Jony Ive Designs Christmas Tree with No Decorations

Claridge’s Hotel in London does this thing every year where it brings in top designers for a Christmas tree installation. It’s a thing across the pond. This year’s designers were Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive and his best design mate, Marc Newson. Mr. Newson also works part time for Apple on special projects.

Claridge’s Christmas Tree by Jony Ive and Marc Newson, Courtesy of Wallpaper

If you check out BusinessInsider, you can see past designer Christmas trees at Claridge’s. They’re often abstract or unusual in other ways. Sir Jony’s and Mr. Newson’s installation goes entirely in the opposite direction.

Claridge’s Christmas Tree Stripped Back to Nature

In fact, it couldn’t be more minimal. Because it’s just a tree. No decorations, no ornaments. It’s just a tree. OK, that’s not true, because there is a lot more to it. There are 4-meter (13-feet) high light boxes and many real trees.

There’s also a soundtrack of forest sounds that is tied to the lighting, which gives you this dappled sunrise-to-night feel. Everything combines to transform the hotel’s lobby into a forest. They did it with the help of set designer Michael Howells.

It’s all an effort to get back to nature for Christmas. The two designers told Wallpaper magazine, “There are few things more pure and beautiful than nature, so that was our starting point, layering various iterations of organic forms with technology.”

And it’s beautiful. There are five photographs in Wallpaper‘s piece, and I recommend them. BusinessInsider took its own photos of the installation.

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