Studioilse, the design studio of Ilse Crawford, has designed the Club Room at the Wellcome Collection centre for medical science and art in London.

The room, for the use of Wellcome Collection members, reflects the eclectic, inventive spirit of Henry Wellcome, founder of medical research charity the Wellcome Trust, which opened the Wellcome Collection building last month.

The building also contains two exhibition galleries designed by Gitta Gschwendtner.

Below is a statement from Studioilse:

--

Wellcome Trust - Club Room

“Sir Henry Wellcome was one of the world’s greatest collectors, maybe the greatest non-art collector," said Dr Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes at the Wellcome Trust. Sir Henry lived from 1853-1936 and collected more than one million medical, ethnographic and archaeological objects, creating a treasure trove of insight into human wellbeing.

To launch of the new £30 million Wellcome Collection, Studioilse have created the Club Room as a fusion of art and science. A room within the heart of the building where you can drink tea, swap ideas, read and relax.

Henry Wellcome’s first invention as a teenager was invisible ink. The Club Room enters this spirit of innocent invention and reflects the eccentricities of science.

Studioilse ‘s design celebrates the serendipitous aspect of science, which is often the result of intuition, accidents, and the unintended results rather than the purely rational. The furniture, pictures, books and artworks represent curious world of science.

The club room embodies all of this; private moments, the domestic and the bizarre experiments, as well as the lab coats. These contrasts are expressed by a design that combines rational Prouvé chairs alongside playful Castiglioni lights, improvised Martino Gamper shelves against the engineering of the Eileen Grey one armed non-conformist chairs.

Creative director: Ilse Crawford
Project designer: Corinne Quin