Laurence STARTS another trend

A recycled masterpiece from Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen was given a stop-off in St Albans thanks to a charity project, as Caroline Foster discovered

SOME say he is sexy, others call him charming while most say he is flamboyant, extrovert and dynamic. But no matter what you think of Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, there is no getting away from the fact that his style is cutting edge and contemporary.
It must come as no surprise, therefore, to find out that Laurence has been leading a new campaign, this time for green design. According to the top designer, green became the new black as he tackled the threat to the environment in his latest design project.
Demonstrating the benefits of recycling, he is the first interior designer to lead the way in eco-friendly home furnishings. Taking his inspiration from recycled metal drinks cans, he designed a contemporary armchair, The Can Can Chair.
Drinks cans seem to be establishing themselves as the new designer friendly material, especially as Zandra Rhodes has produced the world’s most expensive drinks can and Georgina Goodman created a beautiful pair of hand-crafted shoes also from recycled drinks cans.
Talking about his couture chair Laurence says, ‘I really enjoy working with new material so the idea of using recycled drinks cans to produce an elegant, yet flamboyant chair was a huge challenge for me. Recycling is hugely important in this day and age and drinks cans are one of the most environmentally friendly types of packaging, as each one is 100 per cent recyclable. They can also be recycled infinitely so technically I could produce an entirely new piece of furniture for next season by melting down this chair. Bare metal is also a very interesting material to work with as it has a wonderful texture and is incredibly versatile and flexible, perfectly adaptable to the furniture making process.’
The Can Can Chair spent two weeks at St Albans town hall as part of a European tour. The stop-off in the city was thanks to the STARTS project. STARTS – St Albans Arts – is a charity dedicated to raising the profile of the arts in St Albans and enriching the environment in the city. Its long-term aim is to attract arts performances of the highest calibre to the city and create a centre of excellence for arts in the southeast. It has become clear over the four years since STARTS sprung into being that its voice is being heard and its influence felt.
During 2007, St Albans town hall was magnificently refurbished and, since the beginning of December 2007, STARTS has been successfully running the larger part of this beautiful building as an arts venue to be known as STARTS Town Hall.
Chairman of STARTS, Richard Brown says, ‘It is an incredibly elegant and imaginative design and a very interesting idea to see what can be done with recycled drinks cans. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has certainly risen to the challenge.’
Laurence is also delighted that his chair will be on display at the town hall and adds, ‘As a designer one of the things that gives me a real buzz is the ability to be able to exhibit the thing I’ve created all over the country.'

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