MA Interior Design

Dr Anastasia Karandinou (Course Leader), Pol Gallagher, Catalina Pollak

Design of any scale responds to – and in parallel leads – cultural, political and social change. Our MA course examines the role of design in forming places, connections, communities in a socially and environmentally sustainable way, through speculative and pragmatic design exercises, some of which lead to real-life built projects. Through this MA programme in Interior Design we challenge the limits of the role of the designer and we explore how design pertains to different aspects of our everyday living. Political and cultural debates are re-articulated and expressed through a hands-on poetic and creative making approach.

Social inclusion and Shared environments This year, our studio worked on a real-life community project; a shared workshop and meeting place in Barking. The Shed Life project was initiated by the Thames View Tenants Association, the local resident Pam Dumbleton and the Humourisk artistic director Susie Miller Oduniyi, and has been developed further in collaboration with the UEL. The exterior of the building has been designed by the UEL MArch studio led by Alan Chandler, and the Interior by the MA Interior Design studio, led by Anastasia Karandinou.

The aim of the project is to address the issue of loneliness, social exclusion and isolation, by designing a vibrant shared space for local people of different generations. Design has been considered as a practice that both pragmatically and metaphorically addresses everyday social and political issues. The aim of this project was to raise awareness on the issue of social exclusion, isolation and loveliness, and actively empower the local community of Barking by designing this space, with them in the centre of the process. The main activities to be hosted include a wood workshop, space for seminars, knowledge and skills exchange, computing and photography workshops, gallery wall, storage and tea making facilities. The interior involves elements that are flexible, movable and can be flatpacked. The users of this small space can transform it themselves into a gallery with exhibition walls for artwork, into a workshop with shelves and worktop surfaces, or into a more relaxed meeting place for them to share a tea. The project was developed in collaboration with the group of locals, with whom online and in person workshops and consultations were organised.

Our MA Interior Design students received the UEL Volunteering Award for their work on a community empowering project.

In term 2 we collaborated with the Brunel Museum and its Director Katherine McAlpine, and we examined how open-air public spaces could be designed as shared experiences, in the post-pandemic cities. In parallel, we are examining how cultural organisations can engage and collaborate more substantially with the local communities, and what new typologies, places and shared activities could emerge. The students embarked in a speculative journey and explored places bodily and through experimental mapping and documentation processes, which led to design proposals.

Students

September start: Dalal Abdullah, Omnia Al Temnah, Siclania Barroso, Georgette Ivette Wilthew Estefan, Mohammad Farahani, Maria Gradinar, Sonia Nohemy Medina Munoz, Atefeh Sargazi, Cherine Shawa, Gozde Tuncbilek, Teinane Chibuike Jesse Warekuromo, Yesim Yumrutas, Martyna Lapinska (part-time). January start: Shijin Cheruvakkara, Rushil Gaba, Ambika Katta, Shivangi Purohit, Elizabeth Teye.

www.uel.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/ma-interior-design www.instagram.com/uel_mainteriordesign

Special thanks

Guest critics and guest tutors: Rachael Brown, Dina Al-Qusous, Carl Callaghan, Israel Hurtado Cola, Phevos Kallitsis, Belinda Mitchell, Renee Tobe, Dorian Wiszniewski. Collaborators on the Shed Life project: the Thames View residents, Susie Miller Oduniyi, Alan Chandler, Prof. Andrew John Brown, and to the Thames View Tenants Association. The Shed Life project has been funded by: the National Lottery, Healthy New Towns & Thames Talk (Barking Riverside London), London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, Trust For London, Creekmouth Preservation Society, Barking and Dagenham Giving. Special thanks to Katherine McAlpine, Director of Brunel Museum, and to the Brunel Museum collaborators Maribeth Eisenmann, Peter Jones, Khalil Mohammed, for their time, conversations and contribution to our project.

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1, 4, 6 Shed Life community workshop. Desgin: Group work by the MA Interior Design students. Render: Dalal Abdullah and Omnia Al Temnah. 2 Dalal Abdullah and Omnia Al Temnah. 3 Photo of the meeting and conversations with the locals. 5 Design by the group of students; axonomentric by Sonia Medina.

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11-13 LFA Bench competition entry by Siclania Barroso, Maria Gradinar, Atefeh Sargazi. The sound wave of the word care transcribed into a threedimensional form, which became a seating element.

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14-20 Maria Gradinar. Performative mapping; close observation of the everyday activities taking place on the site. Shell collecting wearable device and printing with shells, as tools for developing a design concept for the proposed shared space.

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21-27 Dalal Abdullah and Omnia Al Temnah. Performative experiments mapping human movement with markers attached to custom-made roller skates (21). Mapping of the visual connections (25) - leading to threedimensional sculptural structures that accommodate seating elements and a backdrop for pop-up performances, events and gatherings for the local community.

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28-31 Yesim Yumrutas. Transcribing a set of body-movements with ink and roll, then into a wearable set of elements, and then into a collage and a three dimensional structure, which accomodates an informal cafe and gathering space.

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32-34 Cherine Shawa and Gozde Tuncbilek 35 Gozde Tuncbilek. Lines connecting key areas of the site are transcribed into a performative device; an association device, through which two people can whisper to one another from afar. Then this is transcribed into a series of design interventions of the shared space outside the Brunel Museum.

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36, 37, 39 Georgette Wilthew and Sonia Medina. Body movement transcribed into plan, section, lines and a three-dimensional structure, which infomed an on-site design intervention (image 39) and a proposed spatial design for this shared outdoors space (image 43). 38 Georgette Wilthew. Cataloguing Instagram images and documented activities on the site, and transcribing them into an embodied performance on site (image 38b).

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40-42, 44-46 Sonia Medina. Papier-mache body extension exploring the notion of isolation and connection, transcribed into plaster models and design interventions. 43 Georgette Wilthew and Sonia Medina

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47-51 Rushil Gaba. Exploring how elements weather, decay and crack, and how time and events leave traces. Embodied performative explorations on the notions of trace and aura.

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52 Teinane Chibuike Jesse Warekuromo. Patterns emerging from the making and opening up of face masks. 53-54 Mohammad Farahani. Wearable spikes negotiating the issue of social distancing and human connection, translated into a spatial intervention; a sculptural meeting place. 55-56 Siclania Barroso. Analysing the key buildings, demographics and activities of the site and designing spatial interventions that encourage playfulness and interaction. 57-58 Atefeh Sargazi. Body extension exploring distancing and the different senses. Pop-up community mini-library for book sharing and exchange, forming a light-box on the edge of the site.

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