JULIA LOHMANN QUESTIONS THE PURPOSE OF DESIGN / WDCD2011

When do we lose our emotions and allows an animal that once lived to become just meat? This question triggered product designer Julia Lohmann’s research project entitled Void. The scene of investigation: a slaughterhouse. The final product: a stool that mirrors the cavity between the ribs of a calf. ‘A beautiful shape that's inside all of us,’ says Lohmann.

Lohmann, currently based in London, has been fascinated with the natural world and the apparent uselessness of leftover products since her childhood in the small village of Hildesheim in Germany. Through design she explores the ambiguous relationship we humans foster towards animals as the source of our food and materials.

Lohmann holds degrees in Product and Graphic Design and has taught on the MA Design Products course at the Royal College of Art. She is currently working on a practice-based PhD at the college in conjunction with the Victoria & Albert Museum. ‘I am hoping to develop objects that will raise questions about how we interact with the world around us, how we consume resources, and to which purpose we design.’