The Design Museum introduces the four 2016 Designers in Residence

Four lucky young creatives were recently invited to partake in the Design Museum's 2016 Designers in Residence program. Now in its ninth cycle, the program spotlights emerging early-career designers and gives them an opportunity to further develop their ideas, as well as engage with established practitioners, industry experts, alumni, and Design Museum departments. Applicants are required to have finished school within the last five years and have at least one year of professional work experience in some form of architectural or design practice. Previously, the program hosted designers like Asif Khan, Giles Miller, Yuri Suzuki, Bethan Laura Wood, and Sarah van Gameren.

The 2016 resident designers are Alix Bizet, Clementine Blakemore, Andrea de Chirico, and Rain Wu. They will convene in London where they'll spend their four-month residency responding to the 2016 “Open” theme. Their works will then be exhibited at the Design Museum's new home in Kensington starting November 24, and the designers will get to interact with the public in an accompanying series of events and talks.

Keep reading to learn more about this year's Designers in Residence.

Alix Bizet

“Alix Bizet’s practice combines an interest in the theory, philosophy and psychology of human sciences with a passion for human behaviour and the environment. Alix studied Fine Arts/Curation at La Sorbonnes in Paris, and went on to study Product Design at Central Saint Martins in London. She graduated from the Design Academy in Eindhoven with an MA in Social Design. By re-appropriating textile techniques, she explores hair as a material and medium through which to explore cultural difference and community. Her experimental approach to materials and techniques creates work which explores anthropology, identity and fashion through which she challenges convention and taboos whilst celebrating diversity.”

Clementine Blakemore

“Clementine Blakemore is a London-based architectural designer, interested in the relationship between design, production and place. After a year at the Rural Studio in Alabama, she studied architecture at the Architectural Association and then went on to Royal College of Art where she completed her MA Architecture in 2015. Her final design thesis – an outdoor classroom for a school in rural Buckinghamshire – was awarded a Sustain RCA award, Highly Commended in the Helen Hamlyn Design awards, and went on to receive a RIBA McAslan bursary. In 2012, she cofounded the non-profit collective WORKSHOP architecture, and completed two educational spaces for schools in India. She has led a number of design/build workshops as part of the AA’s Visiting School program over the past four years, and will continue to explore the potential in collaborative building processes during the residency. She has previously worked for David Chipperfield Architects, and currently works for Duggan Morris Architects.”

Andrea de Chirico

“Andrea de Chirico's role as a designer is interdisciplinary, working across the fields of product, graphics, interaction and system design. His approach is collaborative, designing new production scenarios for everyday objects. Processes of making are not often visible but revealing the ways objects are made can highlight a social and ecological consciousness around local manufacturing. He studied for a BA in Industrial Design at ISIA in Rome, followed by Designer Maker course at Plymouth University in the UK. In 2015 he graduated with an MA in Social Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven. Andrea was recently appointed as lecturer and researcher for the course Design and Production at the University of Bolzano, in Italy.”

Rain Wu

“Rain Wu is a Taiwanese-born, London-based architect, working across the fields of art and design with specific interests in material development, speculative narratives and interactive spatial experiences. She graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL in 2009 and then went on to an MA in Architecture at Royal College of Art. Professionally she has worked at a number of architectural practices worldwide including Carmody Groarke in London and Sou Fujimoto Architects in Tokyo. She has lectured and exhibited internationally as well as collaborated with professionals from different disciplines to explore architecture's versatility in art and design. Her architectural background informs her work, but her practice is multi-disciplinary using drawings, sculptures and set design to articulate her ideas. For the residency, she is interested in finding new ways to engage audiences and reimagine the exhibition format, she uses food as a storytelling device considering the connections to relationships and experiences.”