'I like thinking about everyday objects'
Product design is a broad discipline. For example, it embraces furniture, shoes and accessories, but also material development and design concepts. Niels Awater, a graduate of Product Design in Arnhem, has unconsciously always had a love of spaces and interiors. "I enjoy playing with the everyday things in our lives."
Niels Awater, Product Design, Arnhem: “It's a shame that the presentations are not going ahead. It's nice to be able to view work online, but I would have loved to physically see what my fellow students have made. In my discipline, you want to be able to touch and experience objects; after all, an object is more than just its manifestation.
The Act of Opening
In my case, it was about the manifestation of doors. My project The Act of Opening is all about doors. They are interesting things, because even if we never stop to think about it, they do take up a lot of space, both physically and in our imaginations. For this project, I asked myself whether there might be better ways of using the volume of a door in the service of the space. In order to investigate that, I made doors multifunctional by giving them an additional function. So you might gain an extra workstation, cupboard or bed in your home, for example.
Archetypal object
I often explain my designs as being like origami: a flat surface that you can fold to create something new. My project is about the wasted potential of a door. It’s a part of your room that you don't really interrogate, it simply is what it is. Which is why over the past hundred years, doors haven't changed much in terms of form. It’s an archetypal object that we don't think much about.
Everyday-ness
During my four and a half years here, I have discovered that I am fascinated by everyday things in our lives and that I like “playing” with them until something special emerges. I like making people aware of things that we don't normally stop and think about. For example, there was a project in which I turned a paving stone into a pressure pad. Each time someone stepped on the paving stone, it operated a scale. That was a neat representation of the force a person exerts on a paving stone. At ArtEZ, I have developed my perspective. I've learned to look at the things around us with new eyes. Perhaps that capacity has always been there, but at ArtEZ it has reached full maturity.
Productivity challenge
My year was one of the most tightly knit groups I've ever been part of. With fifteen fellow students and eight lecturers, you got to know everyone in no time and you felt at home in a warm, homely environment. The course does demand your all. You are expected to work hard and it's not unusual to be taking between six and eight subjects at the same time, and having to make and discuss something with your lecturer for each of them every week. That's quite a challenge, but it does teach you to work hard.
Own design studio
I'm not yet sure what I want to do after the course. I may develop my graduation project further, but I'm also not ruling out taking a follow-up course. In five to ten years’ time I see myself in my own design studio, or otherwise in a collective with like-minded people."
