Studio 1: Home Made

Studio brief

This studio is a test bed for alternative visions for living, encouraging a radical rethink of the spaces of tomorrow. We encourage rigorous research expressed through one-to-one making and material experimentation. Taking a conceptual and research-led approach to design, we operate as a think tank and design laboratory.

The unit begins with a cross examination of the emerging social, cultural and technological conditions that shape our sense of place. From these investigations, we create novel solutions that suggest new scenarios and frameworks for design, redefining traditional notions of luxury, decoration and identity. We test our concepts at a variety of scales, from objects and furniture pieces to installations and spatial designs. With an emphasis on objects, one-to-one making and material investigation, this studio encourages an experimental approach to materials, decoration and process. 

Focus

This year, Studio 1 will seek to radically redefine traditional notions of Home. In the past 20 years, our domestic habits have expanded to accommodate all kinds of alternative activities. In this studio we speculate that this expanded notion of home requires a new typology of home all together. Our networked society has meant that we never really have to leave our homes. We can shop from our homes and in turn we can sell from our homes. We can work from our homes, even run an entire hotel from our homes. Yet, despite these radical changes in behaviour, our homes look much the same as they have since the turn of the nineteenth century. 

We are beginning to value the domestic realm in ways that we never have before, and in a world where a private island costs less than a London flat, and a man can make $36,000 a year on Airbnb, the home has become an extremely valuable asset. Set in the context of London, where rents are rocketing sky high whilst vast swathes of the city lie empty, we ask, how can we truly increase the value of our homes? 

Briefs

The year will begin with a series of one-to-one making projects and material experiments. The focus will be on creating objects and furniture pieces that explore emergent behaviours and ways of living. From here we will direct our investigations towards the home. One major project will focus on the home/hotel as an emergent typology. Another major project will involve re-designing the home to accommodate contemporary behaviours, technologies and cultures.  

Studio trip

Re-designing Airbnb rentals, Barcelona.

Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari/New York Magazine

Details

Course Interior Architecture and Design BA (Hons)
Interior Design BA (Hons) 
Tutors Rachel Harding
Louie Rigano
Where Commercial Road, Studio 1, fifth floor
When Tuesday and Friday

Siclania BARROSO
Paola D'ELIO ESCARPA
Dawn EVANS
Manon GABET
David HAZIZ
Mazen HELAL
Dipti ISLAM
Rima MOHAMMAD TARAR
Silas OGBOLE
Aleksandra PROMINSKA
Elvira RIZOVA
Rosie  SNOWDEN
Natalie WALKER-FIFIELD
 
Fatmanur AYTEKIN
Malika EL BOUKILI
Erisa GHODRATZADEH
Gina GOLDOIU
Anastasia IORDANIDOU
Sarah MAINE
Gary SHAM
Rosana VEND
Klaus WIMMER