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Creative talent going on display at Vitra showroom
An array of creative talent and craftsmanship will be shown at Bucks New University's end-of-year MA Furniture: Design & Technology show at the prestigious Vitra showroom in Clerkenwell, London, from Tuesday 28 February to Thursday 1 March.
The postgraduate students, many of whom have international backgrounds, will exhibit the best items of their work created during 2011. The show celebrates the talent, creativity and success of the students who have been studying for either one year full-time or two years part-time.
Dr Lynn Jones, Course Leader, and Head of the National School of Furniture at Bucks, said: “Embarking on an MA course these days is no mean feat, and the commitment required today from postgraduate students is far greater than it has ever been.
“This is the first cohort of MA Furniture: Design & Technology students since the launch of the NSF just over a year ago, and the students have demonstrated huge amounts of design skill, creativity and unerring tenacity. They are highly enthusiastic people who have shown great affinity with each other, and through their friendship and zest for life have provided us with a very optimistic, creatively diverse, and commercially challenging end-of-year exhibition.”
Amongst the range of special items to be exhibited were those designed by Orawee Choedamphai, Doug Macfarlane, Rene Olivier, and Ashish Shakuniya.
Orawee Choedamphai, from Thailand, has proven that the organisation of our everyday items can be more satisfying, delightful, colourful, and ultimately more considered! Packed full of material and emotionally sensational contrasts, her work engages the user and stretches the imagination. Orawee has experimented with soft and hard materials to produce some extraordinarily unusual pieces of furniture, such as the ‘Plug & Play’ piece that considers mass-customisation around a metal tubular frame. Components such as a shelf, lamp, table or coat hanger can be plugged into the ends of the tubular main frame according to the user’s needs, which enables the manufacturing process to be produced on a larger scale, whilst also giving freedom for the user to choose what they want, thereby achieving customisation on a mass-production level.
Orawee has also re-designed the ‘Steps’ chair manufactured by the Italian furniture company, Lago, a simple metal frame that houses felt strips to make up its body. She experimented with re-arranging the structure of the frame without adding any more components, and created a series of entirely new designs. This supports the mass-customisation concept that she was exploring, that although products are mass-produced, the end-user can still feel like an individual.
Fellow graduate, Doug Macfarlane, from Epsom, Surrey has created a unique way of sitting that encompasses four stages of movement; forwards, backwards, and side to side. Known as Joystix, his chairs tip in each of the four directions to aid the user to reach for objects without having to strain or overstretch. For example, the forward tipping motion straightens the pelvis and the spine, thus improving posture whilst working, particularly when using a laptop.
Meanwhile Rene Olivier, from South Africa, exhibited her innovative and quirky response to ensuring that people don’t sit for too long in one position. Using discarded vehicle tyres, which offer users a variety of sitting positions, she has designed upholstery and loose covers that can be shipped around the world for users to find their own discarded tyre and customise it into a seat. The unique seats are designed for outdoor as well as interior use, in a lounge or sitting room.
Ashish Shakuniya, from India, designed a project entitled: “Space Saving Furniture: Small spaces and transient lifestyles”, and set out to discover the furniture needs of young people like himself, as they move from home to home, often across continents, and in and out of rented accommodation. Using CNC technology and basic panel construction, Ashish has created a range of versatile seats, which, with their dual purpose surfaces, such as chairs that could also be used as a desk or storage space, are ideal for moving from home to home. For his work, Ashish was awarded the Kevin Parsloe Award for Outstanding Design Innovation, in memory of Kevin Parsloe, a senior lecturer in furniture at Bucks New University, who died 19 years ago.
