Portfolio 1990 - Present
Ian Lambert Design
About...
Ian Lambert has been designing furniture and related products since 1990. He has undertaken numerous commissions and exhibited work across the UK (including at London Design Week and the Lighthouse in Glasgow), China and the US.
Ian is the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, where he is also the chair for the MFA in Design for Climate Action. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh: his thesis explored making as knowledge (see page 40).
Ian was co-chair and submissions chair for the Cumulus Conference (Design for Adaptation) 2022, in Detroit. He is on the steering group for the Research Through Design (RTD) conference series, having been co-chair for the conference in 2017, and on the organising committee in 2019.
His research interests lie in material practice, climate action, and making-as-thinking. His award winning collaborative work with ocean plastic on the west coast of Scotland (pages 11-14) has been widely published, and he is a member of the Detroit River Coalition, literally bringing his work upstream! Since 2020 he has collaborated with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on urban lumber (pages 15-19).
The work shown here is mainly practice-led research, along with a few projects, ideas, and artefacts going back to the 1990s.
Ian is always keen to hear from potential partners for collaboration on projects. You can contact him via Instagram or Linkedin, or through CCS.
1
Critical Making with Sand Casting 2015
2
Ian Lambert Design
Critical Making with Sand Casting 2015
3
Ian Lambert Design
Ian Lambert Design
Critical Making with Sand Casting 2015
4
Critical Making with Sand Casting 2015
5
Ian Lambert Design
Critical Making with Sand Casting 2015 Ian
RELATED PAPERS
Lambert, I. (2019) Improvisation: Autonomy, Heteronomy and Wilful Naïveté. EKSIG (DRS) 2019 Conference, Estonia, (22 September).
Lambert, I. and Speed, C. (2017) Making as Growth: Narratives in Materials and Process, Design Issues, Special RTD Issue 2017
Lambert, I. (2015) Design Practice into Design Research, Making Futures Conference, Plymouth (24 – 25 September).
Lambert, I. (2015) Critical Making with Aluminium Sand Casting, Creative Practice Conference (Making Research, Researching Making) – Aarhus, Denmark (10 – 12 September)
6
Lambert Design
Ian Lambert: Erasmus Mobility Funding
Critical Making Workshop: Estonia Academy of Arts 2016
7
Ian Lambert: Teaching Research Linkages
Sand Casting Workshop: ZZULI*, China 2016
8
*ZZULI - Zhengzhou University of Light Industry
Ian Lambert Design
Sand Casting 2014
9
Sand Casting 2014
10
Ian Lambert Design
Ian Lambert Design
Isle of Harris Fish Slice 2017- 2019
This process arose from a visit to the small island of Scarp, just off Harris, in the Outer Hebrides. The last permanent residents left in 1971, but historically this treeless island had had a reliable source of timber provided by the sea as driftwood. Today, by far the most abundant material washed ashore is plastic. There are estimates of 8m - 12m tons of plastic deposited in the sea annually. This is an off-grid injection moulding process that utilises washed-up polypropylene (rope) melted over a fire to make a utility object (fish-slice) bearing the name of the location where the plastic has been retrieved. This utility souvenir highlights the distribution of a hugely abundant waste material in the world’s oceans as in parallel with sea-faring trade routes.
An industrial material and industrial process are adapted as crafted design. The making of the injection moulding tool utilised digital technologies available to all.
11
Ian Lambert Design
Isle of Harris Fish Slice 2017 - 2019
RELATED PAPERS
12
Lambert, I. (2017) The Isle of Harris Fish Slice, Making Futures Conference, Plymouth (21 – 22 September).
Ian Lambert, with Kathy Vones
3D Printing with Ocean Plastic 2018 - 2020
This project developed from the Isle of Harris Fish Slice (see previous pages) and was funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (£10K). Ian Lambert teamed up with jewellery designer Kathy Vones to explore the potential of ocean plastic as 3D printing filament, at the same time as engaging with local communities and school children on the Isle of Harris and Mallaig, on the west coast. The project highlighted the potential of a well-known and pervasive waste problem as a raw material in creative engagement.
With thanks to the Sir E. Scott High School, Tarbert, and Mallaig High School
13
Ian Lambert, with Kathy Vones
3D Printing with Ocean Plastic 2018 - 2020
RELATED PAPERS/CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Lambert, I. and Vones, K, (2020) Resources on the Shore, 30th International Orkney Science Festival, (virtual, 3 September.)
Lambert, I. (2019) Designing New Ways to Make use of Ocean Plastic, The Conversation, July Lambert, I .and Vones, K, (2019) Material Reality to Materiality: Ocean Plastic and Design Research. AHRC Design for Change symposium, London, (9 December).
