VG&P

Blueprint

The increasingly versatile restaurant chain Canteen has Launched its own design brand and enlisted Klauser and Carpenter to create furniture for the eateries as well as for independent clients. Peter Kelly reports

Canteen restaurants have a strong track record of astutely chosen locations and canny collaborations with excellent designers. The chain's Spitalfields restaurant, which opened in east London in 2005, is located in the ground floor of a new development by Foster and Partners and brought in designer Barber Osgerby and architect Universal Design Studio to create the furniture and interiors. Its next venture was an outlet In the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall, which opened in 2007, and used Allies and Morrison as Architectural advisor. Canteen's latest restaurant, however, marks an even bolder step into the design world: the launch of its own furniture brand headed by Canteen co-founder Patrick Clayton Malone, called Very Good and Proper. Located in the shadow of Make Architects' imposing office, retail and leisure devlopment on Baker Street, the newest Canteen is populated by a mix of carefully chosen design classics and bespoke pieces that will now go into production. 'It is an unusual move for us start a design company but we have the knowledge and ability to move into new areas; says Clayton Malone, 'The first products were a response to a need for functional, simple, and well-designed products, and that is universal so we will of course develop and retail these products too: The venture began when design partners Klauser and Carpenter were approached to develop a cost efficient table suitable for Canteen's Baker Street with cafe, bistro and formal dinning applications. The restaurant itself is carefully , apportioned into areas with different atmospheres - from window-side spaces for groups to a central bar and more intimate booths - so the furniture needed to be flexible. Klauser and Carpenter responded by creating a table that is quick and simple to put together and easy to dismantle and store. Inspired by Ernest Race's BA chair- which is also used in Canteen Baker Street - and cast iron brackets holding up Victorian cisterns, a key design feature of the table's elegant gravity cast aluminum leg is that it fixes directly to the tabletop, eliminating the need for a bracing system. By taking care of these small features, Klauser and Carpenter wanted to bring an attention to detail back to this relatively mundane object. Another product launched by Very Good and Proper, and designed by Klauser and Carpenter, is the Canteen Hook and Knob, which, as an improvement on regular coat hooks, is a coated steel piece that protects the wall from dirt and scratches. These new products, and the new design brand itself, were officially launched at this year's Imm Cologne, and Clayton Malone now plans to extend the range beyond pieces created for the restaurants themselves.