Current materials teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate design courses in the U.K. is enrich... more Current materials teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate design courses in the U.K. is enriched by books and online resources as well as raw material samples and found objects: artefacts to handle and interrogate. These formal or often informal collections, or 'material libraries', though invaluable, are difficult to establish and maintain, demanding time, space and resources. This paper reviews current teaching practices and tools in Higher Education and engages in dialogue with academics and practitioners in the design community. The study is informed by expert interviews, as well as exploratory visits to existing materials libraries and collections in the United Kingdom. The key output is a proposal for an innovative and contemporary materials resource. Quite unlike a library, the resource should, where feasible, facilitate and actively encourage activities such as 'permanent borrowing', physical interrogation and active discussion. Growing and evolving with new ways of thinking and doing, it should engage students with making-tangibly linking material and process in order for teaching, learning and innovation to take place.
Superyachts are some of the largest man-made structures designed outside of the discipline of arc... more Superyachts are some of the largest man-made structures designed outside of the discipline of architecture, but as their sizes have increased over the years, there has been little change in the aesthetic treatment of their surfaces. This scalingup of design features has often resulted in the creation of amorphous, incoherent and incongruous masses of steel and aluminium.
Current materials teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate design courses in the U.K. is enrich... more Current materials teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate design courses in the U.K. is enriched by books and online resources as well as raw material samples and found objects: artefacts to handle and interrogate. These formal or often informal collections, or 'material libraries', though invaluable, are difficult to establish and maintain, demanding time, space and resources. This paper reviews current teaching practices and tools in Higher Education and engages in dialogue with academics and practitioners in the design community. The study is informed by expert interviews, as well as exploratory visits to existing materials libraries and collections in the United Kingdom. The key output is a proposal for an innovative and contemporary materials resource. Quite unlike a library, the resource should, where feasible, facilitate and actively encourage activities such as 'permanent borrowing', physical interrogation and active discussion. Growing and evolving with new ways of thinking and doing, it should engage students with making-tangibly linking material and process in order for teaching, learning and innovation to take place.
Superyachts are some of the largest man-made structures designed outside of the discipline of arc... more Superyachts are some of the largest man-made structures designed outside of the discipline of architecture, but as their sizes have increased over the years, there has been little change in the aesthetic treatment of their surfaces. This scalingup of design features has often resulted in the creation of amorphous, incoherent and incongruous masses of steel and aluminium.
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Papers by Tom Nelson