Architecture and design is always evolving, and we take pleasure in undertaking projects that embrace the consistent evolution and development of design. Last year we were pleased to participate in Ron Arad’s Tailor My Tom Vac project with furniture company Vitra. The Italian designer was commissioned by Vitra and Dormus magazine to create a temporary installation for Milan’s Salone Dek Mobile. The project aimed to explore memory and novelty in art, architecture and design.

The final project consisted of a totem pole of 100 stacked chairs. Arad’s installation embodied the innovation of mid 20th century furniture design and the method of stacking to present an easily recognisable method of memory making.

The project incorporated the process of vacuum forming, which as a long term manufacturing method proved to be too expensive, but the impact of the project left an indelible mark and its legacy lives on in the Tom Vac name. The project called for contributions from a range of leading designers and architects and their work was displayed in an exhibition held in Vitra’s London showroom.

The focus of the project was not to create a new version of Tom Vac, but rather to make a comment on the original piece by reinterpreting it. The project saw many visions of the Tom Vac chair with three designers adapting the design to represent the horn of a speaker and another creating a sea creature. Our contribution to the project was to transform the chair into an anti-scratch collar for a sculptural wooden dog, who we dubbed Tom Woof.

The project demonstrated how one thing – in this case a chair – can spark each designer’s imagination in a different way. We love to incorporate creative ideas into our residential and commercial architecture, and enjoyed the chance to take part in such a unique design project.