3rd year studio

Design studio, year 3, Vessels A Vessel: a container (such as a cask, bottle, kettle, cup, or bowl) for holding something. Vessels are volumes of concepts, intermediaries between interior and exterior worlds, taking part in the definition of the content itself. A vessel is both symbolic and functional at the same time, and therefore maintains complex relationship with the person who uses it. The vessel has been an ambassador of human civilisation from ancient times on to the modern era. Vessels had travelled throughout the world transferring cultural heritage from one civilisation to another, conveying technology of making and materials and spreading artistic styles and valuable contents. In our global digital age, migration of knowledge and cultural content, as well as the production technologies themselves, are characterised by constant development, immediacy and mass customisation. New questions arise - such as the ownership of knowledge - and new contexts for research and characterisation of vessels, their contents, and the surroundings that contains both the vessels and ourselves. Containers, boxes, tanks, tableware, clothing, packaging, holding volumes - the students will choose the scenario, the content and the environment in which they will research and design. In the studio, students will formulate a personal position and explore the connections between the person, the container and its unique content. We will define the main design actions that lay at the heart of each project, develop the form, the details and the materiality through an updated technological awareness - and challenge the way all these aspects converge into a well designed and communicating object.