London’s Design Museum has announced the ninth cohort of new designers to benefit from its annual Designers in Residence programme. The four are Alix Bizet, Clementine Blakemore, Andrea de Chirico and Rain Wu.
The designers will spend the next four months responding to the theme of Open, culminating in an exhibition of the work they create in a dedicated Designers in Residence Studio at the new Design Museum when it opens in Kensington on 24 November 2016. Throughout the development of their projects, the residents will have the opportunity to discuss their work with established practitioners, industry experts and residency alumni – who include Asif Khan, Giles Miller, and Bethan Laura Wood – as well as with the Design Museum’s legal, commercial, learning, development, and curatorial teams. Each resident will also received a bursary, commissioning budget and the production costs required to complete their project, supporting using public funding from Arts Council England.
Alix Bizet has studied at La Sorbonnes in Paris, Central Saint Martin’s in London and Design Academy in Eindhoven, graduating from the latter in June 2015. “My work is a mix of my interest in the theory, philosophy and psychology of human sciences coupled with a real passion for human behaviours and the environment we live in,” she says. “I try to combine different disciplines such as product design, research, installation and art installation, so I can explore human activity and everyday solutions.” She is currently re-appropriating techniques from textiles design to explore hair as a material through which to explore cultural difference and community. “Her experimental approach to materials and techniques creates work which explores anthropology, identity and fashion through which she challenges convention and taboos whilst celebrating diversity,” says a statement from the Design Museum.
London-based architectural designer, Clementine Blakemore, has studied at Architectural Association School of Architecture, Oxford University and the Royal College of Art. “I’m interested in the physical and social processes involved in the production of architecture, and the ways in which these can be expressed in built form,” she says. “I enjoy working directly with materials and fabrication methods, and have tried to cultivate a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach – which is as much a way of life, as a form of practice.” Her outdoor classroom for a school in rural Buckinghamshire was awarded a Sustain RCA award, Highly Commended in the Helen Hamlyn Design awards, and went on to receive a RIBA McAslan bursary – and in 2012 she co-founded the non-profit collective Workshop Architecture, and completed two educational spaces for schools in India.
Italian designer Andrea de Chirico has studied at Isiaromadesign in Italy, Plymouth University in the South West of England and Design Academy Eindhoven. “His approach is collaborative, designing new production scenarios for everyday objects,” says the Design Museum. “Processes of making are not often visible, but revealing the ways objects are made can highlight a social and ecological consciousness around local manufacturing.” Andrea was recently appointed as lecturer and researcher for the course Design and Production at the University of Bolzano, in Italy.
Finally, Bartlett School of Architecture and Royal College of Art graduate Rain Wu is a Taiwanese-born, London-based architect, working across art and design with specific interests in material development, speculative narratives and interactive spatial experiences. “Her architectural background informs her work but her practice is multi-disciplinary using drawings, sculptures and set design to articulate her ideas,” says the Design Museum. “For the residency, she is interested in finding new ways to engage audiences and re-imagine the exhibition format. She uses food as a storytelling device considering the connections to relationships and experiences.”
The 2016 Designers in Residence exhibition will open 24 November 2016 at the Design Museum, High Street Kensington, London.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- Students at Aalto University create 14 different chairs from blackened ash
- Aalto University wins award for new cotton recycling technique
- Look Like Love launches talent search for new designers
- Andrea Ponti launches side table inspired by Hong Kong street signs
