Engineers at Rice University are developing methods for incorporating haptics into clothing. “Of the technologies that have incorporated haptics, wearable devices often still require bulky external hardware to provide complex cues, limiting their use in day-to-day activities,” said Barclay Jumet, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering. To that end Jumet, ME Assistant Professor Daniel Preston and ME Department Chair Marcia O’Malley created a textile-based haptic feedback system.
Comprised of a belt and textile sleeves, the wearables rely on fluidic signals — such as pressures and flow rates — to control the delivery of complex haptic cues, including sensations like vibration, tapping and squeezing. A small, lightweight carbon dioxide tank affixed to the belt feeds airtight circuits incorporated in the heat-sealable textiles, causing quarter-sized pouches — up to six on each sleeve — to inflate with varying force and frequency.
The team envisions an immediate application of navigation for the hearing- or sight-impaired. “Twelve pouches across two sleeves progressively inflate to indicate one of four directions: forward, backward, left or right,” Jumet explains. “In the future, this technology could be directly integrated with navigational systems, so that the very textiles making up one’s clothing can tell users which way to go without taxing their already overloaded visual and auditory senses — for instance by needing to consult a map or listen to a virtual assistant.”
Moreover, the wearable textile device could incorporate other sensing and control mechanisms to allow users with limited vision or hearing to detect obstacles and navigate dynamic environments in real time.
“One of the big advantages with using these smart textiles for haptic devices is that they bring a lot more freedom and flexibility to the design space,” said O’Malley. “We’re no longer constrained by the size or geometry of components that need to be incorporated into a design.”
On top of that, the team says these wearables are durable.
The heat-sealable textiles are resilient to wear and tear, making the device suitable for intensive daily use. “We tested the durability of our haptic textiles by washing a device 25 times then cutting it open with a knife and ironing a textile patch over the cut,” Jumet said. “It continued to work as intended after repeated washing, cutting and repairing.”
Here’s a look at their system, being trialed by a subject in Houston:
In the 1930s, Czech-Brazilian industrialist Jan Antonín Bata was head of the Bata Corporation. He commissioned the design of the company’s headquarters in Zlín, Czechia (then Czechoslovakia), and the 18-story building had a pretty unique feature: Bata’s corner office was actually a gigantic elevator that could travel from floor to floor.
Impressively, it not only had electric sockets and two telephones (one for international calls), but a freaking sink with running hot and cold water. In this video, YouTuber Tom Scott gives us a tour of the impressive office. (I’m surprised this trend never caught on with millionaire industrialists, it’s pretty darn cool.)
The seemingly-odd proportions of this Naya chair, by Greenlandic designer Anders Zeeb, make sense once you read his design statement.
“My design is based on the Greenlandic Inuit culture and not least the Greenlandic nature. The NAYA dining chair is inspired by Inuit`s oldest tool ULU, which has been used since 2500 BC. I have transformed it into an iconic piece of furniture expressing our culture and sharing names with my beloved family.”
Nestled in the hustling bustling city of Ho Chi Minh City is a recently completed home called the ‘Secret Garden’. Designed by the Vietnamese studio ROOM+ Design & Build, the townhouse aims to provide its residents with a much-needed break from the hectic city life. The home features a stunning and light-filled garden at its center. The four-level home attempts to intertwine contemporary design with the beauty of nature. It offers a four-person family a tranquil and unique safe haven, that is almost like a protected cocoon in the city.
Pros:
Features a rooftop garden and plenty of greenery
The home is lit with an abundance of natural light
Cons:
The garden and numerous plants can be difficult to manage and maintain
The Secret Garden is situated on an awkward irregular plot that’s been tucked away in between two alleyways and a couple of other buildings. The location was a bit of a challenge for the architects, but the end result is quite spectacular. The home spans over four stories, and the home’s exterior, windows, and rooftop are adorned with plants. The studio aimed to maximize natural ventilation and daylight throughout the entire residence. The layout of the home is arranged around the inner garden, which also includes a high-end hydraulic elevator and stairs. This section is topped off with a skylight, which allows natural light to stream throughout the day.
