On May 6th 2011 Hendzel + Hunt held their first ever “24hr Design Challenge”. Based on an experimental approach to their MADE IN PECKHAM range. The range is built with sustainability, up-cycling and localism in mind and all the materials used are sourced locally.

Hendzel + Hunt wanted to take this a step further and the challenge has been devised as a platform from which, through the narrative of a design and make exercise will encourage discourse and experimentation.

We believe that using recovered material is not simply a practical and sustainable necessity. Materials and objects also hold their own stories, they belong to people and places, they come from specific cultural environments and processes. These valuable stimuli can provide starting points, references and ideas for the design of contemporary objects.

On this basis we challenged a select group of designers to complete in a 24 hour design and make project, based on the manufacturing heritage of our local area of Peckham, South London.

The Brief
Inspired by the history and aesthetics of Peckham’s industrial past, namely the Edison Bells gramophone factory and record label, the challenge was:

• To Design and produce a machine capable of playing a record within the set 24 hour period.

• The machine must be truly mechanical and must not include electronics of any kind.

• Materials must be sourced from the streets of the local area of purchased from local scrap/reclamation yards/markets/etc.

• Craftsmanship and aesthetics should be considered as important as a finished working record player.

• The machines will be tested by playing “Two Cigarettes in the Dark, by Joe Green and his Novelty Orchestra” Edison Bell records.

The entrants were split into five teams who were given the brief on the night. They had to firstly source waste material, suitable for up-cycling, from the local area and then inspired by the brief that was only disclosed at the start of the challenge from this they produced a collection of one off objects to be show cased at Clerkenwell design week and subsequently London Design week.

The 24hr Challenge was filmed and is currently being edited into a short documentary by BAFTA nominated short film director Samuel Abrahams. The documentary will be premiered alongside the objects at Clerkenwell Design Week 24th-26th May 2011.