MINDING DESIGN FOR 60 YEARS
Commemorating the life and work of Sir Terence Conran
Visionary, creative, energetic, optimistic – these are words written and spoken by design commentators to shine light on the life and work of designer Sir Terence Conran who died on 12 September aged 88. When Homes & Gardens was in touch with him as part of our centenary celebrations, he used a different word to describe his outlook as a young designer confronting post-war austerity. That word was hungry. He described being hungry for success, frustrated by the indifference to design in furniture shops. ‘I couldn’t let go of the idea that it had to be possible to sell intelligent design in a home-furnishings shop,’ he told us. Conran opened his first Habitat store in London in 1964. Inspired by market stalls in France and Elizabeth David’s books on cooking refined his attitude further. ‘So I thought, why not sell our furniture alongside beautiful and practical things related to it.’ The pleasure he found in pieces that serve food and equip the kitchen never left him and he was first to signal the idea, commonly recognised now, that the kitchen is the heart of the home. When Habitat stores opened across the country with mail order in tow, design democracy had arrived in Britain.
Conran’s success with Habitat funded a staggering business expansion; restaurants were opened, he purchased and restored the Michelin building in Kensington where he established The Conran Shop and Bibendum restaurant. He continued marketing design ideas in his first book, The House Book in 1974, and a decade later set up a publishing company to disseminate design ideas through more than 50 titles bearing his name. Commercial interests never sent Conran’s design instincts undercover; he was back founding Benchmark Furniture with Sean Sutcliffe in 1984 and his own furniture designs remain part of the company’s current collection.
For many in the design world, Conran’s lasting legacy will be the Design Museum, dedicated to contemporary industrial design, technology, furniture, fashion, transport and more. It began in 1983 as the Boilerhouse Project in the basement of the V&A Museum, then in 1989 Conran took it to Butler’s Wharf on the south bank of the Thames, and in 2016 it relocated to Kensington in a magnificent new building with layout and space to hold more exhibitions and showcase the museum’s world-class collection.
Sebastian Cox, acclaimed furniture designer and Homes & Gardens columnist, also had legacy in mind when he shared a personal reflection on the time he spent with Conran. ‘I hadn’t previously appreciated how many careers he influenced at an early stage, from designers to writers to chefs,’ Sebastian said. ‘He frequently gave talented people a job, commission or order, which helped to kick-start or shape their careers. It’s only because of his determination to work well into his eighties that I too was able to experience this, getting to know him during a commission for London Design Festival 2016, and subsequently designing products with him. I’m fortunate to have worked with this titan of British culture. Will there be anyone who has the same impact? Perhaps only if they share Terence’s determination to nurture and guide the generations that follow.’