HSBC Cultural Exchange - HSBC UK Design Residency

HSBC UK Design Residency

The first residency saw Jianhua Lao, a Shanghai-based product designer, spend six months at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London as the HSBC Designer in Residence.

Whilst in residence at the V&A, Lao had full access to the museum's resources including design studios, collections, experienced educators and curatorial expertise. He was also able to use the museum's Sackler Centre as a base to carry out research, develop new skills and create work.

"I use museums a lot for inspiration and the residency at the V&A has given me the chance to study the culturally diverse collections at the museum, meet users of products and to work on new design ideas," said Lao.

In addition, Lao held regular open studio sessions giving demonstrations and presentations about his work to museum visitors and contributed to the innovative and engaging public learning programme.

Lao explained, "When I design products, I am influenced by the culture and environment of the users. I am very excited about experiencing London's culture, and about showing the V&A the way Chinese designers think and work. It's a wonderful opportunity for me to develop my practice in all sorts of ways."

Keep learning and practicing
May 26th, 2009
It's been a great experience to be HSBC Designer in Residence at the V&A. I learned a lot from the varied collections in V&A and other museums in London. It allowed me to understand more about others cultures and styles. And by learning more about others I've come to understand my own culture and style more clearly. 6 months is a short time for me to learn everything that I want to learn. So I'm continuing to learn now I'm back to China. The experience at V&A will affect my design for a long time.

It's very good that in London designers seem to communicate with and learn from each other. I learned a lot from the public and the designers in London. Life is beautiful because the things are different and I hope I could design some products that benefit the people's life and they are really want to use them. More and more people in China go to museums to learn the design and culture of our own. And a lot of new design practices are now happening in China. I am excited to be part of the future of China design.

The Barbican Art Gallery
March 19th, 2009
Last Sunday I visited the Barbican Art Gallery and the exhibition - Le Corbusier -The Art of Architecture - about the work of the architect Le Corbusier. The Barbican Centre is a huge complex of buildings including private residences and the public arts centre; it’s a good example of how to combine the two kinds of use. The architecture and gardens are very geometric - like Lego models. It’s quite different from the Suzhou gardens in China. The Suzhou gardens are more flexible and the views change with each step. The Barbican Centre is an architectural icon in the City of London. It’s a great building and garden.

If you visit there soon you could also see the Le Corbusier exhibition.

DIY Pin clock
March 4th, 2009
This is a re-design project. I like natural materials because their various properties, such as texture, give them their own character. Take for example wood. It needs time to grow and over time each piece of wood gets its own character, and has a unique texture, that is like its face. I exploited this character to re-design a clock.

First I found a second-hand clock in Brick Lane market (one of my favourite markets in London). I took the clock parts out and attached them to a piece of wood. I used some map pins stuck into the wood to create clock ‘numerals’.

It’s easy to redesign your own second hand things.

Read more from Lao's residency blog by clicking here

Lao welcomes the Year of the Ox

Clip 1: Listen to Lao's first impressions of working in the UK

Clip 2: Lao explains his passion for product design

Clip 3: Lao presents some of the design concepts he has developed at the V&A

Links

HSBC Designer in Residence at the V&A