Case Study: Carla Imbimbo, Post-Graduate Student Project, MA Interior Design, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design 2009



Carla Imbimbo's ExHIBIT
created for MA Interior Design, Post Graduate Student Project



Carla Imbimbo completed her MA Interior Design last year from the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design having also taken her BA Interior Design there. 

Together with fellow post graduates from the MA Interior and Product Design course - Rita Semedo and Thomas Slack, they have recently formed a new business, Cubed³ based at the Custard Factory.  They moved into their new Studio within the past week where they are fortunate to already be involved in some exciting projects.

Carla’s post graduate student project, entitled, ‘ExHIBIT’ was a graphic and print installation – an idea taken, says Carla, “ from her thesis on ‘negative spaces’ – the idea of exploring the spaces between buildings and turning empty spaces into creative solutions.”

 

Paradise Circus floor plan, Proposed Location for ExHIBIT



In developing this idea Carla looked at the empty space in Paradise Forum in Birmingham with the aim of turning it into a positive space for Arts and the Creative Leisure sector. 

This was an empty transitional space through the Central Library of Birmingham, linking Chamberlain and Centenary Squares. 

However this transitional space was nonetheless attracting 12m footfall annually with close proximity to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, ICC, Town Hall, Brindley Place, Mailbox, New Street and Snow Hill Stations.

The Leisure sector is substantial within Birmingham, representing the arts, culture and creative sectors.  8000 people are employed in Birmingham’s Art sector and 70% of these people are based locally; within this, designers account for £67m turnover annually.

Carla’s idea was to create ‘ExHIBIT’ as an exhibition space erected within the currently empty transitional space to exhibit graphic, print and design inspirations for commission and order either for personal or business purposes.

Carla looked at other businesses with similar models or approaches, such as ‘Created in Birmingham’ showcasing 329 local artists and selling £40k worth during its brief 3 month lifespan.

Carla also examined other artists internationally - such as Swedish artist Hanna Werner; the Green Void installation by LAVA Architects in Australia, installed in the Customs House Atrium in Sydney, as well as Electroland a project of luminous LED tiles, installed by designers Damon Seeley and Cameron McNall. 

Detail EXHIBIT installation -
retail space and display

Through these Carla was able to learn lessons from their experiences as well as profiling the likely target market for her ExHIBIT graphic and print retail space.




Young designers, artists and design students were seen as the target market aged 23-32 years old taking inspiration from other designers and purchasing individual one-off items that could not be found anywhere else.

Her ExHIBIT retail space was to be erected within the structure housing the current Library of Birmingham, designed by John Madin Design Group in the Brutalist style using concrete, glass and steel with the last Culture Minister having ruled out a listing and with demolition due to commence in 2013.

Carla wanted to create the ExHIBIT retail space to last until the proposed demolition enabling graphic artists and designers to display digital images on the floor of new and existing graphic designers and talent as an interactive walk through, with the option to buy work on the top floor of the designed ExHIBIT area.

 


Inspiration for ExHIBIT came from the walk patterns
of visitors walking through Paradise Forum

 

“In creating ‘ExHIBIT’ I wanted to get away from a traditional approach to gallery space – white walls with work on display.  The inspiration for the exhibition space came from the site itself and the walk patterns of the existing users.

“By simplifying, connecting and overlapping these patterns and I was able to use these to create the steel coated structures that formed the walls of the elevated display and retail area above the digital display area. 

"To understand the conceptual element of any design you need to appreciate the balance between the idea for the design and the need to make it functional.

“Models of these ideas have been built – full size mock ups – 1800 x 11mm.  The project covers the final zoning and how people would interact with the displays and the products.  Technical details include floor structure, ExHIBIT pins to explain ground floor displays and any interior furnishings required.”



