Part 1 Architectural Assistant

In response to our brief to design a performance space and accommodation for the music charity ‘Sistema Scotland’ in Balloch, I have proposed a linear building which acts as an extension of Balloch Park. This acts to connect the train station and main road with Loch Lomond and ‘The Maid of the Loch’. The positioning allowing for performance to spill out of the hall spaces and into the park, harnessing it as a musical destination.

The overall concept reflects the linear park with the accommodation placed directly behind the performance hall to allow students to have maximum freedom whilst remaining safe within the building. As a result the building provides a deeper feeling of security as you venture further through its layers into the bedroom spaces. A break out space in the form of a raised external courtyard separates the two buildings and provides a stopping point to reflect upon the surroundings. This also provides private access for students from the accommodation into the performance space.

Stephen Brown is graduating stage 3 at the Mackintosh School of Architecture. This exhibit pulls the key representations from a year-long project that addresses sustainability and contextual engagement through the design of a concert hall and a retreat centre that accommodates performers. The proposal is situated in the Trossachs National Park on a narrow strip of land that runs from the town of Balloch to the south shore of Loch Lomond.

The project engages the themes of energy, landscape, and culture, as an exercise in rethinking and expanding ideas around sustainability. The proposal’s environmental strategy goes beyond the sourcing of local and renewable materials, to consider wider criteria including low energy/passive design, prefabricated construction, and longevity in the buildings’ relevance to the cultural context of the locale. In this sense, aesthetics, adaptability and intuitiveness are paramount to the designs, ensuring their sensitivity to their natural surroundings and their capacity to serve the requirements of their users and the wider local community.

A key design challenge was integrating sustainability into the structural fabric of the two buildings. The exhibit is presented in such a way to show how this is achieved through the use of simple volumetric forms, around which hinge modular elements to make up the secondary structure. This approach seeks to establish an equilibrium in spatial arrangement that is both efficient of space and materials, whist being optimal to the scale and movement of the human body.

Kacper Ryske is a Polish artist and prospective architect currently studying architecture at the Glasgow School of Arts. In 2018 he went to Germany to do his exchange semester at the Bauhaus-Universität where he completed a project that challenged conventional working patterns. Based on building flexibility and the optimisation of evolving working dynamics, Kacper explored the impact of rapid technological development on creative industries and data storage. This seminar became a profound influence on his architectural style and approach to building design since. After the semester, Kacper trained as a Part 1 Architectural Assistant at Studio LIN Architects Urbanists in Berlin run by the German architect Finn Geipel. LIN is a laboratory for architecture, urbanism and design that focus on creating flexible and adaptable solutions that continue to intelligently and sensitively respond to the specific needs of their users and environments over time.

In his recent projects, Kacper strives to find the balance between the measurable and immeasurable. In the soulless, technologically induced environments full of repetitive forms that we experience today, Kacper seeks to harmonise the human scale and satisfy the complex spiritual needs of humanity in his projects. He believes in order to achieve an atmospheric quality, design based interventions within the built environment should resonate with human action, place and cultural context. The concept of Stimmung by Martin Heidegger has influenced Kacper’s design solutions and has become the atmospheric vehicle of his design intent to “carry the human language” through architecture. Taking his inspiration from phenomenological other figures like Kenneth Frampton, Studio Mumbai and Alvaro Alto, Kacper endeavours to explore if sustainable, efficient and flexible solutions may coexist with the poetic phenomenological architecture in order to achieve a holistically fulfilling environment for its users.

Currently in my third year of studying architecture I have developed a passion for sustainable and simple living. The brief to design a music retreat including a performance hall and accommodation for SISTEMA Scotland in Balloch was refreshing and challenging. It was important to consider energy, landscape and culture and bring them all together. With the site being so close to home i wanted to capture the feelings and memories i had of visiting the site as a child; taking the train to the last stop in Balloch where ironically the journey only just began, discovering Loch Lomond only a footsteps away. Inspired by my trip around Scotland visiting the Maggie’s Centres’, I further looked into the work of Frank Gehry. The curvature in his architecture and abstract angles led me to creating two very different buildings which were to contrast but also compliment each other.

The “Residential Retreat” is a project embedded in the surrounding landscape of the river Leven and the national park. It is a place that allows children and teens to escape the hardships of everyday life, providing a place to practise music, play and, most importantly, build a strong sense of community.

The retreat follows the concept of “designing for wellbeing”, heavily influenced by Charles Jencks’ Maggie’s Centres, and puts emphasis on the relationship with the surrounding landscape and the power of nature with its stress-relieving abilities and positive influence on focus and concentration. The building is blending the line between indoors and outdoors, creating an illusion of living in the trees’ canopies.

It also aims to achieve a zero-carbon goal; carefully selected materials and systems strive to create as self sustaining building as possible.

I am Jules Régis, student of architecture. I did my Bachelor degree at the Mackintosh school of Architecture. Currently in the 3rd year, I am finishing my study cycle this semester as part of an ERASMUS exchange in Spain at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura in Madrid.

I am now back in Paris working at distance because of the current situation.

Concerning my design, I’m inspired by architecture that brings dreams into everyday life. I also enjoy attention to places and materials as well as the freedom in design.

Zoë Hyatt is a RIBA part 1 graduate of The Mackintosh School of Architecture. She approaches every project with empathy and care and is concerned with community empowerment and site specific sensitivity. Zoë’s projects often reference the vernacular with particular emphasis on Scottish heritage.

Zoë prioritises the needs of the client and skilfully combines efficient design with creative solutions for social sustainability.

Growing up in Glasgow she is passionate about giving communities a voice and has been involved with community engagement throughout Scotland. When working with WAVEparticle she helped with workshops and a series of government-supported charrettes. Being part of the arts organisation taught her to approach her own projects more creatively and with an open mind.
She prioritises context specific design and tailors each project to the specific needs of the local community. She believes sustainable architecture should empower and celebrate the community in which it is sited.

She is interested in the use of traditional craft and knowledge in a contemporary context. She has taken part in 1:1 builds including a Lime burning ‘working party’ with The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Through practical experience she seeks to gain a better understanding of the materials and construction and is eager to build upon this skill set.

Zoë has a pragmatic approach to design and has fostered a practice based on investigation and understanding. She is compassionate and navigates her work in order to enrich people’s experience of landscape, culture and community.

Lily Sinclair, a Stage 3 student of Architecture at MSA, GSA. Born and educated in Newcastle Upon Tyne with a strong allegiance to the city and love of its coast and castles.

This year the Stage 3 Architecture Project brief was to design a residential retreat and music education centre in Balloch. The client was SISTEMA Scotland, a charity which takes young underprivileged children away from the stresses of everyday life on residentials to teach them music. The main theme of the project was ‘How Low Can You Go?’, this meant creating an eco-friendly build within a budget.

I brought to this project my experience in music education, which includes performing in various performance spaces from large venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and The Sage, Gateshead to smaller more intermate spaces, together with the experience of rehearsing in a residential setting. I loved this project as it felt very personal and learnt a lot about my style in architecture and where my strengths lie.

Currently, I am seeking 12 months placement in a RIBA certified practice for my Part I year out.

Alexis Piponides

‘They say that wanting to be an Architect is innate; it chooses you. Having always been a wanderer, an explorer of my surroundings, the world around me has opened up with a new sense of purpose and meaning through recording and sketch.’

This was my thought process before I started my degree, and now near to the end of my part one bachelors, I can not only sketch and absorb my surroundings, I now have the skill set to bring my sketches into life and developing a set of projects that have a sympathetic understanding of the built environment, its cultural and social sensitivity and my pure emphasis of simple and sustainable design.
_____

The Balloch musical retreat project takes on a sustainable approach towards designing two new facilities: the residential retreat and a public performance hall stretching along the River Leven. Strategies in my design such as architectural amphitheaters along the banks of the river, elevated pathways, and integrated walls leading to ‘secret gardens’ pose a heightened sense of curiosity, wonder, and nostalgia for my target audience; youths from Sistema Scotland. Together the two spaces form a new language voicing a safe haven and are set to inspire creativity, performance, and foster social interaction within its custom environment.

‘between the exploration and what it will teach me, between my movements and what I touch, there must exist some relationship by principle, some kinship, according to which they are not only, vague and ephemeral deformations of the corporeal space, but the initiation to and the opening upon a tactile world.’
Merleau-Ponty, M (1968)

Mackintosh School of Architecture
BArch, 2020
Stage 3

Emily Ireland is graduating from stage 3, at the Mackintosh school of Architecture. The past three years have allowed her to explore and develop a design ethos that encompasses people. Seeing architecture as a fundamental to life, and as society evolves the space we occupy must do so also.

Sustainable architecture is an approach to design that motivates her greatly. Recognising improved means of design/construction that will reduce the environmental impact architecture can have.

Designing small-scale domestic spaces for everyday use in connection to wider public areas has been a primary interest of mine. I feel this typology offers the greatest opportunity to consider modern human needs in detail, whilst still relating to the larger picture of citizen-oriented necessities and allowing opportunity for architectural expression. I find it important to relate my designs to the current urban demands and reflect the deeply-rooted historical traditions from which they stem. I enjoy giving attention to concept, detail, and aesthetics in every project. I aim to produce purpose-orientated, adaptable, and sustainable designs, and am always imagining how these might evolve in the near future. My experience working on corporate projects in China, Belarus, and the UK exposed me to the industry’s unfortunate gravitation towards fast-production and human-neglected builds; my aim coming back to eduction was to avoid these approaches, focusing on how one well-derived, concise project can be multiplied to produce satisfactory urban building.

