Arcade | NYCxDesign 2019

During NYCxDesign 2019, Calico Wallpaper & Workstead will present Arcade, an immersive installation housed in Arcade Bakery within the Neoclassical Merchants Square Building in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood. Opening to the public on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, the project marks the debut of new collections from both design studios: Workstead’s Chamber and Calico Wallpaper’s Relic Collection, each exploring concepts of seriality and containment.

Designed in 2014 by Workstead, Arcade Bakery is fitted like a train car, with alcoves housing fold-down tables and warm task lighting. The Arcade installation will subtly reimagine the interior through both studios’ latest work, with pieces from their new collections integrated into the historic space. The resulting gesture will be at once playful and thoughtful, emphasizing the studios’ shared pursuit for strength in balance, beauty, and depth.

Created using a mix of metallic and matte materials, Calico Wallpaper’s new Relic Collection will introduce an ornamental, luminous surface to the space. Filling Arcade’s cozy alcoves, the series will serve as an exploration in layering, a methodical overlay of translucent materials and glazing that enhances the illusion of movement and depth. Sheer tissue paper both obscures and defines the artwork, while the layers mask and reveal the background in a delicate interplay between positive and negative space. Lining Arcade Bakery’s characteristic inlays and contours, the wallpaper will lend an understated opulence that feels both modern and timeless.

Complementing the dynamism of Relic is Workstead’s Chamber Collection, a new series of lighting fixtures, featuring sculptural metal shrouds which conceal or reveal light by degree. The collection, available in bronze, nickel, and brass, explores the concepts of enclosure and seriality. The New York-based studio took an architectural approach to the collection’s design, creating a sconce, pendant, chandelier, and table lamp that are both quiet and grand in scale. In Arcade, Chamber will illuminate the space with warm hues that lend a new magnitude to Calico Wallpaper’s Relic.

Aracde will live as a context-driven installation that balances the new with old – the location’s historic bones support a modern sensibility that the collaborators further enhance with their unique design perspectives. Welcoming patrons from the deign world and beyond, the presentation offers visitors the opportunity to preview the new collections within an unconventional and historic setting.

Visit us from May 14-21, 2019
8am – 5pm
Arcade Bakery
220 Church Street
New York, NY 10013
*Please note that Arcade Bakery is open to the public from 8am to 3pm Monday to Friday

Photography by Matthew Williams
Our Relic Collection in the colorways Tabla and Stela are showcased in this installation.