EXHIBIT installation showing
ground floor digital interactive display area
upper retail displays





 

EXHIBIT installation - retail space display


http://www.cubed3studio.co.uk/





Design Students produce 'Accessories' range for Triumph Motorcycles

Triumph Motorcycles 'Accessories' Preview Show Designed by MA Product Design Students
Exhibited at Aedas, Colmore Plaza, Birmingham

Thursday 16 December 2010, 6pm




A selection of work by MA Product Design Students,
Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
for Triumph Motorcycles

 


























MA Product Design Students at the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design have produced a stunning collection of prototype accessories as part of a collaborative student project working with Triumph Motorcycles. 


Students have drawn design inspiration from the Triumph brand and design heritage based on components from the Triumph Bonneville T100.


The project has been co-ordinated by Course Director, Graham Powell who has also developed collaborative student projects with other leading branded companies including M&S, Cadbury, Aga, Pashley Cycles, Denby and Richard Burbidge.

The special collection of eighteen alternative lifestyle 'Accessories' for Triumph will be exhibited by Aedas at Colmore Plaza Birmingham with a Preview Show taking place on Thursday 16th December.

Research for the project involved a tour of Triumph's factory in Hinckley, Leicestershire in October accompanied by presentations from senior design and engineering staff.

Students gained a firsthand appreciation of how this highly successful company operates its design, engineering, clothing and merchandise departments, along with its efficient and flexible production facility.

The students were tasked with researching the commercial context and markets that Triumph operates within, along with their successful strategic design policies.

Alongside the iconic motorcycle itself, 18 creative proposals for alternative lifestyle accessories, supporting posters and documentary style reportage, make up this exciting collaborative exhibition. On show will be furniture, cookware, household appliances, audio equipment and even pet toys.

Key senior management from all three organisations are expected to attend the preview Show.

A work placement opportunity will be awarded to one prize winner based at Triumph and chosen by a selection panel from the company.

Triumph T-100

About Triumph

First established in 1902 and now based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, Triumph Motorcycles is currently the fastest growing motorcycle brand in the world. For over a decade Triumph has  produced  iconic  bikes  which  perfectly  blend  design,  character,  charisma  and  performance.

Producing  around  50,000  bikes  per  year,  Triumph  is  the  largest  British  automotive manufacturer in the country.

At the heart of Triumph’s philosophy is a commitment to developing truly unique motorcycles that offer a blend of distinctive design, intuitive handling and performance.   The innovation and engineering passion that gave birth to the iconic Bonneville of the 60’s has today created a broad range of bikes suited to all motorcycle riders, including the striking 2.3 litre Rocket III, the unmistakable Speed Triple and the powerful Daytona 675.

In recent years it is the Daytona 675 that has enabled Triumph to truly stamp its mark on the modern motorcycle landscape, a proven class leader in the field. After winning the Supertest ‘King  of  the  Supersport’  crown  for  four  successive  years  the  Daytona’s  status  has  been further  enhanced  with  the  MAP  Embassy  Triumph  team’s  victory  in  the  2008  British Supersport Championship. 

With an impressive 2010 product portfolio in place, including significant updates to existing best-selling bikes and striking new models like the Tiger 800 and Tiger 800XC, Triumph is set to continue to enhance its status in the marketplace.

Triumph currently employs around twelve hundred personnel worldwide and has offices in the UK,  America,  France,  Germany,  Italy,  Japan,  Sweden  and  Benelux,  plus  a  network  of independent distributors.  Triumph has manufacturing facilities in Hinckley, Leicestershire and Thailand. 

Visit www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk

 


Graham Powell, Course Director, MA Product Design
Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
Birmingham City University

 Graham Powell, Course Director, MA Product Design, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, Birmingham City University

Course Director of MA Product Design programme at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (part of Birmingham City University), one of the UK's top post graduate Product Design courses attracting students from all around the world with a focus on 'Conceptual Realism' as its USP.

