How do you capture the attention of a young, well-educated clientele with a high-energy lifestyle? RISD students proposed an answer in the spring of 2004 when they presented the prototype for a wine bar that would hypothetically be located in TriBeCa (NYC). Their design was part of a Street of Restaurants, a student invitational at the 2004 Salone Internazionale del Mobile, a world-renowned furniture fair that takes place in Milan, Italy.

RISD was among 12 colleges worldwide invited to participate in the high-profile project and was the only one representing the US, according to Furniture Design Department Head Rosanne Somerson [RISD ’76, Industrial Design]. The school was invited to the 2004 show because of the outstanding contributions RISD students have made to the SaloneSatellite young designers’ exhibition in recent years.

For 2004 show, which featured a spotlight exhibition called Dining Design, 29 students in a variety of disciplines worked with adjunct faculty member and project leader Lothar Windels [RISD BID ’96 Industrial Design] to design furnishings that create an experience — an ever-changing, real-time visual tapestry of people in the bar.

Students in Furniture Design, Digital Media and Graphic Design collaborated on the project, which makes use of digital video cameras mounted below translucent table surfaces. When the cameras detect movement, they transmit it to a central computer, which filters and transforms the images before sending them to projectors mounted in the ceiling. The entire mix is then projected across a glass entrance wall. Italian furniture maker Poliform/Varenna helped to build prototypes of all 12 student-designed restaurants for the fair, which drew the worldıs leading designers and manufacturers of furniture and attracted plenty of media attention. Shortly after the Milan event, Rob Forbes, founder of Design Within Reach, noted that he was especially impressed with the caliber of the RISD student project, which stood out for its professionalism and conceptual strength.

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