RIBA Part I (BSc Hons with International Study, Strathclyde School of Architecture, 2012)
– Arkitektskolen Aarhus (ERASMUS semester, 2016)
– 3 Design Scotland (Interior Designer, 2018-9)
– MAST Architects (Architectural Assistant, 2016-7)
– JM Architects (Architectural Assistant, 2014)
– Ryder (Junior Architectural Assistant, 2012)

Jonathan’s research project, A Complex Whole: Kyrka to Kulturhuset, attempts to understand the varied architectural language developed by the Swedish architect Peter Celsing. The photographs shown here were taken whilst visiting each building during a research trip to Stockholm and Goteborg.

Celsing was an underrated architect who deployed architectural language with wit and intelligence. Even a brief glance over his work highlights this, from the deep and tactile language of the Helsingborg brick used at Harlanda parish church to the light and transparent language of glass stretched over steel and concrete at the Kulturhuset complex in the centre of Stockholm city.

With a love for art, history, travel and culture, Celsing was an architect for whom reference and imagery could be used freely as an artist would; his buildings were formed by the movement of his hand, pen on paper, brush on board. The language that he developed for each project seems always to have become a study of the relationship between the interior and the formal whole; the constellation of parts becomes something more.

His practice was artisanal and deeply rooted in history, but he did not shy away from international culture and global aspiration, and so his projects, regardless of scale and brief, were optimistic and profoundly civic.

Ingrid Wennemo
Stage 4

Digitalization & Physicalization

Everything is increasingly passive in this modern world of ours, mostly indicate through image instead of touch and body response. People tend to focus on how physical things being digitalized. However, many are forgetting the fact that we are also physicalizing digital things at the same time using 2D and 3D printing. Thus, digitalization and physicalization are both happening in our society and should be treated equally.

The proposal for this project is to explore and experience both the digital and physical world. In order to provide different experiences, elements such as structure, material and lighting are designed carefully to create different environments. The idea for the physical world is representing by something rigid and solid while the digital world is more like something ephemeral and void.

For this Urban Housing project, the relationship between domesticity and labour is represented as a social space within the city. By sharing a circulation, and therefore a threshold from the public to the private realm, the domestic shares a space with the labour.

Could the intertwined existence of domesticity and labour in the same built environment form a social connexion? The ritualised entrance through the social enterprise is organised with that purpose in mind. Heading up to the circulation, inherent boundaries are formed through more private social spaces.

As a series of thresholds is increasing the privacy of both the domesticity and labour, every space is intended as another filter from the public realm. The boundary is here intended to by physical and not visual, as the spaces gravitated towards the greater social element that is the courtyard.

Indeed, every layer of private space is polarised by a more social space, such as the shared kitchen is facing the circulation, as well as the shared living space is in direct relationship with the kitchen. And, in an opposite manner, the most private bedroom faces the other way.

I have a strong interest in conservation and restoration architecture, having loved my experience in my year in practice, working for a conservation practice, Simpson and Brown.

I am also interested in designing for children and enjoy using my experience working with children, as a Rainbow Guide leader, to influence my work.

During my fourth year, I was part of the editorial team for MSA’s student-run magazine, MacMag and helped produce the 45th issue of the publication.

In my spare time I enjoy singing as part of the Glasgow School of Art choir, climbing and hiking in the Scottish highlands and I am learning German.

I am a fourth year Architecture student at the GSA, recent graduate of the BArch. Hons. Programme. It is a challenge to describe a consistent theme of my architectural work, as I am aiming at being flexible with whatever project brief and site I am given – one could say that adaptability is, in fact, the main objective in my works. But I also want, and strongly believe that, as an architect, no matter the type and size of a project, to come up with a vision and create spaces which are welcoming to everyone, working at a human space; places that feel good and peaceful to be at.

Social experiences and equality remain at the core of design intentions.  Bridging the fragmented gap between social divisions and the young and old within Merchant City is crucial. Spaces for education and cultural exchanges form inter-generational bonds, while strengthening the social and civic infrastructure maintains a cultural link to the existing urban context. The idea of combining education, as a form of public and private labour, with domesticity arose from a study of the urban demographic, where the lack of family-orientated activities maintains transient experiences within this district of Glasgow.

Many artists’ studios exist in the east end and south side of Glasgow, but not necessarily in the heart of the city. Proposing a building with a significant exterior, carefully balanced with an ephemeral interior best describes Merchant City as a whole. The proposed building with its brick and arched façade sits well within its context, even with a seemingly institutional appearance at first, it is intended to be a permanent structure, changing periodically internally and reclaiming the aesthetic of a building which is otherwise formal and controlled and giving it back to the people of Glasgow.

Somebody would consider Architecture as something fancy. In my opinion, architecture is something that comes from the people, hence well-connected to their daily life. We are both users and designers simultaneously. It would create various kinds of atmosphere after combining different kinds of key elements of space such as the feeling of materials or design of space.

Despite the numerous regulations for architecture, it would not be convincible to propose a ‘correct’ way to create great architecture. Though we can always chase and creating the answer to it. Yet one thing for sure is that great architectures are timeless. It originates from the past, lives in the present, and creates the future.
The course I took during my BA degree at the University of Liverpool, coupled with my practical experience as well as the Diploma of Architecture I’m taking in the Glasgow school of arts has helped me to develop a unique appreciation for the complexities of the subject matter.

During my studies I have been interested in how the context would influences the architecture, hence the dialect relationship between human beings and the habitation instead of people being manipulated by space.

Living in the contemporary world, architects need to consider the relationship between physical and social spaces, which related to subjects of relevance to society and social issues. Combining the critical and pioneering thinking of the city with the elegant design of materials and joints in order to create architecture with great experience and quality is what I aim to do. I do wish to become an architect who is taking part in the design of architecture which takes social responsibility and with well-considered joints and materials.

We all, I think, instinctively feel, and rationally assume, that buildings last for generations. However, we build them of concrete; liquid stone set around steel. Into these concrete cages, we set our most treasured stories. Stories about work, education, health, wealth and family. But stories are liquid, they move much more rapidly than these fixed frames can bear. We have forgotten, in how we build, that in previous eras the façade of a building; its public gestures; and spaces were the lasting elements. From palaces to factories, simple frames were adorned in rich material compositions, allowed to become recognisable and enduring characters by having the flexibility to change inside.

Now a drastic turnaround has taken place in the approach to our cities. The façades have become novel and sacrificial surfaces and the interiors tightly packed with fixed ideas. The result of this inversion is all around us. Demolition is a daily occurrence in the city, with the average lifespan of an urban building now 30 years.

This year, I have developed a position concerning urban buildings, their life, their death and their composition. I have considered the relationship between facade and structure, between use and appearance, between construction and services, materials, resource efficiency and environment, and have develop a critical perspective to how, where and when one should build.

Although Oslo was the inception of my studies, Glasgow became the test-bed of my research. This comparative tale will explore the dynamics of the two cities; building on the foundation of understanding developed through the research investigations in Oslo I developed a new framework for the city that responds directly to the present challenges of density, durability and flexibility.

Ao Tang wa born in Jiangsu, China in 1995.

He studied architecture at University of Liverpool and achieved his BA(Hons) in Architecture at 2017. Before joining Mackintosh School of Architecture for DipArch course, He had year-out experience of working on a wide range of projects including social housing for Hackney London Borough Council and University of Liverpool Masterplan Competition at Lynch Architects, London. He also worked as intern for Gen (亘) Architects and NaturalBuild (直造) in Shanghai, two leading emerging architecture practice in China.

From 2019-20, He gained opportunity to study as exchange student in MArch course at KTH Royal Institute of Architecture, Stockholm where he explored ornament and representation in space which helps him develop his final design thesis at GSA.

The workmanship of risk’ is a term used by David Pye to describe the process of making ‘where at any moment, through inattention or mistake, the work could be ruined. In opposition to this is the workmanship of certainty, in which the quality of the result is predetermined and beyond control of the operative’. It describes the process of mass production which focuses on speed and quantity rather than quality.

The thesis seeks to investigate how the workmanship of risk can be refocused on within the modern city and how architecture might facilitate and encourage this. The thesis aims to explore how people’s value of goods can be reinvigorated by means of exposing and celebrating making and workmanship, and perhaps, to interrogate throwaway culture and the nature of consumerism today. Against the backdrop of the current climate crisis, there is an emerging shift in the way in which we consume goods, whereby there is a higher demand for sustainable, high quality, ‘made’ goods.

Antwerp’s history as a merchant city, has centred around craft and trade. From the craft guilds of the Golden Age to the global network of large-scale industry today, the city has evolved and morphed alongside the trends of consumerism and trade for centuries. Historically, places of trade and exchange were numerous within the city. Marketplaces, where makers of all descriptions made and sold their goods, were focal points within the city. The following quotes taken from ‘Antwerp, In the Age of Plantin and Brueghel’ by John. J. Murray, describe the diversity of trades and makers within the city and the constant presence of these places of exchange:

“ I saw a procession pass along the street, the people being arranged in rows, each man some distance from his neighbour, but the rows close one behind another. There were the goldsmiths, the painters, the masons, the broiderers, the sculptors, the joiners, the carpenters, the sailors, the fishermen, the butchers, the leatherers, the clothmakers, the bakers, the tailors, the shoemakers – indeed workmen of kinds, and many craftsmen and dealers who work for their livelihood ” – Durer

However, today, this vibrancy and diversity of trades and crafts has been removed from the city’s fabric and the vast majority of trade and industry has been pushed to the outskirts of the city.

The chosen site is located in the North Den Dam area of Antwerp. The site is largely desolate and is characterised by disconnection. It is disconnected from the city by major roads, rail and water. All of which bypass the site creating an island within the city. Secondly, it represents a larger disconnect within Antwerp as a whole. The disconnect between three major districts comes to a point at this site. Through the development of a programme centred around the ‘workmanship of risk’, production and exchange, this site has the potential to connect these areas.
The design aims to create a blur between what is public and what is productive and aims to encourage public engagement and visibility of the making of goods which have been produced through the workmanship of risk. The design introduces the Albert canal into the district to create a new dock which would serve the district, it acts as a spine which ties a series of proposed buildings and public spaces together. With an intention to demolish as little of what is existing on site, many of the sheds which characterise the area, are to be used for storage and for trades and crafts which may not necessarily need very specific servicing or bespoke spaces.

