CITY Issue 52

TALKING SHOP finger on the pulse of style for more than half a century, but Sir Terence Conran is no ordinary tastemaker. From his first hip London restaurants in the 1950s to the founding of Habitat in the 1960s, and from the creation of London’s Design Museum in 1989 to overseeing The Conran Shop today, there are few design-related jobs he hasn’t filled. For many people, however, Conran’s name will forever be tied to The House Book, a landmark, comprehensive how-to guide to residential design originally published in 1974. His latest book, Design: Intelligence Made Visible, co-written with design critic Stephen Bayley, is no less ambitious, containing essays and opinions about the development of modern design and a thorough A–Z guide to the designers and companies that matter. It’s the perfect resource to have on hand next time someone name-drops Eero Aarnio or Elsie de Wolfe. CITY caught up with the godfather of English design at The Conran Shop in Manhattan to get the inside scoop from the man himself. In 1974, Sir Terence Conran’s The House Book changed the way we thought about residential design. Now, a new tome by the design expert offers an A–Z guide to ‘intelligence made visible.’ By Tim McKeough FEW PEOPLE CAN CLAIM TO HAVE KEPT THEIR other word seems to be design. It’s absolutely woven into the fabric of most people’s lives. The new book is extremely comprehensive, almost encyclopedic. How do you think people will use it? I think an awful lot of people want to know more about design and the design world. I happen to be the provost of the Royal College of Art, which is the major design school in the U.K., and I know that from an educational point of view there are a huge number of young designers who need their history book. And I hope this provides it for them. It’s a reference, but it also gives me and Stephen a chance to talk about our opinions. We comment on what the various design movements are and what they mean, and discuss their relative importance. The very first image in the book is of a paperclip. Why did you choose to lead with that? I suppose because it’s the simplest, most everyday thing that you could possibly think of. It’s used everyday by people all over the world, and what we were really trying to CITY: The House Book is something of a residential indicate is that everything is designed. There’s a simplicity design bible, and people still use it today. Were you in everyday things that makes them really useful. surprised by its success? SIR TERENCE CONRAN: The House Book was a wonderful It’s also an affordable piece of design. story in America. I came across with the English publishers to try to decide which of the publishing houses was going to be allowed the privilege of publishing it in America. We went around to all the big publishing houses and they all said, “Lovely book, absolutely lovely, but it’ll never sell here.” And we said, “Why not?” And they said, “Oh, it’s far too European.” But then a little textile shop here called Fabrications bought copies of the English version and somebody wrote it up for New York magazine. It was just the most genius write-up that any publisher could ever want. This little shop got orders for 3,000 books. Crown Publishers then took it on and sold one and a half million copies in America. Now you’ve just released a new book, Design: Intelligence Made Visible. What was your motivation for writing it? Yes, very affordable. In fact, I think there are probably mountains of paperclips and mountains of single socks out there. But affordability is something you’ve always been concerned with. Why is it an important design criterion? To me, I’ve always been convinced that intelligent design—rather like Le Corbusier believed—can improve the quality of people’s lives. This was the important thing. My first shops, Habitat, were absolutely aimed at providing affordable, useful things. It’s not so much the case with this shop [The Conran Shop]. As you may have noticed, we’re sitting on what is probably one of the most expensive sofas [Poltrona Frau’s Kennedee] that’s ever been made. But it’s relative value. In the introduction, you write that good design is 98 percent common sense and 2 percent art or aesthetics. That ratio might surprise a lot of people. So much has changed. Stephen Bayley and I did a similar one about 15 years ago called Directory of Design when we opened the Design Museum in London. We were looking at it awhile ago and decided, really, that things had changed so much that there really needed to be not an updated version, but an entirely new book. How have things changed? Too often, I think people put the aesthetics above the common sense and you get people trying to be artists rather than designers. If there’s one overall impression that you hope people will take away from your books, your shops, and your restaurants, what would it be? My hope is that they would see that design improves the quality of life. Things that are thoughtfully designed can Design means so much for so many people now. When actually add to people’s enjoyment of their lives. we did the last book, it was a subject where people said, That’s an idea you’ve been promoting for 50 years. “Design? What do you mean by design?” But now every I hope so, yes. Design: Intelligence Made Visible by Stephen Bayley and Terence Conran (Firefly Books) is available at bookstores now. PHOTO GRAP H Y B Y A ND REW K I S T CITY 51

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 52

CITY Issue 52 Contents Letter from CITY Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment In Rogue Fit The Amused Bouche Fast Food Must Haves Hot Wheels Idol Handlers Design Public Affairs Pluck of the Draw Novel Ideas Monster's Belle Not Guilty The Understudies The Hunger Elastique Where to Buy It Socials Icon

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