First-year Design and dual-degree BBA and Design students showcase their work in their own exhibition at the Creativity Center. Andrea Caruso, their professor in IE’s fundamental design course: Intro to Design Studio I, speaks on his experience teaching this new class and the lamp project they were given to work on over the course of this past semester.
Q: What is your opinion on the class of 2025? What has it been like teaching them?
A: The truth is that it’s been the first year with three groups; we started the first year with three students, and now we have 70. So, the methodology has not changed but obviously, the number of students has increased. On a personal level, it has also changed me a lot, because of course, you are not working or teaching under the same circumstances. The rest seems to have stayed the same.
Q: What were some assignments given this semester to your class?
A: The ‘lamp’ project is one we have been doing for a few years now. It is based off the story of Apollo 11, in which on a trip to the moon organised by NASA, a component of the spaceship breaks, and those in the ship must fix the component using only the materials they have access to. Therefore, the project is very much ‘Do It Yourself’, in which students need to fix a lamp using only the university’s resources, which is seemingly very simple but in reality, is actually quite complex. Students got to use the Fab Lab, which is obviously a luxury, as well as purchasable materials or even recycled elements. There are lots of elements that are ‘ready-made’ that can be re-used, so as to create a Frankenstein monster of sorts.
Q: How should the viewer experience this exhibition?
A: You will see that what is exhibited is each student’s gradual process. You will see analytical drawings of lamps, known as “sketches”, to blueprints for students to get familiarised with notions of measurements, proportions, and concepts. The second part involves producing a cardboard prototype to build confidence in the three-dimensional aspect of their lamps, and then finally, constructing a functioning lamp with the electrical equipment to make sure it works properly. In addition, there’s a booklet/dossier that they have printed out, telling the story of how their lamps came to be.
Q: How long is this exhibition going to be up for?
A: Until February 5th.
Make sure you head over to the Creativity Center, either before or after this break, to take a look at IE’s talented first-year design students’ hard work!
All pictures taken by @carlosvoba
