In Vino Veritas

Secondhand wooden furniture, newly sanded, primed, and given three coats of paint, fills Le Vigne in New York.

For Madlab's LEED-accredited partner Petia Morozov, considering the environment is an ethical position. "It's about taking whatever's already in the waste stream and extending its life in a playful form," she explains. A prime example of that philosophy is Le Vigne, a New York wine shop designed by Madlab in collaboration with the artists' collective Spurse, of which she's also a part.

 
The "northern" end, with round holes drilled in at an angle. The shop window's screwed-together chairs standing on oak flooring original to the 1902 space.

The budget was $40,000 for the 600-square-foot space. "When we realized that there wasn't money to start with raw materials, we very quickly shifted to the idea of secondhand furniture," she continues. The next stops were the warehouse-size Goodwill and Salvation Army stores of Newark. After three trucks returned to Manhattan—filled with dozens of wooden dining sets, coffee tables, and dressers, $600 worth—everything was sanded, primed, and painted white. Legs, drawers, and tabletops, disassembled and reassembled on-site, created three displays for the shop's specialty, Italian wine. The centerpiece, a 26-foot-long abstraction of Italy, was especially helpful to Le Vigne's owner, a former sommelier who categorizes his wine according to region.


Italian wine displayed by region.

"That shape wasn't predetermined," Morozov adds. "It's the sort of happy accident that happens with us, having confidence that things will come together." A similarly lucky surprise was the 35 square feet gained in gutting the 1902 space, a former travel agency: There were 6 inches of paneling on the walls and 4 inches of carpet on the floor.

Images courtesy of MadLab.