Exhibition Design

Project, Inside Intel, Centre of Investigative Journalism, Goldsmiths

Curators, Jake Charles Rees, Elliot Burns and India Murphy

Designer, Studio Lucy Sanderson 

The exhibition design at Goldsmiths, St James Hatcham Building, New Cross, takes on a speculative ‘Silicon Valley Imagineering Laboratory’, a 21st century open-plan office interior with counter-narrative and factual misinformation. The celebration of the construction materiality used in architectural projects is repurposed through exploring the labour of work. The construction materiality lays the foundations that fire the architectural machine through functionality with an aesthetic that shouldn’t overshadow the artists work but bring a distinctive office narrative. 

Heavily branded wall vinyl assists in navigating the exhibition. An iconic ‘lets walk and talk’ grey tiled carpet pathway loops around the space, a journey obscured by floating walls and impossible thoroughfares. A curved silver curtain creates a meeting area, using a coated fabric that is normally used in photography to bounce light and becomes a functional way of reflecting the commercial strip lighting. A large desk island floats in the centre of the space, the ghost structure materiality of the clear perspex replicates desk dividers with a proud pink curved roofing insulation top and mouse hole for plug sockets surrounded by six white swivel Eames chairs. The same design language gestures The Cypto Bar with high stools for intimate discussions. The drinks bar and coffee table is constructed with silver piping insulation wrapped in foam. The low stool seating surrounding the coffee table is stacked white A4 paper vacuum packed with clear plastic. Scaffolding debris netting wraps around the unused walls connected with cable ties and rips to gain access.