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Ryan Speer

@r_speer_

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Running Chair - Reading Design Residency at Grymsdyke Farm. Guan Lee’s workshop explored bronze casting through the ceramic shell technique, where wax runners facilitated the flow of molten metal. Traditionally removed after casting, these runners were instead embraced as integral design elements, challenging conventional approaches to form and function. Participants experimented with incorporating wax structures into chair designs, blurring the line between process and outcome. The workshop encouraged a playful exploration of material transformation, where the void left by the wax became a defining feature of the final bronze forms. The resulting works embodied a dialogue between presence and absence, revealing how one material can echo another while departing from its original qualities.

Tutor/Designer: @guan_lee_ with @castlefineartsfoundry
Made in collaboration with @emiliatombolesi and @marthanashdesign
Studio Pictures by @george.baggaley
Reading Design, a project by @grymsdykefarm by @r_speer_

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a year ago

Reading Design Week - The collection culminated in an exhibition at Crompton Place as part of the Brompton Design District for London Design Festival 2024. It was a memorable evening that brought together all the work created during Reading Design Week. The projects and experiences are captured in the book Reading Design: From Methods to Forms, available at the link below.

Reading Design is part of the program “The Practice of Learning,” curated by @janewithers.london for @brompton_design_district
Exhibition pictures by James Harris
Reading Design: From Methods to Forms
https://www.grymsdykefarm.com/shop/reading-design-book by @r_speer_

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a year ago

5 Clays, 28 Hands - Reading Design Residency at Grymsdyke Farm. Attua Aparicio’s workshop focused on the tactile and expressive nature of working with clay, exploring how it can be shaped and joined while still wet. Through techniques such as pinching, coiling, and pressing, participants experimented with rhythm, pressure, and texture to discover the material’s potential. The process embraced unpredictability, allowing for unexpected outcomes rather than fixed results. As the clay dried, it transitioned from pliable to fragile, reinforcing a dialogue between control and chance. The made forms carried the unmistakable traces of hands, tools and touch.

Tutor/Designer: @attua.aparicio
Made in collaboration with Peter Cotton and @prempehdesign
Studio Pictures by @george.baggaley
Reading Design, a project by @grymsdykefarm by @r_speer_

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a year ago

Spill Pot – Reading Design Residency at Grymsdyke Farm. Glithero’s process-driven workshop explored the balance between individual expression and collective making. Participants used handmade brushes from local materials to practice ink lettering, then translated their marks into plaster letters and tiles. The process culminated in ‘spill pots’ rotated plaster forms shaped by both control and chance, each carrying a unique imprint of place and time.

Tutor/Designer: @studioglithero with @philcuttance
Studio Pictures by @george.baggaley
Reading Design, a project by @grymsdykefarm by @r_speer_

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2 years ago

Grymsdyke Farm is a design research initiative located in the village of Lacey Green, just outside London. Over the past 20 years, its agricultural buildings have been repurposed into maker spaces and communal facilities, where traditional craftsmanship blends with contemporary digital design. As part of Reading Design Week, I, along with 15 others, was nominated to participate in a four-week residency. The programme included developing designs alongside tutors, guided walks to engage with the surrounding landscape, and fostering site-specific, process-led design responses. Hands-on workshops and evenings shaped days by discussions exploring materiality, form, and the potential for transformation through design. A few photographs of the many moments from the 4 weeks at Grymsdyke Farm. by @r_speer_

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2 years ago

The Lost Original—Reading Design Residency at Grymsdyke Farm. Marco Campardo’s workshop explored design through the method of process-driven design. A unique and individual sculpture was created that was moulded in beeswax sourced from a local farm, in this instance, capturing the negative space of a knapped flint vessel. This form was then cast in plaster and, through the lost wax casting technique, transformed into glass. The result is a subtle dialogue between materials, where imperfections reveal the interplay between presence and absence.

Tutor/Designer: @marco_campardo
Studio Pictures by @george.baggaley
Reading Design, a project by @grymsdykefarm by @r_speer_

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2 years ago

Interstitial Sculpture Collages.
Photographic Collages.

