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Mint St by Michael Anastassiades
London Design Festival 2018
Client: Primeira Pedra & Arts Council England
Photography: Ed Reeve
Scope: Concept Development & Project Management
Co-curated by London Design Festival and Lisbon-based experimentadesign, and designed by Michael Anastassiades Studio in partnership with Portuguese quarry marble companies Mármores Galrão and Dimpomar, a secluded street in Southwark has been paved in a carpet of recycled marble.
Due to minor flaws, discolouring or imperfections, much of marble quarried is then rejected by contractors, architects and designers. Having identified this as a waste of otherwise perfect raw material and it being sent to landfill, London Design Festival were offered unwanted marble and asked to consider how it could be used creatively. Michael Anastassiades responded to the edge of the marble rather than the traditional flat surface, with the resulting design of the street making reference to traditional cobbles, as seen throughout Portugal.
These cobbles were similarly rendered from unusable material but through the laborious task of forming each stone by hand. Transported to the historic community in Southwark, part of Bankside Design District, these elements create a marble carpet that contributes to the urban landscape of the Mint Street Park area while creating a new connection between the park and its surrounding neighbourhood.
“I wanted to create a simple gesture that used the natural beauty of Portuguese Rosa marble,” explains Anastassiades. “Similar to how a carpet delineates a space or marks a path, I imagined the tiled road rolling out on the street, connecting the park to the remaining neighbourhood”.
Mint Street is open to the public and is a permanent installation.
