HBL Analysis: Urban Fog

WGSN-homebuildlife's Eco Hedonism macrotrend for autumn/winter 2012/13 talks about how designers are moving towards designing an atmosphere, an experience or an object with meaning. This trend is becoming ever more present and the opening of exhibition Urban Fog in Dalston, London next week further confirms this as an emerging theme.

Urban Fog is an art installation and tea house led by Atelier ChanChan. Situated between the realms of art and architecture, the installation is the collaborative effort of Zoe Chan (of Atelier ChanChan), and designers Sarah Khan, Mickey Kloihofer and Mariana Pestana, to create a momentary community event in what was previously a derelict urban void.

The designers are aiming to use the long trajectory of this derelict location to create a series of foggy, cinematic pockets of space that form part of a wider investigation into the idea of enclosure, transparency, and thresholds. They describe the installation as an experience that will be "like entering a lost cloud which has temporarily come to rest in this urban void; figures appear and disappear within the depth of the space and become distorted through light and shadow."

Local Dalston café Tina We Salute You will be setting up a temporary teahouse to provide visitors to the space with tea and cake. All proceeds made from the project will go to Japan Disaster relief. Urban Fog will run from Thursday 5th May to Saturday 21st May at 1A Jude Street, London N16 (open Thursday to Sundays 11-6pm).

Twilight by Tokujin Yoshioka

Earlier this month at the Milan furniture fair, designer and modern master of atmosphere Tokujin Yoshioka filled Moroso's showroom with mist and lighting effects to present his new Moon chair.

Installation by Tesuo Kondo at Venice architecture biennale

Last year at the architectural biennale in Venice, architect Tesuo Kondo built an interior in which to walk through real clouds, creating different climates rather than different spaces, and at London's 2012 Olympic games artist Anthony McCall will create a spinning column of cloud that is set to be the tallest sculpture in the world. McCall described the sculpture as "permanent and changeable, ephemeral and a landmark".