Haymerle Desk

• Prize
  Winner in Desk
• Company/Firm
  Ali Robinson
• Designer
  Ali Robinson
• Other Credit
  Weber Industries: weberindustries.com
• Location
  London
• Project Date
  2021
• Project Link
  view
• Web URL
  view

This desk was commissioned during lockdown as my client foresaw a change in how we might work more from home in the future. It needed a clear demarcation for both a desktop computer and loose paper notes; be ergonomically ‘right’ for their existing desk chair and body shape; be playful, joyful and engaging but also calming and tactile; and finally it must use sustainable or easily recyclable materials.

The genesis for the design came from Robert MacFarlane’s Underland, a magical description of his journey on foot that considered burial, unburial and deep time. I became fascinated in underground strata and sediments, the layering of both geological and human activity. Further references are described more fully in the accompanying pdf, but in short, an added interest in tsunamis, shipwrecks, Bridget Riley and velchromat, produced a design that evokes the sedimentary, multicoloured quality of sand particles caused by the eroding Cornish slate cliffs and the power of a wreckage that punctured a landscape to create waves, frozen in time.

Bio
I studied Fine Art at The Ruskin, Oxford University, where I predominately made paintings before taking up a number of artist-in-residency posts in which my work developed into performance, installation-based sculpture and video. I continue to make art every day. I co-founded Robinson van Noort, an interior architecture practice where as principal designer I head up the design of all bespoke fabrications. It is from this practice that Ali Robinson Furniture has evolved.

Other prizes
This is my first competition.