Against Aseptic Corporeality.

This thesis investigates our relationship to, and management of, our bodily excretions, using this subject matter to open up a broader societal conversation about the long term consequences and trajectories of our contemporary hyper-individualism.
This move away from the collective is illustrated by the changing relationship with (human) waste. The individual forgets that consumption, which has become a predominant element of all our lives, results in waste. Brought on by the introduction of municipal sanitization and the flushing toilet was the idea that waste can be moved into unconsciousness resulting in today’s ‘flush and forget’ culture where waste is disposed of, for someone else to deal with. Serviced by an invisible infrastructure beneath the ground.
The sewers are the backbone of the modern city. They are inexorably connected to urbanization, sprawl, and consumption. With the introduction of this subterranean urban landscape, connections between distant sources of water and water discharge in remote areas completely changed our concepts of space and time, expanding the city’s limits underground and thus permanently modifying the landscape. We now deal with our waste in the style of a chemical plant located in an industrial estate outside the city, taking all emotion and physical involvement away from the subject. It is no longer visible in our day to day lives and is now encased in anonymous architecture, hidden away from public view, and no longer celebrates the process of extracting its value.
Prior to the 1840s with the introduction of Bazalgette’s sewers in London, human excrement had not been regarded as ‘waste’. It was part of the working agrarian economy, the workers of the land brought their livestock or harvests to sell in the city, then collected the ‘night soil’ from the city’s streets to transport back to the field and use it as fertilizer. This system was broken with the development of sanitary infrastructure and in the process, the boundary between human activity and natural processes becoming fractured.
The thesis proposes a building that reveals this invisible infrastructure, allowing the individual to see their contribution to the collective and to reestablish a physical bodily connection to their natural ‘waste’. Situated in the city center of Antwerp the main building stands as a research facility and wastewater treatment plant, determining new ways to turn our ‘waste’ into a valued commodity. The end structure is a large public toilet situated in a place for leisure – a waste landscape. This landscape is constructed from the nutrient-rich byproducts produced by the treatment plant.

Former graduate of the University of Liverpool, I joined GSA and the Mackintosh School of Architecture in 2018. I have a strong interest in architectural conservation and my projects tend to focus on the preservation of buildings and materials.
I use AutoCAD software to create any technical drawings and SketchUp for 3D modelling and to generate visualisations. This year, I have experimented using concrete as a medium for model making and have enjoyed making terrazzo in my own time.

Tong Shu is an architecture student from Shenzhen, China and had his undergraduate study in Guangzhou, China and is studying DipArch in GSA. He is interested in exploring the spiritual significance of architecture and its contextual response to the urban environment.

Erica Alexis Caballero is a Norwegian aspiring architect. Before completing her Diploma at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, she worked as an intern with two architectural practices in Oslo. Here she had the opportunity to take part on various projects in different stages, as well as competitions. In 2016, she graduated from Newcastle University with Bachelor of Honours in Architecture.

By 2040, most of the world will have a severe supply to demand issue regarding the surface water. The purple represents countries that will face the struggles the most. As 97% of the world’s water is saltwater, 3% is frozen freshwater held in the glaciers and the remaining 1% is liquid water. Though in that 1%, some of it lies underground, making it very expensive to extract, with the only choice but to deplete surface freshwater.

What the speculative aim is to critique the careless free-flowing faucets which humans leave on; to reflect and to preserve a natural resource that we would die without. From research to realisation, the hypothesis opposes to a utilitarian architecture having so little attention. A promise of childish pleasure – city as a playground. Marrying to a combination of an eco-consciousness of water with the appeal to a desire that people have of their surroundings, to engage and excite them. The really impressive achievement is to respond to that desire with infrastructures that have more than one function.

Antwerp has a lack of designed urban green spaces within the dense urbanised blocks. Finding a way to incorporate a way of green living with natural resources.

A framework and narrative for a heterotopian place that critiques the real value of the natural resources which surround us, the most important natural resource to humankind: water. People who live in cities have access to taps, but the true value of this commodity is lost through it ease of availability, it isn’t valued the same as gold or diamonds.

Heterotopia comes from Greek “Hetero” – other/opposite and “Topos” – place

Utilizing preservation as a driver and bringing the idea of this crisis closer, from global to macro. We begin to reflect, be good to the planet, and have a laugh. Function follows fun. The combination of an environmentally conscious public facility with inhabitable architecture.

To be spectacular, blatant, and memorable, opposing to the idea, and culture which cares so little about aesthetics invests so little indignity in the beauty which supplies and powers our towns and cities.

A counter to the medieval city core, to produce a heterotopian place on the left bank – Linkeroever.

A public facility with the water desalination plant. Bringing a social integration of play and environmental consciousness together. Allowing the interaction of traditionally separate functions to operate and unite as one singular holistic approach.

Samuel is an Australian-native, completing his Bachelor of Architectural Design at the University of Queensland. Relocating to Glasgow in 2016 and now graduate of the Mackintosh School of Art, he won the school’s annual dissertation prize in 2019 for his thesis ‘The Ambivalent Sublime.’ As co-founder of Chez Etym., a multi-disciplinary body of work exploring architectural place and time, he has hosted both panel discussions and exhibitions in Glasgow featuring local and international names, and is currently editing a forthcoming publication, ‘Chez Etym.’

A foundation of Samuel’s process is a deep intrigue in considering macro- topics often outwith standard architectural discourse, be they social, aesthetic or technological. Focuses have included the intersection between corporeal society and ‘virtual place,’ etymological exploration of poetry in architecture, and most recently, the architectural expression of contemporary societal nihilism. His final thesis at the MSA concerns this philosophical musing, of an architecture of active nihilism, in an ambitious and multi-programme scheme. With a love for thorough research and its morphing into novel propositions, Samuel’s aim is for clear, purposeful and considered design.

Antwerp Fashion Revival
How can the establishment of Antwerp Fashion District recreate the success story of ‘The Antwerp Six’ in the 1980s? By reclaiming underutilised public space, can the district reactivate the once prosperous industrial southern district?

Antwerp was one of the most influential fashion cities in the late 20th centuries following the uprising of ‘The Antwerp Six’. However, the decline in the Antwerp fashion industry has failed to compete with the traditional giants, including London, Paris, Milan, and New York. It has since been replaced by other promising cities such as Barcelona and Berlin. Although the Royal Academy of Fine Art Antwerp is one of the best fashion school in the world, it suffers from strict entrance requirement that repel international talents. the current institutions have strict language requirements for Dutch. For talented international individuals, going to an English-speaking prestigious institution, such as Central Saint Martins (London) and Parsons School of Design (New York), would be much more attractive. Also, a lack of spaces and opportunities has led to harsh environment for the new graduates and young designers to flourish. The Zuid (south) has a reputation of being trendy already serves as a location for independent designers, galleries and museum. The south dock currently serves as an elongated carpark that does is not suitable for public use. The former dock provides a missing opportunity for creating a social gathering platform.

Final Design Thesis presents the South Dock of Antwerp as the new fashion catwalk. The former industrial dock is split into three zone referencing the three former shipping bays. The first zone as a “Making” platform for emerging designers to work from. The second zone at the other end of the south dock is an Art School specialising in fashion design, serves as a platform to cultivate the young. Flanked by the school and workshops is an event space, working in adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art to celebrate the Antwerp talents.

Incorporation of the grid shell into building design as a lightweight structure. The structure provides opportunity to create dynamic canopy that references the fluidity of the Antwerp fashion industry. As the fashion design concentrates on hand crafted, custom made design. The grid shell structure of the fashion district uses natural material (mostly Glu-lam timber, that can cope with large spans). Although the grid shell structure flows according to the height required for each building program, as a nature of the dynamic roof, no two buildings are the same.

Marrying tradition with tale, ‘Cleansing Rituals’ explores customs with fable aspects.
The work investigates premarital ceremonial ‘cleansing’ with natural elements; soot, salt and feathers, all thought to possess holistic virtue with purifying properties carrying protective and fertilising powers.

Scottish writer Margaret Bennett’s Customs: From the Cradle to the Grave yielded the body of work with biographical narrative. Bennett’s interview material and manuscripts notes describes archival recounts involving soot being rubbed onto the skin prior to ‘feet washing’ in order to cleanse and bring luck. Other occurrences describe finding the ring of a woman who has been in an enduring marriage in a chamber pot filled with salt. The events have been adapted with a lyrical approach, telling an unknown past by using natural elements.

The body of work began with large format nude self-portraits, exhibited in ‘Pt.2 – Com Des WIP Show’. The images were created through photo etching, which is a highly precise corrosion process used by chemical etching. The intaglio printmaking method was originated as Photogravure. The pairing images were printed with handmade ink from soot and linseed oil.
Following this was an exploration of Salt Printing, a photographic process involving wetting paper with a solution of table salt then brushing it with light-sensitive chemical, silver nitrate.
The reoccurring trope of the soot, salt and feathers throughout ‘Cleansing Rituals’ is integral to both the subject matter and the making of the images.

My work throughout 4th year derives from my interest in social action.

The displayed project is my newly-developed typeface, inspired by ancient scripture and designed to be powerful and sacred in appearance.

It also is elegant but has intentionally sharp, lethal-looking features. Altogether, the typeface emphasise the strength and dignity in the chosen texts.

The texts themselves reference cultural appropriation, with the contemporary phrase ‘culture vulture’ and a quotation from black feminist writer, bell hooks.

