Three UK-based design firms are creating interactive installations that will challenge and subvert visitors’ expectations.
In addition to the perennial and ever-popular Sleep Sets, Sleep + Eat is this year debuting the Eat Sets – a collection of concept rooms based on restaurant and bar spaces. Taking as their starting point the event’s theme of “Recognisable and New”, three UK-based design firms are creating interactive installations that will challenge and subvert visitors’ expectations.
ECHO Architecture will be transporting visitors to a Cornish seaside restaurant; 3Stories’ “Anticaff” will turn the traditional concept of the British caff on its head; and Shalini Misra’s nightclub set will provide people with a nostalgia-driven place to party.
Eugene Sellors, Director Head of Design at ECHO Architecture states: “Dining is all about responses. We don’t just experience the food, service and table settings, our memories are made up of a collection of emotions, created by a dialogue between the senses and the connections we feel with those breaking bread with us. This is what we want to deliver in our Eat Set. Ours is a multi-sensory concept that uses state-of-the-art technology alongside sensitive design, intelligent lighting, 3D soundscaping and emotive food samples to create individual experiences that are unique to each guest and time of day.”
“We were inspired by the challenge of how you could take the basic essence of a Caff and reinterpret it without the core food and drink offer, which its built upon”, says 3Stories Co-Founder, Jordan Littler. “What’s left is the timeless nature of a Caff, it's social and communal offerings and the familiar touch points that exist in these types of environments all across the world, transcending language and traditions. With this in mind our concept aims to be a transitional installation that distils these ideas into a kind of 'Anticaff' where these touch points are reinvented and played with to make something recognisable and new.”
When questioned about her set, Shalini Misra said, “The nightclub invites us to escape and to dream, and it has a similar effect on the designer. As a space that is often dark or hidden, it allows for much more creative freedom than other commercial spaces. Exploring the connection between club culture, interior design and technology, it is this spirit of freedom and rule-breaking that we have distilled into our space at Sleep + Eat.”
Sleep + Eat will take place on Tuesday 20 – Wednesday 21 November 2018 in the National Hall, Olympia London. The Eat Sets will be located on the ground floor whilst the Sleep Sets will be found on the mezzanine level of the hall. The event will also include an ‘Eat’ Conference and a ‘Sleep’ Conference as well as an exhibition bringing together over 150 design-led suppliers within the international hospitality sector.
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