By Armin Forstner and interview with Hannah Carter Owers
This September, Universal Design Studio unveiled its first public architectural pavilion for the London Design Festival. This standalone project was designed in collaboration with London-based co-working company, The Office Group (TOG). The concept for On Repeat was born from the ability of visual pattern and physical repetition to induce a state of mind known as ‘open awareness’; a form of attention achieved by the repetition of manual tasks which allow the mind to wander and creative thinking to flourish. The pavilion’s form physically manifests repetition in its architecture, but also through a collaborative installation of hundreds of paper forms, the components of which require manual assembly by visitors over the course of the festival.
During the London Design Festival, On Repeat was home to a programme of free events and workshops that explored the power of frequency and repetition, designed to give visitors the opportunity to temporarily depart from everyday work life and reach a free-flowing mind-set. Activities that were hosted during the week engaged visitors in an array of repetitive manual tasks, from sushi making to meditative breathing to woodcutting.
We joined some excited mindfulness meditations sessions during the London Design Festival at the On Repeat Pavilion, discovering how interior design and architecture can support mindful workplaces. To tell us more about this project, we spoke with Hannah Carter Owers, Director at Universal Design Studios.
Download the latest issue and read the full article and interview now.