For more information contact Graham on graham.powell@bcu.ac.uk

Graham Powell also taught at:
The Royal College of Art (2002-2005)
Central Saint Martins (2002-2004)
Aston University (2001-2003)

Founder of Guinea Pig Design (Ltd) -  2001 to present.
Conceptual product design concepts (electronica) that challenge existing expectations. Exhibited and published internationally.
More information at http://www.guineapigdesign.com

Graham completed a Technician (Electrical/Electronic) Apprenticeship at GEC Measurements (Stafford) - 1982-1986
Graduated from Wolverhampton Polytechnic - 3D Design - 1990
Graduated from the Royal College of Art - Industrial Design Engineering - 1995
Design Engineer at Dyson (vacuum cleaners) - 1995-1996
Design Manager at Babysphere (pushchairs) 1996-1999
Head of Product Design & Development at Mathmos (ambient lighting)1999-2001

Glenn Howells - Landmark Cities: Birmingham has huge opportunity to get it right



Glenn Howells, Glenn Howells Architects

"Freeform, organic and creative" is how Glenn Howells describes their approach to architecture.


"Culturally we're very different - we work very well when we stumble upon the looser connections."

It's clearly an approach that's been working - Glenn Howells Architects is 20 years old employing over 100 people across two offices in Birmingham and London.




"Our approach is to think of design as being positively bi-polar - simultaneously thinking of the micro and the macro to reach structures that are very rich. By considering the components of any design very early we're able to come up with organic designs where small elements can inform the larger form.


"We don't pursue the idea of having a masterstroke for the shape of a building that informs the inside. We start thinking smaller and allow a larger shape to come out of this. 'Form out of process' is the key.

"We're also very interested in what makes up the component materials - whether these are wood, plastic, concrete or anything else. Understanding our materials is very important to us. Otherwise we are in danger of losing the authentic elements of strong language going through the buildings.

"We've never really done landmark signature buildings....few of these buildings are part of the bigger picture and we don't work in isolation. A dimension that is often not mentioned in an architectural design brief is 'time' - perhaps we can be building for 200-300 years hence and most buildings should be multi-valent, that is making connections so they can be used in different ways. For example our own building here, it's not that beautiful from the exterior but it has huge flexibility of use.

"If we keep doing what we have been doing here in Birmingham: building and then de-constructing to build again then we will end up with something very ragged, with nothing left that is 'stuck together'.

"However I am encouraged that we are slowly turning towards a longer term, evolutionary process rather than the former revolutionary one. The Birmingham Big City Plan is a very different document to what we had before, because if we strip it back to the essentials it is underpinned by

1) Accretions of buildings over many years
2) How we move around this city in the future as pedestrians and cyclists - and not as a motorcar

"This is a huge change in direction for the officers and elected members not to feel the pressure to do everything in 5 years and that it is not all about big buildings.



Eleven Brindley Place, Glenn Howells Architects

"For me the key issue for cities is how to get 1+1 = 3; it is not about landmark buildings, but about landmark cities.

"Looking forward two generations wouldn't it be great if Birmingham had been 'glued together' and we had managed to leave behind some things which actually joined up and made sense.

"We have the largest local authority in Europe and so we have the capacity to do this, perhaps unlike London where people forget there are 32 boroughs operating.

Birmingham has a huge opportunity to get it right. We need patience and ambition to see that it does come together. However there is, here and now, the chance to be able to contribute to something greater by working with a longer time horizon.

Glenn Howells is a Visiting Professor at Nottingham Trent University and an External Examiner at Sheffield Hallam and in giving lectures he has realised his interest in trying to provide a context for architecture students today. "I have been trying to say to them, you are not here to do something which is a remarkable building and 'all about me'. I believe that if we went back to 1962, for example, architecture might have been about 'how do we make life better?'

"We have lost the skill to do excellent ordinary buildings and yet most of any city is about this, as is most of life."

Of course over 20 years the Glenn Howells practice has accumulated some prestigious projects to its credit from the early competition wins such as the Custard Factory in Birmingham, Courtyard Arts Centre in Hereford to the Dream Factory in Warwick, The Market Place, Armagh, the Rotunda refurb and Eleven Brindleyplace in Birmingham as well as Lime Street Gateway Liverpool, Timber Wharf Manchester, the Savill Building, Windsor Great Park and 55 Degrees Time, Dubai.



