ALFRED'S ROOM

Andrée Cooke invited designer Michael Marriott to work with the students and staff at King Alfred School in North London to design and build a new secondary school Common Room; through a series of workshops over the course of one term.

King Alfred School prides itself on its physical, academic and emotional environment for learning. Amongst its qualities is the school’s innovative Design Technology Department, which believes in giving all children the confidence, self-belief and knowledge to have a go at anything.

Struck by the limited internal social areas in the secondary school and the lack of purpose in their common room, Andree Cooke, a contemporary art and design specialist, curator and parent, alongside Claire Murphy – Head of Year 9 and the school’s in-house architect Belinda Webb, approached the parent body for funds to bring in a designer for 12 days to work on the project. The aims of the project were to provide the children a valuable learning and life experience that would give them some inspiring insights into the creative process, as well as creating a space that the children could take ownership and enhancing their everyday school experience.

Cooke invited designer Michael Marriott to lead the project. Marriott is known for his ‘bare-bones’ approach to furniture design, which celebrates functionalism and honest materials. He studied furniture design at the London College of Furniture and at the Royal College of Art. Upon graduating in 1993, he set up his own studio and began to design and make household items and furniture, often utilitarian with visible fixings, combining oak, ply and peg board with reclaimed and found materials.

“We are making something without spending a lot of money; we’re not buying something off the shelf, we’re making something ourselves, thinking about the details…” Says school architect Belinda Webb. “Most schools these days build their environments from catalogues. We are handing the space over to the children to create it the way they see fit, so they can enjoy it and use it as they want.”

THE '‘DANCE’  WALLPAPER SERIES BY MARCUS TOMLINSON

Andrée Cooke proudly presents her latest commission of wallpaper designs by photographer and filmmaker Marcus Tomlinson.

The Dance wallpaper series by Tomlinson comes in 6 patterns, Shake I and II, Tap Dance (small and large), Tonight and Ballet. It is a laminate-coated wallpaper. 

Dance, is Tomlinson’s first foray into wallpaper design. For over two decades, he has created visionary photographs and films that uniquely combine art and fashion sensibilities. His intensely crafted, highly stylized, studio-based imagery has won him international acclaim. Tomlinson has collaborated with leading fashion designers such as Philip Treacy, Hussein Chalayan and Issey Miyake and global brands including Mercedes, Porsche and Samsung. His work has been showcased in prestigious fashion and lifestyle magazines including, The Face, i-D, Blitz as well as in galleries and museums internationally.

Tomlinson’s imagery captures a tension around their subject deliberately using raw, stark backdrops with a single light source and a feeling of close up restriction with the placing of the model in the frame. His artworks experiment with still and moving imagery. Tomlinson asks his models to move, recording their gestures across a series of photographs. The effects of movement produced are as central to his images as the models and clothes pictured. In this way, his wallpapers create a series of photographic ‘stills’ sequences, producing a flipbook effect of gestures and articulated movements. 

Pricing: £49.50 per meter excl. VAT. Sold in 10 meter lengths (45cm wide) and in double rolls due to the way design has been created. Therefore, £990 excl. VAT for 20m at 90cm width.

To place an order contact Andrée Cooke at cookeandree@gmail.com or  + 44 (0) 7905 170 370

BLUEPRINT AWARDS 2016
Andrée Cooke UK shortlisted in Best Non-Public Project Commercial for Spring Studios + Spring Place, New York, USA

Andrée Cooke's interior curation project, Spring Studios NY is a 150,000 sq ft events space and fashion photography facility opened in 2015. The Studios spread across three floors, where Cooke was hired to furnish 5 VIP suites, 7 high-end meeting rooms and lounge areas with 70 art works and 255 furniture pieces. The clients' brief focused on specific eras of furniture they personally liked; 1950s French, 1970s Brazilian and mid-century Scandinavian; combined with a ‘brutalist’ feeling as well as high-end luxury and comfort. Cooke worked closely with Mark Loy, Spring Studios CEO, to create the aesthetic for the studios, which combines bespoke contemporary design pieces with vintage furniture and newly commissioned art works.  

Housed in the same building as Spring Studios, Spring Place (its sister company),  is a new collaborative workspace and social membership club opened in June 2016. 
Cooke curated the interior furniture look for the company extending the previous brief to provide over 300 vintage and contemporary edition furniture pieces, rugs and lighting for the 130,000 sq ft interior. She curated 8 lounge areas, including a music room, and sunken living room, 2 large dining rooms, a communal workspace, which includes a unique commission by Martino Gamper, reception areas, 9 executive suites, conference rooms and boardrooms. Distinctive of her unique style Cooke combined stunning new commissions by Makina and Sam Orlando Miller with high-end vintage pieces.
 
Cooke worked on this project with a team of vintage specialists including Nicholas Chandor; on the conceptual design development with Paul Crofts and interior architect and designer Antonio Di Oronzo from Bluarch. 

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