06•2024
06•2024
Kauffman at Royal Academy
Kauffman at Royal Academy
Angelica Kauffman RA was one of the most celebrated artists of the 18th century. In this major exhibition designed by EBBA, the show traces her trajectory from child prodigy to one of Europe’s most sought-after painters.
Known for her celebrity portraits and pioneering history paintings, Angelica Kauffman helped to shape the direction of European art. She painted some of the most influential figures of her day – queens, countesses, actors and socialites – and she reinvented the genre of history painting by focusing largely on female protagonists from classical history and mythology.
The simple execution of the show picks up on the details from the interiors of Somerset House, the original home to her ceiling paintings that now reside in the ground floor of the Royal Academy.
A simple yet elegant set of objects were designed that would help to showcase smaller elements within the gallery, giving equal importance to the works. Detailing in the displays picks up on the fluting found in the ornate spaces in which the original paintings used to hang.
Title: Kauffman
Location: London
Year: 2024
Client: Royal Academy of Arts
Photographer: James Retief
Type: Exhibition
Status: Completed
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01•2025
01•2025
Silo Chair
Silo Chair
EBBA launches of a new piece called Silo, a composite chair designed for exterior and interior use. The chair plays on weight and space, maintaining a heavy appearance whilst being composed entirely of lightweight fiberglass.
The Silo launched in Plaster Composite, a new colourway developed with Uma. Discarded multicoloured trimmings from the production process are folded into the gelcoat to produce a finely textured, up-cycled finish. A contrasting Carob Brown finish creates a beautiful pairing with the Plaster Composite piece.
07•2022
07•2022
Into Air Exhibition
Into Air Exhibition
EBBA have designed a series of wooden frames and light boxes in collaboration with artist Dawn Ng and her studio as part of her first UK solo show – ‘Into Air’ – at St Cyprian’s Church, London.
Dawn’s work investigates time through the ephemeral material that is ice. She injects blocks with pigment using colour and pattern to create topographical tributaries. The different frames are presented in a way that captures the qualities of Dawn’s process while interacting with the church itself and allowing the visitors to explore, peer into and get close to the works.
Title: Into Air
Location: London
Year: 2022
Client: Dawn Ng
Photographs: James Retief
Curator: Jenn Ellis
Presented by Sullivan+Strumpf and Apsara Studio
Type: Cultural
Status: Completed
01•2023
01•2023
Casa Agulló
Casa Agulló
Casa Agulló is a personal project led by EBBA’s Director, Benni Allan, located in Altea, Spain. EBBA worked carefully to renovate and give the project a new lease of life. The new design maintains heritage features from the original house combined with new interventions and details. The project is defined by the use of materials sourced from within 100km of the house.
The overall concept was to try to retain existing features while celebrate the house’s past. A workshop on the top floor where the previous owner used to make boats is stripped back, with the original concrete floor left bare leaving paint marks that connect with the history of the house as a place for making. The sense of the workshop has also been translated in the design of the kitchen, which acts as a workbench as well as for cooking.
Title: Casa Agulló
Location: Altea, Spain
Year: 2022
Client: Private
Photographs: Salva Lopez
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
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05•2022
05•2022
Photographer’s Studio
Photographer’s Studio
EBBA have designed a small photographer’s studio, nestled in a wooded garden. The building offers a tall gallery-like space that serves for both studio and domestic activities. The interior is defined by the construction of the building, connected with large openings to the surroundings. It’s main elevation is clad in timber and ceramic tiles that have a rough texture like the bark of the trees on the site.
Title: Photographer’s Studio
Location: London
Year: 2019
Client: Private
Type: Dwelling
Status: Planning granted
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05•2022
05•2022
Gerrards Cross
Gerrards Cross
We are developing proposals for two new homes sharing a likeness in plan yet responding to the needs of each family. Solid walls create the sense of a carved interior with joinery sitting between to line and break up spaces. The buildings reflect a tradition of Georgian architecture while details take inspiration from the local Arts & Crafts houses, an amalgamation of influences that result in a robust contemporary proposition.
Title: Gerrards Cross
Location: London
Year: 2022
Client: Private
Type: Dwelling
Status: in progress
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06•2022
06•2022
Book Display
Book Display
EBBA designed a book display in collaboration with artist Francesca Anfossi to present Rochester Square’s book. Made of solid wood, the form of the piece imitates the old structures of the greenhouses found in the gardens of Rochester Square ceramic facilities in Camden.
The piece was presented together with Anfossi’s ceramics and ‘From the Pot to the Earth’ published by Sternberg Press and designed by APFEL during the book launch at Rochester Square.
Title: Book Display
Location: London
Year: 2022
Client: Rochester Square
Photographs: Marta Fernàndez
Type: Product
Status: Completed
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06•2026
06•2026
Tenderbooks Pop-Up
Tenderbooks Pop-Up
EBBA collaborated with Tenderbooks on a pop-up presentation at ALL PROJECTS.
The books where designed to be held by a simple shelf system, aimed to showcase assembly and an economy of means: made from a single piece of standard sheet material.
The gathering of publications by Tenderbooks moved between classroom and studio, archive and image, object and interior. From material entanglements and design exercises to photography, loss, light and the poetics of arrangement, the selection invited us to reconsider how books, spaces and gestures shape the way we see and inhabit the world.
Examples include:
Workbooks 1984-2024 – Nigel Shafran
Work-Leisure – Babak Hashemi-Nezhad
Inventory Works – Max Lamb
Models – Bianca Pedrina
Title: Tenderbooks Pop-Up
Location: London
Year: 2026
Type: Cultural
Status: Concept
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05•2022
05•2022
Jacob Street
Jacob Street
EBBA completed the refurbishment to a warehouse in Bermondsey, turning a commercial unit into a bright and generous apartment. The studio was appointed to reimagine the arrangement of the tall loft space, maximising the use of natural light to make a calm and inviting interior.
The plan is configured to allow for a large open plan kitchen and living area where the clients can also work from, with the new bathrooms and bedrooms being enclosed behind a dark timber clad volume providing more intimate spaces to retire to. A step up and change in level adds to the transition between the two zones of the home. The layout follows the grid of the existing structure making well-proportioned rooms across the apartment.
The rich lining to the timber enclosure emphasises the way the volume is inserted into the space, helping to separate the different functioning zones of the apartment. The outer face of the walnut box facing towards the open side reveals a bold kitchen unit with deep cupboards, acting as a key feature in the living space.
Along one side there is continuous piece of joinery that acts as a library. The bedrooms and bathrooms with the use of cement tiles and a poured floor creates a tactile yet comfortable feel while bringing a sense of tranquillity through materials that complement the darker tones of the walnut elsewhere.
The overall result aims to maintain the character of the building by celebrating the existing steel structure, keeping it exposed and working around the frame to highlight the history of the warehouse. The project tries to make the most of the tall spaces and at the same time offer the opportunity for flexibility required to accommodate the clients’ active lives.
Title: Jacob St
Location: London
Year: 2022
Client: Private
Photographs: James Retief
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
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05•2022
05•2022
Saints Church Hackney
Saints Church Hackney
EBBA have worked on the Interpretation Plan to deliver a series of small interventions for Saints Church, Hackney with graphic designers OMSE & Family alongside John Pawson & Es Devlin. The project includes way finding signage as a way of helping visitors to engage with the grounds, designed as tall totems with framed openings to mimic the feature windows of the church. We are very thankful for being able to contribute to the restoration of the church.
Title: Saints Church
Location: London
Year: 2020
Client: Hackney Church
Photographs: Gilbert McCarragher, courtesy of OMSE
Type: Cultural
Status: Completed
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