Nonterior

Nonterior sees the designer as a narrator, who engages with the multi-layered experience of the contemporary world and who works this into the realm of design. This platform pushes the testing of ideas on a real site, in a real context, with real communities, stakeholders, external institutions and businesses. We investigate our site by creating large drawings, models or films that investigate social, political and cultural narratives; we then produce well-developed design propositions that respond creatively to these new stories. Students develop these proposals through a design process that draws on local insights, and when possible, engages people in process by encouraging interaction and experience. Outcomes might be an interior or installation, exhibition, event, product, or visitor experience.

This year Nonterior is working on a live project within the Beacon Shopping Centre in Eastbourne. As old definitions of public and private seem outdated and interior public realm concepts for retail environments have become predictable and repetitive, this platform will investigate the future of the interior public realm.

The work of the platform was organised into distinct areas of activity that took place over three terms. During term one students collated unique local stories into narrative objects that explored community, activity, place, and sustainability. During term two students embarked on a week-long residency in a vacant retail unit in the shopping centre, which they used as a studio to develop their projects. In the final term students investigated their speculative projects through model making, drawing, animations, and film.

Kevin Haley.

Image courtesy of Yiqing Miao, Narrative Model