Footprint

Amanda Callaghan's Eqi-HOT-el (London 2040) - 'An escapist resort harvesting foreign fruit', making use of rising temperatures

GRIST! is an exhibition of  work-in-progress by  RCA students from the Architecture, Design Products, Design Interactions, Innovation Design Engineering and Vehicle Design programmes.

The work on display is dominated by the work of five architecture studios:

ADS1 - Naturoids

ADS2 - Walled City

ADS3 - City of Illusion

ADS4 - The Limits of Control

ADS5 - Urban Metabolics: New Materialsm & the Timing of Space

Various discourses relating to the city are presented through models, and selected projects explore hypotheses for the future within ecology, place and politics.

By far the most provocative studio is ADS 1 studio ‘Naturoids’. Laid out on a dining table, complete with cutlery and plate, each place setting hosts a student’s work addressing ‘how cities feed themselves’.

Naturoids: how cities feed themselves

Here is a taster of what you will find if you make it down to the RCA this weekend.

'Pork Palace' by Jonathan Wilson, 'a genetic treatment facility dedicated to aiding man through beast'

B Estate by Justina Klybaite, a live-work proposal where 'the home is the hive'

Rags to riches by Ben Williams from ADS2 proposes a recycling plant in Deptford Creek to address 'fast fashion'

Other projects to look out for are:

• Chris Kennedy’s ‘Cultural Plaice’ - ‘the world’s first zero-food-mile chip shop’
• ‘Mussel Power’ - Stephanie Gallia’s community iniative for a closed-loop farm for Hackney
• a bovine village drawing on Hindu traditions by Rachel Patel and Simon Moxey’s microchrono - an unnerving watch which shows the speed of trades made by ‘faceless’ hedge fund companies
• MPhil student David Knight thesis ‘making planner popular’, which deals with localism and the reaction of the public. David uses this reaction as a springboard to rethink the planning system.

GRIST! is open 11- 6pm daily until Monday, February 6 at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, SW7. The end of year show will run from June 20 to July 1, 2011.

by Ruth Dreyer, AJ sustainability intern

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