Vones, K., Lambert, I., Vettese, S., and Allan, D. (2018) 3D-printing ‘Ocean Plastic’ - fostering children’s engagement with sustainability, Materials Today. (Winner of Elsevier $10K Innovation Prize)
WORKSHOPS
Lambert, I. and Vones, K. (2019) Narrative of Waste: An exploration of material transformation through 3D printing. Research workshop at RTD 2019, Delft, 19 March
14
Ian Lambert, with Leslie Tom (The Wright Museum)
d.Tree Studio 2020 - present
The d.Tree Studio is an experimental woodworking atelier arising from a collaboration between The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (led by Chief Sustainability Officer, Leslie Tom) and College for Creative Studies (led by Ian Lambert) in Detroit. In this first phase of the project, three dying Zelkova trees on the Museum’s campus, destined for mulching, were redirected to a project exploring climate change, climate justice and African American material culture through the creation of narrative artefacts. The work was exhibited in Detroit in 2022, although the project is ongoing. Planning has started for a new phase that uses systems thinking and data mapping on trees across the city to inform site-specific narratives and adaptive works made from retrieved urban wood. www.dtree.me
15
Photos by Ian Lambert and Leslie Tom
Ian Lambert, with Leslie Tom (The Wright Museum)
d.Tree Studio Atelier, 2021
16
Photos by d.Tree Studio members and Dr. Shawn Froman; six at the studio, two at Dabls African Bead Museum, with Olayami Dabls
d.Tree Studio Atelier, 2021
17
Ian Lambert and Leslie Tom (The Wright Museum)
Photos by Ian Lambert and Leslie Tom
Ian Lambert and Leslie Tom (The Wright Museum)
d.Tree Studio Exhibition, 2022
RELATED PAPER
Lambert, I. and Tom, L. (2022) Two Institutions, Three Trees, Twelve Makers: Curriculum Co-Design for Sustainability, Climate Justice and African American Material Culture, Cumulus Conference, Detroit (Design for Adaptation) (2 - 4 November)
18
Jasmine Brown
Lily Kline
Kelsey Bailey
Faith Serio
Kristian Verano
Anthropometry Revisited - A Homage to Yves Klein
This project is presented as a homage to Yves Klein’s Anthropometry Performance (1960), but with reference to Klein’s love of judo. Klein was a 4th dan black belt in judo, and wrote a book: The Fundamentals of Judo. The project asks whether the sheer physicality of Klein’s work is connected to judo, and also explores how the Anthropometry series may have evolved had he not died prematurely at the age of 34, in 1962. The images here are from an experiment using International Klein Blue paint and heavy paper, conducted with Ian Lambert, himself a judo black belt, and spatial designer, choreographer and former dancer Fabian Galama. The project envisaged a performance art piece.
19
Ian Lambert, with Fabian Galama
Ian Lambert, with Fabian Galama
Anthropometry Revisited - A Homage to Yves Klein
SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATION
20
Lambert, I. and Galama, F. (2017) Anthropometry Revisited: A Homage to Yves Klein, poster presentation at Drawing Conversations 2: Body, Space, Object, Coventry (8 December)
Flat Sheet Material From Oak Barrel Staves 2011
This SFC Innovation Voucher funded project started by exploring new material forms with open ended applications. The staves were sliced lengthways and glued in layers to form a ply sheet material with potential use in work tops, wall cladding, and screens. More random patterns were made which later led to casting fragments of the barrel staves. This is a work in progress and we are still investigating further methods for bent ply, fabricating sheet materials and even textiles.
21
Ian Lambert and Paul Kerlaff
Ian Lambert and Paul Kerlaff
Whisky Wood Project 2011
Using an SFC Innovation Voucher, ADRC worked with local design company With Kerlaff exploring the potential of exhausted whisky barrel staves (an abundant industrial byproduct) in the design of promotional products for the Scottish Malt Whisky Industry. New fabrication processes were developed for packaging and display items. The challenge with oak barrel staves is that they are of a set dimension and bent. This limits the use, but where there are constraints, there are opportunities. The process of cutting and reforming the staves (see opposite page) evolved into a casting process with wood chips, leading to the design of display boxes and a tasting table (left).
22 ul K erlaff of With Kerla ff
Whisky Fruit Bowls 2012 Ian Lambert Design
Teaching Research Linkages
Our teaching is informed by design practice and research. The UG Major Project (honours project) is attached to a “atelier” (studio group) themed on the basis of the lead tutor’s practice and/or research interests - in this case Made in Scotland, which explores a design led re-development of local industry and fabrication, and aims to reclaim low-cost production from China and the far east
We have played with a resin casting process, developed with Paul Kerlaff, using exhausted whisky cask staves to create a range of fruit bowls. Colin Malcolm and Blair Reid helped fabricate the outcomes of the project “Teaching by Doing”, which was funded with a university Teaching Fellows Grant to investigate teaching research linkages.