Dominic is currently based in Glasgow, finishing his final year studying Communication Design, specialising in photography at Glasgow School of Art.His interests are a combination of portraiture as well as documentary photography, in particular questioning masculinity within the modern age.

His project ‘OUTVIE’ explores the annual game of Royal Shrovetide Football based in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. A brutal yet, significant event for locals where over two days, the town is divided by the river into two teams, with goals spanning a stretch of three miles. With its limited rules, hundreds of men sprawl in huddles across the Derbyshire town, brawling for a touch of the ball. To score is a momentous achievement within the community due to the game’s illustrious legacy. Therefore, it is the responsibility of future generations to act as custodians for the game. Though respecting the unification and inclusivity Shrovetide brings – alongside its aggressive nature, my works questions the line between tradition and patriarchal dominance and considers the idea of whether this allowance of men to temporary fulfil their desired image of masculinity is positive in the long run. With younger generations in particular, in the context of a society that now questions norms specific to gender more than ever, will they emulate the traditions of the past to keep this game alive? 

Abby Bayani is graphic designer working and living in Glasgow. With an interest in underlying structures, she utilises graphic design as a way to explore and visualise them in new ways.

Working across disciplines, her practice is process-led, experimenting with various methods and materials to develop ideas. She makes use of printmaking, bookbinding, and animation to aid her creative process; and is inherently driven by the possibilities of playful exploration and meticulous making.

Molly Lindsay is a Communication and Design graduate, specialising in photography.

The work presented centres around the theme of walking; tracing and tracking the journey by drawing into the landscape. The red line continues into the project Uses of the Erotic, a visual response to Audre Lorde’s essay, challenging classical depictions of the nude in attempt to reclaim a definition of the erotic through a female photographer’s eyes.

Léa Mariella is a freelance Photographer completing her last year of Undergraduate studies in communication and Design at the Glasgow School of Art.

Her practice, influenced by a background in environmental and behavioural sciences, focuses on the definition of ‘the body’ in a political and cultural context.
From physiological studies of boxing practice to the documentation of physically limited artists, Léa’s use of visual language aims to highlight the inherent link between scientific and artistic disciplines.

As a photographer, Léa constantly questions her practice with a clear emphasis on ethics and empathy.

My work, although mainly graphic, is at the intersection between several disciplines, between printed projects, proposals for the public space, for musicians or associations, and more physical work, from material research to exhibition design… A cultural and often contextual graphics work, as a tool for opening up to other disciplines and other worlds.
Often starting from personal proposals, I also work collectively and from commissions. I’m interested in different production/printing techniques and ways of subverting them to explore the connections between my tools and the subject I work on.

I’ve spent the last months of this year working on research-based editorial design. The project Silent Storm is a book investigation on the representations of the Gulf War and the strategic and ideological role of images in a context of war.

Mairi Louise Caldwell is a Glasgow based illustrator, and recent graduate of the Glasgow School of Art.

Characterising the main themes of her practice as ‘Hidden’ Histories, Memory and the Mythological (that is, concerned with untold stories, folk knowledge, superstition, personal recollection and the unwritten history) her work typically combines analogue drawing, writing, collage and photography.

Printmaker, illustrator and schemer.

Elisabeth is most immersed when getting tactile with ink, making drypoint engravings and woodcuts. it is a process-oriented practice; chipping and burring, scraping and turning. tranquility is the result.

Looking for a press, for images to make, and finding ever more thrilling means to produce prints.

I’m a multidisciplinary graphic designer, splitting my time between Glasgow and the south coast of England. Integral to my practice is a love of craft, which translates into the work I do – spanning editorial, typography, branding and digital design. I seek to challenge convention by adopting a playful and inquisitive approach to solving design problems, to create work that brings joy to the way we see and interact with the world.

With an enthusiasm for story telling and cultures of the past, Caitlin Fraser is a unisex designer from Glasgow. Whilst studying her BA in Fashion Design, Caitlin has had a keen interest in garments of the past and how they could convey so much information about the person wearing them. This interest has spanned from the tudors of the 1500s to the punks and skinheads of the 1980s.

Caitlin’s current project is about exploring her own heritage and identity by focusing on the city where not only she grew up but also her family generations before her. The main inspiration behind this project comes from old family photographs, poems and film as each garment aims to tell a different story through the cut, silhouette and fabric choice.

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the Pause Or Pay campaign. To read the full manifesto click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MwdvZfLTp1udaASJ1EAmRT9XR-OPQIyU/view

Born in Germany, Isabell is a Glasgow based designer and seamstress. After successfully finishing an apprenticeship as a seamstress she moved to Glasgow in 2014 and will graduate with a BA (Hons) in Fashion Design summer 2020. Isabell gained a wide range of knowledge for manufacturing and garment construction, throughout her studies and work in the bridal, costume and performance sector.
Especially through her work for bespoke bridal gowns and creating her own collections at the art school, she developed creative problem solving and pattern cutting skills.
Isabell herself is outside the studio passionate about a wide variety of outdoor activities. Her connection to nature and her creative way of thinking is her drive to push sustainability in the sports industry forward.

Zoë Ward is a womenswear designer from Brighton, currently based in Glasgow, Scotland.

She appoaches design and making with a visceral exploration of craft and craft history resulting in textiles and garments rich in detail.

Zoë prioritise’s a slower approach to making – isolating techniques, such as hand smocking and appliqué that would enforce a more mindful and meditative approach. By applying honest, traditional craftsmanship, the garment can be seen as a narrative object; it tells a story of time and care before its even worn. Zoë believe’s considering clothing in this way we come to respect and value our belongings in a deeper sense. Applying this philosophy she hopes to re-address the relationship we have with what we use and what we wear.

Sustainable practice is at the core of what Zoë does. Utilising second hand, up-cycled, found, or in some way repurposed cloths and materials. The resulting textiles and garments reflect this history, the provenance; the landscape they come from and the people who created them.

Zoë hopes her collection honours the communities that have inspired her, that it recognises the traditions and processes of generations of craftsmen, and that it celebrates narrative in the objects we own and treasure.

Melody Uyanga Ramsay is a Scottish-Mongolian fashion designer whose work focuses on heritage, ethics, sustainability and its intersections using fashion.

After gaining invaluable experience in the Concept Design Department at Ralph Lauren, she has honed her own creative vision working between fashion, installation, performance and video.

As you start to figure out her visual language; the process of theoretical and historical research becomes evident as a form of figurative expression, transporting you with tailored British narratives and a homage to Mongolian horse-riding culture. This melting-pot of culture and art forces to overwhelm and define you.

Through her research, she has developed a design process that involves a rich cross-pollination of sources, bringing together literary, material and visual references.

Her 2020 graduate collection is presented as a meditation on cultural narratives, presented within a carefully considered scenography and casting.

Drawing upon the images and textiles of authoritarian dress in a transnational dialogue, she moves across time and space by bringing these references under the lens of a new era in postcolonial critique.

Exploring the role of place as the cause and outcome of social action, Gibb’s work examines how the multiple and dynamic identities which emerge from and within place impact the past, present and future. Her work primarily comments on the influence of Christianity in the shaping of social relationships, attitudes and outcomes within the context of her native Northern Ireland.

The graduate collection featured, Where There Is No Vision the People Perish, explores the influence of strict Christian morality in our affinities to each other, ourselves, our bodies and our space. Gibb scrutinises the manifestation of creed in the sculpting of societal ideals of sexual virtue in contemporary Northern Ireland and respectfully commemorates the subsequent detriment with the objective of equality. Through the study of changing bodies, posture and psychology, healing and mending Gibb presents this relationship to materiality through the creation of genderless, slow fashion.

As a graduating student of the Glasgow School of Art, I won’t be using this platform to present and promote my practice as an act of solidarity with the Pause or Pay Campaign. If you would like to see my full works please follow this link to my website: gibb.cargo.site

Sophie Marshall is a Womenswear Designer and Pattern Cutter based in Glasgow. Throughout her studies, Sophie has developed a keen interest in tailoring which has become a fundamental component of her graduate collection. Sophie is passionate about the physical aspects of the design process, particularly creative pattern cutting.

Her graduate collection, ‘These Will Be Our Pink Days’ is a womenswear tailoring collection which aims to challenge society’s construction of femininity. By deconstructing sexualised representations of women in the media, it is possible to instead create a flattened sense of sexuality- leaning towards androgyny- which will allow women to exist outside of the confines of their gender. Sophies research consists heavily of female artists whos practices are fuelled by a desire to emancipate women from the patriarchal gaze of our heteronormative society.

Sophie’s practice involves using traditional tailoring found in menswear, alongside silhouettes and fabrication techniques from women’s lingerie. Her design process involves analysing the cultural significance and sartorial power associated with certain items of clothing- namely, traditional tailored pieces-and using these symbolic references to distort and subsequently rewrite society’s idea of how a woman should dress, look and behave.

The aesthetic drive for this collection lies within the highly sexualised and auto-erotic representation of women in 1990’s/early 2000’s advertising and the media in general. Sophie is interested in the individualist portrayal of women in postfeminist imagery, which suggests that women are empowered and in control through consciously conforming to a heteronormative, patriarchal construction of sexiness. This collection has been influenced by feminist theory and an in depth understanding of the need to disturb and breakdown stereotypical representations of women in the media.

Even when worn by a woman, it is difficult to see a suit and not also have an attached idea of that suit belonging to menswear. For this collection, Sophie takes specific elements found in tailoring and uses these in nontraditional ways to grant women the power which belongs to men’s tailoring, without there actually being any notion of gender.

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the
Pause or Pay Campaign. To read the full manifesto click here

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the Pause or Pay Campaign.

