Projects.
This year, our MA cohort are displaying a mixture of two projects. The briefs which accompany these projects span between the conceptual and the real, to give a varied and rounded approach to design. Check out the below to find out more!
Design Studio 01:
Repurposing Obsolete Objects.
Introduction:
Students were tasked with envisioning and designing a space set in the future, which reimagines and repurposes an obsolete object. In this project, the designers explored the concept of redesigning and remaking, drawing inspiration from one of Wes Anderson’s movies. By delving into the history of their chosen object, each designer was to understand its significance, and develop a concept that incorporates futuristic design principles while paying homage to Anderson’s visionary style.
The objective of the project was to transform the chosen object into a dynamic architectural space that responds to the needs and aspirations of the future. Each design aims to reflect Anderson’s aesthetic sensibilities while incorporating innovative and forward-thinking architectural concepts. The chosen objects were:
Mutoscope.
Afghan camera.
Pocket Watch.
Vintage Cash register.
Vintage singer sewing machine.
Gramophone.
Acorn Electron.
Turret Clock.
Penny farthing Bicycle.
Telcan Domestic Video Recorder.
Each obsolete object was to be transformed and repurposed in a way that offers a novel experience and functions as an architectural feature within the futuristic space, with the design highlighting the history and essence of the chosen object while integrating it seamlessly into a forward-looking environment.
Despite focusing on a projected future, the site for this project draws on the past. Magpie Mine, the last working lead mine in Derbyshire, is a well‐preserved example of a 19th century UK lead
mine with a rich and storied history spanning over 200 years. Throughout its history, the mine experienced
both success and failure, as well as bitter disputes and conflicts that resulted in the tragic deaths of three
miners. This is the base which acts as the location of the project.
Design Studio 02:
Adapt:Respect, Adapt:Reuse, and Adapt:Reimagine.
Introduction:
Students were asked to select from three topics, 'Adapt:Respect', 'Adapt:Reuse', and 'Adapt:Reimagine', to guide their research direction for the project; aligning with historical, contemporary, or imaginative frameworks for interpreting the site. Each topic offers three interior typologies for design exploration, and students could choose from three sites to match with these:
Green’s Windmill, Sneinton.
Malt Cross & Bromley House Garden.
Bromley House Library & Garden.
The combined topic, typology, and building will shape their research focus throughout both the Diploma and Masters programme stages during their MA studies. The DS2 brief requires a close examination of a small part of the building, over a couple of levels or one large floor, defined as the ‘Area of Focus’. In this confined space, students can explore and develop a design language, or vocabulary, which they can evolve, mutate, or frustrate within the final stage of their MA studies. DS2 acts as primer, or introduction, to a more detailed and complex response to their selected building, one that is fully realised during the Masters stage between May and September. Consequently, the project is an ‘in-between’, or ‘midway’ body of work, a term the students have used to describe their summer show work for 2024.