Another RBDA finalist from SA

Last week we announced the shortlist for the 2012 Restaurant and Bar Design Awards, with two finalists from Cape Town. However, we hadn’t realised that one of the UK finalists has a strong South African connection too. 

Site-specific art installations, created in the Mother City, have recently been installed in the Westfield Stratford City. Located next to the Olympic Park in east London, United Kingdom. This centre is currently the largest urban shopping centre in Europe. Spier Architectural Arts delivered three art installations on a grand scale for the brand new Nando’s in the complex, complementing the restaurant’s African and Portuguese inspired décor.

The first artistic intervention, the ‘Stratford Pages’, was created by Spier Architectural Art’s in-house Ceramic Studio. It involved a collaboration of over 20 local fine artists in the creation of 1400 individually hand produced ceramic tiles. Each one of the tiles individually measures 100mm x 150mm and, combined, the installation decorates 50m² of the curved restaurant entrance wall. The collaborating artists where asked to ‘share pages of their sketchbooks’ through the ceramic medium, making each ceramic page truly unique. While from a distance the scale of the intervention is mesmerizing, the viewer’s surprise lies in a close inspection of the juxtaposing imagery, artistic styles, ceramic shapes and glazes of the 1400 unique ‘pages’. 

The second artistic solution put recycled magazines (including VISI of course) to good use by cladding two 5-metre high interior columns with hand-rolled paper spirals. Created by the Qubeka Bead Studio in association with Spier Architectural Arts, the cladding required more than 140 000 paper spirals, employing up to 15 people for a 10-week period. Magazines were donated or foraged from recycling depots and collected from colleagues and friends. Created in sections, the cladding panels were shipped to the UK in sections and installed panel by panel, ensuring a seamless surface.

The third installation comprised four hundred artworks by local artists filling the bulkhead of the main serving counter in the restaurant. Measuring 200mm x 300mm each, the artworks were sourced from the Creative Block. The Creative Block is an ongoing project, administered by the Jeanetta Blignaut Art Consultancy, that gives collectors an affordable and accessible means to purchase original art. Initiated in 2004, the Creative Block engages with more than 150 contributing artists. Provided with the raw blocks, artists submit finished art works once a month in return for immediate payment and constructive creative feedback.