Gloucestershire Gateway Services Area, Glenn Howells Architects



One of the company's smaller but striking projects is the Stroud Motorway Service Area which has been designed and managed by a father and daughter team (Westmorland) with two such projects already under their belt. Their concerns are for the whole integrated approach, combining craft skills and the most contemporary sustainable technologies, echoes a theme running through the core of Glenn Howells Architects. Their aim being to fuse the best from the old with the best of the new, for example by working with designers such as Gordon Crowley, a roof manufacturer inventing timber connection systems, crafting his timber with inordinate care and skill in Lincoln.



The Savill Building Windsor Great Park

"Most of our projects are all to do with collaboration. We don't have a 'guru' approach... but a common set of principles which anyone can plug into. Within the practice there is no hierarchy in terms of who can have ideas.



The Savill Building, Glenn Howell Architects

To illustrate this Glenn points out that the Savill Building was "borrowed from 3 other designers...we took our client to see them and made no secret of this.

"Uniqueness is perhaps overrated in architecture. By understanding older buildings we can learn from them all the time. The longer I am in this business the more time I spend looking at and studying older buildings.

"We try to encourage young people not to distinguish between creative elements and the various aspects of production. We encourage a gentler approach to design, involving a blurring of production and design. We try to give people an understanding that design is a slower evolutionary process that we are all part of, all the time.

Working with Kevin McCloud



The Triangle, Swindon, Kevin McCloud and Glenn Howells Architects



Glenn met Kevin McCloud a few years ago when Kevin was first thinking about the Triangle project in Swindon. They started discussing his ideas for a housing project and wanting to do something ordinary but very different, with sustainable values whilst remaining desirable, comfortable, somewhere you'd want to live.

"Houses are like a very good pair of shoes and shouldn't be like a loud cravat. I can't think of anything worse than living in an 'eco-home'. The word home has some special meaning and says something about you, not about some designer.

"Over the years we have done terraced housing well in UK. It's both a simple and a sophisticated thing. A surprisingly high proportion of our housing stock is terraced. The Victorians and Georgians did terraces 'par excellence'.

"We wanted to re-visit terraced housing.... To re-explore one o f the most successful housing types. In this project Kevin is using hemp and lime, not cavity walls, as a low carbon responsible alternative building material. Hemp is actually cannabis mixed with lime. We've also spent quite a bit of time thinking about how it looks in focus inside - the walls will be thick like an old cob wall.

"Kevin McCloud has seen so many buildings that he has a huge internal reference library which is great when you're trying to do something different. The amazing thing is that this is being built for the same cost as social housing - at £100 per square foot. Good design doesn't cost anymore at all, just takes a lot more work."

Glenn Howells is also building part of the athletes village for the 2012 Olympics and a ground breaking new housing development in East London. "The 7000 new homes in London are an antidote to the Torremolinos approach. We are trying to re-create the tissue of what are successful urban developments through grain characteristics and building types. Our studies into this have evolved over many months and we have now reached an even finer grain study.

"We have come up with housing plans which focus on the user and what it feels like to live in these houses which include a ground floor with a dining room and kitchen, a first floor with sitting room and two further floors with two bedrooms on each. We are trying to get away from a mass produced approach back to the irregularities of older parts of London."

My Favourite Library – “The British Library in Euston Road, designed by Colin St John Wilson. It has been slated because the outside is not so good, but inside it is amazing for the quality of approach and the layout, however the outside disarms you.  This will be around in 200 years, as it is made of stone and brick.”

Favourite building

Foundling Hospital in Florence by Brunelleschi

“When you go into his work the proportionality and weight of everything is perfect - ideas revered in Renaissance times as expressed in Leonardo’s famous ‘Vetruvian man’.  Brunelleschi had a perfect understanding weight and mass.  He dematerialises it in some places and in other places this mass ‘crushes your chest’.  Even then he has used coding throughout the building in a very modern way...For example in his approach to what’s infill and what’s structure. We didn’t invent integrity and structural expressionism in recent times! Walking through Brunelleschi reinforces the view that we are part of a continuum. The more we are able to use elements in buildings with the environment not to redefine it but to use it gently the more we will get the most out of our planet.”

