reuse / remake / reinvent (and repeat)

It is that time of year again… The leaves are turning a brighter shade of red and yellow and design students at Camberwell College of the Arts are hacking into old pieces of furniture and trading parts to make new from old.  It is one of my favourite projects of the academic year and it is too bad I wasn’t in college this week to see the outcome of all their good work.

After a briefing including an introduction to Martino Gamper's 100 chairs in a 100 days in a 100 ways project, students started stacking and installing their items of furniture in the yard and park opposite the college building as you see pictured here.

As a result of introducing the project, I'm practicing what I've been preaching with renewed enthusiasm and am reusing materials at the studio to remake and reinvent. Keep your eyes peeled on this week's dailymades to see the outcome of this work. Meanwhile, last year’s reuse / remake / reinvent project can be viewed here.

reuse / remake / reinvent

Making new from old… This is what some 130 Foundation students specialising in Design at Camberwell College of Arts were assigned to do, when using old pieces of furniture, taking them apart and using the pieces to create something new. Deconstructing is often the best way of finding out how  things are made, and with this brief students got the opportunity to experience first hand how to identify elements of design from the structural to the functional, how materials were combined and how the furniture was constructed.  While teaching them I for one got to refresh my memory on some technical jargon and certainly won’t be forgetting the difference between a dado and groove joint in a hurry! The whole project amounted to a cut and paste exercise in 3D, with making leading the design process.

The best part, aside from the final display of outcomes illustrated below, was when students traded and exchanged parts during a bric-a-brac / flea market type event half way through the project.  Not everyone got what they wanted, some lost almost all they had brought, but with this new opportunities for thinking and making were made possible as an ad-hoc element was thrown into the brief.

The potential these works have lie in their open ended functionality: a constructed piece might become  a chair when positioned one way, a table when used on its side, or a piece of architecture when it's  turned upside down. Their practicality will ultimately be negotiated between the maker and the user. Meanwhile, the 3D workshop area with all its tools and equipment has become less of an alien environment for the students, a must for future designers.