Out of 108 winners of the 2006 IDEA Awards for design published in Business Week, these eleven jumped out at me.
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Cocoon - disaster relief shelters
CREDIT: NewDealDesign
The first few days of large-scale disasters are the most critical in saving lives, comforting victims and assisting societies. The Cocoon concept shifts the paradigm of emergency shelter distribution from a complex, time-consuming bureaucratic system to small, self-contained, personally deployable setups. It augments current tent solutions that take weeks to deploy and require the military and disaster-relief professionals to assemble. Cocoon kits can be air-dropped into disaster areas within a few hours and setup by the victims themselves. When subsequent tent cities are assembled, the Cocoon shelters can provide additional privacy and security. The three designs, Case, Capsule and Cuddle, cover the full spectrum of need, from larger, more rigid structures to the Cuddle blanket/poncho. This open-source design is intended to be mass produced by local governments, NGOs and the UN.
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ReFA Disaster Relief Field Bed
CREDIT: Luisa F. Ruge
CLIENT: Academy of Art University
ReFA is a multipurpose survival unit designed to be distributed to disaster victims and workers by relief organizations worldwide. Although its basic form is a field bed, the individual components can be reconfigured into a sun shelter, water purification device, transport system, storage container and more. Essentially it is a system that adapts to various needs to instill social well being and independence in the aftermath of a disaster.
NB: We certainly need to rethink emergency and disaster relief, given the possibility that we are going to have a lot more of both. I wish for once somebody would start the design process not with blue sky and blank paper but the actual package the UN and relief agencies actually use. Let's maximize what we're doing now as we prepare to shoot for the moon to help victims of the acts of God and shaved apes.
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Ashes and Snow - The Nomadic Museum
CREDIT: Gensler, Shigeru Ban Architects (France), and Officina Di Architettura (Italy)
CLIENT: Ashes and Snow, LLC.
The Nomadic Museum is a traveling museum that houses Gregory Colbert's Ashes and Snow exhibit. The museum is continuously disassembled and reassembled as it travels around the globe. The 56,000-foot structure is primarily composed of recyclable and environmentally sustainable materials: leased shipping containers, recycled paper-tube columns, local wood plank flooring and indigenous rocks. Once inside, visitors are taken on a journey around the globe as they view Colbert's artwork depicting a diverse array of animal species and indigenous peoples in their habitats. Complementing this experience is the environmentally progressive journey through the ethereal space and its prepurposed materials. Many technical challenges associated with its transitory nature were overcome, including meeting seismic and structural specifications for a 55-foot-tall building with no permanent (i.e., welded) connections.
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The MIN.CHAIR
CREDIT: Chul Min Kang
CLIENT: Pratt Institute
The MIN is a fun, engaging chair for children aged five to eight that also converts into a rocking chair. Made from a single piece of injection molded plastic, the design offers great manufacturing efficiencies and could be produced in a wide range of fun colors. With no legs and its single, rounded form, the MIN.CHAIR is ambiguous at first glance. But the cleverness of its dual function soon wins over all who see it.
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Bumpbrella Concept Umbrella
CREDIT: RKS Design
The Bumpbrella is a fresh, innovative exploration of a ubiquitous product: the umbrella. To open the umbrella, an integrated bicycle pump housed in the handle inflates the decorative, transparent vinyl. Once inflated, users can better see their surroundings and avoid collisions with other umbrellas or obstacles. Adding a touch of fun, three high-output LEDs illuminate decorative markings on the vinyl. When the sun comes out, simply turn the handle backwards to deflate the umbrella.
NB: An inflatable umbrella wit a hemispheric profile. It could just as easily be parabolic and double as a solar cooker with the addition of a reflector surface.
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CityWing
CREDIT: Philips Design (Netherlands)
CLIENT: Royal Philips Electronics (Netherlands)
Using state-of-the-art high-powered LEDs, CityWing emits a uniform wide beam of warm light for added pedestrian safety and comfort. The flat panel-like optics allow a unprecedented thin profile for architects and planners who want a discrete lighting solution. Its distinctive flat form is enhanced by the reflective metallic surface finishing, with the mounting pole and bracket complementing the demure proportions. A more natural light hue than typical commercial
floodlights is produced by mixing white and amber LEDs. CityWing also significantly reduces energy costs.
NB: Add a solar electric panel to each CityWing and you have the beginnings of a solar city lighting system. Dark skies compatible so that we can see the stars from our cities again?
