Victoria and Albert Museum welcomes Made in Brunel

​If you were planning to promote longevity in household artefacts, you might not immediately think of building a full sized kitchen and living room entirely out of cardboard and sticky tape.

But students from the long-running and respected Made in Brunel project are busy this week making usable chairs, tables and kitchen counters from the sorts of materials that you might find around the back at Sainsburys, in preparation for a special late night exhibition tonight at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in central London.

The exhibition is “The Secret Life of Furniture”, put on to celebrate the opening of the Dr Susan Weber Gallery of furniture and ceramics on the 6th floor of the V&A.

The Made in Brunel team will be showing their “pop-up house” to demonstrate the possibilities created by embracing a make-do-and-mend approach to furniture and other household goods.

“It will be a fully interactive installation,” said Amy O’Connor from Made in Brunel. “As well as our cardboard rooms, we will have a selection of the things that people can often find in their garden sheds, so that visitors can have a go at making their own furniture out of discarded stuff they might have at home.”

“The aim is to show that everyone can come up with creative design solutions, and to open peoples’ eyes to the idea that simply buying a new piece of furniture is not always the answer; longevity should be inherent in what we already own.”

The Made in Brunel managerial team is Kat Harris, Jack Stanton, Ben Clarke, Sam Lester, Rich Coomber and Amy O’Connor. “The Secret Life of Furniture” exhibition is on tonight at the V&A, from 6.30 pm to 10.00pm. Admittance is free, and the nearest Tube station is South Kensington.