Home is where you make it. No one knows this better than British designer Max Lamb, the mastermind behind the design of the OC Shoreditch pop-up store. And now that he's wrapped up his first retail space, we caught up with the designer at his live-in work studio in North London.
A large-scale refurbishment close to Turnpike Lane tube station, the former industrial space is an ongoing project in and of itself, but for Lamb and his wife, Gemma, it's home. Among the speckled granite kitchen, Icelandic sheepskins, and polyurethane-coated polystyrene foam, Lamb talks about inspirations, his creative process, and how he came to a live in an unusual pocket of London.
SHAWANA GROSVENOR: Opening Ceremony Shoreditch at the Ace Hotel looks amazing. Can you tell me about your inspiration behind the design of the store?
MAX LAMB: The inspiration came from a variety of different sources, but I think, first and foremost, it came from the brief that Opening Ceremony sent me. It really was [about] trying to find the right use of space before I was able to identify how to realize it, like which materials to use—that came later.
I read that you're originally from Cornwall; how did growing up in this part of the UK influence your work?
I’m very passionate about Cornwall. It’s a place where I think I was forced into being creative—it’s an isolated county. You’re forced to make your own entertainment... I investigated the landscape in a very physical, immediate way and became in tune with the materials of nature. Not that I specialize solely in using natural materials in my work now, but definitely, a lot of those materials that I was exposed to as a young boy feed into my work now.
Where do you seek inspiration?
It varies. I think if I look back at my work, say six years ago or maybe even eight years ago, it was a time when I wasn’t really designing and making objects for anybody in particular. I was just exploring my own abilities and creativity, and the way that I did that was by investigating industry. Many of the quarries these days are still operated by hand; they’re still very physical, human processes of extracting material from the ground. And yet it is an industry that is being industrialized. But just understanding how I as a designer, as a person, can engage and interact with it, and sort of add something to the process that perhaps is adding a value to the material or to the process. So, it’s a marriage between industry and hand, to create functional objects that have a value beyond their raw material.
Your live/work space seems like an exciting project. Can you tell me how you came to be based here?
We explained [to the real estate agent that] we were looking for an old industrial building and something that might be possible to get planning permission to live in. He said, "That’s funny; my boss is friends with a mosque who is trying to sell because it's growing. It's this funny building; it might not be suitable, but do you want to have a look?" So we came and we put an offer in straight away and here we are! We were intimately involved from the outset, physically and, I suppose, intellectually. A lot of the work that we put into it is both Gemma and I. Using materials that we have either wanted to use, been excited to use, and haven’t had a reason to use them previously or they are materials that we have been working with in our respective practices.
Do you have any favorite
A large-scale refurbishment close to Turnpike Lane tube station, the former industrial space is an ongoing project in and of itself, but for Lamb and his wife, Gemma, it's home. Among the speckled granite kitchen, Icelandic sheepskins, and polyurethane-coated polystyrene foam, Lamb talks about inspirations, his creative process, and how he came to a live in an unusual pocket of London.
SHAWANA GROSVENOR: Opening Ceremony Shoreditch at the Ace Hotel looks amazing. Can you tell me about your inspiration behind the design of the store?
MAX LAMB: The inspiration came from a variety of different sources, but I think, first and foremost, it came from the brief that Opening Ceremony sent me. It really was [about] trying to find the right use of space before I was able to identify how to realize it, like which materials to use—that came later.
I read that you're originally from Cornwall; how did growing up in this part of the UK influence your work?
I’m very passionate about Cornwall. It’s a place where I think I was forced into being creative—it’s an isolated county. You’re forced to make your own entertainment... I investigated the landscape in a very physical, immediate way and became in tune with the materials of nature. Not that I specialize solely in using natural materials in my work now, but definitely, a lot of those materials that I was exposed to as a young boy feed into my work now.
Where do you seek inspiration?
It varies. I think if I look back at my work, say six years ago or maybe even eight years ago, it was a time when I wasn’t really designing and making objects for anybody in particular. I was just exploring my own abilities and creativity, and the way that I did that was by investigating industry. Many of the quarries these days are still operated by hand; they’re still very physical, human processes of extracting material from the ground. And yet it is an industry that is being industrialized. But just understanding how I as a designer, as a person, can engage and interact with it, and sort of add something to the process that perhaps is adding a value to the material or to the process. So, it’s a marriage between industry and hand, to create functional objects that have a value beyond their raw material.
Your live/work space seems like an exciting project. Can you tell me how you came to be based here?
We explained [to the real estate agent that] we were looking for an old industrial building and something that might be possible to get planning permission to live in. He said, "That’s funny; my boss is friends with a mosque who is trying to sell because it's growing. It's this funny building; it might not be suitable, but do you want to have a look?" So we came and we put an offer in straight away and here we are! We were intimately involved from the outset, physically and, I suppose, intellectually. A lot of the work that we put into it is both Gemma and I. Using materials that we have either wanted to use, been excited to use, and haven’t had a reason to use them previously or they are materials that we have been working with in our respective practices.
Do you have any favorite