Terence Conran

Sir Terence Orby Conran (born 4 October 1931 in Kingston upon Thames ) is an English designer, furniture manufacturers and dealers and restaurant owners.

"Space is the greatest luxury of our time. "

Life

Conran was educated at Bryanston School in Dorset, England. He then studied in London at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design among others, the textile trade. After graduation he began the job with the equipment of the Festival of Britain in 1951 in London on the South Bank. After that he began in the architectural firm Dennis Lennon, which had the task to design the interior of the Princess flying boat.

1956 Conran started his first furniture series Summa and designed a sales transaction for Mary Quant. In 1964 he opened his first store of the brand Habitat in Chelsea, London. Habitat grew in the following decades into a chain of stores that had great success with the sale of household goods and furniture in modern design. The company grew through the establishment of additional companies, including a furniture store with furniture made from FSC certified wood. In 1990 he handed over the control of his company.

Conran was known for his devotion to architecture and interior design when he was in Chelsea the Michelin building was obtained, for example, in London and transformed into a restaurant Bibendum, as well as through the conversion of the Bluebird garage. In the early 1990s he played a major role in the regeneration and transformation of the harbor district Shad Thames in Bermondsey in Southwark. The established and maintained by its Conran Foundation Design Museum London is also located in Southwark. A shift of the museum in the years since vacant former Commonwealth Institute in Kensington, London, after a successful conversion of the building is planned for January 2012. Architect for the conversion is John Pawson.

Today ( 2012) is represented by a number of Conran restaurants in London, one of his company operates a restaurant in the ferry port of Edinburgh in Scotland. In Shoreditch, near the venues of the Olympic Summer Games 2012 in London's East End, and in the former Reuters building in Fleet Street, he runs restaurants and private clubs.

In the co-founder of Conran Conran Octopus publishing some of his books were published on interior design.

Family

Conran is married for the second time. From the marriage with the writer Shirley Conran (1955-1962) derived his two sons. His son Sebastian Conran is also designer. His sister Priscilla was married to the Italian chef Antonio Carluccio, who worked previously with Conran.

Awards and prizes

Publications

• With John McGowan. Ed. Roger Dubern: Terence Conran 's Garden Style, Crown Publishers, 1991, ISBN 0-517-58463-8.
• Terence Conran 's Garden DIY. German: The garden as a living room: garden furniture, fences, gazebos and many other design concepts for the garden made ​​of wood, stone and lovingly crafted. DuMont, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-77014634-4.

• German: eco living book. Knesebeckstraße, München 2010, ISBN 978-3-86873-187-3.