Star Florist Hamish Powell Sets Up Shop Inside a Converted London Railway Arch

Hamish Powell's new headquarters is equal parts laboratory and atelier, where botanical science informs sculptural floral works for clients including Charli xcx, Victoria Beckham, and LoeweHamish Powell seated at a custom desk in his London studio, which was designed with Maximillian Worrell beneath an arch of a Camden railway track. The stainless-steel vase (far left) is by Powell’s brother, Douglas, of Duzi Objects.“This is the Vessel—for visual and emotional studies on sculpture and ephemeral life,” says floral artist Hamish Powell, as if introducing a spaceship in a sci-fi movie. It’s the nickname for his new London studio, situated beneath a decommissioned railway arch in Camden and designed in collaboration with Maximillian Worrell. Stainless-steel tables, crimson carpeting, and an amoeba-shaped desk, which Powell sketched on a Post-it and had fabricated by a local carpenter, lend a lab-like vibe befitting the rising star, who earned a degree in plant science at The University of Manchester before a part-time job at a flower shop interrupted his career path toward biotech.Powell on a ladder arranging rumex crispus stems “I love rumex because it’s a really invasive weed, so cutting it and using it in my art feels like a full-circle narrative change,” Powell explains of the locally foraged specimen in this piece. An arrangement made from stems of locally foraged Rumex crispus Powell at work in his new studio The designer in the kitchenette; backsplash tile by Palet. Powell sketching at his desk “There was never a plan to be a florist,” says Powell, who founded his practice in 2022. “But the sensitive side of me connected more to the beauty of plants than the intricacies of how they work.” Last summer, the DM of a lifetime sealed his fate: Would he make some locally sourced arrangements for Charli xcx’s low-key London wedding? Soon, his bouquet—“white, to match her Vivienne Westwood dress”—was in her hands, and his name was on everyone’s lips.Powell’s background in botanical science still informs how he thinks. “People often separate beauty and science, but I’m swimming in that blurred line where the two meet in my brain,” he explains. This past spring, for example, when he needed to turn hundreds of not-yet-opened peonies into an elaborate installation for Victoria Beckham, he remembered an anecdote about ants from his university days. “They often live on the nectar that keep flowers sealed and protect them in the early stages.” If he could only loosen that sticky sap, he thought, the petals would unfurl. Soon, he arrived at a novel, if ad hoc technique: “You whack them on the edge of the table,” he explains. “It’s so brutal!” But it worked. Post thrashing, the blossoms were arranged into cloudlike puffs.Powell arranging delicate stems Powell clipping a specimen Powell, who studied plant science at The University of Manchester, says his background helps him “understand the science behind beauty.” Powell peeks through the foliage of an in-progress arrangement. Powell hangs out on the mezzanine level of his studio seated on a stainless-steel sofa, sourced on Facebook marketplace, that came from a closed gay bar in East London. This sculptural quality (sketched first, then constructed with the help of a welded-steel skeleton and chicken wire—rather than standard foam) is a through line in Powell’s work. Amaranthus drips like candle wax; pounds of grapes become human-size sculptures; and potted flora pile into a flourishing Eden. Recently he completed an undulating commission using heaps of yellow craspedia and put the finishing touches on an arrangement of more than 400 stems of foraged Rumex crispus, an invasive local weed. Sometimes, his unconventional components even find their way onto the dinner table, like last summer, when he was asked to create artful tomato mounds for Loewe’s London shops. “I’ve never made so much pasta sauce in my life,” he quips of the leftovers.Powell peeks through the foliage of an in-progress arrangement. Powell hangs out on the mezzanine level of his studio seated on a stainless-steel sofa, sourced on Facebook marketplace, that came from a closed gay bar in East London. A floral sculpture made with yellow craspedia In this profession he’s always at the mercy of his fleeting materials. “You really have to give in to what a flower needs,” reasons Powell, who will often incorporate hidden water sources into those large installations. “I love that dynamic. It’s quite humbling.” These days, though, he’s developed an interest in media with more staying power, like clay, the life source for many blooms. “Vases and flowers are so tied together throughout history,” he explains, contemplating this possible next frontier. A vessel, from the Vessel, certainly does feel fitting.This story appears in the September issue. Never miss a story when you subscribe to AD.Not a subscriber? Join AD for print and digital access now.Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the best of design in your inbox.Hannah Martin is the senior design editor at Architectural Digest, where she has worked since 2014. She contributes regular features on emerging talent and design history, often covering subjects that straddle the worlds of art and design. She writes two monthly print columns—'Object Lesson' and 'One To Watch'—as well as ... 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