You are in your university digs, low on cash, and you need some new shelves. What are you going to do? What students do all over the world, and that is to go out and see what they can find rummaging through skips, cupboards and generally in piles of junk until they find something useful. What is not clear then, is what influence such foraging exercises will have in later years? Whilst I have a lampshade made from coat hangers that carries with it sentimental traces from studentdom,
Andy Martin has turned his ad-hock shelves, made of found brick and off-cuts of timber, into a product he calls Undergraduate shelving. Presumably he means shelving inspired by his undergraduate experiences, rather than shelving that should be bought by undergraduates... or else that would deprive somebody else of the formative qualities of make and mend!
The 'bricks' are milled from fast growing timber and painted with bright colours using a pu lacquer. A rubber puck clips the bricks together which also gives the connection a little flexibility. In fact the designer sees the product as a system that can be adapted and remodelled to suit changing requirements. As sort of grown up lego!
