Glasgow Interior Design School of Design

Jake Turkington (He/They)

Born in Northern Ireland, Jake worked 3 years in industry before studying Interior Design at the Glasgow School of Art. Now based in Belfast, Jake’s practice consists of commission furniture, and the sourcing of objects. Taking a touted and buoyant approach to design philosophy; His practice promotes the experience of space. Viewing Interior design as a bridge between the practices of architecture and the science of human experience.  Often considering sustainability and permanence of materiality in his design process, Jake’s constructive approach recognises the impact our environment can have upon happiness, health and wellbeing.

Contact
jaketurkington@gmail.com
jaketurkington@gmail.com
Works
Mid Ulster Pride
Tender Objects

Mid Ulster Pride

For two Years Mid Ulster Pride (MUP) have been working towards removing the isolation felt by the rural LGBTQI+ community of Ulster; tackling outdated attitudes towards LGBTQI+ in the education system and working with local councils to create campaigns against homophobic street harassment. In September 2020 MUP hosted Irelands first ever rural pride parade with coherence to the government guidelines at the time.  After their first parade I was invited to joined MUP’s committee in November 2020.

Since then I have been working on projects such as introducing queer literature in to public libraries, working with local government to introduce LGBTQI+ education into schools. film nights, casual graphic content for the social media pages and posters for queer events.

Safe Space Sticker for Local Business

LGBTQ+ Safe Space Sticker 2021

Ulster in 2021 is still a cold and unsteady place to live if you are a member of the LGBTQ+ especially if you are living in more rural areas or small towns. So for pride month 2021 I designed a small sign which local retailers could place in their window or doorway. This small sign lets locals know that LGBTQ+ discrimination will not be tolerated by staff. These signs create a visual landscape, creating visibility for the rural LGBTQ+ community while offering assurance of safety and acceptance which is often uncertain.

LGBTQ+ safe space

LGBTQ+ safe space sticker in use

LGBTQ+ Coffee Morning

This poster was made for a series of coffee mornings which will take place on the run up to the 2021 rural pride parade.

Tender Objects

Tender Objects is an accessible and elemental project with pure intention, providing simple directions to create functional and pleasing furniture. Reflecting on 120 years of DIY design history, I’ve created an edited manual distilling modernist design into key elements. I also explore the transition from commercial modernism to DIY techniques, documenting the products that satisfy our basic needs whilst appealing to our contemporary tastes and attitudes towards renewable design.

The manual is an advocate for the democratisation of design, and in turn its transformative power. I have created open source instructions for building a range of furniture for interior and exterior environments, breaking down high-design items and making them accessible for the layperson. The aim is in the creation of practical objects that exhibit humble beauty at an extremely affordable price point. I want to emulate mass production, but at the hands of the masses rather than machine.

Interior visual for Crate Chair

Gerrit Rietveld (1934) Crate Chair

// Gerrit Rietveld, 1934 Crate chair, C.1942 shown in situé with Alvar Aalto, Artek, Stool 60, C.1923. & Robert Dudley Best, Bestlite, BL10 Wall Lamp, C.1930. //

Gerrit Rietveld (1934) Crate Chair, DIY instruction manual

Rietveld’s Crate Chair (1934) is one of my personal acmes of design, demonstrating the correlation between the ideology of the Modernist movement and D.I.Y. design, a clear knowledge and appreciation is shown for wood and joinery in the simple but pleasing cross of planks which make up the arms and legs of the Crate Chair. While it’s angled seat and high back allows for a comfortable experience. A simplistic beauty with a comfortable purpose. Its design was with a particular interest in using recycled materials. Using left over wood planks from wooden crates that were made to transport goods.
Interior visual for Crate Chair

Gerrit Rietveld (1934) Crate Chair, Visual

// Crate Chair (1934) shown alongside, Erno Goldfinger stool c.1937 //

Crate Chair

Crate Chair (1934) constructed
For Sale: price on request

Oskar Strnad (c.1910) Day Bed

// Updated Oskar Strnad daybed c.1910 shown along side Ernö Goldfinger stool c.1937, Tolomeo Aluminium Lamp // OsKar Strnad is a name while not large was an influential man of renaissance, architect, stage designer, furniture designer and lecturer he spent his career creating comparisons between professions and was an early experimenter in the modernist movement, playing with new materials and structure to achive unsusual and sometimes rather questionable designs but all in the progress of modernism. In my archival research I came across A photo Strnad's House 13, amongst the manufactured chrome furniture and plywood I was drawn to what is a very unusual daybed which after further research I concluded was made custom for House 13. Thick timbers create a deep frame covered with netting to create the back rest and side panels aswell as the seat which had been covered with upholstery. I had never seen an item of furniture this era with such a playful construction. Since its plans had been lost and the sofa lost in WW2, I felt it was a fitting tribute to recreate the sofa. Breaking down its supposed structure for layperson and developing a graphic language which translated into the modern interior.

Oskar Strnad (c.1910) Day Bed, Visual Render

Enzo Mari (1974) Sedia 1 Chair visual

The work of Italian designer Enzo Mari, is puzzling & playful yet is often described with an understated elegance and functionality which has allowed it to stand the test of time. His work Autoprogettazione was a turning point in my practice and forming in part the inspirational heart of this project; embodying a design process which resonates with my design process.

Enzo Mari (1974), Sedia 1 Chair, Constructed

Sedia 1 Chair from the Autoprogettazione collection, is arguably the most recognized piece from the collection. Its light weight yet robust, with understated overlapping details creating an elegant structure which compliments modern and traditional interiors.
For Sale: price on request

Marcel Breuer, Chairs Untitled (1922)

// Marcel Breuer canvas chairs 1922 set along side Gerald Summers Y leg table c.1930, jug by H. Loveridge & Co., England c.1910 // A pioneer of the modernist movement and protégé of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer is equally celebrated for his architecture as he is for furniture. Breuer was a student at the Bauhaus in the early 1920s. His entire body of work, both architecture and furniture, embodies the driving Bauhaus objective to reconcile art and industry. Making his name one of the elite names of the early modernist era. Marcel understood materiality and although his forms were complex in execution his use of materiality was simple, allowing timber and chrome to do its best job, giving it the roll of support and structure, playing with the liner clean forms both materials can be used to create. Before stretching malleable more tactile fabrics such as wool or linen and later in his career leather. Materials which naturally sculpt to the body’s form when put under pressure.

Marcel Breuer, Chairs Untitled (1922), Archive Photograph

"sitting up straight in times of hardship"