Re-Fashion: The Art of Trash

May 2, 2013

Re-FashionMonday May, 6 at 7:30 pm, students of an undergraduate, 400 level design studio at the UNM School of Architecture and Planning have spent the last 16 weeks researching, studying, designing, and constructing works of wearable architecture. They will be hosting a final fashion show, open to the public, to display and present their unique collection of art. 

The fashion studio will present arrange of provocative topics dealing with issues about gender, empowerment, identity, exposure, and surrealism.

All of this was accomplished, in the spirit of sustainability, with trash. As an added challenge, the studio's instructor, Noreen Richards, required the use of trash and downcycled materials.

"Our studio got really good at dumpster diving; we literally had mountains of stuff to use." – Amanda F., student

"It was a whole new way to bring sustainability to light, which is not always a direct focus of our architectural work. We investigated connection, and craftsmanship, and, of course, materiality." – Shannon R., student

Re-FashionAs their final semester in the undergraduate architecture program at UNM, the students of this studio have really appreciated this particular experience. Though they were not rendering sections or drawing building elevations, being able to apply that same technical, conceptual, and creative eye has helped to define a tangible understanding of the universal principles of good design. Design principles remain the same, whether designing a house, an office tower, or a little black dress.

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