Inspired by the blurring line between reality and the imagination, Ankita Nagaraj’s work is an experimental exploration into our relationship with the technology we have created. Finding the most interest in the journey of research and development, her work branched from the imagery of machines gaining consciousness, free thought and emotions, shown in the music video ‘The Music Scene’ by Blockhead. Basing her work on this science fiction idea, while pulling reference from the concept of singularity in Eastern culture as discussed by Alan Watts, she uses browser extensions, popups and physical pieces of technology to personify and humanise these machines.

Charlotte Holland is a creative technologist exploring the intersection of art and technology. Her latest body of work explores our relationship between the real world and the virtual, through the lens of online gaming.

Her work incorporates the “W”, “A”, “S” and “D” keys, which are a common input when playing computer games. Each letter acts like an arrow key, moving the player up, down, left, or right in relation to its position on the keyboard.

Mirroring these controls, she has used each letter to signify a direction. Generative line drawings are created by analysing a text and then plotting each instance of “W”, “A”, “S” and “D”, moving the line in the corresponding direction.

She developed a particular interest in the unique language patterns used in gaming chat logs. Taking gaming conversations out of their original context, she uses chat-log messages as input data to create these generative artworks.

Chat-log language is typically informal, rude, misspelt, and laced with gaming jargon. She found it humorous to create works of art inspired by this which from the outside seem sophisticated and mature. Her work plays with perceptions of what is worthwhile or important in this new digital age, finding beauty in unexpected places.

Callum Blair is a Scottish born creative technologist who is interested in discovering how design and technology can be used to convey movement in sports, particularly in tennis which he has a passion for. By comparing the elegance and beauty of the movement in tennis to an improvised dance he can see the relation to art. The skills required to perform at highest levels allows players to develop shapes and styles while they move on court which Callum transfers into his design practise.

Callum’s work looks at how he can turn this motion into data visualisation, by listening to radio broadcast of past tennis matches he turned the language used in the broadcast and turned it into data. With inspiration from Brian Eno rule based thinking, Callum explores how rule-based patterns could influence his work using them to direct his design choices when using data to create his visuals.

Along with the data visualisations of past matches, Callum experiments with machine learning, feeding a computer algorithm text from radio broadcasts. He taught the machine how to reproduce its own tennis points. By interpreting the points made he would draw the interpretations and create prints and calling it a collaboration between human and machine, drawing the interpretations and creating prints.

YongWon Choi is an artist based in the Glasgow, United Kingdom and Seoul, South Korea. He is working on various subjects of art and science conflict, reality and virtual, immersive content, brain-computer interface, data visualisation, and user experience based on the question of human essence and humanistic knowledge.

His latest study, “Implementation of Interactive Content in Virtual Garden with Application of Personal Data,” is questioning about “Can future immersive content, such as virtual reality, be used as a form of art?” and “How can we use reactions such as the mind and the emotion of human nature to provide a different experience in art?”

His work is a virtual garden space where you can experience a new form of multisensory (visual, auditory, tactile) as an immersive content, and implements a responsive brain-computer interface based on theoretical backgrounds such as immersive content, simulation, and user experience data. His work consists of a brainwave recording device (EEG) and a virtual reality headset, and that produced in the Unity programme.

The new value presented by his proposal is that the user’s creative response (sensory experience) to virtual reality, emotions and empathy can be interpreted and understood in a new way by integrating into the art in the form of ‘data’, and this value can lead to new forms of creativity that are different from existing art. His work says that the act of seeing in the future will be an active process based on interactive communication, not a passive process that unilaterally accepts transmission from a two-dimensional screen. This change of experience will eventually change the future beyond our conventional and general perceptions and lives.

Throughout her practice, Ailsa’s work focuses on the subject of identity, which has been explored in several different mediums. Many of the works focused on the face; specifically how history, culture and similarities passed on through the generations help to define us as individuals.

This year Ailsa’s work consists of various studies looking at the gestures that we all use to accompany our dialogue, predominantly centering around hand movement. People often display nuances in their movements, emphasising how gestures are specific to that individual. It is Ailsa’s belief that these subtle differences in gestures can convey as much information and emotion as the spoken words they accompany.

Starting with detailed pencil drawings of hands, Ailsa progressed to several small studies. These included looking at contrasting performing arts and exploring the ways people use hand gestures to express themes and passions. Through a series of interviews, she scrutinised the way in which people’s bodies responded to her prompts and guidance. Experimenting with both digital machine learning and physical plotting devices, Ailsa’s work continues to explore the use of sculptural materials as a means of data visualisation.

Rebecca Lindsay is a digital artist and designer who in her recent work explores the act of cognitive offloading and the trust we place in technology storing information without error. We often misremember things as our memories change over time and can be altered due to outside influences. As our minds are fallible we take pictures to remember events which we backup to computers and phones under the assumption that this information will remain unaltered. Many of us use memory apps through social media to remind us of events. However, as our devices and apps can be hacked our information can be compromised – could we remember clearly enough to dispute that our information and consequently our memories had been altered?

Inspired by artists such as Zbigniew Rybczyński and Sophie Calle, her recent work uses machine learning and coding as a method of generating imagery. Using personal information uploaded by others and herself ranging from text to images Rebecca’s work explores our relationship and reliance on technology to both save and express aspects of our lives and identities within a non secure digital landscape.

Valentine Scherer is a French/Australian interaction designer who is interested in finding and making connections between generative and organic processes, analogue and digital, material and non-material, to discover new lenses on sense-making in a world of chaos & disinformation. Her most recent research and work were initially inspired by some of Richard Sennet’s writings on craft and how we live in the built environment.

Her work interrogates processes in making, production and consumption in the networked digital society. Allusions to the circularity of the economy are made throughout her work as an attempt to make a playful commentary, drawing from a broad range of inspirations such as Dadaism, George Brecht’s instruction art or more contemporary artists and designers like new media artist Philipp Schmitt. Much of her research and work on the ecology of modularity stems from a fascination with the role of craft as a means of sense-making in society.

Much of this work is based on a set of images of hybridised furniture pieces which were produced using Machine Learning algorithms via Runway ML software. This process enabled the generation and computational ‘imagination’ of a new set of furniture designs based on standardised IKEA graphic instruction covers.

Seeking to critique flat pack and modular furniture and the IKEA model which is hyper-dominant for all students and young people worldwide, she uses machine learning, 3D modelling and printing methods to uncover the flawed value system underlying the culture and production ethos. Using a playful and absurdist spirit of inquiry, she developed a way to auto-generate semi-functional modularity which shows just how ridiculous it is, and how it is just creating toxic landfill at an exponential rate, how this culture in itself is a huge driver of economic externalities that can only be eliminated by thorough system change.

Sally’s practice primarily focuses on ideas and issues related to mental health. From experiencing mental health problems herself, Sally has become passionate about using her personal lived experience and creative practice to open up much needed conversation and challenge existing stigma and ill-informed perceptions of mental health problems. She uses technology to develop interactive and immersive audio and visual experiences that communicate the often hard to explain realities of living with a mental health problem.

Sally often combines her creative practice with her voluntary youth work role at See Me Scotland. In her most recent work Sally has been working closely with other young people from See Me to develop a series of engaging and interactive works that communicate voices, lived experiences, challenges and stigma that young people face in relation to mental health. This work focuses on three key themes; stigma, medication and barriers to accessing support.

Zach Mason’s work investigates the relationship between digital and physical spaces through design research across both spaces. The liminal space created between these environments is experimented with in order to reproduce objects in alternative forms. This subverts their purpose, and reduces their forms to better understand them, and the process of object reproduction.

Hoping to break down the stigmas associated with digital space, he uses 3D modelling and machine learning along with 3D printing to move objects and ideas from one facet of space to another. Using surreal and intangible notions, he aims to break down engrained barriers within the spaces we inhabit, in order to invite users to approach them in a less fragmented manner. He sees mental, physical and digital space as a continuous realm to be explored, made tangible through a symbiotic trifecta which allows for the creation of objects in liminal space.

Light is the primary creative medium of Sean Mallon’s practice and he has been increasingly inspired by the technological use of light in invisible wavelengths for networking and data distribution. He is concerned with using visible light to express the effects of connectivity on the psyche. Seminal texts have been drawn from, such as those by Marshal McLuhan, who famously wrote of the interplay between the development of our brains and the media processed by them or as his contemporary John Culkin said; ‘we make the tools and then in turn the tools help to shape us’ (Culkin 1967). His work aims to express this interplay between technology and human experience and to show that we are at a new intersection of adaptation as we are exposed to networked media.
These ideas are expressed with interactive installation work which aims to draw attention to the body / self. An awareness of oneself is created by mirror images of pixel-like white light, transplanting the body with a digital representation of such. Light follows the movement of the viewer, reaffirming the interplay and our close ties with technology; symbolising the technological human condition we now inhabit.

I started my Interior Design journey at the City of Glasgow College where I studied HND 3D Interior Design for two years. I progressed to The Glasgow School of Art to obtain a BA (Hons) Interior Design degree which has allowed me to grow as a young designer through developing my knowledge and pushing boundaries. Alongside my studies I have maintained the same part-time job where I am now a member of the management team after years of progress and determination.

Throughout my studies I have developed an interest in hospitality design, not only aesthetically but operationally and how individuals interact in this environment. That said, I am a willing young designer who is hungry to learn more about the interior design industry. During my 3rd year of GSA, I was a finalist in the Student Awards at the Retail Expo 2019 for my collaboration with Costa Coffee which I am grateful to have been a part of.

My final project – The River Hotel – is a boutique hotel in the heart of Glasgow’s City Centre, reflecting its surrounding picturesque views of the River Clyde. Selecting a location for this project was vital as it had to be easy to access, large enough for my design intent while having a unique edge. Building an interior palette from the surrounding architecture and natural elements allowed me to create a versatile interior which plays with the boundaries of private and public space. Allowing guests to enjoy a luxurious, peaceful or playful stay while being immersed in Scottish culture The River Hotel has a lot to offer.