23
Ian Lambert Design
Whisky Fruit Bowls 2012
RELATED PAPERS
Lambert, I. (2015) Convergence in Industrial and Craft Processes in UK Undergraduate Product Design Courses, Cumulus Conference, Milan (3 – 7 June)
24
Ian Lambert Design
Flipper Chair 2005
25
Shown at Designers’ Block, London Design Week 2005 & the Lighthouse, Glasgow 2006
Ian Lambert Design
Flipper Chair Prototypes 2005
26
Ian Lambert Design
Flipper Chair 2005
27
Ian Lambert Design
Tricorn Stack Table 2008
From page 23, left: RELATED
28
PAPER
Lambert, I, and Firth, R. (2006) Pencils Don’t Crash, 4th Engineering and Product Design Education Conference, Salzburg 2006 (isbn: 0-9553942-0-1)
Design & Consumerism in the Developing World 2002 - 06
29
Ian Lambert
Above: Man a using soldering iron heated in a charcoal stove to make utility items from discarded food and drinks cans. Below: Kerosene lamps and funnel (Photographs: I. Lambert, Dodoma, Tanzania 2002)
Design & Consumerism in the Developing World 2002 - 06
RELATED PAPERS
Lambert, I. (2006) Teaching Sustainability and Design in Higher Education – Lessons from the Developing World, 3rd CLTAD Conference, Lisbon, 2006 (isbn: (book) 0-954139-5-7; isbn: (cd) 0-954139-6-5)
Lambert, I. (2005) Sustainability, Design and Branding in the Developing World 3rd Engineering and Product Design Education Conference, Edinburgh, 2005 (isbn: 0 415 391180)
30
Ian Lambert
Clockwise: Radio repair shop; solar cooker; drainage ditch near the market; sandals made from tyres; hardware shop with no branded items; man making kerosene lamps, using a primus stove to heat soldering iron. (Photographs: I. Lambert, Dodoma, Tanzania 2002)
31 Shown at Six Cities Design Festival 2007
Ian Lambert Design Cork Mat Kit 2003 & Cork Door Stop Kit 2007
Ian Lambert Design
Zzzap Lights 2006
32
Shown at Designers Block, London Design Week 2006
http://vimeo.com/5768190
Ian Lambert Design
Reclamation Projects 1994 - 97
Beds, Tables, Wine Racks
Timber for this work was salvaged from building sites, demolitions and bonfires. Beds were made as private commissions in London and smaller pieces have been exhibited in Bath and London, including Reclamation at the Levi’s Gallery in Central London in 1997
33
Ian Lambert Design
Reclamation Projects 2008
The bed is made from two old Ikea beds, timber from a ripped out stud wall, and some teak from a desk. The front legs are stainless steel
A large amount of timber is discarded in the UK from construction work, demolition, as unwanted furniture and some forms of secondary packaging. Much of it is burnt when it could provide an inexpensive but long lasting alternative to cheap flatpack designs, constructed by consumers. Based on the model of the bike station in Edinburgh (where you can rent workshop space by the hour and pay for second-hand parts to repair or build your own bicycle), there is the opportunity, with support from skilled joiners, to do the same with furniture, working from simple pre-designed plans.
34
Chicken Egg Cups 2008/09
The chicken egg cups started as a bit of fun when I decided to join in with my first year students on a simple design and manufacture project using CNC cutting hardware, in this case laser cutting and jet cutting.
35
Ian Lambert: Teaching by Doing
Developed with input from Colin Malcolm and Tara Lee
Salt and Pepper Pots 2005
The salt and pepper pots arose from a student workshop induction project, using a playful enquiry into materials and processes where I joined in.
36
Teaching
Doing
Ian Lambert:
by
Ian Lambert Design
Cow Chair 1992
37
Published in Art Review 1994, and shown as photographs at Young Wales V, 2002
Lily Tables 1990 Ian Lambert Design
The Lily Tables were Ian Lambert’s undergraduate major project. They helped launch his design career when they were exhibited in Zeev Aram’s National Graduate Design show in Covent Garden in 1990, and published in Designers Journal (Sept. 1990), and House and Garden (Nov. 1990). They were also exhibited at Peter Fiell’s gallery in London in 1991.
Dimensions: H - 1000mm; W - 450mm; D - 305mm
Materials: 5mm thick flame cut sheet steel; 8mm nickel plated steel rod; acid etched 10mm glass
38
Ian Lambert Design
Host of Chairs 1994
Exhibited at:
Art of the Garden
The Scottish Gallery at Greywalls House, 1994 (left)
Le Chaise
The French Institute, Edinburgh 1994
Ragley Hall Sculpture Park Warwickshire 1995
Westonbirt Arboretum 1996
39
Further Information...
