Some of the world’s best menswear brands will be arriving at Pop Up Flea, including… The Arrivals. The cutting edge outerwear company recently hosted a competition to design its display booth at PUFNYC. It makes sense, considering The Arrivals co-founder and CEO Jeff Johnson is himself a former architect.
“Designing a building and a brand are surprisingly similar. You start with a series of constraints, including site, material, budget, use, etc,” he says. “From there it’s about finding that perfect balance where opportunities emerge between the cracks of constraints.”
Thus, the 10×10 Design Competition which challenged recent graduates from NYC-area design schools to submit a modular reusable booth concept for The Arrivals to be showcased this December. The winning designer, Adham el Ghatit, holds a Masters in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering AAST in Alexandria, Egypt.
The Arrivals are working with Adham’s inventive design starting from the material building blocks to the installation completion.
A few words from Adham:
PUF: Why architecture?
Adham: There is something about creating spaces where people live, work and play that was always compelling to me.
PUF: Material or technique, what’s more important, to you, in general?
Adham: Technique. Deliberate technique and careful execution can bring out the best of any material.
PUF: Where do you go for inspiration in NYC?
Adham: The Met.
PUF: You were born in Egypt and even designed your parents home there in Alexandria. What are some core themes that have impacted your career derived from your upbringing?
Adham: There is a rich and deep sense of history embedded in the Egyptian culture. This also brings with it a strong attachment to the status-quo and people resorting by default to the same old way of doing things. In order to do something fresh and interesting you have to find creative ways of tackling problems and learn how to compromise.
We’ll post pictures of the final designs here before the event. Or you can come by PUFNYC to see Adham’s work in person.
