Welcome to the third installment of this review. I’ve decided to speed things up by reviewing 3 episodes at once. I wanted to give up while watching all these episodes. But I did make a promise and I will see it to the end.
EPISODE 5- MADE IN NIGERIA
Soooo this episode felt like a better? rerun of the forth episode. The episode opened with the contestants being taken to Bogobiri , one of the few design hotels that exist in Nigeria. It is owned and run by Tola Akerele , a designer I mentioned in an earlier post and Chike Nwagbogu. The contestants toured the space and they were able see what the designers came up with using a limited budget. The designers had valuable information to give them on their design processes and searching for materials. In the middle of the episode we were informed the Ese could no longer go on. I was sad about that because she was one of the contestants I believe could have won.
The task for the episode took them to a workshop in the forest somewhere in Epe. I guess it was to create authenticity. That word was used quite a lot and I struggle with the idea that all that can be authentic to “Africa” must be made out of natural materials and crafty.
In this workshop they meet Mr Emeka, who is a wood worker whose preferred material is bamboo. He is responsible for a lot of pieces at Bogobiri. Mr Emeka showed the contestants how to make blinds from bamboo strips. The contestants are divided in to two teams. One of three and one of four and they are to work on a smaller version of the bamboo blind.
They are given a few hours and limited materials and were judged by Osaru, and Mr Emeka. Team A; the team of three people won because they did have the better finished work. There was an argument between the members of team B on whose fault it was that the blind had been poorly stained and in turn who should go home from the team. Unfortunately the consensus was that Matilda had done something that messed it up and she had to go the drawing board.
Both teams also got in to a small back and forth about hoarding the single drill provided to them.
I enjoyed this episode more than the last. I think it’s because a blind has more weight to it than an Ankara pouffe. I’m still shaky on the relevance of this to the objective of the competition, but it was entertaining. I wish they had kept this episode and done away with the forth one.
EPISODE 6- RETAIL
Once I saw the title of this episode, my interest was piqued. Retail interior design is interesting in the age of the digital economy. The competition for consumer’s attention and money is stiff and it interesting to see the kind of consumer experience designers create to keep people shopping in store.
The contestants had to learn the basics so they were taken to Temple muse , a fashion retail store to make observations. The contestants are able to observe the importance of mirror placement, visual merchandising, and space circulation in retail design. Next Stop was Nuts About Cakes designed by Titi Fowora. She was able to go in to more detail about interpreting a brief, lighting and materials sourcing.
The task was to design a shoe and bag store in a shopping mall. They were split in to groups again and provided with an empty floor plan. Titi mentioned that she was less concerned about the accuracy of their drawings and more interested in the way they planned the space.
On this episode, Tracy Nwapa of Interior Culture by Obiageli guest judged the episode. The judges were a bit disappointed by the failure of both groups to develop their space from a concept. However, Team A failed more at this, focusing on a piece they had designed for the entry way and neglecting many other factors. Team B seemed to have a better grasp of things, they created a brand for the store, picked colors and thought more about the customer experience.
Ife who was given immunity from the last episode was asked to chose the person from the team who she believed should go hone. She chose Lekan. We were unable to judge group dynamics to ascertain if that selection was a fair one. because not much footage from their design process was shown.
This episode started with big expectations that were 100 percent of my making. I thought they would finally try their hand at an actual space but all I got were floor plans. It was better than tinkering with a pouffe so I’ll give them that.
EPISODE 7-KITCHEN DESIGN
The episode opened with Titi saving an evicted contestant; Lekan. I think the producers thought it would inject some drama in to the competition. But it didn’t. All the contestants got along fine.
The first stop was Scavolini’s where the contestants met Kunle Dina, kitchen design expert. He spoke to them about tips and tricks he had picked up over the years and did some advertising for Scavolini’s kitchen systems. Tayo asked some intelligent questions about materials. The contestants have grown so much and Tayo is a strong contender
Next stop was with Mr Damilola Akinayo who is introduced as a CAD expert and guest judge. He goes through the basics of Sketch Up an architectural 3D modeling application.
The challenge was to design a kitchen. For this task they were all given the same floor plans. At this point I felt bad for some of the contestants who have less technical knowledge, because they have to build this space with a few hours of knowledge on how to use Sketch Up.
I was surprised by how well all the contestants did. Ultimately Tayo won the challenge as he had a cohesive space with a clear narrative. I was not surprised as he did mention he had experience in this area. Ummi was evicted because her kitchen in their words “resembled a bar”. Unfortunately, Ife also made it to the bottom 2 as she failed to create a render of the space and decided to work on only a 3D floorplan and a mood board. Even though she failed at the task, it was clear had a better design than most contestants.
The renders are the closest we’ve gotten to the contestants designing a space. And I was pleased that I finally got to see a semblance of design. You can watch this show here. I’d love to know what you think.
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