Friday Tip: A little show in Mayfair

Today’s tip is for an exhibition opening next Tuesday at 54 The Gallery, Mayfair, and comes from Hannah Cowley, an architect at Conran and Partners’ Brighton office.

Friday Tip: Head to Heatherwick

Terence Conran mentored the young Thomas Heatherwick, whom he recently called ‘the Leonardo da Vinci of our times’. In fact, Heatherwick’s final degree project was assembled – and now resides – in the garden of Terence’s Berkshire home.

Heatherwick’s new Routemaster bus

If Heatherwick was a star already at the start of 2012 – with, for example, the new design for London’s Routemaster bus under his belt – then he’s recently gone interstellar. His grand design for the Olympic cauldron, featuring 204 copper petals put in place by the athletes of each competing nation, was the centrepiece of an almost-universally praised opening ceremony.

The spectacular London 2012 Olympic cauldron

He’s also the subject of a major exhibition at the V&A at the moment. Entitled Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary, it examines a wide range of projects, from urban planning to fashion. Heatherwick’s multi-modal genius affirms a notion very close to our hearts, that great design requires only two ingredients: creativity and empathy.

If you’re at a loose end this weekend, you could do an awful lot worse.

Friday Tip: Who makes the best pizza in London?

Burnt Enz is a Hackney pop-up that is making waves this summer: Australian superstar chef David Pynt turns out spectacular dishes, from suckling pig to sourdough bread, all cooked on very Heath Robinson barbecue.

Friday Tip: Game on

We couldn’t in good conscience recommend anything other than watching lots of Olympics this weekend – but why not do so in the park, rather than the twilight of your living room?

The London 2012 website has a handy list of big screen ‘live sites’, the weather looks good, and The Conran Shop has the perfect accessories…

Friday Tip: Anyone in Stratford?

If you happen to find yourself in Stratford over the next few days – we can’t imagine why – you could do worse than head to Annex East for supper. Natalie Attar, marketing coordinator at Conran and Partners, explains.

Friday Tip: Make mine a Lardo

London isn’t short of trendy restaurants – Terence Conran’s included – but Lardo, a new Italian in London Fields, is a little bit special. We wondered why Stephen Barber, Strategy Director for Conran Singh, hadn’t been down the pub much lately.

London’s hottest new restaurant

Friday Tip: La drapeau tricolore

This Saturday Frenchmen all over the world will celebrate La Fëte National, Bastille Day.

We at Conran are committed Francophiles – indeed, a certain Chairman spends rather a lot of his time there – so this week’s tip is unashamedly Gallic.

Pop over to Boundary, Prescott & Conran‘s hotel and restaurant complex in Redchurch Street, where they are rolling out the red, white and blue in style…

Friday Tip: Make your own kind of Munich

The Olympic flame will shortly be wending its way through Kent. To mark the occasion, UCA Canterbury is holding a very special exhibition of graphic design.

Will London’s legacy be this pretty?

This week’s tip comes from Paul Zara, head of our Brighton architects.

Friday Tip: A thousand words

We have a few keen photographers at Conran Towers: Yannick, an architect at Conran and Partners, makes short films with his brother, and our CEO Roger Mavity takes some remarkable fine art pictures.

Sam and Stephen, Conran Singh‘s resident shutterbugs, recommended Edward Burtynsky’s acclaimed ‘OIL’ show at The Photographers’ Gallery for this week’s Friday Tip. The show explores our relationship with the black gold on which we rely, and the landscapes the oil industry leaves behind.

One of Edward Burtynsky’s breathtaking oil landscapes

It closes on 1st July, so this is very much your last chance.

If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, you could also check out The Conran Shop’s summer sale…

Happy weekend everyone!

Friday Tip: We’re bad at keeping secrets

This week’s Friday Tip comes from Orla, one of Conran Studio‘s brand design team.

You may have heard of Secret Cinema, the themed pop-up cinema experience which involves a lot of dressing up and just as much fun. Last December, the team behind Secret Cinema opened a pop-up restaurant along similar lines, ingeniously titled Secret Restaurant.