EVE WALDRON DESIGN - INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE IN CAMBRIDGE
Eve - a watercolour by her mother Phyllis Floyd
Eve Waldron Design dwells in a space between art and design, practicality and vision. Their strapline is ‘Interior Architecture’ –Interiors are hugely important. How often have friends proudly shown you round a brand new extension that’s taken months to complete, only for you to wonder why they have stuffed it with so much dismal jumbly furniture? As they waft you enthusiastically towards their ultra- expensive elaborately installed roof lights, you notice they still need a good sofa and a proper light to read by.
There is an exciting realm of design out there and Eve Waldron and her associates are in business to help you go there.
“People are very welcome to visit,” reflects Eve in her beautiful shop behind Kettles Yard on Honey Hill- it’s a very old building with gloriously large West facing Victorian windows. “Anyone can sell furniture but when we’re involved we collaborate, bringing our experience to help people work with what they already have and make it theirs”.
Cambridge is lucky to have Eve Waldron, in a sea of chain shops, any independent is welcome – but her strong well- researched design scope saves a trip to London. Just for once we have the range and expertise of someone who is just as keen to help choose a single lamp as to re-equip Magdalene College’s newly built library.
Eve combines the spirit of design with the amazing energy she infuses into her enterprise. Her artistic outlook is second nature.
‘I grew up in a very creative family. My mother is a painter”, she is the artist Phyllis Floyd, still working in her vast Manhattan loft. “And not only did she paint, but she did lots of creative activities with my sister and me. We did knitting, quilt making, hooking rugs, paper mâché, You name it”
Eve at Sundown- a portrait by her mother New York artist Phyllis Floyd,
Eve’s father Eli Waldron was a writer and also an artist; there was never any question of which way her life would go, she just had to choose which branch of the arts she should follow. It was a nourishing atmosphere to grow up in,
“I think my upbringing taught me a sort of creativity and also the power of language. I grew up in New York, and New York is a very visual city, full of creative inspiration” she says
She launched into a degree in industrial design.
I was interested in how things are made and production methods, and I thought industrial design offered breadth of discipline. I could really do anything, so I did! I have done some textile designs over the years, and now have my own range of textiles, cushions and rugs. One of the designs is a large repeat, when cut up, no two cushions are exactly alike. The rugs are wool and silk and woven in Nepal. Each one is unique.
Sofa and cuions designed by Eve Waldron
Rug on the wall - and the sofa - designed by Eve
As the child of artists she had watched them struggle to make ends meet. She was determined to do something practical – and soon found out that the field of design was limitless. In her University course at the Rhode Island School of Design, she engaged with the processes of manufacture, got into furniture design, even sculpture. Years later in England and with her ‘how hard can it be?’ approach to everything, Eve tackled a large scale sculpture in Corten steel. She commissioned an engineering company, made a maquette from cardboard and learned welding techniques.
Eve’s Tree Sculpture
Eve’s career trajectory was hectic. Her first job was with a design company that did everything from graphic design, packaging, exhibitions, to modernist furniture and interiors. In her next job with an Architects’ practice she was soon engaged with the high-powered world of corporate New York
“ It was the late 1980’s. The practice (Kohn Pedersen Fox)I worked with trading floors, banks with bespoke panelling, specialist finishes and custom furniture. We were wined and dined by suppliers and clients; There was so much money around”.
“ It was like a later version of Madmen” Eve recalls
When she moved to England she worked again with international architects Skidmore Owings and Merrill and her designs appeared in office, media companies, and Canary Wharf. Later she began her business in Cambridge and projects included educational contexts, from schools and colleges to housing schemes and offices.
Today she is a true independent. Her range of clientele encompasses major projects and individual houses.
St John’s College Cripps Buildng Interior
This is a 1960’s Grade II * building designed by Philip Powell and Hildalgo Moya, and we refurbished the penthouse for St John’s College as a VIP apartment. We relished the opportunity to respond to the architects’ vision. The wonderful views, cool concrete, teak floors, and bronze ironmongery informed our choices for the refurbishment.
Jesus College West Court - partly new and partly a conversion
We also refurbished the interiors at Jesus College West Court conferencing facility, which is a bit like a hotel, in fact the closest I've gotten so far into hotel design. I'd love to design a hotel. In this particular job we designed and installed all the joinery, we even designed the bed linen with Eleanor Pritchard. We then selected the photographs you see from the college Archive, which was really interesting.
Sometimes when I'm lying on the beach, I think to myself, How can I find a bit more time to lie on the beach? And is there a way to scale creativity without losing quality? I've had something digital in mind. In Cambridge amongst so many entrepreneurs, I've been thinking about coming up with something. Last year we launched a workplace furniture online platform. We've curated all the furniture and it will also have some of our furniture and textile designs in it. It makes great design accessible to all. And if you're wondering what EWOP stands for, it stands for ‘everything works out perfectly’”.
The Everything works out Perfectly design by Eve Waldron Design
Kettles Yard interior
Eve Waldron Design has responded to the Covid 19 epidemic with typical dynamism by the design of interiors that are safe – and still beautiful. As employers around the world bring their employees back to offices, they must act to ensure that workplaces are both productive and safe. A well-planned return to offices can use this moment to create a better experience. That kind of change will require transformational thinking grounded in facts. It will be what good companies have always wanted: a safe environment where people can enjoy their work. It is already well received by working architects.
If anyone can promote this new approach with expertise and confidence, it is Eve .