The home also includes a courtyard entrance, which leads to an open living area and a kitchen. The upper floors house multiple bedrooms, which offer access to their own private terrace areas, and the rooftop terrace. The firm says as you enter the home, you will be pleasantly surprised by the secret garden that is scattered with a big acerola cherry tree, and various types of plants hiding in the further corner of the site. The garden allows daylight and cool breeze to enter into the heart of the home, while also managing to provide protection owing to the decorative hollow-brick walls.
“Moreover, as one uses either the elevator or the partly-opened staircase to go up to the top level, he or she would be surprised one more time by a wonderful rooftop garden with countless trees, planting, and flowers. These vibrant gardens give the occupants a relaxing and peaceful sanctuary right in the center of the busy city.” A smart combination of concave and convex surfaces, deep planters, and recessed glazing gives the home a sculptural appeal, transforming it into a peaceful oasis in an otherwise chaotic city.
Located on a wooded site above the Yara or Birrarung River the project, called Fenwick St, replaces a former single dwelling with nine apartments, spread across three separate concrete “pavilions”.
Fenwick St was designed by Edition Office
“We saw the site as an extension of the greater public domain that reaches out and down towards the Birrarung River and the valley beyond,” Edition Office director Aaron Roberts told Dezeen.
“The large mass of a singular joined building in this instance would not be sympathetic to the massing, scale and language of the surrounding buildings.”
The apartment blocks are located in Victoria
“Breaking the project down into pavilions allowed the project to read as a series of dwelling more in line with this scale,” he continued.
Positioned at each corner of the triangular plot, the blocks were separated by two “neighbourhood-scale” paths that connect and frame views across the site’s axes.
It has an exposed concrete exterior
To the west, the largest block contains five apartments, while the block to the east contains an additional three and the block to the south a single two-storey residence.
Each stepped form has been oriented so that the living, dining and kitchen spaces face outwards, with terraces taking advantage of expansive views across the landscape.
In contrast, the majority of the bedrooms look inwards, towards the more intimate paved and planted paths at the site’s centre.
Externally, the blocks are united by their exposed concrete finish, with full-height glazing and perforated copper screens in areas requiring greater shading or privacy.
Perforated copper screens clad the exterior of the building
“Externally we were interested in a materiality that would be long lasting and age gracefully, a material robust enough to be subsumed by the landscaping, with the notion that this would help ground and anchor the building into place,” explained Roberts.
“Highly textural concrete was married with precision glass and copper screens, amplifying the qualities and manufacturing process of each. The copper and concrete will patina softly with time and fall into the landscape as it grows up around the building.”
The site contains nine homes
Internally, the simpler exteriors are contrasted by richly finished interiors, with dark wood panelling, marble counters and pale-tiled bathrooms complemented by deep yellow and blue paintwork.
A shared basement links the three separate forms, containing parking spaces and stores as well as a gym and lounge for residents to share.
As much as I love spending time with my own cats, I’m honestly running out of ways to keep them entertained and prevent them from knocking down an item or two in my home, out of sheer boredom. If you’re pretty much in the same precarious situation as me and are always looking for new ways to keep your pet entertained, comfortable, and happy, then I may have a new product for you. Sorry cat owners, but this one is just for the doggos – the Evolv Dog Crate by Diggs.
Designed by Diggs, the Evolv Dog Crate is a far cry from the typical dog crates you see on the market. Typical dog crates tend to be pretty ugly and utilitarian. But Diggs gave the traditional dog crate a makeover providing a sleek and good-looking crate that you’ll never want to put away. The Evolv Dog Crate is Diggs’ newest and slimmest dog crate, which also has a super interesting “playpen mode”. The crate features a modular design and is a safe and cozy crate-playpen hybrid that evolves with your doggo as he grows from a pupper to a full-grown dog. It even includes a puppy divider.
Evolv is highly customizable and can be tailored to add four dual lock doors, and by removing the ceiling hatch to transform it into a playpen. The dog crate is built to last using a super strong rust-resistant coated steel frame. You can add doors and panels to the two included multiple access points and a playpen panel.
