The Herbarium for Crabtree & Evelyn | RIBA Windows, London

Interactive lighting design in collaboration with London Atelier for the Crabtree & Evelyn store, as a part of the RIBA Regent Street Window project. The display captures the memory of English Still rooms and imprints the passers-by with the movement of light.

The RIBA Regent Street Windows Project connects noted RIBA architects with flagship retailers to create captivating architectural installations within their shop windows. Moreover, the annual project creates a huge public architecture exhibition seen by more than one million people each week. The Herbarium for Crabtree and Evelyn ran for three weeks and coincided with the London Design Festival and London Fashion Week.

For this interactive lighting display, our collaboration with London Atelier was driven by the motto of John Evelyn: “‘Omnia explorate, meliora retinete,” — explore everything, keep the best. This became the great source of influence for our interactive lighting design scheme.

As a result, the design captures a memory of the tradition of English Still rooms. Moreover, a delicate combination of plants and flowers, tracing paper, copper and brass utensils, wooden surfaces, remedies and potions form a captivating design story. In the end, the display is a choreographed ensemble of herbs, plants and flowers preserved in panes of soap within a brass grid lit by an LED matrix.

Overall, the scheme used  77 linear runs of LED lights to create a subtle, organically animated and surprising lighting effect. The lighting matrix responded to the movements of passers-by and translated them into disturbances, and ripples into general pattern. Finally, the engagement element was a crucial part of this interactive lighting design project. The patterns formed by passers’ created “imprint” interaction with the display and seemingly connoting one’s mere touch with nature.

Described as an “engaging and delightful installation,” the project received a Special Commendation.

“The Crabtree & Evelyn project was a collaboration in the true sense of the word. We knew there would be an element of lighting but didn’t know what it would be and how it might work, until we started working with Michael Grubb Studio.”

 Pouya Zamanpour, Director of London Atelier

This project is featured in the articles below

Dezeen | Design Insider | ArchDaily | Vogue | Architects’ Journal