55 Degrees Time, Time Residential Development,
Dubai, Glenn Howells Architects

http://www.radford.edu/rbarris/art216sumfall/renaissancearchitecture.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_St_John_Wilson

http://www.answers.com/topic/colin-st-john-wilson

http://www.studio-international.co.uk/books/wilson.asp

Design Event 9th December, 'Birmingham Big City Plan - Quality Developments for a Competitive Future' 3pm Birmingham Institute of Art & Design. To attend email beverley.nielsen@
bcu.ac.uk

For Birmingham Post Business Blog visit http://blogs.birminghampost.net/business/2010/12/glenn-howells---landmark-citie.html

P&G and Aga Rayburn Case Studies - driving Green Sales through Smart Eco-Design

P&G - Changing consumer behaviour through Eco-Design

At the CBI Climate Change Summit in November Irwin Lee, Vice President, Proctor and Gamble (P&G), illustrated how good design was driving behavioural change amongst consumers in fast moving consumer goods in his business. 

Mr Lee outlined the scale and scope of P&G operations as the largest consumer group in the world selling 50 leading brands including Ariel, Fairy, Pampers, Flash, IAMS pet food, Duracell, Lenor.  They had 130 manufacturing facilities worldwide making $23bn turnover and selling their brands in 180 countries.  

P&G decided to prioritise energy consumption and water use focussing on Ariel in the first instance.  They found the vast majority of consumers were more demanding and more savvy, although a sizeable segment also wanted to behave sustainably by lowering their carbon footprint. 

They realised innovation was needed to develop sustainable products meeting consumer needs with no compromise on quality.  Lifecycle Assessments showed the energy used to heat water during the wash cycle created the biggest CO2 impact. Their challenge was to convince customers to wash at lower temperatures by providing them with a ‘no compromise solution’.

The first breakthrough was with Ariel ‘Excel Gel’ working at 15 degrees centigrade. Consumers were saving money through energy savings.  “Cold is the new hot,” said Irwin Lee. “Excel Gel now has 15% of the laundry market.”

This came after earlier progress following the Ariel ‘Turn to 30’ campaign launched in 2006 when only 2% of consumers washed at this temperature.   After just four years 25% of households were washing at 30 degrees, with Irwin Lee claiming that the power saved as a result was equivalent to the energy needs of a country the size of Ireland. P&G aimed to have 70% of the population doing cold water washing by 2020, having formed a global partnership with WWF and Energy Savings Trust.

With their Pampers brand P&G aimed at reducing bulk, pulp use and packaging as priorities.  Design innovation had resulted in the creation of the “driest and thinnest nappy to-date,” said Irwin Lee “through the development of ‘Dry Max’ providing slimmer nappy cores.  Innovation is the foundation but education remains key.  If we can inform consumers we can bring them with us.”

Future Friendly represented an approach helping to improve communication with consumers as a partnership between, “P&G brands and leading sustainability experts, where each P&G brand in the partnership is being designed to use at least 15% less energy, water or packaging – whether it's in the way they're manufactured or used.”

Pampers had also partnered with UNICEF over the past five years through its ‘1 Pack = 1 Life-Saving Vaccine’ campaign.  This had resulted in Pampers donating 200 million tetanus vaccines protecting women and their babies around the world from Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus.  Mr. Lee announced that P&G was intending to reach the remaining 170m women and babies at risk by 2012.

Working in partnership with organisations like the Red Cross and Save the Children, P&G delivered PUR water packets providing clean water for relief in disaster areas - like Haiti, Chile and Pakistan. “Thanks to the work of one of our brilliant scientists in household research in Newcastle, we’ve provided more than 2 billion litres of clean drinking water,” said Mr Lee.  

Last month at the Clinton Global Initiative P&G had declared their intent to “save a life an hour by 2020” which meant increasing their distribution to an extra 2 billion litres per year.

