Edward Barber
Shrewsbury, 1969
Jay Osgerby
Oxford, 1969
Degree:
1996 Master’s degrees in Architecture from The Royal College of Art in London
Currently Live and Work in London
Western Facade – 2012
The bench produced in collaboration with Torart is a marble monolith with cylindrical openings. The title refers to the splinters that damaged the Aston Webb façade on the V & A Exhibition Road caused by the bombs dropped during the 1940 blitz.
Website:
barberosgerby.com
Press:
Dezeen
DesignDaba
Projects:
In 2004 the pair were awarded the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize. This led to a commission to design new pieces for the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill On Sea. Known for their use of colour, with the limited edition Iris tables, Barber and Osgerby developed a new direction, using colour as the starting point for the work. The same year saw the launch of Tab for Flos, a return to the folded form. In 2009, Barber and Osgerby launched their first major commission for Murano glassmakers Venini which resulted in a series of unique, large-scale glass vases, created in limited editions and shown in Milan, Porto Cervo and London.
2010 saw the creation of an experimental installation for Sony at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. Through a series of conceptual objects that exploited Sony’s new sound technologies, a perspective was presented for how electronics could be better integrated within contemporary home interiors. Another investigation, this time into school furniture and how dynamic movement in a chair can aid concentration, resulted in the forward-tilting Tip Ton chair launched with Vitra in 2011. The same year, Barber and Osgerby were appointed to design the London 2012 Olympic Torch.