Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2016 = Minto and Adam House

28th May – 5th June 2016
11:00 – 17:00

Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh
Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2016 = Minto and Adam House
There really is far too much to the ECA degree show to try and cover it all in the one posting, so I will split it up by buildings. I had a good look round most of the various rooms but even with a visit of a few hours you are just skimming the surface of what is on offer.
First off I will cover the architecture students.
It is nice to see the architecture students really getting some space at the degree show and show what they are capable of. There was a range of strong material across a variety of floors at both Minto and Adam House, but for me the strongest material was in Minto House, it was also the most interesting building to get into as well.
Many pieces were highly stylised visions of a near future. There was a strong sense of place in most of the displays, often a reaction or commentary of some very distinctive existing landscape. A dystopian nightmare of Japan set out a powerful and pervasive vision, reminiscent of the classic Ghost in the Shell. At times things seemed to be as much moody set design as architecture.
There was consistently strong model work, evocative illustrations and even short video segments. While models and computer graphics featured strongly the couple of notebooks that I opened up and looked at included relatively little material. While the illustrators and other visual artists seem inveterate notebook users, the notebook seems to be on the way out for architects. A handy spot for the odd working out of some detail, but not much more.
For some reason the architecture students do not appear to feature in the usual free newspaper style programme so I have included a few photos of things that I liked. Even non architecture buffs should find this an impressive and evocative experience.