Modulor sodium glutamate

During my week over in Berlin recently we were taken to Modulor, Berlin's mouth watering material shop, it has everything, all disciplines catered for, graphics, 3D, textiles, architectural, it is quite amazing and relatively cheap I left a snail like trail of saliva behind me. They ship to England!

www.modulor.de

Behave!

An early summer tart of asparagus and pea, delightful! Chris, you missed out!

Internships

It has been quite sometime since I posted last, but many aspects have progressed. Part of my BA Design course requires a compulsory 6 week internship comprised of either one or many. I have currently secured two and a teaching stint at a school in North London. The first placement is quite a  interesting and unique opportunity as initially I was keen to work for a relatively large, renowned company to witness the cogs of success. Large planning and architectural firms were my initial channel but was unexpectedly put in contact with a sculptor named John Cierach, who currently owns a series of unique sites in Creekside, Deptford on which he wants to develop for creative purposes. Project management, research and model making are all aspect to be included.

Immediately striking me as exciting, a public centred project, creative, low key whilst remaining at root level in a slowly developing neck of London certainly ticked the boxes, so at present I am working on this, the development of which can be followed on my dedicated blog: 

Creeksidecontainers.blogspot.com

The second placement I am currently is with &made, a past duo from BA Design, Goldsmiths who graduated a few years back and now run their own small furniture studio down on Creekside, Deptford. Now well established they have work featured in Liberties, the MoMa in NYC and are quite the gents. They design with a sustainable and environmentally aware conscience and have some wonderful pieces, from tables, chairs, exhibitions and small products they certainly have a healthy repertoire, with many more in the pipeline. There is no specific blog to document my placement here so I shall be keeping tabs on it here. My main duties here are product development, model making, material, production research and other odds and sods, the work has been great so far.

Thanks from the woods

Late I know, but I just wanted to post thanks for all that came to fish bbq in the woods. It was indeed a delight, a plethora of fish, all fresh that day from Billingsgate fish market, mussels, salmon, mackerel, squid, sardines and sea bass all grilled with streams of lemon juice, herbs and french bread all enjoyed on Forest Hills Forest floor, beautiful. 

One thing I have been pondering since this little event, inspired by the reactions of those who attended, is ways in which I could potentially bring this experience to the masses. Witnessing enjoyment on that level was particularly inspiring. What avenues are here for me to exploit though that is the question. 

Stop me and buy one

At last, it has been purchased! I've had my eye on this baby for a while: a vintage 'Stop me and buy one' Pashley ice cream tricycle and what a beauty she is, a few rusty patches only add to it is charm. The idea to pick this up originally stemmed from the desire to sell ice-cream during our 3rd year Design Cafe (which is used to raise funds for our degree show) but, me and Chris have decided to take on the big boys and are presently investigating ways of potentially producing our own so we are sampling as much ice-cream as humanly possible, we have discovered some absolutely gems so far. We have put up a flavor wall in the kitchen to jot down flavors as and when they spring to mind. Our repertoire so far includes:

- Vanilla, of course

- Espresso and vanilla

- Passion fruit and meringue

Concrete aggregate

I have just written an essay on the mass demolition of concrete prefab council estates country wide regarding the discarding of invested energy and material that goes into constructing such estates. For example 3 football pitches full of waste would have accrued if the Park Hill estate (1000 flats) in Sheffield had not been decidedly redeveloped of recent, wasting 3 weeks continuous output from a power station. So with 1.0 to 1.2 million tonnes of demolition waste amassing annually, this project was a rather welcome find. Singaporean designers have developed a process to recycle aggregate concrete into various applications, further contributing to a more sustainable built environment.  

I am very keen to start experimenting with concrete as a material and have seemingly be saying so for too long, I must act. Concrete, though controversial, its possibly my most favorite, quite a statement but due to its emotionally received complexity: volatile, looming, intimidating, masculine, dominating, beautiful, cool, calm, straight talking, purposeful, austere, ugly, harsh and foreboding.

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/5839/recycled-aggregate-concrete-street-furniture-by-cilicon-faytory.html

The Age of Stupid. Stupid!

For the release of Franny Armstrong's The Age of Stupid (out in cinema's on March 30th), a documentary featuring Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055 looking back at old footage from 2008 asking why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance, I aided the construction of a series of chairs for VIP's at the the premiere in Leicester Sq from recycled newspapers. Rolled up, taped, bundled into rigid blocks and then assembled, the chairs were a simple and effective solution to the brief.