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CityBike Amsterdam
CREDIT: Jonathan Abarbanel
CLIENT: Art Center College of Design
CityBike Amsterdam is a progressive public bicycle transportation system for the city of Amsterdam. A fleet of GPS-enabled bikes with remote-controlled electronic locks are deployed throughout the city. Small handheld wireless GPS devices would be available for lease from various public locations. These BikeFinders act as electronic "keys" that enable users to locate the nearest available CityBike bicycle, unlock it and lock it back up for the next rider. While riding, the BikeFinder attaches to the lock (which mounts to the handlebars) and acts as a meter. For the city, the system reduces traffic and improves parking. For the client (the city of Amsterdam), CityBike makes tracking and maintenance of the fleet easier, reducing the likelihood of theft. For residents and tourists, navigating around the city is less of a hassle, more fun and healthier.
NB: The White Bicycle idea never dies. Now updated to become the ZipCar of the two wheeled set. Another step to the community tool library?
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Lenovo Visioneering
CREDIT: ZIBA Design, Inc. and Lenovo Group Limited (China)
Lenovo, the largest computer manufacturer in China, succeeded for years by selling low-cost PC clones to consumers. With a growing consumer market and expected competition from abroad, Lenovo decided to reinvent itself. The company faced a problem: it did not know what their customers wanted, what their essence was or even what they looked like. Lenovo asked ZIBA to help Lenovo define its next-generation desktop PC, notebook and cell phone so it could better compete on meaning and value, rather than price. ZIBA's extensive research resulted in a 36-month strategic product plan for each platform as well as a defined segment map (based on behavior, attitudes and values) to guide future development of appropriate products for target consumers. Product lines are now organized around the needs of specific "tech tribes." This research also gave Lenovo a fundamental understanding of Western approaches to creativity and markets. Within months of the completion of this project, Lenovo cemented its commitment to high-value design by acquiring IBM's PC (ThinkPad) business unit.
NB: Cross-cultural product redesign on a high scale. Quanta, another of the biggest producers of laptops in the world, is about to start manufacturing the Media Lab's $100 laptop. Get ready for ubiquitously affordable computers if not ubiquitous computing.
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Airwash
CREDIT: Gabriel Tan and Wendy Chua (Both of Singapore)
CLIENT: National University of Singapore (Singapore) and AB Electrolux Industrial Design Center (Sweden)
Airwash changes the way people do their laundry. It is a waterless washing unit that uses negative ions, compressed air and anti-bacterial deodorants to clean clothes. Dry clean-only clothes can be airwashed conveniently and quickly at home without exposure to chemicals, and favorite outfits can be cleaned frequently without fear of color fading. Its gently curing form is inspired by the waterfall, nature's negative-ion generator, and its tall, flat profile complements its side-loading mechanism. Operated by a buttonless, embedded LED interface, the controls appear anywhere the user touches.
NB: Sounds like an interesting idea. I hope it works and gets out into the marketplace. Soon.
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FirstDefender Handheld Raman Spectrometer
CREDIT: Altitude, Inc
CLIENT: Ahura Corporation
FirstDefender is a hand-held instrument that enables rapid, non-contact identification of materials, such as explosives, isotopes, narcotics and chemicals. Existing Raman spectrometers are bulky, sensitive instruments more suited to the laboratory environment. The FirstDefender is optimized for field-testing operations, suitable for extreme weather conditions, useable on all kinds of samples (powder, liquid, solid, paste) and applicable to all sorts of states (spilled, contained, obstructed). It is also easy to use with heavy gloves and bulky many-layered hazmat protective gear. In addition, the design addresses laser safety to minimize the risk of eye injuries, since protective gear often precludes wearing safety goggles.
NB: I first heard about RAMAN spectroscopy over a decade ago at an MIT lecture by a Brookhaven Labs researcher. As I understand it, RAMAN spectroscopy uses a laser light in order to read the spectra of anything it can "see." It allows for instant recognition of a wide variety of substances, chemical or biological, even through windows, theoretically.
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CAMCOPTER® S-100
CREDIT: heufler design (Austria)
CLIENT: Schiebel (Austria)
The CAMCOPTER S-100 is a highly versatile, fully autonomous VTOL unmanned helicopter capable of carrying a 55 pound payload for up to six hours. The CAMCOPTER is useful for a wide variety of civil, commercial and military applications, such as mine detection, monitoring environmental or natural disasters, surveillance, anti-terror missions, search and rescue, aerial photography and mapping. The helicopter can complete its entire mission automatically, from takeoff to landing, controlled by a triple-redundant flight computer; although the operator may take over manually at any point during flight. Becaue of its modular design, the CAMCOPTER is portable by two people and easily transported in a light utility vehicle. Compared to previous models, the S-100 offers improved aerodynamics, fuel consumption, speed and payload capacity.
NB: Add a RAMAN spectrometer to the Camcopter and you have a free-floating surveillance platform. You can add other payloads that go boom. Brave new world slouching towards Bethlehem waiting to be born. I read a news story a few months back about an Indian version of these autonomous vehicles. They were used for crop dusting and the company that produced them had a contract to sell some to Pakistan. Then they thought about what else such machines could do. They cancelled the contract.