Evolv is also super easy and efficient to set up with its stress-free setup that needs no tools, and its proven dual lock doors that keep your puppy safely inside. The steel, frame, wire mesh, and Diggs innovative diamond mesh team up to prevent pinches to the paws and jaws. The gapless frame ensures that your fingers don’t get pinched. It also includes a removable tray that supports easy and quick cleaning. The Evolv Dog Crate is comparatively cheaper than Diggs’ award-winning Revol Dog Crate although it is built using the same high-quality materials. It is available in Small, Medium, Intermediate, and Large sizes.
To round off our AItopia series exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on design, architecture and humanity, Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser sets out our policy on text- and image-generating technologies.
Used responsibly, artificial intelligence (AI) has transformative potential across the industries that Dezeen covers, as well many other sectors and areas of society. It can rapidly generate and visualise sometimes far-fetched ideas, speed up the processing and summarisation of vast data sets, and predict and simulate practical scenarios such as the impact of daylight, noise or inclement weather.
But it’s not all positive. AI technologies are already coming under criticism for their reliance on information trawled from the web, resulting in mistruths, biases against marginalised groups, and risking potential breaches of intellectual property.
There is currently a lack of international agreement on what constitutes ethical AI, something developers and governments are scrambling to define. Meanwhile, AI laboratories are left to self-regulate in a burgeoning and ever-moving industry.
Dezeen embraces new technology, and AI is no exception. The fact is that we already use AI every day, and have done for some time. From transcription software Otter to subediting assistant Grammarly and text-narration tool AdAuris, the technology has helped to make our work more efficient and more accessible.
However, the rapid development of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney over the past year means it is now prudent for us to follow other publications in stating our policy on the technology.
We acknowledge the pitfalls and vulnerabilities as it relates to our practice in the media. Despite the alluring imagery it can synthesise or the seemingly authoritative text it can spew out, Dezeen will remain alert to AI’s potential encroachment on originality and will always apply our high standards in the judgement of AI projects.
Here we outline the parameters within which we will – or will not – engage with the AI tools currently available to us.
Text and copy
Throughout our coverage of AI, Dezeen’s editorial team has experimented with large language models such as ChatGPT and Bard to consider the ethics and efficacy of the ever-evolving tools at our disposal.
We take a strong stance against using such technologies as a primary tool for writing stories. The significant and well-documented issues surrounding reliability of the information they produce could undermine the accuracy, transparency and accountability on which Dezeen prides its content. And even if none of this presented a problem, the text levied by AI is often dull and unimaginative.
Therefore, Dezeen does not publish stories that use text generated by AI, either wholly or partially. If AI-generated text is directly inserted into our published journalism, it is only when the story is focused on AI and is clearly labelled as such. Outside of this context, if there is ever an occasion when a writer intends to use AI-generated text, this will always be approved by a senior editor and will be clearly stated to readers in the story itself.
Dezeen currently uses AI tool Grammarly to check spelling and grammar, but every story that appears on Dezeen will continue to have a human editor. We don’t assume AI editing can make correct judgements in relation to the topic without running the risk of the meaning, structure and tone being altered.
Other AI-powered tools that Dezeen’s content teams currently use include the voice-to-text tool Otter, which helps to streamline the otherwise time-consuming task of transcribing interviews. Transcriptions from these useful-but-far-from-infallible platforms are always carefully checked for accuracy by the interviewer before publishing.
Dezeen also uses AI tools to serve some content to our readers. For example, we use a service called LiftIgniter to suggest related content at the bottom of stories and in the right-hand column on the website, while AdAuris uses AI to convert text to audio, enabling people to listen to our stories.
On occasions, we may use a variety of AI tools to brainstorm options for headlines, story ideas or for research purposes, but only to assist the work carried out by the Dezeen team. In all circumstances, final decisions will always be made by human judgement and meet the rigorous standards followed by the editorial team.
Images and photography
We value original content in all formats, and photography and artwork are no exception. We continue to favour publishing photography and human-authored illustrations over AI-generated images. We encourage third parties who submit images for publication on Dezeen to be transparent about any AI tools they may have used to create the images and, if relevant, will include that information in the article when provided.
On occasions when we create our own artwork or imagery, and only to accompany AI-specific content, we may deem it appropriate to use AI-generated artwork to illustrate a story. We will always be transparent about this and acknowledge the model used. For any other stories that require illustration, we will commission a human illustrator. That person may use image-generating AI to assist in developing ideas but we require that they create the final artwork using their usual processes rather than submitting an artwork generated wholly by AI.
