Freecell Design and Fabrication
Overview
Freecell collaborators John Hartmann and Lauren Crahan focus on projects that combine design, fabrication, and installation. Founded in 1999 and located in one of Brooklyn, New York’s historic Bush Terminal Buildings, Freecell exists as a studio that solves spatial problems of all kinds. The company has fashioned furniture, created three-dimensional installations, and designed exhibits that not only transform spaces, but also question perception. Freecell has completed projects for many well-known clients, including New York City-area radio station WFMU; fashion designer Alexander Wang; the technology firm Control Group, Inc.; and print and website design studio Y Interact. The company works with metals, wood, and plastic to fashion its creations, and John Hartmann and Lauren Crahan take pride in their ability to offer innovative solutions for any space, large or small. The pair often experiments with a variety of media to create space-altering installations, and together have produced custom furniture pieces, exhibition booths, and children’s play equipment, among many other projects. Freecell’s latest exhibition is called Light Hearted and will appear in Times Square, New York, in February of this year for Valentine’s Day. The main structure is 10 feet in diameter and is constructed of five pairs of aluminum elliptical loops that are covered with a skin of woven fabric that allows air to pass through but still reflects light. Although Lauren Crahan does not consider herself an architect, she studied at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and taught there as an Adjunct Professor. At RISD, she placed second in a national competition in 1995 called Challenged Grounds, which was sponsored by the Van Alen Institute in New York. She also taught design at Parsons The New School for Design in New York and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Lauren Crahan earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Aside from her work, Lauren Crahan enjoys a long list of hobbies. Her greatest passion, perhaps, is her four-year-old beagle-husky mix named Athena, and she also enjoys gardening and sewing. Lauren Crahan likes a good read, and counts authors Walt Whitman, Emily Brontë, and Jane Austen among her favorites.