The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
Open season
Making innovative design more accessible
London-based designers nipa doshi and Jonathan Levi en are bringing cutting-edge design to the high street with a new range for John Lewis. spanning seating, lighting and carpets, the 13-piece open Home collection will be in store next week and is an attempt to address what scottish-born Levien calls a ‘huge gap’ between the world of high design and what’s available to the rest of us.
‘We work so much with big brands oversea sandi thought it would be great to bring the same level of design thinking to the british high street,’ he explains. ‘People are going to live with these pieces for a long time, so it was important that they represented highquality yet affordable design.’
The duo have applied the expertise gained from working with luxury brands including b&b italia, Moroso and Cappel lini, to produce a sleek range using lacquered oak, smoked glass and textured wools.
inspired by scandinavian modernism and mid-century italian furniture, each of t he pieces is created to look sculptural from every angle. The shelllike nami chair is a design classic of the future. its name means‘ wave’ in Japanese and the design dispenses with armrests in favour of a back support that embraces the body. The Pondok sofa, meanwhile, is raised off the ground by thin legs, creating an airy silhouette.
‘british homes are often small, so it makes sense to design things that complement t he spaces we live in,’ says doshi, who has a passion for textiles inspired by her indian heritage. ‘our response to that was to create pieces that are lighter, more sculptural.’
Proving that they practice what they preach, much of the furniture has been moved into the couple’s own home, a duplex apartment on London’s barbican estate, which they share with their eight-year-old son, rahul.
‘This idea of “open home” came to us because people are living in more openplan environments now and different act iv it ies happen all over t he home,’ says Levien. ‘The collection took two years to develop and we’ve lived and breathed it.’ johnlewis.com/doshilevien