Foam Blog: Fabrica at &Foam

Installation, Still Lights at &Foam © Alberto Ferretto

If you’re one of those people who know their Starck from their Sagmeister, their Hetherwick from their Hadid, you’ll probably already be aware of Fabrica, the creative studio and laboratory owned by the Benetton Group.

Their complex in Treviso, Italy was restored and enlarged by Tadao Ando (who else?) and is home to product designers, illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, digital developers and more, all bending their brains over various design problems.

So we thought it would be interesting to see what they came up with if we briefed them to design some products based around photography.

A group of their students (although I wouldn’t call them that) have come from a variety of disciplines to create Still Lights, a collection of seven one-off pieces that reference three basic elements in photography: the subject, the frame and light. And, as in photography, each piece relies on all three elements to function.

The results are fantastic and they are now being installed in &Foam as part of our concept store’s design theme, which runs until 21 October.

Mariana Fernandes (Italy): Light Drawer, desk/drawer

David Penuela (Spain): Ongoing Table, dining table

David Raffoul (Lebanon): Nail Meets Bookshelf, bookshelf

Dean Brown (Scotland): Plate Life, light and bowl

Sam Baron : The Shelf, mirror and shelf

Giorgia Zanellato (Italy): Time Stands Still, clock

Kirsty Minns (UK): On Display, plate cabinet

Over the next few days I will profile each piece specifically, but for now I’ll leave you with some shots of the installation.

Jonathan Crawford