Hi there 👋

I am a designer whose work explores the relationship between the virtual world and online spaces. I am specifically interested in the sociological aspect of the continuously advancing technology and how this impacts our interior environments. Throughout the past 2 years, I have been exploring how digital media, social media, and the internet has affected people, their mental health, and daily lives, through Interior Design and academic writing.

I have designed PLATFORM, a centre striving to support young people’s interactions with the continuously growing virtual world. Enabling the visitors to PLATFORM to feel empowered by the knowledge they have gained, to intelligently navigate social media and other online spaces. The centre offers counselling services and other education spaces where visitors will learn interactively.

PLATFORM tests how wrapping the built environment with a precise material pallet and technology enables questioning the boundaries between the physical and the digital worlds

I’m Namy who is from South Korea.

I like the place connection with nature. The moment of connection between space, nature and I makes me feel the most comfortable.
I want people to stay in their own comfortable space and time even for a moment. It can be in any place, such as real or imagined. This is because I believe that the expression of proper emotion begins with comfort. This is why I work the priority of providing various comforts through different spaces to me and many people. To give comfort, I explore and project myself first.

Samuel is a graduating designer from Liverpool showcasing a multidisciplinary approach to spatial practice, with a key focus on structural context and materiality leading to an increasing insistence on circular economic principles.

His work emphasises the phenomenology of space to create respectfully adapted and contextually significant spatial environments whilst applying understanding gained from working experience with companies including MADE.com and bluesky.

I joined the GSA Interior Design programme in 2016, having received my Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Newcastle College.

In my time at Glasgow School of Art I have worked on a range of conceptual and live interior design projects. In this time I have developed my studio skills including sketching and model making, with a view to exploring spaces . I have developed digital skills that allow me to convey my designs, using Vectorworks and Adobe programmes including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

In June 2019 I was a Student Ambassador for the GSA Overseas Immersion Project, which involved working in collaboration with interior design students from GSA Singapore.

In July 2019 I worked as an intern with ICA Architects in Glasgow, assisting the interior design team with a number of hotel projects. Working with ICA provided valuable experience of working in the industry.

My final year project is a proposal for a new Hotel and Cook School in Glasgow. The concept occupies The Wheatsheaf building at Speirs Wharf, which was once a part of the Port Dundas Whiskey Distillery. A structural void throughout the building plays with verticality, allowing light to travel throughout and create a visual connection to the cook school from the floors above. The ethos of the cook school is founded in the seasonality of Scottish ingredients. This is expressed throughout the project in the materiality, aesthetic and atmosphere of each key space.

My passion for Interior Design stems from the love I have for show homes, seeing the way people manipulate a space in various different ways. The achievement I feel when I see a project coming together is extremely motivating. I particularly enjoy designing domestic and commercial interiors. I have chosen to design a building featuring activities to enhance the learning and play of children. This proposal is a place that suits any type of child including children with learning difficulties giving parents an ideal place to take their children to experience the power of play.The interior features specific areas that expand different types of learning skills. I was inspired to design this type of space as I have a family member who is autistic and wanted to delve into their complex needs this is why I have designed this space within my concept to enhance their education through play.

I am an Interior Designer from the Highlands. I have studied Interior design at The Glasgow School of Art for the past three years. During my studies, I have researched the history of social housing, with a particular focus on Glasgow and have developed a passion for affordable, sustainable and high-quality design that can improve the quality of peoples lives. For my graduate project, I developed a social housing scheme which I named LYCHEE.

LYCHEE Housing stands for Light, You, Community, Health, Education and Environment. Its main goals are to provide tenants with a high quality of life by focusing on sustainable, affordable living that encourages a community spirit and sociable behaviour.

To provide a sustainable, affordable and high-quality environment, a range of energy-saving products and systems can be installed to achieve this.

Internal insulation, new energy-efficient doors, windows, lighting, and water-saving plumbing will be used to increase the energy efficiency of the building to also keep the cost of living and running the flat to a minimum.

Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery can be used to improve air quality and keep heating costs down. An MVHR system removes moist stale air and delivers fresh air to a property, in an energy-efficient way. It works by extracting warm, moist air from around the home, putting it through a heat exchanger to extract the heat and then expelling the cool stale air to the outside.

32.7% of households live in fuel poverty. Tumble drying is the healthier option for drying clothes but this is energy-intensive and indoor drying increases mould spore count in homes and can lead to health problems such as asthma and eczema. With a communal laundry room, this allows homes to have better air quality and also save money on energy bills by using the wastewater from washing machines to heat communal clothes dryers and louvre windows to ventilate the space for air drying clothes.

The communal laundry also acts as an opportunity for tenants to socialise and get to know one another encouraging the idea of community living. The focus of social space is considered throughout the building, dedicating the top floor to entertainment for tenants of all generations, in addition to wider corridors, to accommodate the voids through the centre of the building, which provides the corridors with natural light. This decision has been made to bring the sense of the streets indoors, giving peoples doorways personality and also providing a boundary between public and private space with the use of curved walls doubling up as storage on one side and a light void on the other.

Having studied the Interior Design Honours programme at the Glasgow School of Art over the past four years I have been able to explore my continued passion of the way that spaces make us feel.
During my final year, I found a way to express this interest. My project focusses on providing a space for people to disconnect from the stress of daily life and reconnect with themselves both mentally and physically.
The Graving Docks in Govan are a rich piece of Glasgow’s ship building history and currently lay abandoned. The site is an oasis sitting directly on the edge of the River Clyde where one building still stands, Pump House Number One. To create a sense of unity between past and future, connection to water was vital. I therefore shaped this site into a Thermal Reconnection Centre- exploring the varying properties of water in the form of sauna, steam and temperature pools. Ensuring the legacy of this site lives on, I have ensured that it’s past leaks into every bone of my design process. This project injects life into the local area as well as widening this community to create a larger sense of unity throughout the city. This enables the purpose of reconnection to be; personal, communal and historical.
My main interest within my discipline has always been the ways in which users interact with space and the impact this can have not only on their experience but on their wellbeing within these spaces and beyond them. This project allowed a perfect form through which to express this thinking and I look forward to further investigating this marriage of psychology and space throughout my professional practice.

This project revolves around people from different fields working in one building and occupying shared spaces. The aim was to create a workspace tailored to the needs of a specific profession while simultaneously allowing them to use shared spaces with other workers. This in turn would encourage them to learn, discover and inspire others.
My inspiration came from my personal experience while studying at GSA where I had students from other fields around me. I would also share facilities with them such as various workshops where I got the opportunity to discuss my work.
The biggest challenge I faced while designing was to find the right combination of professionals to occupy the space together and to create small interrupting points where people could take a break from their work and discuss it with others.
The main focus point in my design was the void, which allows light and sound to travel through it as well as providing a subtle peak into the workspaces of other people.
The void allowed me to explore different planning possibilities; on top of that it created an opportunity for me to explore different CAD softwares and Addobe packages to create a visual language for my project.

I took advantage of this last year to tackle the themes that obsess me in my design practice.
The themes of memory, psychogenealogy and synaesthesia of the senses have often surfaced in my work in the past, often unconsciously. With this project, I unearth these motivations, these design impulses, and try to dissect them in order to better understand myself as a designer.
My grandfather left a memoir before he died. I used it to explore the possibility of transforming his memories into emotional spaces. in an exhibition context. Visitors would wander through each space and experience the journey while projecting their own emotions and personal grief.
This project aims to address my own grief, to imagine someone’s life, and to challenge the visitor, who in turn would question his own memories and family.
In order to show my ideas, I like to try various mediums. This allows me to communicate sensations that are difficult to replicate with traditional design limits such as technical drawings and CAD. I love to use animations, sculptures, emotional drawings and textiles to trigger the viewer. This more abstract and conceptual approach to design helps me connect my practice to my personal creative obsessions. Making the process more intense and exciting.

Hannah McInally is a Scottish illustrator and ceramic artist, currently working between Stirling and Glasgow. Her practice pushes traditional expectations of illustration by exploring three dimensional forms and spatial occupation. Through an instinctive approach to making and thematic exploration her work aims to inspire visual engagement and interaction with the audience, whilst still being highly emotive. At GSA her work has been guided by loss and creation, opposing states working in tandem, allowing her practice to be informed by emotion in a conducive manner. Hannah’s practice exists in a shifting state, fluctuating between art and design.

Before completing her Masters at GSA, Hannah graduated from the Illustration course at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2018. During her undergraduate studies she undertook a semester abroad at the Alberta College of Art and Design, where she diversified her creative practice and expanded outwards into ceramic sculpture and design.

“My practice focus on the visual expression of internal feelings, observations of environment and society and the space in which individuals and groups inhabit. I use a range of materials and techniques to explore various visual languages to identify the most exciting approach for the subject, its outcome and myself.

By recording the lives of people around me and their surroundings through daily tasks, exercises and experiments I continue to find a firmer voice and search for a world language through the mediums of drawing, painting, collage and digital techniques.”

Whilst my background is in traditional Chinese painting which carries its own skills and theories, I found myself becoming increasingly interested in publication design. This led me internationally from CHina to study here at The Glasgow School of Art on the MDes Communication Design course.

Graphic design for me is an expressive tool to communicate information and it provides me with a clear path to introduce or covey complex ideas and emotions. I believe graphic design cannot always solve problems for everyone but can offer different thoughts and perspectives allowing the on a range of issues.

