Hasta La Ideas

Royal College of Art graduate Chang-Yeob Lee has developed a concept to transform the BT Tower in London into a pollution-harvesting high rise (+ movie).

Entitled Synth[e]tech[e]cology, the project predicts the eventual redundancy of the 189-metre tower – currently used for telecommunications – and suggests repurposing it as an eco-skyscraper that collects airborne dirt particles and helps to reduce the level of respiratory illness in London.

The process would involve extracting the carbon from petrol fumes and using it to produce sustainable bio-fuel.

“The project is about a new infrastructure gathering resources from pollutants in the city atmosphere, which could be another valuable commodity in the age of depleting resources,” says Chang-Yeob Lee.

Lee describes his proposal as “a hybrid between a vertical oil field and laboratory for future resources”. The exterior of the tower would form a giant eco-catalytic converter, while the interior would house a research facility investigating methods of increasing air movement and maximising the efficiency of the structure.

Similar structures could also be fitted to other unused high rises to create a network of pollution-reducing architecture.

Referencing a quote from architect Buckminster Fuller, Lee says: “Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value.” He adds: “Pollution could be another economy”.

Synth[e]tech[e]cology is Lee’s diploma project from the architecture programme at the Royal College of Art in London and he was one of two winners of the Student Prize for Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts‘ Summer Exhibition.

Other projects from this year’s RCA graduates include bristly headdresses made from colourful plastic spikes and bicycle helmets made from old newspapers. See more projects by 2013 graduates.

Other conceptual skyscrapers we’ve featured include a building that would produce energy and clean water from algae, a tower constructed from rubbish and a hairy skyscraper that functions as a wind farm. See more conceptual architecture.

Here are a few words from Chang-Yeob Lee:

Synth[e]tech[e]cology _ Greenhouse Gas to Economic Asset

“Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

Harnessing advancements of various particle-capturing technologies, this project envisions that air pollution as a valuable commodity in an age of depleting resources. The scheme utilises the Post Office Tower adjacent to Marylebone Road, one of London’s most polluted areas, as a hybrid between a vertical oil field and laboratory for future resources scrubbed from the atmosphere.

The project aims to show how hybrizided new infrastructure can gather pollutants, store, digest, and harvest them to dilute minerals and biofules, celebrating clean air process on the ground level. The ultimate ambition of the project is to be deployed as a retro-fitting strategy to tall unused or derelicy buildings in London, showing that alternative routes to ‘economic profit’ meaningfully engaged into pollution can be a provocative strategy for ‘sustainable ecology’.

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by Chang-Yeob Lee appeared first on Dezeen.

News: London’s Royal College of Art has announced that designer Tord Boontje will leave his post as head of the Design Products course at the end of September after four years in charge.

In a statement released by the Royal College of Art, Tord Boontje explained that he’s stepping down in order to focus on his own design studio.

“It has… become increasingly difficult to combine the role with running my own design studio, engaged as we are with numerous international projects and activities. As this requires all my focus at the moment, I have decided it is time to halt my academic activities after four very successful years,” he said.

The news comes as the college’s annual Show RCA exhibition of work by graduates opens to the public today. The Royal College of Art says it will now begin the search for Boontje’s replacement.

Boontje took over from Ron Arad as head of Design Products in 2009, though many expected the role to go to fellow Dutchman Jurgen Bey.

Boontje gained his MA in Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art and returned in 2000 as a tutor on the Design Products course, where he taught for four years before moving to France to establish his studio there. He opened a shop at his studio in Hackney, east London, in 2012.

At last year’s RCA graduate show, Dezeen filmed a tour of the Design Products graduate work with Boontje . In Milan the previous year, he gave us a tour of the college’s show Intent and told us about trends affecting young designers.

See more stories about Tord Boontje »
See more stories about the Royla College of Art »

Here’s some more information from the Royal College of Art:

Head of Design Products Tord Boontje announced today that he is to leave the Royal College of Art at the end of September 2013

Appointed in September 2009, Professor Tord Boontje has led the Design Products department at the RCA for the last four years. Born in Enschede in the Netherlands in 1968, Boontje studied industrial design first at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and then at the Royal College of Art, where he received his MA in Industrial Design. Following graduation he set up his eponymous design company, Studio Tord Boontje. In 2000, Boontje returned to the College, this time as tutor in Design Products, teaching for four years before moving to France in order to establish his studio there. After 15 years – bringing his design career full circle – Boontje returned again to the RCA, this time as Head of Design Products programme, replacing Ron Arad.

During his tenure leading the world renowned department, Boontje strengthened its academic reputation by raising support for research. Along with increased student recruitment, he also increased the size of the department’s academic and technical teams. Commenting on his time at the College, Boontje said:

“It has been an amazing experience and a great pleasure to lead Design Products for the last four years; I’ve been lucky enough to work with incredibly talented and committed colleagues and students. It has however become increasingly difficult to combine the role with running my own design studio, engaged as we are with numerous international projects and activities. As this requires all my focus at the moment, I have decided it is time to halt my academic activities after four very successful years.’

Dr Paul Thompson, Rector of the Royal College of Art added:

“Tord’s tenure as Professor has been characterised by challenging and thought-provoking briefs, notably around new materials and sustainability. As a Professor, Tord has shown great sensitivity, generosity of spirit and openness towards his students. He has grown the MA programme, engaged an interesting and diverse range of faculty and been a great colleague to work with. We’ll miss him a lot, but wish him and Emma Woffenden every success with their studios.”

