From a coffee bar covered in thick road paint to a room divider inspired by Japanese landscape paintings, Faye Toogood’s design for the new Hato studio, shop and café on the Golden Lane Estate in the City of London inspires with the unexpected
There’s a new kid on the block at the colourful 1950s Golden Lane Estate in London. Hato, a publisher, printer and design studio, has recently kitted out its ground floor workspace in collaboration with designer Faye Toogood and is now celebrating the opening of its in-house concept store and coffee bar.
Established in 2009 and based in London and Hong Kong, Hato specialises in brand identity, design and digital production across the creative industries. In 2020 it launched its first concept store, originally located in a cobbled passageway of Coal Drops Yard behind King’s Cross. Now, the store and studio have been joined together, forming a ‘Hato’ creative zone that is open to friends, ideas and evolution.
“We wanted a fluid space, not too prescribed or precise, and very communal,” says Emete Kirton, partner and brand director at Hato. In addition to a core team of eight creatives, it’s common for like-minded craftspeople, makers, designers and clients to be invited to collaborate on projects or contribute to the Hato Zine, now gaining cult status with its 50th issue. So it was important that, on stepping in, creatives could immediately absorb Hato’s open-minded, joyful and sociable approach to work.
A Hato collaborator since around 2012, fellow East London-based designer Faye Toogood shares many of these qualities, operating across the realms of interior design, homeware, art and fashion. Emete describes her style as “casual and organic” and praises her knack of “translating craft and heritage into contemporary forms with new perspectives that always feel playful” – ideas perhaps best encapsulated in her now-iconic Roly-Poly chair, which welcomes visitors into the company’s workspace.
As a multidisciplinary designer herself, Faye brought a lot of her own workplace experience to the design; “Like Toogood, Hato has a diverse team spanning many roles,” she says, “so it’s important that everyone has a place to work quietly in concentration as well as space to spread out and make a mess.”
A giant table with five red powder-coated legs is surrounded by vintage Eames EA117 Mesh Office Chairs and provides that room for expression, while a voluptuous bar dripping with thick road paint is a focal point for shared studio lunches – from Cornish pasties to smashed cucumber salad – as well as serving Dark Arts filter coffee and Japanese SABO tea to the public.
Faye’s design bounced off the materiality of the location; she matched the exposed brick walls and concrete floor of the interior with tough, durable materials such as metal, wood, Jesmonite and fibreglass, casting them into organically shaped, multi-functional furniture pieces that reference the sculptural architecture of the estate – the concrete ‘wings’ atop Great Arthur House and the barrel vaults of Crescent House. “Our aim was to soften the hard shell while maintaining the rawness that was so unique to the space,” she says.
A central shelving unit, inspired by traditional Japanese mountain landscape paintings, divides the studio and store: the public-facing side includes a record player, a vintage Charlotte Perriand light, and Hato products by designers such as Martino Gamper and Rio Kobayashi, while the other displays include a collection of vintage toys (from a giant Woody from Toy Story to a Nintendo Game Boy and Japanese manga), playful touchpoints that drive the trademark humour and curiosity of the practice. Elsewhere, Vitsoe shelving displays Hato’s publication archive, feeding the creative process every day, while bespoke powder-coated steel stands support printers and paper storage.
In the early evenings, when the record player is on, work’s being wrapped up, a book launch is in full swing, drinks are flowing, conversations are starting and kids are running around between the studio and the estate’s playground, Hato’s rhythm of place, people, energy, ideas and play reaches it crescendo. It’s clear that the Golden Lane Estate is not merely a mid-century backdrop but a way of life.
It’s one that the team takes pride in and contributes to – by designing an upbeat identity and website for the local neighbourhood forum, or through the ‘Meeting Points’ programme that helps other creative businesses engage with their local community through design.
“When we first established Hato, co-creation with communities, councils, developers, cultural organisations and schools was a big part of how we worked,” says Emete. “If you’ve chosen to be somewhere, the physical environment obviously offers you something, and you have to take part to be able to have a say.
Images by Genevieve Lutkin
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