The 2 years of study at The Glasgow School of Art has allowed me time to observe, research and process and issues that I was not previously familiar with allowing for experimentation with ideas. During this times, I focused on exploring how digital media influence our reading habits and how much it had changed our intake of daily information. The past decade or so has seen a rapid development of information technology has brought great change to our lives. While enjoying the convenience brought by technology, we also suffer from information overload, fragmented reading, and reduced attention. Based on this research and through my outcomes I want to highlight issues that may not have been so obvious to the viewer and I consider a physical publication the ideal vehicle to consider the advantages of paper reading to digital reading.

Having graduated from the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication & Information Design, Qiaojia Song joined the Masters in Communication Design programme at Glasgow School of Art in 2018.

With interests that range from cyber- and youth culture to pop art and feminism, Song’s current work seeks to explore the impact that emerging communication technologies are having on our identities and relationships with one another.

As an undergraduate student, Song’s final year project received an award for excellence and she has exhibited in China, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Suzie Cichy is an illustrator and animator based in Glasgow. As an image-maker Suzie explores themes of gender, censorship and the provocative within her practice. For the last few years this has resulted in focussing on the phallus, and how the male gaze informs reactions to her work. At GSA Suzie has been exploring the ever-growing issue of unsolicited dick pics: something that is rarely discussed, yet happens to over 40% of young British women.

After graduating from the Graphic Arts & Design course at Leeds Metropolitan University, Suzie worked as a graphic designer, before going freelance and working as a print technician and co-operative member at Leeds Print Workshop. Alongside her freelance illustration practice, Suzie works at Print Clan, an open-access textile screen printing studio in Glasgow. She has also completed an internship at Risotto Studio. Suzie is particularly interested in facilitating arts access for disadvantaged communities and groups.

Alessandro Prepi Sot is a highly motivated Italian graduate of The Glasgow School of Art who is deeply interested in editorial and typographic design. For him, graphic design is not a hobby, job or even a love anymore: it’s an obsession. Designing a project means telling a story where the concept is at its core, with nothing left to chance; all details are meticulously attended to and it is hoped projects are timeless but with a degree of tension.

During his two years on the MDes Communication Design course, he has continued experimentation in the field of publication design and production, deepening an existing understanding of layout, materials, printing techniques and bookbinding. During the second year of the course, and in collaboration with fellow course mate Apolline de Luca, he conducted a deep and rigorous investigation in the field of typography which led to the realisation of the DIASPORA typeface. Through this successful collaboration, Alessandro and Appoline have formed GOODEGGS TYPEFOUNDRY, their own type-foundry to continue releasing type related projects.

Alessandro graduated with honours from UNIRSM DESIGN in the San Marino Republic in 2017. He has worked with ROVAIWEBER DESIGN STUDIO (Florence, 2015) and the photographic collective CESURA (Milan, 2017), with a particular focus towards the independent publishing activity of CESURA PUBLISH on which he continues to contribute.

email: alessandro.prepi@gmail.com
instagram: sir_sot
websites: alessandroprepisot.com, goodeggstypefoundry.com

Žarko Dumičić is a graphic designer who is exploring and re-imagining ways we communicate by creating more immersive modes of information exchange through a hybrid of design, sculpture and installation art. Influenced by the Radical and Critical design movements, the work developed as part of the GSA Master’s programme is a reaction to the current social and political environment riddled by misinformation and distrust, as evident by the spread of conspiracy theories and anti-science movements online.

Žarko’s GSA design work encompasses research on the impact of physical dimensionality on graphic design, especially within the field of data visualisation. His primary focus is on experiential and emotional aspects of communication that aim to create a conducive environment for critical thinking. As part of his research he developed a series of sculptural graphic design work constructed out of abstract data, statistics, as well as typography. By grounding communication in a three-dimensional physical form that one can interact with and experience in relation to their body, the work aims to slow down the consumption of information and create a tactile reference of the data presented. The resulting tangible objects and multi-sensory environments engage the audience emotionally and invite them to critically examine the information.

Originally from Zagreb (Croatia), Žarko is an alumnus of Parsons School of Design in New York (USA), was a co-founder and co-director of an award-winning and internationally published design studio in Mumbai (India), and has been selected for an exchange to Tokyo University of the Arts (Japan) during his Master’s studies at the Glasgow School of Art (Scotland). As a result of his international experience, he believes in a global outlook and reach of design that strongly influences his practice. For more projects, images and details of the developed work please visit his portfolio website at zzzzarko.com

Apolline de Luca is a graphic designer who focuses on editorial and type design. During her studies at GSA, she experimented with book design and its components such as printing techniques, book binding, and layout design, working both with clients and for her personal research. Her design practice is research based and she finds interest in telling stories through design creating physical or emotional experiences for the user/reader/viewer.
Alongside her graphic design practice, she specialised in type-design. During her final year at GSA, she designed Diaspora (a display font exploring Italian immigration to Scotland) with her class mate Alessandro Prepi. From this collaboration and love for type-design, they are now launching their own type foundry, GoodEggs TypeFoundry, to release Diaspora and future projects: goodeggstypefoundry.com

For her next steps, she is aiming to expand her practice at the intersection of graphic and type design.

Prior to joining the Glasgow School of Art, she graduated in 2018 from ECV Bordeaux with a Bachelor in Graphic Design. Throughout her studies, she completed several internships as a graphic Designer at Bordeaux’s CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, at Studio Kubik in Bordeaux, and at Glasgow-based studio Cause & Effect. More recently, she was in charge of the design of A New Spirit in Painting, 1981, an art book published in 2020 by Koenig Books, London.

e-mail: apolline.deluca@gmail.com,  hello@goodeggstypefoundry.com
website: apollinedeluca.com, goodeggstypefoundry.com
instagram: apolline.deluca

Leda Bartolucci is a visual designer and storyteller. In her practice, the narrative comes first, allowing her to work with a variety of medium depending on which is more suitable for the message to come across. Her projects include the use of photography, graphic design, illustration, moving image or a combination of the above.

During her studies at The Glasgow School of Art, she researched and consolidated the relationship between activism and her professional practice. Believing in the role of Citizen Designer, she is interested in applying intersectional work ethics to the fields of photography and design.

In 2019, she spent a year documenting climate strikes in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Italy, producing a reportage where pictures are paired with the narration of her intimate take on the events they portray. At the same time, she volunteered as a graphic designer and teamed up with youth strikers to develop environmental campaigns such as the global strikes for climate, both at local and international level.

She was the European winner of the 2019 Wunderman Thompson ‘Helen Lansdowne Resor’ scholarship for female creative students. She is currently working with themes such as the climate crisis, migrants and refugees, human rights and the interdependence of these issues.

My work mainly involves posters, collages, book design and other fields. I am good at hand-making stuff. I love to complete the design through hands-on technology, such as screen printing and laser cutting. As a young visual designer, I want to reflect some social problems through my own effort. For example, one of my projects is about the redesign of waste paper. I have been doing research on the reuse of waste paper, trying a lot and enjoying it very much. I try to make my own paper, make posters with my own paper, make books and other things, and make some installations and books from waste newspapers.

Another project is about collage, because collage is one of the things I am most interested in graphic design. In this project, I explored the difference between East and West about collage in my own way, hoping to have a deeper understanding about collage through the combination of materials, numbers or handicrafts.

Through my Meng degree I have developed both engineering knowledge and design experience, giving me the tools to improve real world problems with future forward thinking.

Striving for sustainability is a big part of my work. Most recently, my masters project focussed on trying to reduce the terrible environmental impact of the livestock agriculture industry by encouraging future generations to eat insects, a much more sustainable form of protein. The result is a unit for primary schools which facilitates the farming and consumption of mealworms in the hopes of destigmatising the consumption of bugs. I like the ‘cradle to cradle’ approach to design and believe that creating circular economies of resources is the best way to reduce our strain on the environment. This approach is most clearly seen in a project where I chose to develop a concept for menstrual cup packaging which was made from recycled plastic tampon applicators.

Other notable projects in my university career include; the design and manufacture of felt hanging plant pots for the GSA shop in which I developed some experience with hand felting and natural dyeing techniques. I was also involved with a live project run by Glasgow City Council aiming to bring Telecare into the 21st century. My team and I were able to design a system of products and sensors allowing adults with profound learning disabilities to be given more independence safely during the night, as well as reducing the cost of their care to the council.

Having completed internships at Jaguar Land Rover and COHESION Medical during my time at university I have been able to gain valuable experience with transferring my knowledge and design process into the professional environment.

I am a MEng Product Design Engineering student who has a strong passion for sustainable design. Outside of my studies, I volunteer with several environmental organisations, applying the skills I have built though my course towards raising awareness of the current climate emergency.

I am an aspiring designer from the Highlands of Scotland. My long-running enthusiasm for making has led to an extensive practical and theoretical skillset which I am continually looking to expand upon. My eagerness has earned me experience in several aspects of design and a good eye for detail.

I am especially passionate about sustainable, timeless, and inclusive design, and I understand the importance of making sure every aspect of my work is carefully thought-out. I have strong interpersonal and teamwork skills with a knack for problem solving and thinking on my feet. Equally comfortable in both the studio and the workshop, I thoroughly enjoy bouncing between software-based work and a more hands-on approach.

As a product design engineering student at the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Glasgow I have acquired a range of skills in the fields of both design and engineering that have been and will continue to be very valuable in my career. The interdisciplinary nature of this degree has provided me with the ability to tackle problems with an open mind and considering a wide range of factors.

Throughout my degree I have also had the opportunity to intern as a product design assistant at SA Equip, a market-leading company in portable Ex equipment for extreme environments, for two consecutive summers. Whilst there I was able to apply and further develop the skills acquired during my studies to industry specific engineering and design problems.

My masters project is a bicycle cleaning and maintenance project in which I have designed a self-contained bike stand and bike mat for indoor use.

