COS has just announced a site-specific work by British designer Paul Cocksedge, will be the inaugural installation for its Coal Drops Yard store at King’s Cross, London, this autumn. Paul Cocksedge Studio will create a light-based work entitled Orbits, for the store, the first hybrid retail space to celebrate the brand’s influences from the fields of art and design.
The 577sqm (6210sq ft) store in the landmark Thomas Heatherwick building, will act as a multifunctional platform and host the work of established and emerging artists, while integrating independent publishing houses, wellbeing and lifestyle brands alongside handpicked edits from the COS collection.
Orbits juxtaposes the natural and the man made, a theme explored in the COS Autumn Winter 2018 collection. A series of 6 natural rocks collected by Cocksedge are suspended from malleable hoops of light, fabricated in stainless steel and LED. Each pendant exhibits a different relationship with gravity, with the light manipulated by the weight of the rock beneath.
“The collaboration with Paul Cocksedge for this new space was a natural fit due to the synergy between the concept and our collection. At COS we feel Coal Drop’s Yard is the perfect location to offer an experience where art is at the forefront and the inspirations behind the collection are exhibited next to the garments,”
Karin Gustafsson, COS Creative Director
The installation marks the first collaboration between COS and Paul Cocksedge and is part of a series of artworks from established and emerging artists.
About the designer
Paul Cocksedge is an internationally acclaimed British designer, who has spent the last decade building a reputation for innovative design, underpinned by research into the limits of technology and materials. His catalogue of work spans design products, architectural projects, installations and sculptures, all infused with the sense of simplicity, joy and wonder that has come to characterise his work.
Having studied under Ron Arad at the Royal College of Art, Cocksedge was nominated for Designer of the Year by London’s Design Museum in 2004, just two years after graduation. He established Paul Cocksedge Studio with Joana Pinho in the same year, and the practice has participated in design festivals around the world, adding a sense of playfulness to technologically ingenious sculptures and installations. He presented his first solo show at the Friedman Benda Gallery in New York in 2013, and in 2017 partnered with the gallery and Beatrice Trussardi to show an exhibition of pieces during Milan Design Week, made from materials excavated from the foundations of his own studio. Cocksedge is also working with Arup and Grimshaw on a 33-metre-long canopy for the Oman Botanic Garden, which will be one of the largest gardens of its kind in the world.
Cocksedge has collaborated with major brands including Swarovski and BMW, as well as private clients, and his work is included in collections at the V&A, MoMA and Vitra Design Museum. His work has received accolades from Wallpaper*, the Design Museum, Homes & Gardens and the German Design Council.
@paulcocksedge
About Coal Drops Yard
Coal Drops Yard is the new shopping and lifestyle district in London’s King’s Cross. Originally established in 1850 to handle the eight million tonnes of coal delivered to the capital each year, and latterly the location of nightclubs Bagley’s and The Cross, the area is now reopening, reinvented by the acclaimed Heatherwick Studio, which has interwoven a contemporary design with the surviving structures, streets and rich ironwork of the original Victorian coal drops that were located on the site.
Coal Drops Yard will now be home to over fifty stores, top restaurants and cafés and new public spaces, making it an oasis-like space for visitors to dwell, discover and explore. Special in-store events, workshops, pop-ups and talks will all feature as part of an ongoing programme of activities. The stores themselves will be showcases for some of the world’s most forward-thinking retailers, each an experience and all one-off concepts created using the unique heritage spaces they sit within.
With its innovative shopping experience, canal-side location in the heart of King’s Cross and state-of-the-art architecture, Coal Drops Yard is set to become a magnet for shoppers and visitors from across London, the UK and further afield when it opens this October.
