Exhibition map

Masha

Weekend recommendation

Nobody going to DIT can miss the two small coffee shops side by side on Capel St., glass showcases revealing their simple interior and great looking food.

Brother Hubbard is a small café opened on 153 Capel Street, Dublin 1 in 2012. It takes equal care in the quality of its food, coffee, and service. This approach was appreciated by locals and in March 2014 one more coffee shop opened next door – Little Brother. The coffeeshops play very well with each other, and because of their popularity it is sometimes very hard to find the seat there during lunch.

Thanks to a collaboration with 3fe (another coffee shop run by the winner of Barista Championship Colin Harmon) both 'Brothers'shops produce exceptional coffee according to the highest europian standards. You can enjoy it together with tasty home made desserts or after some of their freshly prepared lunches.

As well as delicious food, the ambience is to be enjoyed thanks to the simple wooden interior designed by Dublin studio Designgoat. These young designers have already designed several bars and shops in Dublin. Just visit!

Both shops are open daily – on week days from 8 – 5:30 and on weekends from 10 – 5.

Eliska

Concrete Cube

The Concrete Cube workhop concentreted its skills on developing and exploring the qualities of concrete over two weeks.

14 students, under the leadership of two tutors Emma Bremenstent and Rasmus Feddersen from the Danish Royal Academy, started their workshop by walking around the city to gain inspiration last week. They visited the area around Christchurch, where their final exhibition shall take place, as well as other important sites in Dublin. After this participants, led by their tutors, created many small cubes with different colours, structure, texture and surface patterns to understand concrete as a material and explore its possibilities.

The main part of the workshop comprised of final products being created during the second week by the students. Despite the assigment name, Concrete Cube, students were not forced to keep this form in theirs design. The idea was to concentrate their skills on site specific final products with the cubic shape considered only as a starting point. Students are working in pairs and created their final pieces in the final days of the workshop. You will see the 7 final designs near Christchurch for two weeks after the final exhibition.

Venue #5 - Hendron’s Collider

40 Dominick Street Upper, Broadstone, Dublin 7, Dublin, Ireland

Hendron’s Collider is a relatively new multidisciplinary space, combining artist studios with spaces for exhibitions and events. Their 12 artist studios contain a variety of disciplines, including visual artists, writers, illustrators, artist collectives, and performers. The aim of the organisation is to “create a support structure for the development of creativity for artists in Ireland’s changing cultural landscape, and to provide a productive environment for engagement with peers.” So far the space has played host to a variety of both local and international musicians, community groups and artists, such as the Anti-Racism Network’s monthly food and film get-togethers, and solo shows for Collider artists Aran Young and Alan Doyle. Upcoming events include a Hack-fest film screening, described as “an alternative animation festival for industry troglodytes,” taking place on August 27th.

The building is lending their top floor and rooftop patio to MEDS this summer between August 10 through 24^th, to be home base for the audio-visual workshop known as ’Ensemble.’ The energetic group is happy to call the Collider home for these two weeks, using it as a combination workshop, exhibition space, and daytime dance club. Their final interactive project will be exhibited there on Saturday, August 23^rd, alongside BeeLife’s bait-hive exhibition.

Penny

Concrete Canvas

A group of 13 students led by Agnes Günther have focused their attention on discovering the design possibilities of a newly developed material, Concrete Canvas, during the two week workshop. 

Agnes Günther studies Jewellery and Product Design at Escola d'Art I Superior de Disseny in Valencia and works for the Concrete research centre in Germany. As a previous participant in the last two years of MEDS she decided to be a tutor this year and share her knowledge about Concrete Canvas with the participants of her workshop.

Concrete canvas is material that consists of three functional layers. It has a PVC foil on one side, dry concrete mixture in the middle and fibrous top surface. The canvas is hydrated by spraying or fully immerse into water and after drying for 24 hours it gets the character of cured concrete with several advantages – it is waterproof, fire resistant, and, thanks to effective usage, reduces the enviromental impact of normal concrete projects by up to 95%. Concrete canvas is normally used in civil infrastructure application and its design possibilities are waiting for discovering. It is made in three thickness 5, 8 or 13 mm, which all are used by Agnes and her students during the two weeks.

The Concrete canvas workshop is full of discovery and experimentation. The participants designed their own furniture during the first days to prove their stability. Some of designs needed only some final corrections and finishing such as screwing or cutting, whereas some of them collapsed totally. The successful ones have been produced in larger amounts. The final products will be exhibited in front of Christchurch and in The Chocolate Factory Creative Community.

Eliska

Venue #4 - DIT

Located in the centre of Dublin, DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) has existed in its present form since 1992, although a longer history of it can be traced back to the establishment of the first Irish technical education system in 1887. It maintains its primary ideals through its offering of third level education from certificate to doctorate level. Moreover, Alumni of the Dublin Institute of Technology include many of Ireland's leading politicians, artists and writers, including The Boomtown Rats, formed by Bob Geldof. It has a wide range of courses, including Science, Marketing, Pharmaceuticals, Engineering and Architecture, the latter opening up their doors to this year's MEDS (Meeting of Design Students) participants and tutors in Linenhall, opposite its sister building on Bolton Street.

It is on the third floor of Linenhall that the central hub of both the REC and Photography workshops for MEDS was created. The Photography workshop focuses on light-painting techniques –€・a relatively new method of challenging convention with exciting light patterns and displays using long exposures –€・and the REC workshop collaborating with both participants and tutors from the surrounding workshops in order to both record and experience what it means to be a part of MEDS.

(photos by Masha)

Jack

Casino Marino - The Pavillion Building

Tutors: Daniel Haarholf and co-tutor Joana Martins

Architect: Douglas Carson

A team of 20 participants visited the Casino-Marino building and brainstormed for approaches to replicate one of the rooms in the Castle Gardens.

The casino-marino workshop is fully focused on the reproduction of the china closet – a room with only one natural light source. Once the eyes are adjasted to the darkness the intricate plaster work can be seen due to the casting of shadows that make it visible to the eye..

Looking for new possibilities...

The structure of the pavillion is in the construction process and there are two approaches being tested. Today the team is experimenting with knotting on 1:1 scale to get a feel of the real structure, tying 'green' timber poles together with a rope to work out the best way for the construction, also making sure that all health and safety regulations are met.

..making skatches..

The interior is going to be completed with an internal lining of Tricoya MDF panels – an Irish designed product made from waste timber – which completes the sustainable aspect of the design. The panels will be layered to create a three-dimensional spacial quality – this process will be used for all of the walls except one which is going to have a more detailed finish created using a stencil and painting the MDF with acrylic paint.

...trying on models...

A variety of roof structures have also been tested on a smaller scale – all of which are using rope to create patterns - and a canvas is going to be put on top of it to protect the pavillion from the rain.

The finishing touches will be added to the pavillion by the participants who are going to encorporate their artistic impressions into the interior space in the form of art works such as photography and painting.

Nadia