50 DIGS.NET
| 9.18.2020
P R O F I L E | T O M D I X O N
H
ow right that the Edison of our age, British
designer Tom Dixon, would create in his
multifaceted London flagship a proper
laboratory for his latest experiments, innovations
and collaborations. Called the Coal Office, the
17,500-square-foot design epicenter at King's
Cross is an elaboration, housed in a Victorian-
bricked coal distribution center from 1851 whose
industrial-age patina offers the ideal contrast for
Dixon's forward-thinking designs.
Famously untrained, the nondoctrinaire Dixon
is essentially a constructivist who came of age
in punk London and was a bassist in the band
Funkapolitan before detouring into design.
"I'd learned that you could create your own
business from doing music—you picked up an
instrument, you learned to play it, you made
your own sound and then suddenly you had a
recording contract," says Dixon. "I transferred
some of that do-it-yourself mentality to what we
were doing. It was never a plan, it was just an evolution." Dixon's
improvisational origin story resulted in a series of departures from
convention starting in the 1980s with his iconic S Chair, which is
now housed in the permanent collection at MoMA. Today Dixon
is a luminary in product, lighting and interior design whose career
is littered with impressive pieces and posts: head of design for
Habitat (a brand he resuscitated), creative director for Artek, creator
of plastics company Eurolounge, and founder of his eponymous
brand. Through his interior architecture facility the Design
Research Studio, Dixon is doing some of his most electrifying work,
conceiving high-concept spaces from the Shoreditch House for
Soho Hospitality Group, to the Tazmania Ballroom (a pool bar in
Hong Kong), to the Mondrian London and more.
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(CLOCKWISE FROM
TOP LEFT) SCENES
FROM INSIDE TOM
DIXON'S LONDON
FLAGSHIP THE COAL
OFFICE; LUSTROUS
METALLIC LIGHTING
IS A HALLMARK OF
DIXON'S DESIGNS,
WHICH INCLUDE
PIECES FROM HIS NEW
CORK COLLECTION;
PUCK SHOT GLASSES;
TOM DIXON.