To contact Ian: e-mail: ilambert@collegeforcreativestudies.edu
instagram: @ianlambertdesign linkedin: http://lnkd.in/bGWUqt
Ian has published papers on numerous topics, including design pedagogy, drawing, design for the developing world, ocean plastic, material practice, and making as thinking. His work on Yves Klein was presented at Drawing Conversations 2: Body, Space, Object, Coventry (8 Dec, 2017).
Having lived and worked in Edinburgh, Scotland, for almost 20 years, he relocated to Detroit, Michigan, in 2019. He is developing a project with urban lumber, and continuing his work with ocean plastic with the Detroit River Coalition.
Ian’s PhD thesis explored making-as-thinking through a material and theoretical inquiry into aluminium sand casting. Situated at the intersection of design and craft, i.e. maker-led product design, it gives a detailed account of making in terms of what making is, rather than how to make. The increased capability to work industrial objects with more easily accessed and distributed resources – such as maker-spaces – has led to a re-evaluation of making as a form of empowerment and a vehicle for critical reflection on our relationship with objects of consumerism. The research drew on sources from anthropology, philosophy and sociology, as well as craft and design theory and practice, and, in parallel with a creative practice inquiry, discussed making-asknowledge, and non-textual modes of articulating it.
A copy of the thesis can be accessed here URI http://hdl.handle.net/1842/35956
40
Lambert PhD
Ian
PUBLICATIONS / CONFERENCE PAPERS
2022 Two Institutions, Three Trees, Twelve Makers: Curriculum Co-Design for Sustainability, Climate Justice and African American Material Culture (with Tom, L.). Cumulus Conference, Detroit (2-4 Nov)
2019 Material Reality to Materiality: Ocean Plastic and Design Research (with Vones, K.). AHRC Design for Change symposium, London, (9 Dec)
2019 Improvisation: Autonomy, Heteronomy and Wilful Naïveté. EKSIG (DRS) 2019 Conference, Estonia, (22 Sept)
2019 Designing New Ways to Make use of Ocean Plastic, The Conversation, July 2019 (also published in Fast Company, The Scotsman, The Global Policy Journal, and phys.org)
2018 3D-printing ‘Ocean Plastic’ - fostering children’s engagement with sustainability (with Vettese, S., Vones, K., Allan, D), Materials Today (winner $10K Elsevier Innovation prize)
2017 The Isle of Harris Fish Slice: Industrial Crafting with Ocean Plastic, Making Futures Conference, Plymouth (21-22 Sept)
2017 Making as Growth: Narratives in Materials and Process (with Speed, C.), Design Issues, Volume 33, Number 3 Summer 2017
2015 Design Practice into Design Research, Making Futures Conference, Plymouth (24-25 Sept)
2015 Diverting Textile Waste from Landfill with Design-Craft Objects (with Iliopoulou, T.), Making Futures Conference, Plymouth (24-25 Sept)
2015 Critical Making with Aluminium Sandcasting, Creative Practice Conference (Making Research, Researching Making) – Aarhus, Denmark (10-12 Sept)
2015 Convergence in Industrial and Craft Processes in UK Undergraduate Product Design Courses, Cumulus Conference, Milan (3-7 June)
2010 Projects for Multi-Disciplinary Teams: Engaging Students Across Design Disciplines in a Shared Undergraduate First Year Curriculum, (with Firth, R.) Cumulus Conference, Genk
2009 No Translation – Using Image to Transcend Verbal Language Barriers (with Firth, R.), Cumulus Conference, Melbourne
2007 Pencils Don’t Crash (with Firth, R.), 4th Engineering & Product Design Education Conference, Salzburg
2006 Teaching Sustainability & Design in Higher Education – Lessons from the Developing World, 3rd CLTAD Conference, Lisbon (ISBN (book) 0-954139-5-7
2005 Sustainability, Design & Branding in the Developing World, 3rd Engineering and Product Design Education Conference, Edinburgh (isbn: 0 415 391180)
PRESENTATIONS / RESEARCH WORKSHOPS
2020 Resources on the Shore (with Vones, K.). Presentation (remote) at 30th International Orkney Science Festival (3 Sept)
2019 Narratives of Waste: An exploration of material transformation through 3D printing (with Vones, K.). Research workshop at RTD 2019, Delft, (19 March)
2019 Transforming Plastic Pollution into a Lesson on Sustainability (with Vones, K.). Presentation (remote) at Global Citizens Week, Vancouver Island University (5 Feb)
2017 Anthropometry Revisited: A Homage to Yves Klein (with Galama, F.). Poster presentation at Drawing Conversations 2: Body, Space, Object, Coventry (8 Dec)
2017 Aluminium Sandcasting: Waste Moulds from Waste. Research workshop at RTD 2017, Edinburgh (21 March)
