New to Culture Lab Detroit in 2015, and another outgrowth from past years’ dialogues, was the launch of Culture Lab Design - an exclusive line of products, loosely related to the theme of "green space," created by internationally renowned designers in collaboration with Detroit artists, businesses, organizations and manufacturers.
David Stark with Victoria Ashley Shaheen
Kelly Behun with Cass Community Social Services
Estudio Campana with Todd Erickson at College for Creative Studies Foundry
Sebastian Errazuriz with Samuel Arambula at TechShop
Paola Navone with with Detroit Sewn and Andrew Ward at Line Studio.
The new products were launched with a two-week pop-up shop designed by David Stark at Nora and sold online. All proceeds from Culture Lab Design went to collaborating Detroit artists, businesses, organizations and manufacturers.
Celebrity event designer and lifestyle expert David Stark in collaboration with Detroit ceramicist Victoria Ashley Shaheen create glazed, ceramic flower rests in various dimensions, paired with elegant, glass cylinders in a range of sizes. The pierced array of holes create flexibility for creatively arranged floral displays that can be at once spare and lyrical or lush and full, depending on desire. The rests put a structure that florists have historically hidden out front as an elegant, chic feature, and the vase/rest combinations can stand alone as individual units or can be combined as a group to create multileveled displays.
Discarded tires are repurposed using traditional macrame knotting techniques. These designs are made from the sidewalls of tires and incorporate automotive valve springs and transmission crowns. Made in collaboration with Cass Community Social Services.
The Detroit Vase is made using traditional cotton dolls handcrafted by an NGO located in the town of Esperança ("Hope" in Portuguese) in the northeast of Brazil. We then added the chemical process of electrodeposition to coat them in metal. We wanted to introduce this universe to Detroit. The word hope is related to the renaissance of Detroit while the human figures to the factory workers that built the city. Made in collaboration with Todd Erickson at College for Creative Studies Foundry.
Culture Lab Detroit and Sebastian Errazuriz Studio have partnered together with the goal of sparking a sense of regeneration in Detroit. The result of this collaboration is the Rock Lamp, a photo luminescent lamp made from the unusable and unwanted debris that has been left in Detroit. The lamp is not powered by electricity but with high grade phosphorescent material. Made in collaboration with Samuel Arambula at TechShop.
The Mario Overall is dedicated to the timeless passion of gardening and to the joy of having your your hands in the earth. Happily and comfortably wear over the clothes. Setting is not important, whether you wear them in the countryside or a small urban garden. The joy of working the land with your pockets full of seeds and gardening tools has no age and no place. Made in collaboration with Detroit Sewn.
An urban garden peeping out of concrete. Plants climbing from the planters on terraces and balconies or breaking into a garden with an unexpected presence. The April Cement Planters embody the poetry of simple things and the beauty of the rough, imperfect and handmade. Together they tell a little story about the world. Made in collaboration with Andrew Ward at Line Studio.