The Royal College of Art presents its biggest programme of exhibitions to date as part of this year’s London Design Festival, bringing together seven exhibitions that reflect the incredible diversity and depth of innovative design thinking from the world’s most renowned postgraduate art and design university.
Open 10am–5.30pm daily.
The Design Products Collection – Entrance Gallery
This exhibition launches The Design Products Collection, exclusively created by graduates and staff associated with the RCA Design Products Department and made available commercially for the very first time. The intention of the Collection is to present more widely the wealth of creative ideas within the Department.
Sustain – Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
Sustain brings together sustainable practice from across the art and design disciplines of the RCA, in a unique exhibition that showcases objects, thinking and solutions to issues and arguments in the ever-more-complex arena of sustainability. From nutshell jewellery to life-changing solutions to global water shortages, from a mobile chai trolley to re-using textile waste to reduce landfill, RCA graduates demonstrate the 'systems'-thinking creativity of cross-disciplinary practice that is unique to the world's most influential postgraduate art and design school.
Guzzini & IDE – Upper Gulbenkian Gallery
The collaboration of Innovation Design Engineering with Italian design company Guzzini resulted in two unique projects. Bin 2 Bin explores integrating cyclical sustainable materials for use in domestic consumer products. The designers had to consider sustainable materials lifecycle, consumer education, then produce a bin made from recycled materials. The second project, Space Hotel, tasked students with developing concepts for space tourists of the future, considering physical and psychological aspects such as eating and lighting in extreme micro-gravity conditions.
The Lives of Others – Seminar Room 1
The 2010 Helen Hamlyn Research Associates exhibition will feature eleven collaborative projects led by thirteen new design graduates of the RCA, working with a range of industry, government and voluntary sector partners. The Research Associates develop live industry projects resulting in new thinking, products and services in relation to inclusive design, design for patient safety and workplace design - the three core research themes of the Helen Hamlyn Centre.
Future Ambulance – Seminar Room 2
This collaboration between the RCA Vehicle Design Department and the Helen Hamlyn Centre supported by NHS London, shows a work in progress redesign for the interior of an Accident & Emergency ambulance. The exhibit will feature a full size replica of the new design proposal.
White Feast – Seminar Room 3
Seven groups of students from Innovation Design Engineering, Fashion, Textiles and Vehicle Design worked in cross-department teams to a brief set by BlackBerry® and the Helen Hamlyn Centre. The project aims to create a range of design proposals in which technology acts to significantly improve communication, with a focus on the body and lifestyle.
22–26 September: Cut To Fit – Hockney Gallery, Stevens Building
Cut To Fit showcases the work of three designers Catherine Aitken, Eva Malschaert and Hannah Sabapathy, all studying Textiles at the College. In its diversity, the work on show frequently stretches the perceived confines of the discipline, questioning where the boundaries of textile design lie. Often done in an inquisitive or playful way, there is an emphasis on both materials and on an exploratory approach to making.
Wednesday–Friday 10am–6pm, Saturday 1–6pm, Sunday 1–5pm