Design

A home for creativity

Since launching in 2022, Young Space has cultivated an environment where artists collaborate and thrive. Below, we ask some of its residents to highlight their favourite objects in the space, and the role these items play in their everyday lives

Photography Dan Tobin Smith

Young’s founding principle – that a good space can facilitate great, surprising creative work – isn’t necessarily new. Its approach, though, might be. Launching in July 2022, the UK indie label Young (formerly known as Young Turks and founded by Caius Pawson) built Young Space as an incubator for creatives, sitting in a former millinery works in east London’s De Beauvoir Town, hemmed in by housing on either side.

When stepping into the late 19th-century structure, which was redesigned by British architect John Pawson, visitors will likely see singer Sampha recording in one of its five studios, or Grace Wales Bonner designing her latest collection in a workspace. But for the most part, it’s “for artists and people who support artists”, as stated on its website, spanning freelance and company-based residents across fashion, music, visual art, furniture, food and publishing.

Practically, freelancers occupy a core and yet precarious position in the creative world, acting as iconoclastic sources for new creative thinking some of the time, or at other times as the glue or the oil in a creative engine. The problem with that duality is that they’re scattered, often isolated, but inextricable from exciting creative work – a freelancer commissioned this story, another freelancer photographed it. Yet another freelancer will have combed through these words before you read them.

It’s not in Young’s mission to set out a goal for itself or its residents – one gets the sense that’s exactly what they’re trying to avoid. If we were to apply one to what’s been built so far, though, it might be to bring freelancers together under one roof with as few prescriptions as to what they do there as possible. On the day I visit, there’s an A&R meeting for the label, a visiting dog, a delicious communal lunch and a reading in the evening. You can do pretty much anything here, Beth Davies, Young Space’s strategist and development consultant, tells me, “as long as you put the tables back”. To dig into some of what happens there, we asked residents to contribute objects as well as explanations around them.

Kwes Darko, producer – Palo santo

Young is a space built on the energy of creative fluidity, as well as a safe space for all to freely connect and grow creatively; a space for all to feel comfortable from the moment they step in the building. That ethos runs through all parts of the space, including the studios – mine is a sacred room of free flow and spirituality. The palo santo stick is an important part of my studio, as it provides calm and a cleanse of any bad energy that may try to interfere with the core foundation and comfort of being. The scent complements the aura of Young and emits positive vibrations and peace.

Sienna Murdoch, artist, (gelines, 2024)

Prompts for fantasy, amplifying elements of things we consume every day. They feel familiar but they are something else now. They could transform you if only you could touch them, which is happily encouraged.

Clem Macleod, founder – WORMS, Bookworm candle

We believe that a sense of calm is imperative for the creative process. At Young Space, we begin each of our writing workshops with a meditation. Light a candle, get comfortable and ignite the flow state.

John Glacier, musician – Microphone

In relation to this space, the microphone is one of the most crucial objects. It’s as important to me as it is to others. It’s where sounds are transmitted to give life to a space called Young.

Luc Wilkinson, musician – Dungeons and Dragons Dice Sets, various

I love all things fantasy. As adults, we don’t often get to truly remove ourselves from reality and indulge in the freedom of make believe. Dungeons and Dragons allows you to do just that: play. It’s fun to bring this game to the space and play with people you’d normally interact with in a professional context. You see different sides of people.

Rhys Coren, artist – Sample of ‘Filter Sweep’, a table by Rhys Coren and Peter Noyce created for the Young Space Garden

‘Filter Sweep’ references feedback loops and resonance, mirroring the cross-pollination at Young Space. This piece is the first of a new series of works, and is created using Italian marble and granites from India and Brazil.

Luke Pryde, manager and A&R – Chess Board

Chess is an unfiltered conversation between two people’s minds, it can tell you a lot about a person and about how they think. It’s a fun way for two minds to come together and challenge each other, not unlike that of Young Space. Every day, we meet new people and are challenged by others’ thoughts and ideas. This brings out the best in people – food for thought nourishes the mind.

Charlie Hedin, co-founder and creative director – Tekla Tekla red mohair blanket, by John Pawson

At its core, the blanket draws from the specific visual memory of a graphic interaction between architectural space and light. Through its function, it transfers feelings of home to Young Space.

Mafruha ‘Maf’ Ahmed, chef, and Nancy Andersen, chef and musician – Rings, St Christopher, Best Friend Charm and Taja Guirey Chain

Wearing jewellery in the kitchen is somewhat forbidden but holds so much identity for myself and Nancy. Whilst cooking at Young Space, we wear our jewellery as a statement of our individualism. The dining room at Young Space is a minimal communal area and, though we take our jewellery off to cook and mix with our hands, we show it off whilst serving lunch, as an extension of our personalities.

Milo Cordell, head of A&R Young and founder Open by Appointment – Jack Lamp by Tom Dixon

The space is a minimalist haven, a place where conversation, community and calm take precedence over anything else. Sometimes I just want to spray paint over all the walls and let the chaos in. I see the lamps as pieces of physical graffiti.

Foundation FM, music label – Butterfly T-shirt designed by Dolly

Dolly’s name kept appearing at Young Space, literally in large type on the leg of her signature baggy shorts. You’d see it worn by radio show guests, by our friends at WORMS publishing and in the kitchen. When we were talking about designers who we should collaborate with, she was first on the list.

Caius Pawson, co-founder and board of trustees chair, Murmur – ClientEarth book
This book was co-written by James Thornton, a poet, Zen Buddhist and tough-as-nails climate lawyer. James founded ClientEarth, and both the organisation and the book have been a point of reference and an inspiration for Murmur.

Photography Dan Tobin Smith

This article is taken from Port Issue 35. To continue reading, buy the issue or subscribe here