site-responsive pieces that enriched the spaces, reinforcing the importance of handcrafted detail and the enduring value of skilled craftsmanship.”<\/p>\n

\"NortonTimber specialists Benchmark fabricated red oak joinery<\/p>\n

Among the makers chosen is south London-based textile artist Lara Pain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She was commissioned by Universal Design Studio to create bespoke woven curtains for 15 Norton Folgate, in a nod to the Huguenot weavers \u2013 a group of French silk weavers who fled to Spitalfields en masse in the latter half of the 1600s to escape religious persecution.<\/p>\n

Pain’s curtains boast a subtle chequered pattern and can be drawn across tracks in the ceiling to provide privacy for pockets of seating throughout the office.<\/p>\n

\"NortonAJ Wells made a colourful table for a meeting room<\/p>\n

The building also features red oak joinery fabricated by Berkshire-based timber specialist Benchmark<\/a>, which Universal Design Studio designed “with longevity in mind”.<\/p>\n

“The timber was specified in individual, consistent thicknesses to allow easy disassembly and reuse without disrupting the whole system,” the studio explained.<\/p>\n

“Wherever possible, timber is solid, finished with oil, and assembled using minimal adhesives and analogue fixings.”<\/p>\n

\"NortonEnamel pieces of the table look like they’ve been squashed together<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, British enamelling company AJ Wells<\/a> was asked to produce a meeting table that Universal Design Studio had envisioned for the Nicholls & Clarke building.<\/p>\n

The resulting piece is composed of amorphous blocks of peachy-orange enamel that look as if they’ve been squashed together.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Foyer<\/p>\n

Foolscap reimagines the Roman forum for Cremorne co-working space\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

“By spending time in [AJ Wells’] factory, we gained a deeper understanding of pigmenting and shaping, adapting the table’s radii and colour palette to align with enamel’s capabilities,” the studio said.<\/p>\n

London-based furniture designer Lewis Kemmenoe<\/a> was then tasked with making large kitchen tables for each level of the four-floor 16 Blossom Street building, a decor feature that the studio says will “reinforce the importance of shared moments within the workplace”.<\/p>\n

Each table is 4.7 metres long and crafted from solid elm wood, which Kemmenoe inlaid with hand-cut patches of walnut, ash, and mahogany veneer.<\/p>\n

\"NortonLewis Kemmenoe crafted vast wooden kitchen tables<\/p>\n

Norton Folgate is shortlisted in the large workplace interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.<\/p>\n

Other contending projects include a mass-timber office for a forestry company in Helsinki<\/a> and a co-working space in Melbourne that takes design inspiration from ancient Roman forums<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Felix Speller<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal Design Studio has brought in weavers, enamelers, and other creative makers to decorate workspaces within the Norton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,444,146,85,46,442,51886,448,13912,443,68182],"class_list":{"0":"post-103857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-london","18":"tag-office-interiors","19":"tag-sectionall","20":"tag-sectioninteriors","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-universal-design-studio"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}