Tent Londen is the first venue where the asymmetrical Holo Nest Chaise is shown.
About HOLO:
HOLO is a new furniture design collaboration between Australian mates and designers Michael Travalia and Christopher Thomas. Thomas and Travalia currently work out of Oslo and London and collaborate on a part time basis.
Christopher Thomas and Michael Travalia met in the magical surroundings of a temperate rain forest of southern Tasmania in Australia in 1994. They were design students attracted to the furniture course at the University of Tasmania.
After graduating the friends both left Tasmania.
Initially Christopher Thomas returned to South Australia where he became a design associate at the Jam Factory Centre for Contemporary Craft and Design in Adelaide, Eventually he opened his own gallery Christopher Thomas Art & Design, was employed as a lecturer at the University of South Australia, created work for exhibitions and made one off commission pieces for private clients.
After meeting his Norwegian wife, Thomas departed for a European holiday and fell in love with the wild mountains and fjords of western Norway. After working as a cabinetmaker in a historic carpentry firm in Bergen, he currently works as a lecturer in the media lab at KHIO, the Oslo national academy of the arts. Thomas has lived in Norway for the past four years.
Micael Travalia remained in Tasmania after graduating and worked with furniture prototypes for the forestry industry in Hobart. He continued creating work as a designer – maker and had pieces accepted into ‘The Tasmanian Wood Design Collection ’. Travalia then worked on a major architectural commission at The ’Design Centre Tasmania’ in Launceston; with his father David Travalia and Architect Rick Le’Pastrier. Looking to expand his experience and horizons the boy from the bush
moved to Melbourne in Victoria where he changed directions and worked as an interior architect.
He then departed on a working world holiday with his singer songwriter wife from which he has never actually returned. He is currently head of interior design at a multi national design and branding firm in London.
Remaining close friends over the years and across the globe Thomas and Travalia organized a brief retreat to a remote custom-built arts centre on the west coast of Norway for a combined artist residency and holiday in December 2007. The isolation of the ‘Nordic Artists Centre in Dale’ and sheer beauty of the icy environment created a space to think and contemplate as well as create prototypes.
The duo and their wives shared a wooden cabin as well as a studio and fully fitted wood machine shop. The centre is a hidden gem and is nestled above the tiny fjord town of Dale.
The location, dark winter conditions and materials at hand lent themselves to working freely in an honest, intuitive and creative way. Thomas and Travalia created drawings, mock-ups, and furniture
prototypes.
They treat HOLO as a ’design jam session’ and look forward to creating new connections and interactions within the design industry .The Initial collection will be available as a limited edition available as a pre order. The furniture collection has been produced exclusively in Oslo and London.
In their workshop they developed a second, yet unnamed, prototype.