Product Design. Bed by Mark Lewis West Surrey Collage of Art Farnham 1978-1977
Mark went to Farnham art collage to start a foundation year having previously been engaged in the stuff of Art and Sculpture at Brooklands Collage Weybridge on a one year A level art intensive course. The first project undertaken was product based. A bed, a theme that reoccurs throughout Mark’s carrier was his earliest venture into product design.
Growing up in Germany on the boarders of Holland often he and his family would visit the Netherlands and explore the historic buildings, streets and canals there. This is where Mark came across the most wonderful and compact homes of the Dutch in preserved 19th century cottages in rural areas and the elegant town houses of Amsterdam.
The most striking feature of these was the sleeping cots built into the walls. Patinad hand painted and polished wooden panels framed each alcove or cupboard constructions forming a cosy keep for the down filled mattresses and duvets. Being in one of these beds was like being in a womb of soft fresh cotton. The closet-bed had its advantage of segregating the sleeping area from each of the room’s usual daily living function. The cupboard doors or curtain could be closed during the day making a separate bedroom unnecessary. The other main advantage was that the small area could be warmed by body heat.
The cot like design of Marks adult bed above was to emulate the principals of comfort and containment in a modern format trending in the late seventies.
