Dezeen Magazine

Barber and Osgerby and Jasper Morrison furnish previously unseen kitchen at Soane Museum

The kitchen of Sir John Soane's Museum in London has opened to the public for the first time, filled with contemporary homeware by designers including Barber and Osgerby and Jasper Morrison.

Martino Gamper and Paul Cocksedge have also created bespoke items for the room, which opens to the public today for the first time since the museum was established 179 years ago.

Barber & Osgerby and Jasper Morrison design homeware for Sir John Soane's Museum exhibition
Ed Barber and Jay Osgerby created a special green gloss edition of their 2012 Tobi-Ishi table for the space. Photograph by Gareth Gardner

Ranging from a vivid green dining table to a range of pots with marble and lino patterns, the contemporary products will temporarily sit alongside historic artefacts in the newly restored Sir John Soane's Museum.

Design duo Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby created a special green gloss edition of their 2012 Tobi-Ishi table for the space. It is topped by a black Port glass vase.

Jasper Morrison found antique glassware hidden away in the museum's archives, which he now presents within a wooden box shelf.

Meanwhile, Paul Cocksedge has recreated the lighting of the museum's galleries by covering a window in bright amber film.

Sideboards and stove tops are used to display a range of pots by Martino Gamper, which reflect the patterns and materials of items included in Soane's historic collections of art and artefacts.

Barber & Osgerby and Jasper Morrison design homeware for Sir John Soane's Museum exhibition
Barber and Osgerby's black Port vase sits in the Soane Museum's front kitchen. Photograph by Gareth Gardner

A perfumed installation by food historian Tasha Marks of AVM Curiosities also features. Named Scent Chambers, the piece recreates smells including citrus, champagne and chocolate, which may have originally been present in the Georgian kitchen.

Curators Rachael Barraclough and Zoë Wilkinson invited each of the designers to visit the kitchen during the restoration process, to allow them to plan a response.

Barber & Osgerby and Jasper Morrison design homeware for Sir John Soane's Museum exhibition
Martino Gamper's vases sit on the Soane Museum kitchen dresser. Photograph by Gareth Gardner

The seven-year-long renovation works mark part of a move by the museum to incorporate more contemporary exhibition spaces.

"These contemporary works create a fascinating dialogue with the restored kitchens and the museum as a whole," said museum director Bruce Boucher.

Barber & Osgerby and Jasper Morrison design homeware for Sir John Soane's Museum exhibition
A Martino Gamper vase can be found on the Georgian kitchen range in the museum. Photograph by Gareth Gardner

"They show that the Soane is not a static museum but a dynamic creation in itself, to which designers, artists, and architects continue to respond."

Sir John Soane's Museum is set across three reconfigured Georgian houses in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn.

Barber & Osgerby and Jasper Morrison design homeware for Sir John Soane's Museum exhibition
Soane's Light by Paul Cocksedge sees an amber film installed over the window pane. Photograph by Mark Cocksedge

As the former home of architect John Soane (1753-1837), the museum hosts hundreds of architectural and art pieces ranging from Roman marbles to Egyptian mummies.

Entitled Below Stairs, the furniture exhibition opens tomorrow. It will be open throughout London Design Festival 2016 and will continue until 28 January 2017.