Now in its third year, Useful or Beautiful is back for Green Week 2020 (10-16 February) and we couldn’t be more excited. It’s our annual competition that challenges students and staff to take discarded materials from all around UAL and repurpose them into something useful, beautiful or both.
It’s really easy to get involved and you can visit the submission form for all the relevant information.
The Challenge
It’s simple: salvage discarded materials from across UAL’s buildings and repurpose them into something useful, beautiful or both! Entries will be judged by UAL's Operating Board and a prize will be awarded to the winner (an individual or each member of a team of up to 5). This year's prize is a voucher to a build your own terrarium workshop.
How Useful or Beautiful works:
1. The design challenge takes place during Green Week (10 – 16 February) and you can work by yourself or as a team.
2. Salvage discarded materials from accessible waste bins in your College and create your piece.
3. Materials used must be waste materials found across the university (you can use new fixtures such as nails to create the final piece but the vast majority should use waste material).
4. Submit your entry in the form of a photo(s) using this form
The entries will be passed to members of UAL’s Operating Board where they will be able to award their first, second and third place entry.
Need some inspiration?
CSM student Jody Leach won 2018’s challenge, with a shelf unit inspired by a discarded piece of artwork found in the loading bay of Kings Cross. The MA Industrial Design student combined it with two discarded bar stools to make a new piece of furniture, explaining: “I wanted the piece to display the former life of the art, yet be functional.”
This staff creation titled ‘The Art of Waste’ was put together by Kathy Dowler and Dee Jujena who both work in IT. They collected items from old computers and packaging, including wires, motherboards and keyboards to create this artwork. It was originally going to be called ‘The Art of WEEE’ but they ran out of letters!
Feeling inspired? – get out there, start creating and send your entries in to us by 16th February.
Want to get involved with making UAL a more sustainable place to work and study? Then why not come along to our Sustainability Working Group, open to students and staff. You can find information on how to get involved with the group here.