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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2005

  • Work on this object began.

2008

  • Work on this object ended.

2015

2024

  • You found it!

Artists' Studios

This is a Artists' Studios. It was designed by Heatherwick Studio and Thomas Heatherwick and made for (as the client) Aberystwyth Arts Center, Aberystwyth University. It is dated 2005–2008. Its medium is crinkled sheet steel, wood, glass, insulating foam.

How do you give individuality to the skin of an inexpensive building?
This competition-winning design at Aberystwyth University, on the west coast of Wales, created affordable workspaces to encourage graduating artists to stay in the area. Eight small buildings on a wooded site house two studios each. The design team invented a waterproof exterior material of thin stainless-steel sheets crumpled on a custom mangle. This lively cladding, which reflects trees and sky, and the village-like building arrangement give the project a specialness—despite its small budget. Sculptors, painters, textile artists, and creative businesses now occupy the spaces.

It is credited Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.

  • East Beach Café
  • welded steel, glass, insulating foam.
  • Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.
  • HSP.20

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/85006439/ |title=Artists' Studios |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=19 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>