05/05/2015

CuldeSac, a creative mix

“The name CuldeSac means the end of the street of course, but in Valenciano, cul de sac is like the bottom of a woman´s handbag-a place you can find anything and everything mixed. This is what we love”- says García.

In order to grasp this studio's philosophy it is necessary to understand the concept of creative space. CuldeSac was set up with the purpose of establishing a meeting point for professionals to engage in dialogue and exchange knowledge. The projects carried out at CuldeSac include industrial design, furniture, lighting, architecture, graphic design, communication, corporate identity, websites and catalogues. Work has recently got underway on a new service that goes under the name of “Experience”. With CuldeSac Experience the customer’s needs are interpreted in an experimental reality.

CuldeSac´s own work ranges from convencional product and furniture design to interiors and installations. Perhaps its most beautiful project is its most Spanish-the white LaSiesta water jug (2000), which Martínez created in collaboration with Héctor Serrano and Raky Martínez for La Mediterranea. This water container is made of white terracota, and its form combines the ridged profile of a common plastic water bottle with the traditional “botijo” earthenware jug. While this product has a highly poetic dimension, CuldeSac is as at home with corporate objects, such as its beautiful promotional napkin dispenser for the fruit juice company Granini (2004).

The collective claims not to have a house style, and to be happy to subsume its individual design egos into the service of the brief. But there are some clear formal directions. There is a detectable lineage in the Eire chair (2005), a wickerwork and steel seat, and the continuous plastic form of the Welcome chair (2004), both for Bonestil, a small Spanish manufacturer that gave CuldeSac its big break in furniture. This line will have its resolution in the new Flexa chair (2004), which unites an almost art nouveau aesthetic with a culture of material experimentation that characterises all of the studio´s furniture design.

The latest piece of furniture created by the studio has been the Whisper Chair, produced by the American company Bernhardt. This chair has won the Chair of the Year prize at the 2007 Neocon International Trade Exhibition and the Best Chair prize at the 2007 New York International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF).

Other prizes recently won by the studio include the Red Dot Design Award 2007 for the “NEOS” wristwatch collection designed for the Italian firm Lorenz and the 2007 AD magazine (Architectural Digest) prize for Designers of the Year.

CuldeSac’s recent noteworthy projects include Re-Cyclos: interior design for Lladró’s stores in Madrid, New York and Los Angeles.

CuldeSac has been chosen to create the new logo of the Madrid Justice Campus, the largest judicial complex in the world which has buildings designed by renowned architects such as Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid or Alejandro Zaera.

In the 2008 Milan Furniture Exhibition, which will be held in April, this studio will present the new lamp produced by the well-known Dutch company Moooi.

CuldeSac is one of the most diverse practices you could imagine, and imposible to categorise. Making everything from lamps and chairs to mosquito killers for kitchens, it has an institutionalised open-mindedness that´s thrilling to see.

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CuldeSac, a creative mix

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