Hem has opened its first permanent location on the East Coast in the heart of New York City's Soho neighborhood. Designed by the brand's in-house team, the New York Studio is Hem's second permanent outpost in the U.S., following the opening of its Los Angeles showroom last year.
Hem is known for its experimental spirit and its commitment to collaborating with emerging designers as well as established names at the global vanguard. In line with this ethos, Hem's New York Studio will be a creative, domestic setting that can be easily reconfigured to accommodate workshops, panels, and other programming.
"New York has been our single most important market since Hem's inception," commented Petrus Palmér, CEO and Founder of Hem. "It is a city filled with creativity and entrepreneurial ambitions and home to many architects and designers we admire. While it took some time to find the perfect space, Soho was always a must for us, as one of the most walkable and visually striking parts of the city, and center for so much of its design and creative leaders. We're thrilled to make it our home in New York."
In illustration of Hem's experimental spirit and its commitment to collaborating with emerging designers around the world, the brand commissioned the Brooklyn-based design duo, Chen Chen & Kai Williams, to create a site-specific sculptural installation that greets visitors at the entrance to the new Studio.
Embracing the quintessentially-high ceilings of the Soho space, Chen & Kai's piece stands nearly 10 feet tall and comprises of 20 mirrored panels. Each individual panel is created by pouring a thin layer of silver nitrate over a pane of glass, leaving the silver's raw edges visible on the clear surface. The panels are then assorted on a tall, easel-like steel structure, creating a multi-dimensional grid of semi-opaque mirrors, which can be angled to alter the reflection being captured and shift as one moves around the piece. Emblematic of Chen & Kai's conceptual and experimental approach, the resulting piece appears both delicate and industrial, like a deconstructed skyscraper.
Photography: Brian W. Ferry