Bicycle cleaning and maintenance are essential aspects of owning a bicycle. Performing these tasks without access to appropriate tools, space or infrastructure can be difficult, particularly when living in a flat. Hence, I have developed a self-contained bike stand and bike mat that offers its users a simple, easily stored and easy to use device that eases the process of cleaning and maintaining a bicycle indoors.

A collapsible and extendable bike stand holds the rear wheel of a bike above the ground by supporting the bike using hooks that are placed on the seat stay and chain stay of the bicycle frame. Wheel size variation has been accounted for by offering both stand and hook height adjustment. The surface of the floor is protected by a durable, waterproof mat, dimensioned to accommodate all bicycle sizes. The chosen materials for the components of the product have excellent durability to water and organic solvents, ensuring cleaning solutions used will not cause damage. After use, all components can easily be wiped clean and stored within the base of the product, which in turn fits in a standard-sized cabinet.

I am a final year Product Design Engineering student on the integrated masters program with both the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow School of Art.

The past 5 years, on the Product Design Engineering course, have massively developed my skill set, confidence and creativity in regard to design. Having teaching from both institutions has provided me with both technical engineering-based learning alongside personal creative development and I hope that this is highlighted in my final year project where the aim was to inspire joy in train stations through interactive, rotating platform seating.

Over the span of this project, beginning in September 2019, I progressed through the major design phases to arrive at the final solution. A large amount of time was spent on the Discover phase where I explored what joy and well-being really means to people and more specifically, where it is lacking in our daily lives. I found that a moment of joy can not only be ignited through well designed functionality, i.e. providing a dry seat outdoors, whenever it is needed, but also that joy can be found within a subtle, pleasant touch or playful interaction. Being able to spark a moment of joy into someones day or distract them from the hard realities they may be facing, has the potential to positively impact their general mental wellbeing.

Competing in ‘The Greener Glasgow’ design competition when I was younger sparked my interest in sustainability. Winning 3rd place, it has ignited my passion for incorporating sustainability with design. Furthermore, by being part of a volunteer group working as a Neighbourhood Improvement Volunteer (NIV) for my local area allows me to see the current environmental problems. This has always been the push for my packaging box design in hopes to change waste consumption in the packaging industry.

As a student of design and engineering and an amateur musician, learning has been a large part of my life. Learning is a powerful tool, not only for developing our skills and understanding on a topic, but because it comes with a sense of fulfilment, of self-improvement and of joy.

Particularly with musical learning, I often find myself distracted from the recommended learning routes, instead preferring to experiment and play. It took me at least a year of learning guitar before I attempted to tackle a song from start to finish, instead preferring to improvise within simple scales and chords I had attained in bits and pieces. I find that this method is beneficial, as it allows me to express myself more immediately, and ultimately it builds skills, confidence and familiarity with the instrument and theory. This all contributes towards playing more proficiently, in a round-about way, but in the end my personal goal for learning music is not to replicate any particular piece of music but to enjoy myself and express my creativity. In this way I treat learning as a sort of meditation, where the purpose is to lose myself in experimentation and exploration.

Sound & Colour is a project aimed at the casual learner. Music is traditionally taught with some degree of intensity, and while this is unarguably a route to successful musical proficiency, plenty of joy can be gained from simply exploring sound and developing one’s “musicality”. Taking inspiration from childish play, I wanted to design a product that would allow the user to really play around and mess with music without requiring prior knowledge. I put particular focus on how the user interfaces with the device, I wanted to stray away from traditional layouts and daunting “cryptic” musical notation, providing instead a fresh and intuitive interface and feedback system. I placed importance on musical interval relations, using a regular isomorphic layout to provide logical navigation to allow the user to drift around the “keyboard” discovering these interval relations as they relate to each other geometrically.

This project has allowed me to explore this concept of experimental learning within music through my design and engineering skill set, from user interaction and research to digital and physical prototyping, electronics and coding.

I’m interested in understanding and improving human experiences. I enjoy engaging with people, learning about new things, and problem solving – all of which I hope to continue throughout my career.

My project focuses on improving patient experience following orthognathic (jaw) surgery. After undergoing orthognathic surgery myself two years ago and having experience working in the orthodontic design and technology sector, I identified an opportunity for a patient focused solution which could improve clinical outcomes. The project involved working with patients and collaborating with the maxillofacial department at Glasgow Dental school, as well as members of the Centre for Medical and Industrial Ultrasonics at the University of Glasgow. Support was also awarded from the GU68 engineers trust.

Around 3,500 patients undergo orthognathic procedures in the UK every year. Following surgery there is a period of intermaxillary fixation where the jaws are banded shut. Patients are unable to eat or speak properly, and there is considerable facial pain, swelling and bruising.

Novo is a wearable system which accelerates post-surgical healing. The reusable adhesive patches apply low intensity pulsed ultrasound to the surgical sites, which has been clinically proven to increase bone density and reduce pain. A shortened intermaxillary fixation period enables the patient to get back to normal life sooner.

My Project:

On average 4,400 people visit Scotland’s A+E departments every day, with 25% of A+E patients in Glasgow waiting more than 4 hours for care. As each hour passes waiting in A+E, patients become stressed, restless, bored, anxious and frustrated with very little to occupy their minds.

AQUApod is a kinetic aquarium system, populated by biomimetic magnetic fish, designed to improve the physical and mental well-being of A+E users. By bringing an element of nature inside the A+E environment, the modular system engages patients passively or actively, by occupying their minds and positively distracting them while waiting. Passively observing the movement of the fish through water, like real aquariums induces a biophilic response shown to reduce heart rate and blood pressure. The subtle relaxing colours, refracting through the water promote a calming environment to negate user stresses.

The project was awarded support from the GU68 Engineers Trust.

About Me:

From building robotic beer taps in Turkey to designing solutions improving efficiency in industrial power systems in China, I have been involved in a variety of projects across the world, involving diverse teams, different cultures and unique challenges. I enjoy the challenge of developing innovative solutions and thrive during collaborative work.

In addition to my study commitments I have volunteered as part of a small team designing, printing and fitting a custom elbow driven prosthetic for a young boy in Glasgow.

I am also passionate about promoting equality within STEM. This year I was President of the Female Engineering Society at the University of Glasgow; responsible for overseeing and organising events for around 100 members. We work to promote interest in engineering subjects for young people, in particular females, as they are underrepresented in the faculty.

I’m excited to develop and learn new skills within the industry, with the possibility of positively impacting upon the world through engineering and design.

Sarisa Leelayouthyotin is a BEng Product Design Engineering graduate. Her final project, Communicare aims to integrate technology into healthcare.

Communicare aims to provide an effective meltdown and shutdown prevention system for autistic children through modular 3-lead ECG monitoring and stress analysis. It connects the ECG wearables to the caregivers’ devices, allowing them to detect the upcoming meltdown and shutdown, in order to provide the right support at the right time.

Architectural materials, structures and colours, in a predominantly urban setting, represent the starting point of my design process. From these initial observations, of geometric shapes, repetition, pattern and line, I construct experimental, digital schemes for transfer to 3-D model making, first in paper and then in metal. The resulting jewellery designs reflect these architectonic influences, objects of wearable pieces that constitute a human-scale relationship to the urban environment. My work continues to explore these dimensions; how we model our environs and how, in turn, these shape us.

The use of ephemeral materials for recording sound registers internally within us as they are signifiers of its impermanence. My project aims to provide a new way of preserving a memory on a precious metal. My work focuses on music and sound’s ability to provoke memories. To create a piece of jewellery that can effectively engage one in an audible way as well as in a visual way. I wanted to create a series of objects which elevates the audio and visual experience and which has the capacity to preserve a memory in precious metal. In order to do this I created a musical box where two detachable wearable rings replace the main tumbler in the mechanism.
For a series of ring boxes that could represent sound I looked at experimental forms of musical notation, specifically the work of Raoul Auger Feuillet. I then designed a three dimensional notation system through the form of finial tops.

Alice is a multi-award-winning jeweller and silversmith who celebrates the chaotic beauty of crystal and mineral formations through the medium of metal. Trained in both traditional and contemporary fields of metalwork and design, Alice’s work re-imagines rare mineral specimens as functional jewellery and objects, without depleting precious resources.
To create these rock-like textures and forms, Alice uses ancient techniques of chasing and repoussé. Alongside developing this technique, she has spent much time studying the effects of incredible metals, titanium and niobium, that provide bursts of colour to her jewellery designs, using the modern technique of anodising. Now acknowledged as her specialism, she is one of only a handful of metalworkers in the UK working with niobium. From 2020-2021, Alice will be studying at Bishopsland Educational Trust, a prestigious residential course specialising in ancient crafts of jewellery and silversmithing.
If you would like to discuss a commission, please use the links below to contact me.

Jiayang Xie work as a jewellery designer and maker is concerned with the intercultural meanings of traditional Chinese and Japanese art. In 2019, she created designs for Splendour, an exhibition and performance, commissioned by the Royal Museums Greenwich, London, as part of the celebrations commemorating the Armada Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. This work was also shown at the Queen’s House, Greenwich, London, in 2019. In 2020, she contributed works to the Goldsmith’s Craft and Design Council Exhibition and the Growth & Evolution Jewellery show. She intend to continue her research into established techniques of art and design from China and Japan, blending these with contemporary, conceptual works in future practice.

This collection investigates traditional Chinese and Japanese art, which share a vibrant, natural, floating line and a form of beauty in established patterns; and importantly a unique understanding of space. Transforming these ideas into the designs, the jewellery pieces for this collection are statements that can shed light on these conventional approaches to aesthetics in decorative objects. Each piece is intended as a translation of these methods, of the intimate connections between the human body as both vessel and wearer. The language of traditional techniques (especially filigree) are used in these designs in order to develop and explore the interaction of space and decoration in a different approach to contemporary studio art and design.

All design is available for commission.