Hall Haus creates "mixtape" of collaborations with Mexican designers

French design studio Hall Haus has recreated several furniture and object designs with slight differences added by local designers and fabricators such as Neko during Design Week Mexico.

Called Design Mixtape, the exhibition at Territorio Gallery in Mexico City showcased work in a wide range of materials, from hand-crafted wood to metal and 3D-printed resin work.

The concept was a continuation of Hall Haus's participation in the annual Vision & Tradition showcase in 2023, where the firm was one of many French firms to work with Mexican artisans to produce a distinct piece.

Using the same model of multi-national collaboration, Hall Haus built out a whole show, opting to use the funds usually dedicated to shipping pieces for a show to fund the production of previously conceived Hall Haus designs in slightly varied forms, working with locals to remake – or remix – the designs locally.

Hall Haus co-founder Sammy Bernoussi, who led the project, compared the process to the one between beat-makers and rappers.

"We took the example of the beat maker who makes samples for rappers, and the rappers who adapt to the sample, to the beat," Bernoussi told Dezeen.

The mixtape concept applies to Hall Haus's commitment to cross-cultural design, as many of the group are Parisians of African descent, and belief in music as a "more accessible" and recognisable form of collaboration.

"We like to refer to music and sport because it's accessible," Bernoussi continued. "Design is not accessible. Music is popular. Sport is popular. So it's to bring people to the design."

Perhaps the most successful execution of the concept was Hall Haus's collaboration with the local industrial design studio Neko.

The design references Hall Haus's signature yellow-painted metal DKR chair, which was informed by the West African tabuque chairs. Neko took the same perforated metal look and changed the form, ending up with a chair similar to a the classic butaque chair.

Instead of the geometric perforations seen in the original, Neko included a cut out of an Aztec glyph that signifies education and song.

Another collaboration was with the fashion label Cröm-D, which took a metal bench and stuffed it with purple-dyed wool to reference nature taking over infrastructure and the mix of cultures.

Hall Haus also supported local designers working with recycled materials such as local fabricator Xoloplastics.

Using recycled street plastic, Xoloplastics fabricated a series of stools and shelving using designs from Hall Haus.

All of the pieces sat on a bed of loose lava rocks, with a wood-and-glass table studded with yellow-painted bulbs, a collaboration with Mexican carpenter Uriel López that featured in 2023's Vision & Tradition showcase, along with a set of similarly patterned wooden tools.

Citlalli Parra commissioned craftspeople in Hidalgo to craft lamps from fibres in order to merge industrial design with an initiative that supports the continuation of craft techniques.

Mutua Estudio Cerámica took a similar crafts-based approach to the production of ceramic coffee cups that reference French, African and Mexican artisanal objects.

Local studio Hiato Creativo worked with parametric designs conceived by Hall Haus to 3D print a table lamp and mirror.

Design studios The Cult and Raúl de la Cerda also had pieces featured, along with a series of jewellery designs created in collaboration with Avec

Hall Haus recently contributed a massive central couch to an installation during Milan Design Week by Cloud and Sabine Marcelis.

Some of the designers featured in the exhibition featured in a cross-section of Mexico City designers as part of Dezeen's North America Design 2024 series, which zoomed in on 10 design scenes across the continent.

The photography is by Alejandro Ramirez Orozco.

Design Mixtape is on view from 7 October 2024 to 18 January 2025 as part of Design Week Mexico. For more exhibitions, fairs and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide. 

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