Staff & Student Work
MDXPD Student Project Selected for Finland’s national Habitaire Protoshop 2020 Exhibition Tautvydas Petruškevičius, BA Product Design student at Middlesex University, discusses his Year 1 Bird Box project, selected as one of 12 national finalists for Habitare Protoshop 2020, Finland’s national showcase of young, new design talent
Tautvydas Petruškevičius is a Lithuanian Product Designer who is studying at Middlesex University London, and has recently completed an Erasmus exchange programme at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki. In 2018, Tautvydas was selected for the Junior Achievement Europe mentoring programme as one of sixteen young European influencers. During his Erasmus exchange year Tautvydas entered Finland’s national design and architecture competition which pioneers and highlights young, new design, Habitare Protoshop 2020. He was selected as one of twelve finalists to be featured in the 50th year anniversary exhibition, and will be exhibiting his Bird Box project developed in the First Year of the MDXPD course.
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PRODUCT DESIGN Middlesex University School of Science and Technology
Birdbox is a flat-pack product which does not use glue or metal parts. It consists entirely of 2D aeroply profiles, easily lending itself to mass production. The product is made up of eight pieces of plywood, which bends easily into shape, and held together with two wooden pins turned on the lathe thus creating a shell-like nest for the birds. Ideation – ‘the spark’ - Creative connections on a bus Like everyone on the MDXPD programme, during the 1st Year, we were briefed to make a birdbox from only one sheet of aeroply, without any glue or adhesives, and using the university laser cutter. At the time it was a big challenge. Honestly, I never intended to proceed using the most common way of just using a
threaded rod and holes to connect the birdbox, as I initially saw that as a simple approach. In retrospect, I was naïve to think that this project will be easy. The project commenced with an iterative process of design, combining a process of ideation with many cardboard prototypes, sometimes the night before the deadline, and even on the bus on the way into campus. Exploring outcomes from previous year groups provided additional insight and inspiration in this project. I was obsessed with trying to find the most unusual ways to use the materials given, and then on the long 189 bus ride into campus, I remember sitting and trying to imagine 3D models of birdbox designs.
