out and about :: rca degree show

I headed down to the Royal College of Art’s Kensignton Gore campus to see Show RCA 2014, the final degree show for students graduating from Architecture, Interior Design, Design Interactions, Design Products and Innovation Design among other courses. Here are a few of the projects that caught my eye…

From top to bottom, left to right:

• Bioplastic Fantastic by Johanna Schmeer builds upon recent scientific breakthroughs in the synthesis of functioning biological cells from bioplastics and proposes a system of seven products made from enzyme-enhanced materials using bio- and nano-technology  that could entirely replace our current food system by providing all the nutrients humans need to survive.
• Erika Cross‘s project was an investigation into overcoming the low tensile strength that limits the potential applications of Portugal’s biggest export, cork.
• Reaching Out by Adelaide Tam is an awning made from retractable umbrella ribs decorated to look like a huge bird’s wing. “I intend to create a series of portable sculptural objects  using high-performance materials, such as carbon fibre and taking inspiration from animal shapes,” she says.
• The Rise of the Plasticsmith by Gangjian Cui speculates on China’s post industrial future, when he proposes a new breed of ‘plasticsmiths,’ faced with the demise of the oil industry, will craft beautiful objects that celebrate plastic’s heyday.
• Underneath is Matej Chabera and two of his four graduate projects. Students at the RCA are only obliged to produce one final project. I asked Matej why he’d done four and he looked at me slightly incredulously and said “Because I’m at the RCA.” This boy will go far!
• To his right is the Shelf of Tables, a shelving system that contains three desktops, any of which can be moved to desk height when needed and then stacked away when finished with leaving work in progress undisturbed.
• Below, Sling Step is collaboration with fellow student Mireia Gordi Vila. Its elements are sewn together using a climbing sling, so the more it is used the stronger it becomes.
• Wei Ge graduated from the Interior design MA. “My thesis design project is concerned with developing an understanding of the triangle and how this shape can be used to create and define interior space,” she says. The result is quite striking.
• Yerin Do created Parasite, diamond-shapes cut from leather that when rolled can be inserted into specially drilled holes in any furniture to form hooks. She covered a wardrobe and a chair with scale-like formations of these hooks for the final show.
• To the right of that, Joint by Wenling Huang is a task lamp made of walnut and steel which has been stripped right down to its simplest form.
• Fatware by Lambert Rainville is an attempt to bridge the gap between the cost efficiencies of flatware and the ergonomic appeal of hollowware. Two pieces of cold pressed stainless steel are spot welded together to create volume.
• Landscape of Gravity by Kirsi Enkovaara is a printing technique that uses gravity to create movement in water and then captures and visualises that movement of water, creating unique surface pattern designs.
• Inspired by the two-dimensional  grid system for graphic design pioneered by Josef Müller-Brockmann and Wim Crouwel, Ying Chang has created a modular system of furniture, which can be built around people’s changing requirements.

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• out and about :: central saint martin’s degree show 2014
• out and about :: coppicing with sebastian cox
• out and about :: clerkenwell design week 2014
• out and about :: clerkenwell design week 2014 preview