London's Design Museum has named Attua Aparicio the winner of the 2024 Ralph Saltzman Prize for emerging designers. Here, the Spanish designer shares five projects that illustrate her material-led process.
After moving to London in 2009 to study design at the Royal College of Art, Aparicio originally explored the possibilities of applying craft techniques to industrial materials, such as plastic and steel, as one-half of design practice Silo Studio together with Oscar Lessing.
But since the duo parted ways in 2021, her solo projects have focused instead on pushing "primitive" materials to new limits, whether turning clay into load-bearing shelves or using waste borosilicate glass to create self-glazing ceramics.
"One thing I wasn't fully comfortable with in Silo's work was I wanted to avoid working with plastics and materials that could make the environment worse," Aparicio told Dezeen. "So I looked at different materials but the one that I settled on was ceramics." "I never thought I was going to work with one material for so long," she added. "But it has so much room."
Attua Aparicio has won the 2024 Ralph Saltzman Prize. Photo by Carmel King
Aparicio was nominated for the third annual Ralph Saltzman Prize by Italian designer Martino Gamper and will receive a £5,000 bursary to further her work and the chance to exhibit it in a display at the Design Museum from 1 February until 15 April 2024.
"Attua Aparicio's explora...