Thursday, 7 June 2012
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Street Furniture
Rational
My
chair design will encourage families to use the park. It will increase the
amount of people utilising the site and in turn increase the natural
surveillance of the site enough to inhibit detrimental behaviour. My design will draw this target group in
through its changeable form that can be used by the family in different
scenarios eg used for resting/playing/eating.
The
four chairs can be arranged together in an arc for sitting and chatting with
friends and family. If multiples of these chairs are located in the same area
they can be pushed together; the repetition of four of this chair creating a
full circle of seating. This arrangement is ideal for larger communicating
groups eg including mothers groups, school groups. The individual chairs
that make up the four seater design, can be flipped over to create
individual/separate seating. These seats angle off various points of the arc,
allowing the user to position them to look at a desired part of the park. This
would be ideal for an individual mother watching her children playing on the
grass. The
designs modular tendencies which allow the user to alter the designs form,
creates user-product interaction which enhances the users’ experience and
allows them to create a connection with the product. This interaction will
continually draw users back to the park.
The organic shape of the chair mimics the human shape to enhance
comfortableness. This organic form will also allow the structure to reflect the
natural environment, creating a harmonious landscape. The rounded corners also
mimic the swinging motion that occurs when changing the form of the chair this
links the chairs function and aesthetics to create a harmonious design. The sheet
aluminium will not be coated, but will have a polished finish. This material
was chosen due to its recyclability and low energy use. A repetition of cut out holes, patterns the
materials surface, this not only cuts down on material usage but is not as
attractive to graffiti artists. And in the case that the chair is littered with
graffiti it will be not as recognisable allowing the environments aesthetics to
be uninterrupted.
My designs physical elements will
make people feel welcome and comfortable and enhance cleanliness and safety;
these conditions will allow the park to a secure an attractive image for
“place” in the community.
Monday, 14 May 2012
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Video Blog Review C
The Light Bulb Conspiracy
Cosima Dannoritzer’s documentary ‘The light bulb conspiracy’
portrays how planned obsolescence began and its effect on modern society. It is
an educational documentary that should be watch by all so that we can make conscious
decisions and fight against planned obsolescence.
Planned obsolescence is the deliberate shortening of a
products life span to guarantee consumer demand. The growth of Modern society now
relies on the accelerating cycle of production, consumption and throwing away
which is the result of planned obsolescence.
Created by sir Humphrey Davy’s the light bulb was a symbol
of innovation however it was the first official victim of planned obsolescence
as a result of the Phebus Cartel set up in 1924. This set up deliberately limited
the life of the single light bulb to 1000 hours by preventing technological
development; this increased consumer demand and in turn company profits. The documentary
shows the pre-cartel light bulb in the Livermore Firehouse, California is still
functioning after a century.
When the US economy crashed and the depression was at its
peak in the late 20’s Bernard London put forth the radical idea of making
planned obsolescence a legal legislation, although this was ignored and never
put into practice. Planned obsolescence however flourished in the 1950s with
the birth of the consumer society; explained Brook Stevens; ‘planned obsolescence the desire to own
something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than necessary...’
society was seduced by new designs and effective marketing techniques. Some
companies went against this new concept for example depont created the ideal
nylon stockings which had a increased life, however they were forced ‘back to
the drawing board’ to make fibres weaker when high profits were not being made.
In contrast at this time such countries as Germany did not follow this concept;
with their post war lack of resources they saw no use for the production of products
with shorter lives.
Planned obsolescence has a high impact on the environment
including; the continuous use of materials is having a great impact on our non renewable
resource supple, the increasing carbon output that results from continuous manufacturing
and the dumping of non biodegradable wastes.
The dumping of wastes has increasingly occurred in 3rd world countries
which is causing devastation to not only the natural environment but causing
disease epidemics.
Planned obsolescence is still well and alive in the modern
society for example printers are embedded with chips and cause failure and
apple ipods have a specific battery which has a shorter life. However people in
the past did not have the power to change the rapidly growing concept however
with the presence of advanced communication systems in modern society eg
internet it is easy for our society to cause change.
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Video Blog Reviews B
‘Giving packaging a new life’ and ‘How it’s made’ provide insight
into the manufacturing and recyclability of particular packaging techniques and
materials. It is import for people to
watch this clip as awareness is created through the in-depth detailing of
various processes which forces the viewer to make conscious decisions both when
designing and in day-to-day life in the future.
