Core77

Salone Milan 2012: RISD Furniture Design Presents "Transformations" at Ventura Lambrate

By Ray Hu - May 10, 2012

in Salone Milan | Design Festivals

It seems that every time I write about any of the booths we saw at Ventura Lambrate, I feel the need to mention how consistent the student work was this year. The students in RISD's Furniture Design program opted for a particularly restrictive theme to their exhibition: "The exhibition 'Transformations' showcases the concept of utilizing iconic everyday items outside their known applications. By taking these everyday items out of their normal contexts, they are transformed into unexpected objects with altered meaning."

Scot Bailey's (MFA '12) telescoping "Cup Light" allows the user to control the brightness by extending the cups on either end

It's not necessarily a new idea, but the sheer variety and quality of the eight works that the Furniture Design department exhibited in Milan—selected by Project Leader Lothar Windels and the furniture design faculty—illustrates the design talent at the Providence, RI art school.The objects in this exhibition should be viewed as thoughtful prototypes. Through a rigorous research process, students explored iconic everyday items beyond their conventional use to create innovative furniture, lighting fixtures and objects. These explorations are pushing the boundaries of design and questioning the common marketplace.

Tyson Atwell's (MFA '12) striking "Terra Lights" consists of 190 mini-pots attached to a flat-packable steel frame

We'd previously recognized Taylor McKenzie-Veal's work (vicariously through last year's Core77 Design Awards jury team for the Furniture/Lighting category): his "Fl.int." table garnered a student notable. His project for "Transformations" was a series of upcycled coin banks, entitled "This Little Piggy."