Small pieces of Scotland?

For those agencies concerned with the promotion of design and craft in post-war Scotland, and with the development of tourism more generally, souvenirs proved a source of constant anxiety and embarrassment. There were always going to be problems in tackling an industry that embraced such a wide range of design practices and markets, from exclusive hand-crafted items at one end of the spectrum to cheap mass-produced ephemera at the other. This paper examines ways in which the Council of Industrial Design (CoID), the Scottish Crafts Centre, the Tourist Board and the National Trust for Scotland all sought to address the 'souvenir problem' in the period 1946-80. At the heart of this topic is not only the issue of national identity but the very fraught question of 'good' and 'bad' taste. It is perhaps not surprising that the various competitions and exhibitions that were organised have sunk virtually without trace. What emerges is a depressing tale of well-intentioned propagandist ambition that was doomed to failure in the face of an uncontrollable industry and the public's apparently insatiable appetite for the 'worst' type of designed and crafted artefacts

In vivo laboratory practicals in research-led teaching: An example using glucose tolerance tests in lean and obese mice

The use of animal models is an essential part of medical research and drug development. The essential skills required to be able to do such research includes experimental design, statistical analysis and the actual handling and treating of the animals (in vivo skills). The number of students in the U.K. receiving training in handling and experimenting on animals has declined rapidly in the last few decades which has led to initiatives to increase numbers of students with these skills to meet demand. Within the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at King's College London, we run a course for 2nd year undergraduates entitled “Animal models of disease and injury”. This course not only covers the theoretical and ethical aspects of using animals in research, but also contains practical laboratory classes in which students get hands-on experience using animals. One of the laboratory classes we run is a glucose tolerance test in obese and lean mice. This is an example of research-led teaching which aims to develop research skills through engaging students in research like activities. In this paper, we outline the methodology of the glucose tolerance practical and highlight some of the skills we and the students think they gain by research-led teaching such as this

"Any lady can do this without much trouble ...": class and gender in The dining room (1878)

Macmillan's "Art at Home" series (1876–83) was a collection of domestic advice manuals. Mentioned in every study of the late-nineteenth-century domestic interior, they have often been interpreted, alongside contemporary publications such as Charles Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste (1868), as indicators of late 1870s home furnishing styles. Mrs Loftie's The Dining Room (1878) was the series' fifth book and it considers one of the home's principal (and traditionally masculine) domestic spaces. Recent research on middle-class cultural practices surrounding food has placed The Dining Room within the tradition of Mrs Beeton's Household Management (1861); however, it is not a cookery book and hardly mentions dinners. Drawing upon unpublished archival sources, this paper charts the production and reception of The Dining Room, aiming to unravel its relationships with other contemporary texts and to highlight the difficulties of using it as historical evidence. While it offers fascinating insights into contemporary taste, class and gender, this paper suggests that, as an example of domestic design advice literature, it reveals far more about the often expedient world of nineteenth-century publishing practices

The Public Playground Paradox: "Child’s Joy" or Heterotopia of Fear?

Literature depicts children of the Global North withdrawing from public space to“acceptable islands”. Driven by fears both of and for children, the publicplayground – one such island – provides clear-cut distinctions between childhoodand adulthood. Extending this argument, this paper takes the original approach oftheoretically framing the playground as a heterotopia of deviance, examining –for the first time – three Greek public playground sites in relation to adjacentpublic space. Drawing on an ethnographic study in Athens, findings show fear tounderpin surveillance, control and playground boundary porosity. Normativeclassification as “children’s space” discourages adult engagement. However, in anovel and significant finding, a paradoxical phenomenon sees the playground’spresence simultaneously legitimizing playful behaviour in adjacent public spacefor children and adults. Extended playground play creates alternate orderings andnegotiates norms and hierarchies, suggesting significant wider potential toreconceptualise playground-urban design for an intergenerational public realm

Arte Nova e Eclectismo no palacete projectado por Ernesto Korrodi para a família Bouhon

In the early twentieth century, Interior Design resulted from the work of architects, decorators, painters and carvers. Although then integrated into the world of decorative arts, we believe that already existed as a profession regulated by a coherent network design principles and the understanding of interior space as global web of relationships established between plans, ornament, lighting and furniture solutions. At the end of the previous century, before the need for a reform of industrial training, the Portuguese Government opened a tender for hiring of foreign teachers. We emphasize the role of Ernesto Korrodi (1870-1944). His works arise from an attitude paradoxically modern and eclectic, leaning one hand on a reinterpretation of solutions referenced in the medieval period or the Renaissance, on the other, based on formulas from Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau or Secession. In his projects certain rooms and hierarchies remain, but these are intersect with the needs aroused by technical innovations, which causes an attempt to answer to the emergence of new functions and features in the house, along with the hygienists demands of the moment. This article consists in the analysis of Bouhon home, located in the city of Covilhã, Portugal. If Art Nouveau is visible in the elevations, inside we find a cleaner space, marked by decorative notes which we can find in tiles and embedded in the stucco or coffered ceilings. The ornament thus contributes to the dignity of the walls, wainscots and ceiling plans, assuming a key role in the spatial composition.No início do século XX, o design de interiores resultava do trabalho desenvolvido por arquitectos, decoradores, pintores ou entalhadores. Embora então integrado no universo das artes decorativas, acreditamos que já existia como prática profissional regulada por uma rede coerente de princípios de concepção e pelo entendimento do espaço interior como teia global de relações que se estabelece entre planos, ornamento, iluminação e mobiliário. No final do século anterior, perante a necessidade de proceder a uma reforma do ensino industrial, o governo português abrira um concurso para contratação de professores estrangeiros. Evidenciamos o papel de Ernesto Korrodi (1870-1944). As suas obras decorrem de uma atitude paradoxalmente ecléctica e moderna, apoiando-se por um lado, numa reinterpretação de soluções referenciadas no período medieval ou na Renascença; por outro, em fórmulas sediadas nos movimentos Arts and Crafts, Arte Nova (Art Nouveau) ou Secessão. Nos seus projectos persistem determinadas dependências e hierarquias, mas estas se cruzam com as necessidades despertadas pelas inovações técnicas, o que faz com que se preocupe também com a resposta à eclosão de novas funções e mobiliário na casa, a par das exigências higienistas do momento. O presente artigo consiste na análise da casa da família Bouhon, localizada na cidade da Covilhã, Portugal. Se a Arte Nova marca as suas fachadas, no interior deparamo-nos com espaços mais depurados, marcados por apontamentos decorativos, incorporados na azulejaria e nos tectos estucados ou em caixotões. O ornamento contribui, deste modo, para a dignificação dos planos das paredes, lambris e tectos, assumindo um papel fundamental na composição espacial