Projects and data scraping
At no point will Dezeen use AI to short circuit past the skilled human contributors who individually and collectively make Dezeen the world’s most influential architecture and design magazine. Without their intelligent scrutiny, judgement and fairness – be they writers, editors, photographers, illustrators, videographers, or specialist consultants – Dezeen’s global reputation would be compromised. This is something neither we nor our readers would ever want to jeopardise.
We recognise that, in one way or another, AI potentially poses an existential threat to a wide variety of human roles across design and architecture, as well as our own profession of journalism. AI tools are already incrementally replacing specific tasks and they could suddenly shift to make a human role redundant. Depending on the specifics, this could be interpreted as a negative evolution for our professions, unless new human roles are created to fill those voids. All of this remains hard to predict, but Dezeen will typically side with the subtleties of human curiosity, knowledge, experience and ingenuity – while still valuing technological achievement.
As an online architecture and design resource that has published over 50,000 articles and close to a million images, it is virtually inevitable that our own content will be used to train AI models. While we are in favour of making architecture and design accessible to as many people as possible, we consider plagiarism of our content by people using AI tools, even if it is inadvertent, to be a potentially serious threat to our business. We are currently exploring this issue further and may in future take measures to prevent companies from scraping our content for this purpose. We are therefore committed to ensuring that we don’t inadvertently plagiarise other people’s content through our own use of AI tools.
Generative AI technologies will continue to develop and change, which we welcome and will continue to monitor. We may occasionally evolve our position and will update our policy accordingly.
This article is part of Dezeen’s AItopia series, which explores the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on design, architecture and humanity, both now and in the future.
Daniel Czyszczoń has been awarded second place in the Future Luxury Retail Design Competition with his proposal for reconfigurable, autonomous cars that travel to the customer to test drive.
Czyszczoń suggests that the advancement of autonomous-vehicle technology will transform existing retail models meaning customers will no longer be required to visit a showroom. Instead, vehicles will autonomously drive themselves to the location of the customer.
Called BExperience, the proposal aims to introduce specially designed test vehicles that digitally display various materials and finishes, enabling a myriad of configurations that customers can test without having to produce physical materials.
The vehicles being autonomous means that customers can simultaneously test drive the car while travelling to different locations.
The proposal introduces the concept of the Bentley Mirror, a kind of digital billboard that would use augmented-reality technology to show bespoke visuals that are unique to every potential customer in order to pique their interest and draw them into the sales funnel.
The Future Luxury Retail Design Competition judging panel consisted of visualisation artist Charlotte Taylor, Halleroed co-founder Ruxandra Halleröd and Parisian concept store Colette co-founder Sarah Andelman.
They were joined by Chris Cooke, head of design collaborations at Bentley Motors, and Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser. The judging panel selected BExperience as second place in the competition.
“BExperience is a really interesting take on the retail experience,” the judges said. “It’s taking the retail environment completely out of its traditional form and moving it out into the real world using technology that is currently being developed and could become feasible in the not-too-distant future.”
“We really liked the attention to detail, the aspect of storytelling and the different steps of the journey, which are communicated in a unique and refreshing way.”
Read more about the proposal below:
BExperience by Daniel Czyszczoń Kraków, Poland Second place
“BExperience is a concept for the experience of selling autonomous vehicles in the near future.
“What makes the fundamental difference? In this case, it is not the user who is required to visit the showroom to experience the product, but the car can drive itself to any location the user chooses. This approach changes the way we look at how we sell a product.
“The project introduces the concept of the Bentley Mirror, a mirror showing the desires of users. Using AR/VR technology and smart goggles, only selective users will see the products offered by the brand in the mirror.
“Due to autonomous vehicle technology, it is the car that appears in the user’s life, not the other way around.
“A test drive can therefore be integrated into the user’s day-to-day schedule, not only providing a test ride but getting the user from A to B when he or she really needs it.
“Testing in this concept uses Bentley Demo Cars – specially designed vehicles that do not use physical materials but rather an illusion and digital experience – to provide a maximum number of configurations that the user can test without having to produce these materials in the physical world.