The College will undertake an international search to find a new Head of Design Products. The RCA graduate show, including the work of Boontje’s Design Products students, opened today in Kensington. This will be Boontje’s last graduate show as Head of programme.

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Plump pastel silicone garments moulded from knitwear feature in this collection by Royal College of Art graduate Xiao Li.

The marshmallow-coloured range features silhouettes exaggerated with puffed-up skirts and sleeves that billow from midway down the upper arm.

“Traditional knitwear is more soft and shapeless,” Li told Dezeen. “I wanted to find out a new way to present knitwear and was influenced by Modern architecture and 60s Balenciaga.”

The voluminous pieces are made from spacer fabric, which combines two layers of textiles connected by filaments and holds its shape while still appearing lightweight.

Li used her own knitting samples to create moulds to produced patterned silicone material used entirely for a jacket and skirt, and as hems or accessories for genuine knitted items. “I wanted to make sure my collection is innovative but still wearable,” she said.

She swapped the fluorescent colours of her earlier work for more muted shades, affiliating lilac, peach, mint green and pale yellow.

“All the materials came in white and I dyed them by myself to match the colour,” said Li.

Her collection was shown at the Royal College of Art fashion show last week, where Maiko Takeda presented headdresses covered in hundreds of colourful bristles.

At the Westminster graduate fashion show Philli Wood revealed giant cable knit patterns printed onto oversized outerwear.

See more projects by students from the Royal College of Art »
See more fashion design »

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by Xiao Li appeared first on Dezeen.

A group of students from the Royal College of Art in London has developed headsets that allow the wearer to adjust their sight and hearing in the same way they’d control the settings on a TV or radio (+ movie).

The Eidos equipment was developed to enhance sensory perception by tuning in to specific sounds or images amongst a barrage of sonic and visual information, then applying effects to enhance the important ones.

“We’ve found that while we experience the world as many overlapping signals, we can use technology to first isolate and then amplify the one we want,” say the designers.

The first device is a mask that fits over the mouth and ears to let the wearer hear speech more selectively. A directional microphone captures the audio, which is processed by software to neutralise background noise.

It’s then transmitted to the listener through headphones and a central mouthpiece, which passes the isolated sound directly to the inner ear via bone vibrations. “This creates the unique sensation of hearing someone talk right inside your head,” they say.

The second device fits over the eyes and applies special effects – like those seen in long-exposure photography – to what the wearer is seeing in real-time. A head-mounted camera captures the imagery and sends it to a computer, where it’s processed by custom software to detect and overlay movement.

It’s then played to the wearer inside the headset, allowing them to see patterns and traces of movement that would normally be undetectable.

Possible applications could include sports, allowing teams to visualise and improve technique in real time, and performing arts where effects normally limited to video could be applied to live performance.

The audio equipment could enable concert-goers to enhance specific elements of a band or orchestra. The designers also suggest that filtering out distracting background noise could improve focus in the classroom for children with ADHD and assist elderly people as their natural hearing ability deteriorates.

Two prototypes styled with faceted surfaces and graduated perforations were presented at the Work in Progress exhibition at the Royal College of Art earlier this year. “Our final objects convey the mixing of digital technology with the organic human body,” explain the team.

The Eidos team includes students Tim Bouckley, Millie Clive-Smith, Mi Eun Kim and Yuta Sugawara.

Other projects about enhancing sensory perception on Dezeen include cutlery shaped to stimulate diners’ full range of senses and alter the taste of food, and masks that let the wearer experience the world from the perspective of different animals.

Other wearable technology we’re reported on includes a camera that automatically photographs moments of your life that are worth remembering and the Google Glass headset that overlays what you’re seeing with information from the internet.

See more wearable technology »
See more masks »
See more projects from the Royal College of Art »

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Mi Eun Kim and Yuta Sugawara appeared first on Dezeen.

Three Royal College of Art architecture graduates have used stripped scaffolding boards and reclaimed parquet flooring to create a wooden cafe at the school’s Battersea campus in south London (+ slideshow).

Tom Surman, Joseph Deane and Percy Weston were approached shortly after graduating to upgrade the tuck shop at one of the RCA’s old buildings, which was too small to accommodate the extra students brought by the recent opening of the Dyson Building for photography and print-making.

They instead moved the cafe to a former seminar room, where they tore down the existing suspended ceiling and constructed a wooden framework around the walls.

“The cafe is conceived as a playful timber box inside a large concrete and steel shell,” Surman told Dezeen. ”We made the entire structure from ripped-down scaffolding boards and we refined them until they were almost unrecognisable.”

The designers laid the reclaimed parquet flooring by hand and sanded it down to remove most but not all of the leftover markings. “The nice thing about having an incredibly tight budget was we learnt to do stuff with our hands,” said Surman.

The cafe counter is separated behind another wall of wood, while the dining area is furnished with mismatched classroom chairs and wooden tables.

“It’s a very playful project, intended to reflect the slightly obscure nature of the sculpture department next door,” added Surman. “In this building, anything too precious starts to look terrible after a couple of weeks.”

The team designed and installed the entire project in just three months and have since launched their own studio named Weston Surman & Deane.

The Royal College of Art‘s main building is located in South Kensington, but the school has been gradually expanding its Battersea campus in recent years with the opening of the Dyson Building and the Sackler Building that houses the painting department.

See more stories about the RCA »

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