A Second Life exhibition
London Design Festival 2019

Matter of Stuff, a leading design and manufacturing consultancy, commissioned the exhibition to PiM.studio and three design studios, an array of experimental new works made from a single raw material.

The exhibition was hosted by sketch, the iconic artist-conceived food and drinks destination in London’s Mayfair.

PiM.Studio, Brodie Neill, Matteo Fogale, and Studio Furthermore have transformed 5,000 cylindrical pine dowels provided by Matter of Stuff to make a resolute and ongoing statement about the infinite possibilities of sustainable design, upcycling and waste avoidance.

The dowels measuring 2,400mm in length with a 15mm diameter were originally used by Matter of Stuff in 2018 for a pop-up gallery it opened in Kings Cross. For the LDF 2019, in place of recycling the material through mulching, Matter of Stuff commissioned the four designers to reinterpret, explore and experiment with the material to create new sculptures while maintaining some of the structural integrity of the original.

PiM.studio exhibition design

Creating a dynamic, new spatial experience within the sketch entrance, we have used pine dowels to create temporary walls.

Sketch is a great location full of creativity and very inspiring and We were excited to work on this project.

Crucially, we were pleased with the request to re-use the pine dowel from a previous exhibition.

It is very important to give a new life to materials; recycling is great, of course, and important, but re-using is much better and the creative process of using something in a very different way is a fascinating challenge for us as designers and it demonstrates that something as simple as these dowels are flexible and can be reinvented in new beautiful, elegant designs.

We wanted to create a welcoming and warm space for this exhibition, yet elegant and simple by using as little material as possible, we cut thin mild steel shapes to hold together the dowels in the space.

The warmth of the natural wood and the see-through nature of the screens enable the space to be transformed with the zig zag layout we created.

The lighting plays with the transparency of the screens and helps changing the space atmosphere through the different times of the day.

A bespoke exhibition lighting design by SEAM complement and enhance the installation.

To celebrate the London Design Festival, sketch mixologists will create a special cocktail called A Second Life, available throughout the festival week. Named after the Matter of Stuff exhibition, it is inspired by last year’s creation Blown Away – the cocktail, which was a twist on a classic Venetian aperitivo will see its recipe re-imagined for the occasion. A mix in the making, A Second Life’s main component will be Japanese Gin Rokuit.

Project data

Project Name:                A Second Life
Location:                         Sketch, London
Client:                              Matter of Stuff
Date:                                September – November 2019
Event:                               London Design Festival 2019
Function:                         Exhibition
Installation design:        PiM.studio Architects
Martin De Pablo, Maurizio Mucciola, Maria-Chiara Piccinelli, Laura Nabergoi

Exhibition Curation:       Matter of Stuff
Lighting design:              SEAM
Design Pieces by            Brodie Neill, Matteo Fogale and Studio Furthermore