“According to this concept, the user buys access, not an object. A key aspect of “luxury of the future” will be flexibility, the ability to choose and change decisions according to our needs, right here and right now.”
Future Luxury Retail Design Competition
The Future Luxury Retail Design Competition is a global contest that challenged architects and designers to define the future of luxury retail.
Through the competition, Dezeen and Bentley sought to explore the momentous changes currently taking place in the luxury industry and seek to discover forward-thinking ideas for both digital and physical luxury retail experiences of the future, in and out of the automotive world.
The contest received entries from over 145 contestants from more than 33 countries around the world.
The panel shortlisted 15 proposals, which were published on Dezeen. We are unveiling one finalist a day from 29 August, culminating in the winner being announced on 1 September.
The winner will receive a top prize of £15,000, while the runner-up will receive £10,000 and the third-placed entrant will receive £5,000.
US labour organiser Architectural Workers United has filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against architecture studio Snøhetta, claiming that it discriminated against employees during a recent union drive.
The charges were announced yesterday by Architectural Workers United (AWU), a sub-division of the national labour union Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).
In the suit filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), AWU claimed that Snøhetta, which has US offices in New York and San Francisco, “unlawfully discriminated against several employees for exercising their right to engage in concerted activities”.
“Today’s filing sends a message to the architecture industry that they are no different from any other industry and that if employers use illegal tactics to obstruct their employees from organizing, they will be held accountable,” said IAM eastern-territory general vice president David Sullivan.
IAM alleged that Snøhetta violated sub-section one of section eight of the National Labor Relations Act, which states, “[i]t shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section” – as well as sub-section three, which deals with “discrimination in regard to hire or tenure of employment”.
The charges were addressed to Snøhetta New York principal Elaine Molinar. Snøhetta was approached for comment
“They will be held accountable”
“The architecture is no different than any other industry,” said AWU in an Instagram post. “If employees use illegal tactics to obstruct their employees from organizing, they will be held accountable.”
“That’s all we can share right now as the government begins its investigation,” it continued.
Snøhetta employees first filed the petition to unionise in early May of this year in order to “gain a collective voice”, according to a press release put out via AWU.
At the time, management told Dezeen that it supported “our employees’ right to seek self-determination”.
However, after the vote failed, AWU alleged that Snøhetta had brought on on law firm Stinson LLP. The AWU alleged that the law firm helped Snøhetta run a “coordinated anti-union campaign”.
If it had been successful, Snøhetta would have joined Bernheimer Architecture, which last year became the first private architecture practice in the United States to have union membership.
Steeply-pitched roofs animate two of the homes in this roundup, which spotlights Dezeen’s top five houses of the month for August 2023.
Also on the list is a dwelling decorated with shiny green tiles, a trapezoidal concrete home and a beach house clad in blackened wood.
This is the latest in our Houses of the month series, where we collect the five most popular residences featured on Dezeen every month, from all around the world.
Read on for Dezeen readers’ favourite houses from August:
Handmade green tiles adorn the exterior of this narrow dwelling, which Bak Gordon Arquitectos has slotted between two buildings in Lisbon.
Its shiny facade draws on the colours of the surrounding buildings and is punctured by a large planter on the top floor encased by three panes of glass.
Arguably the most unusual home on the list, this trapezoidal residence is dug into a sloping site in the village of Pernek in Slovakia.
The structure is crafted from concrete and fronted by large sheets of glass, which its architect Ksa Studený said is intended to evoke a hunter’s lodge.
Rural Office referenced the Arts and Crafts movement when designing Middle Avenue House, a home in Surrey defined by its steeply-pitched roof and red clay tiles.
Another home on the list with a steeply-pitched roof is Lime Wash House, created by Chris Collaris Architects in a verdant garden near Eindhoven.
The black-metal roof is juxtaposed with tactile lime-washed bricks, a combination that the studio’s founder Chris Collaris described as looking “familiar yet strangely familiar”.
Sitting in contrast to its coastal surroundings, The Amagansett Beach House is clad almost entirely in blackened wood treated using the Shou Sugi Ban method.
Its living spaces are all angled to face a pool-courtyard area outside and finished with a warm material palette dominated by an exposed Douglas fir structure and white oak floors.
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