A collage series exploring the inversion of private and public space. Inspired by the works of the architects AAOAA and conceptual artist Michael Asher, the pieces examine tolerance in practice and how it responds to specific agendas like place, sustainability, and economics. The colleges looked to understand the pursuit of spatial efficiency in both practical and material terms, but while also resisting development driven solely by economic gain. A rejection of the fetishized ‘new’ in favour of a design language rich with emotional complexity, a language that can only emerge through the act of reuse. by @r_speer_

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2 years ago

Last December I was very privileged to be awarded a commendation for the 2024 Silver Medal. Alongside this, my submission work was shown at the RIBA in the 2024 President’s Medals exhibition, including my models displayed as part of the exhibition installation. It was a special opportunity to share the physical manifestations of the project’s ideas with a wider audience. Seeing the work situated within a wider architectural context also offered a chance to consider its place within ongoing conversations around space and reuse. by @r_speer_

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2 years ago

Interstitial Sculpture.
Gouache on Trace Overlay.

A collage series exploring a reuse language centred around the interplay of reframed sequences, decontextualized building fabric and new standardised components. by @r_speer_

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2 years ago

The finish material is conceived as slate cladding. Instead of being fixed traditionally to battens, a hooked fixing to a sarking board is proposed, allowing for greater flexibility in size, reuse, and reclamation. This enables smaller pools of reclaimed resources to be utilized, which may have previously been unviable.

This tolerance-based approach to resourcing also inherently creates a necessary limitation on the often highly specified appearance of material finishes. In this instance, the uncertain outcome is embraced, and the qualities of the reclaimed and salvaged slate are celebrated as a unique reflection of what was available at the time.

The ‘patchwork’ facade of the slate informs both the visual character and environmental qualities of each facade. Dark Welsh slate on the south facade promotes stack ventilation, while softer English slates on the north encourage the growth of lichen and moss.

The same approach applies to the ventilation ducts. Their sculptural quality will evolve over time as routes are amended, extended, and replaced. Different patinas and fixings further embrace the use of available materials at each stage of adaptation. by @r_speer_

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2 years ago

The finish material is conceived as slate cladding. Instead of being fixed traditionally to battens, a hooked fixing to a sarking board is proposed, allowing for greater flexibility in size, reuse, and reclamation. This enables smaller pools of reclaimed resources to be utilized, which may have previously been unviable.

This tolerance-based approach to resourcing also inherently creates a necessary limitation on the often highly specified appearance of material finishes. In this instance, the uncertain outcome is embraced, and the qualities of the reclaimed and salvaged slate are celebrated as a unique reflection of what was available at the time.

The ‘patchwork’ facade of the slate informs both the visual character and environmental qualities of each facade. Dark Welsh slate on the south facade promotes stack ventilation, while softer English slates on the north encourage the growth of lichen and moss.

The same approach applies to the ventilation ducts. Their sculptural quality will evolve over time as routes are amended, extended, and replaced. Different patinas and fixings further embrace the use of available materials at each stage of adaptation. by @r_speer_

33

0

2 years ago

The finish material is conceived as slate cladding. Instead of being fixed traditionally to battens, a hooked fixing to a sarking board is proposed, allowing for greater flexibility in size, reuse, and reclamation. This enables smaller pools of reclaimed resources to be utilized, which may have previously been unviable.

This tolerance-based approach to resourcing also inherently creates a necessary limitation on the often highly specified appearance of material finishes. In this instance, the uncertain outcome is embraced, and the qualities of the reclaimed and salvaged slate are celebrated as a unique reflection of what was available at the time.

The ‘patchwork’ facade of the slate informs both the visual character and environmental qualities of each facade. Dark Welsh slate on the south facade promotes stack ventilation, while softer English slates on the north encourage the growth of lichen and moss.

The same approach applies to the ventilation ducts. Their sculptural quality will evolve over time as routes are amended, extended, and replaced. Different patinas and fixings further embrace the use of available materials at each stage of adaptation. by @r_speer_

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2 years ago