To realize this "save a life every hour" target by 2020, the company had committed to build a new manufacturing facility for its PUR water packets. Apparently, one small PUR packet quickly turns 10 litres of dirty, potentially deadly water into clean, drinkable water.

As a result of P&G’s Smart Eco-Design plan and other initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable behaviour across their brands P&G’s results from 2002 – 2010 were:

CO2 reductions           -53%

Energy reductions       -50%

Waste reductions        -55%

Disposed waste           -55%

Their new 10 year goals for 2020 were to have 100% renewable energy plants and 100% renewable materials for packaging their products together with 0% consumer or manufacturing waste.

Aga Rayburn - Smart Design through the Eco-Connect System

Closer to home Aga Rayburn has recently developed a unique sustainable solution targeting their customers’ needs.  I visited the Aga shop in Kidderminster a couple of weeks back to see their new Home Energy Management Centre.  This Centre has a full size display showing customers how various components, such as a boiler stove, Central heating range cooker and solar panel, can be configured together to maximise the use of renewable energy.

To help them do this the Aga Rayburn research team in Telford have created the Eco-Connect system.  This clever, neatly-sized device acts as  a heat exchanger enabling the water cylinder in any home to be connected to a different energy sources, such as a wood burning stove, a wood burning, solid fuel or oil fired Rayburn cooker (and central heating system) and other sustainable energy sources, such as solar thermal (hot water) panels. 

Aga wood burning stoves have energy efficiency ratings of over 81% and the Rayburn 680 KCD, for example, is an oil fired boiler and central heating system with 92% efficiency for its A-rated condensing technology.

The innovative Eco-Connect Panel has the ability to interconnect different appliances ensuring that energy is intelligently drawn from the greenest source at all times.  The Eco-Connect panel senses the temperature of the water in the system and whether it needs ‘topping up’ always opting for the most sustainable source whether that might be the stove, Rayburn or other source. 

Aga Rangemaster’s Nigel Morrison told me, “No other manufacturer is doing this. We are the first to market with this sort of product and within the first few months we have seen signs of early enthusiasm for this technology and it is selling well across the country.   It has already won an Award in the Innovative Renewables Category at the Ricoh Arena Oil & Renewables Exhibition earlier this year.  It has just been voted ‘Innovative Product of the Year’ at the OFTEC Awards for Excellence 2010 on 29^th October with the Rayburn 680 KCD a runner up in the same category.

Smart eco-design innovation
Aga Rayburn - Eco-Connect Panel

“With systems of this sort vitally dependent on technical details one of the key technological challenges has been in enabling connections to be made between Stoves as vented systems and cookers, such as the Rayburn, as sealed systems, something that had not been possible prior to this. 

“Whilst we have produced all the technology in-house for the Eco-Connect system, we have partnered with Kingspan in sourcing solar panels and with The Mark Group for their installation.  We will be launching the solar offer in the next few months.  We are anticipating £15-16k will buy, for example, a 680KCD Rayburn, a stove(Minsterley), the Eco-Connect system, Water cylinder, and a solar thermal panels.  Kidderminster will be our first Aga shop to make this offer."

http://www.agarangemaster.com/2165.htmhttp://www.agarangemaster.com/SiteImages/Site_301/Pdf/homeenergymanagement.pdf

http://www.futurefriendly.co.uk/index.aspx

http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/30634-P-G-Children-s-Safe-Drinking-Water-Program-Commits-to-Save-a-Life-Every-Hour-at-2010-Clinto-Global-Initiaitive-

http://www.unicef.org/corporate_partners/index_25098.html

http://www.bitc.org.uk/resources/case_studies/pg_rm.html

http://www.pg.com/en_US/sustainability/environmental_sustainability/operations_suppliers/eco_design.shtml

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5245/is_7838_231/ai_n29413666/

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5245/is_7838_231/ai_n29413666/

http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/Home/Articles/b09280ebbce74030964ab2a9c8b4567d/Procter-vs-Unilever.html