Metropolis: Charlap Hyman & Herrero Join Forces for an Installation Teeming with life

The designers have installed a dramatic, crawling landscape of vines in the Gobelin Room at Austria’s Schloss Hollenegg for Design.

It isn’t every day that a designer gets the chance to create a permanent installation in a 12th-century castle. So when architecture studio Charlap Hyman & Herrero (CH&H) was invited to take part in a residency at Austria’s Schloss Hollenegg for Design, founders Adam Charlap Hyman and Andre Herrero jumped at the opportunity.

Every year, Alice Stori Liechtenstein –whose family has owned the property since 1821 — pairs designers and manufacturers to participate in an annual exhibition. This year she brought together CH&H and Brooklyn’s Calico Wallpaper, which is how the designers found themselves standing in the palace, decorating the walls and ceilings of its Gobelin Tapestry Room. Overgrow, a non-repeating wallpaper, was inspired by the lush greenery that creeps up the castle’s walls and spills down from trellises over covered walkways. Charlap Hyman describes the medieval structure as wild and organic. “When we were getting our tour on the first day, Alice kept having to break through vines that had overtaken shutters to open the windows,” he explains. “It really left an impression.”

The Overgrow Collection in the colorway Alice is shown above, and is featured in Schloss Hollenegg’s Gobelin Room.