Glass
The natural resources of Celica sand, soda and limestone
produce glass. Glass is relatively easy to recycle hence is a relatively sustainable
material choice. About 2.7 million tonnes of glass waste are recycled each
year. However a key component to the
recycling of glass is the removal of fragments which can be blown out by an optoelectronic
devices. Although a sustainable choice, glass is increasingly being replaced by
plastics as plastic weighs less which reduced transportation cost and is not as
hazardous as glass when broken. Many worry that plastic is not as durable as
glass however mixed plastics are heavy duty and are being increasingly used in high
strength areas eg palettes, railway parts.
Plastics
½ million tonnes of plastic is recycled a year, this is 2/3
of the quantity produced. A crucial
aspect of recycling plastics is sorting; Optical sorting machines sort plastic
into the various types before they can be recycled. This mechanical process is accurate
and reliable enhancing the end quality of the recycled plastic being produced. PET used to produce drinking bottles is the most
popular type of plastic as it is the easiest to recycle. However only 10
percent of PET bottles can be recycled and this 10 percent is made up from the scraps
of processing the new material. This low percentage is due to the material cannot
be cleaned well enough to meet health regulations.
Aluminium
Aluminium uses 120thof the energy of other goods
and it can be recycled over and over again through melting- casted and being rolled
into sheets. Water based coatings must be applied to aluminium before it can be
created into food packaging like cans. This is to prevent contamination. Further
when recycling cans the aluminium must go through a six stage of cleaning. Aluminium
‘foil’ is a key material which makes up Tertra Pac which is an ideal packaging
technique for long shelf life products. This
packaging can be made from entirely recyclable materials, while the plastic and
aluminium can be recycled to produce cement. New infrared technology has
allowed separation of the cartoon relieving manual labour.
Monday, 26 March 2012
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Final Design-Rational
Biomorphic
This designs natural shaped pods were inspired by hanging pod like storage pockets found in nature such as gumnuts, grapes, coconuts ect but in particular cocoons.
In terms of aesthetics the elegantly rounded structure of cocoons is extremely beautiful. I wanted my design to capture its essence of flowing delicateness.
Biometric
In nature a plant has the ability to shy away or creep towards sunlight depending on their nutritional needs. I tried to mimic this quality in my design where pods can be moved higher or lower, or the opening can be swivelled from one side to the other or the whole chain can be moved along the decking railing or inside depending on the suns position and how much sun the plant desires.
This idea of pods being able to be added and removed depending on how many plants you keep has been inspired by natures ability to adapt eg grow or kill off particular parts depending on the natural surroundings.
The main inspiration for having this storage system ‘hanging’ was vines found in nature. I was mainly inspired by their sheer strength, their ability to clasp on to foreign bodies, the fact they hang above floor level, and their extensive elongation which allows multiple structures to hang from.
Hanging pods from roof vs hanging them off a stand
Through the research I have done on people living in medium to high density housing; the abundance of kitchen bench space, floor space, deck/courtyard floor space is a particular problem. I found that by hanging you can create pockets of storage space without taking up valuable floor space, while storage systems which need stands do take up spaces in these areas.
People living in medium-high density living can’t always put hooks into the roof or many who even own the premises are reluctant too as they fear damage. Due to this I have made my designs connection versatile so that it can hang from a roof hook but also over a deck railing or fence.
Hanging chain vs hanging rope
A chain would provide an ease in connecting and disconnecting pods however the industrial look of most chains was too harsh when placed next to my organic pods hence I chose to use a natural ‘Malin’ rope which is both highly strong with a long life (ten years), that would suit our environmental conscious brief.
End material- Plastic-Wood composite
This material takes on woods thermal properties which are ideal to protect the roots from heat and frost. It is sustainable as it is produced from recycled plastics and waste products from the wood industry. This product will not corrode and unlike wood its plastic properties allow it to be highly resistant to rot, decay, and bio-organism attack. This material can be PVC capped which further enhances this resistance and the entire strength of the material. It also does not require painting for maintenance and can be manufactured a variety of colours. And in contrast to the high waste involved in turning wood, this material is able to be injection moulded which leads to near no waste. Due to this materials sustainability, high resistance to weather and bio-organism attack and low maintenance it is the ideal material for my plant pods.
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