Materials:

It is indeed materials that inspire and underpin Allen's successful design practice. His Studio has built up a unique expertise in combining materials to produce original and imaginative architecture, furniture, lighting, tableware and other furnishings and accessories.

Together with a creative use of technology and a state-of-the-art workshop, this experience has led to a series of private and public commissions, fulfilled with the help of a team of skilled and dedicated artists/craftspeople. 

 The Nick Allen Studio portfolio has included both architectural fittings and functional art objects – from glass goblets to bronze doors, furniture and lighting -  in materials as typically varied as cast and fused glass, high –fired Limoges porcelain, cast bronze, pewter, silver and exotic veneers and wood.

Nick is both consultant and team member. He takes on two projects a year advising and managing schemes as the lead artist. This has a dual role. It provides the chance to "‘test" his workshop's facilities and explore the potential of the Studio's gifted craftspeople. And it also providing the opportunity to place other makers' work.

Clients:

Nick works regularly with architects and leading interior designers such as Munchbenbeck & Marshall, David Chipperfield, Rick Mather and Robert Venturi (the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London) and Colefax and Fowler.

 Collections:

 Nick Allen's work is in the Design Museum and  the National Museum of Scotland. His drawings and furniture are in the collections of the V&A and , the Museum of London. Allen has  recently completed an installation at the Museum and City Library in Sunderland. His mixed media objects -  furniture, sculpture and glassware -  have been exhibited widely in Germany, Holland, France, the USA, and Hong Kong.

 Awards:

Prestigious awards received by Nick Allen include the DIA Dartington Glass 1st Prize for innovative glass design; a Silver and a Bronze Starpac medal for packaging; and five Guild Marks from The Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers. Nick Allen is a freeman of the City of London; a livery-man with the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers and the Company of Glaziers; a member of the Chartered Society of Designers, the Society of Glass Technologists and the Institute of Materials; and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

PHONE: +44 (0)1243 572493

Nick Allen started out by working in the theatre. He made props and painted scenery, and then went on to study Fine Art Painting at Epsom College of Art in Surrey.

In 1974, he moved to Bath. Here he pioneered the idea of architectural salvage, helping to set up one of the country's very first  schemes for the reclamation of materials from buildings that were being altered or demolished. At the same time, he was developing another new idea - "low-impact" products designed specifically for use in  the third world.

The next step, in 1978, was to set up a combined Studio and workshop in London's Battersea, which a  little later was moved to the site of an old Umbrella Factory in the same area. Allen converted this into an innovative  high-tech living/workshop. Subsequently, the building has been used frequently as a location for film and television productions, and has been featured in several  international lifestyle magazines.

Then the Studio moved once more to the address it is at now –  56-66 Gwynne Road, Battersea, SW11 (near the heliport). This new workshop is light and spacious, with around  500m sq, split up into four areas: glass, metal, ceramics and wood.