Ten of Regent’s University London’s recent BA (Hons) Interior Design graduates had their final design projects showcased at the IE Summer Show 2019, the UK’s largest and only collective exhibition of the best work produced by 2019 graduates from national courses.
Held at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, Martina Bazzoni, Emilie Carr, Rohit Chavda, Alena Covey, Olga Donica, Aly El Naggar, Eva Juhasz Gehlot, Mahsa Rastegar Saadi, Bhavika Singla and Mia Tsujimura Hjaere displayed their interpretation of Traveller’s Tales – an exploration of the notion of journey through a series of design projects.
Using the Regent’s Canal as their navigation system, they travelled east from Regent’s, capturing, distilling and recording the qualities and beauty of this 13.2km long hidden waterway, collecting fragments of history, social and urban meaning, and creating bold and beautiful interventions on their journey.
In the first term students worked with the London Canal Museum to re-think, re-organise and re-invent their Wunderkammer of memorabilia, historical knowledge and information.
Whilst the Canal Museum projects focussed on ideas of movement and temporality, the students’ final project, displayed in this exhibition, considered concepts of arrival, destination, the end of the journey, a place to rest and dream and listen to the traveller’s tales.
The site is Holborn Studios, a complex of warehouses with a colourful history of movies and film making. Each building programme has been developed by the students around the themes of Accommodate and Activate, and based on research into the site, the wider social or historic context or topics explored in their dissertations.
The result is a plethora of design proposals, each one reflecting and completing the student’s personal journeys through the course.
Rohit Chavda looked at creative healing – a project which explored how ecotherapy and dramatherapy can be used together to help children and teenagers to deal with mental health problems, while Mia Tsujimura Hjaere designed a waste lab of the future, envisioning a world where waste doesn’t exist anymore, and looking at waste as a resource to use as something that is already available.
Read the full exploration of Traveller’s Tales proposals here.
Sophie Ungerer, module leader for final year design projects, commented: ‘It was great to see our recent Interior Design graduates proudly display their final mayor projects at the IE Summer show, which showcases the best work produced by graduates within Interior Design & Architecture all over the UK.
‘The show was a good opportunity for students to expose their work to industry guests – and to celebrate their achievements at the opening party!’