This year’s RCA exhibition found itself split in two parts – the artists (who stayed in the main building on the campus) and the designers who were packed into a tent across the road in Hyde Park. Here are a few snaps from both.
The architecture department is surprisingly small with only 20 or so students (most London schools have 100+ students per postgraduate course).
Headed by Nigel Coates, here is the schools ethos and arragement in their own words…
“Rather than simply evolving the norms of architecture style, our students design spaces that work in a dynamic way with what happens in them. Each of this year’s three Architectural Design Studios (ADS) has also put forward a theme that relates the physical form of the city to prevailing ethical issues. For example with Taglia Unica, ADS1 is asking what kind of architecture stems from the contradictions inherent in globalisation, and proposes a number of global programmes along the Thames; ADS2’s Delirious Hi-rise speculates on the effect that brands might have on specific typologies of high-rise architecture; and in response to the government SOCRA exclusion zone around Parliament, with War ADS4 explores how to accommodate the kind of highly specific communities that may want to live in this area.”
Elsewhere in the tent, the vehicle designers had the usual futuristic super-smooth aero-dymaic cars. However, the star of the show was a full-sized helicopter – impressive indeed. From the furniture designers, David Sutton, had an impressive set of bowls that were “digitally recreating the fractal growth patterns of natural phenomena such as lightning and snowflakes” (from Dezeen).
In the main building the artists showcased some of the usual splashes of paint, though the photographers possibly stole the show this year. Here are some of my favourites.
Hyan-Ah Cho with stunning shots of natural settings:
Patricia Chan with Seven days of Light Theraphy:
Simon Ward with some scaryish-scanned teddies:
You can see and read a bit more at the RCA 2007 online catalogue, whilst the photography graduates have a dedicated website here.
