There is a particular kind of magic in taking something discarded and giving it a second life. That is exactly what happened when a group of B.Sc students at RUSOA picked up glass panels that had been lying forgotten in the backyard of the REVA University campus and turned them into a five-panel installation on cancer awareness. What began as scrap material became one of the most talked-about pieces at Design Uru 5.0, hosted by the Indian Institute of Interior Designers Bangalore Regional Chapter at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad in December 2025.
The choice of theme was never accidental. Cancer touches almost every family in some way, whether directly or through someone they love, and the students wanted their art to speak to that shared, quiet grief. Using glass that others had thrown away felt like the right medium for the message. If a piece of broken glass could be cleaned, repaired, and repainted into something beautiful, then perhaps that mirrors the resilience of a body and a spirit fighting to heal.
The workshop was structured around five distinct panels, each panel built around a core idea in colour theory in art: primary colours, warm colours, cool colours, a monochromatic approach, and colour combinations and harmonies. Rather than treating these as textbook concepts, students were asked to feel their way through them. What does grief look like in blue? What does hope look like when it is rendered only in shades of a single colour? These were the questions guiding brush strokes on glass.
Alongside colour, the sessions covered the fundamentals every design student needs: balance, rhythm, composition, emphasis, and visual hierarchy. Students also studied how light passes through transparent and semitransparent painted surfaces, testing their panels under different lighting conditions to see how a single piece of art could shift mood depending on the hour of the day.
If there is one word that captures the spirit of these two weeks, it is experiential learning. The first week, held from the 13th to the 18th of November 2025, focused on foundations: handling tools safely, preparing glass surfaces, mixing colour, and understanding transparency and layering. Students spent time sketching, discussing the theme in depth, and finalising their individual designs before a single drop of paint touched glass.
The second week, from the 19th to the 25th of November, was when the real skill development happened. Designs were transferred onto glass using tracing and outline methods, paint was applied through glazing, blending, and texture building, and the panels slowly came together as a single, cohesive installation. By the end, students were not just painting; they were presenting, explaining the thinking behind their choices and defending their creative decisions in front of peers.
It feels natural that a project blending design rigour with emotional depth would emerge from REVA University School of Architecture, a space known for encouraging students to think beyond the drafting table. Architecture and design education here has always leaned into the idea that good design should serve people, not just aesthetics, and this workshop was a clear extension of that philosophy. Students did not simply learn a craft; they learned how design can hold space for difficult conversations.
By the time the panels were assembled and displayed, they represented far more than five separate colour studies. They stood as a shared act of empathy, built by hands that had learned to turn discarded material into something worth pausing for. For the students involved, the workshop offered technical growth in glass painting and colour handling, but it also offered something harder to teach: the experience of making art that means something for people who need to feel seen.
