Hasta La Ideas

At an industrial design program, students are taught the fundamentals of design. They’re also encouraged to branch out with the experimental form factors they’d never get away with at a real-life design firm where there’s big money on the line. So student concept work, by necessity, gets cut a little slack in the reality department, as you want to leave their creativity unfettered. But the question I have for you all is, where do you draw the line? Isn’t there a base level of research and understanding of the problem being solved that is an absolute requirement?

Knowing I’m obsessed with sewing machines, someone sent me a link to this folding sewing machine concept from the New Designers graduate show in London. I almost wish they hadn’t, because I worry that concept work like this can give industrial design a bad name, particularly when it gets the amount of press it’s been receiving. To me, this particular design demonstrates a lack of understanding of the problem being solved; but some of you might argue that’s a virtue. Read on.

The initial idea is laudable: To design an unintimidating sewing machine that folds flat for storage and is easy-to-use, therefore encouraging more people to mend their own things. That’s all fine and good. The problem I have with it is that the designer seems to not have done any research to understand how people actually use sewing machines, and how they physically work.

First off, the concept has just two buttons for stitch selection: A straight-stitch and a zigzag. But there is no interface to adjust the stitch length and zigzag width, two very crucial details in sewing. This is sort of like having a table saw that only cuts at one height, or a car that can only turn to round a 50-foot radius corner, nothing larger or smaller.

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“Prototyping is the first way to really understand what design is all about,” says Jelle Saldien, a lecturer at the Howest Industrial Design Center. Located in West Flanders, Belgium, the IDC will prove Saldien’s statement for five days in a row this September, when they’ll host their annual Creative Prototyping Summer School.

The weeklong program will expose an international selection of students and professionals from a variety of creative disciplines to “laser cutting, 3D printing, product photography, wood turning, welding techniques, plastic shaping processes, clay modeling, foam modeling, Arduino electronics and finishing techniques for 3D models,” among other things.

The €550 pricetag includes meals and beverages, all courses and materials, and a plot of grass where you’ll pitch your tent alongside fellow students from all over the world. You can also borrow a bike to ride into the nearby town of Kortrijk with your fellow prototypers after class, sampling Flemish Reds with blue foam in your hair.

Here’s a look at last year’s program:

The Creative Prototyping Summer School will run from September 3rd through the 7th, and you can find out more here.

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Architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro have proposed a medical education centre at New York’s Columbia University that appears to have had its skin peeled away from its skeleton.

The 14-storey building will be constructed at the existing medical campus in northern Manhattan and will accommodate facilities for physicians, surgeons, nurses, dentists and doctors in training.

Students will be able to recreate real-life medical situations within one of the proposed simulation rooms, or study in groups using learning spaces in the hallways.

Timber-clad boxes slotted into the glass facade will provide decked balconies and a decked terrace will offer a view out over the Hudson River.

Explaining the layout, Elizabeth Diller says that “spaces for education and socializing are intertwined to encourage new forms of collaborative learning among students and faculty.”

The building will be completed in collaboration with architects Gensler and is scheduled to open in late 2016.

Also new at Columbia University will be a sports centre by architect Steven Holl, which is currently under construction – see it here.

Click here to see more projects by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, including section two of elevated park the High Line.

Here’s some text from the design team:

Columbia University Medical Center Unveils Design for New Medical and Graduate Education Building

Building design led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) has announced plans for a new, state-of-the-art medical and graduate education building on the CUMC campus in the Washington Heights community of Northern Manhattan. The new building, with a design led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in collaboration with Gensler as executive architect, is a 14-story facility that incorporates technologically advanced classrooms, collaboration spaces, and a modern simulation center, all reflecting how medicine is and will be taught, learned, and practiced in the 21st century.

Construction of this new building is supported by a lead gift of $50 million from P. Roy Vagelos, M.D., a distinguished alumnus of Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S), and his wife, Diana Vagelos. This gift was announced in September 2010.

The building will become an important landmark to the skyline of Northern Manhattan – as it will be visible from the nearby George Washington Bridge and Riverside Park. Construction is expected to begin in early 2013 and will take approximately 42 months.

“The new building provides upgraded education facilities that reflect the eminence of one of the top medical schools in the world. Both the building and the newly created green space that will surround it will also revitalize our campus in ways that will benefit both our medical center and the entire community,” said Lee Goldman, M.D., dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine at CUMC and executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences at Columbia University.

Located on existing Columbia property on Haven Avenue between West 171st and West 172nd Streets, the Medical and Graduate Education Building will be used by students from all four CUMC schools (P&S, Nursing, Dental Medicine and the Mailman School of Public Health), and the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Its high-tech medical simulation center, which will allow hands-on learning in realistic settings, will transform the way CUMC trains health professionals in medicine, dentistry, and nursing, as well as how practicing physicians maintain their clinical skills and learn new techniques.

“The new building will have the best possible design that is attractive, comfortable, and appropriate for the intense kind of education that our students receive,” said Dr. Vagelos, a 1954 graduate of P&S, and former chairman and CEO of Merck & Co. Inc. He is chairman of the CUMC’s Board of Visitors and Defining the Future Campaign “The formal learning space will have state-of-the-art electronics that facilitate the delivery of information to students. In addition, there will be space where the students can informally interact and work as teams – reflecting our new curriculum which emphasizes team-based learning. And there will also be space to relax and have coffee. It will incorporate every aspect of medical and graduate education – updated in a modern, environmentally responsible way.”

The design weaves together areas for study and other activities. It features technology-enabled classrooms; a state-of-the-art medical simulation center that will replicate clinics, operating rooms and other real world medical environments; innovative learning facilities for both collaboration and quiet study; an auditorium and event areas with integrated technology; centralized student support services; student lounges and cafés; and multiple purpose outdoor spaces, including a terrace with views of the Hudson River.

The “Study Cascade” is the principle design strategy of the building – a network of social and study spaces distributed across oversized landings along an intricate 14-story stair. The Study Cascade creates a single interconnected space the height of the building, stretching from the ground floor lobby to the top of the building, and conducive to collaborative, team-based learning and teaching. The “Study Cascade” interiors are complemented by a distributed network of south-facing outdoor “rooms” and terraces that are clad with cement panels and wood. While the “Study Cascade” provides an organizational strategy for the building’s interior, it is also an urban gesture that, with its glass façade, aims to become a visual landmark at the northern limit of Columbia University’s medical campus. The northern face of the building houses space for classrooms, clinical simulation and administration and support.

“The new Medical and Graduate Education Building will be the social and academic anchor of the CUMC campus,” said Elizabeth Diller, principal-in-charge of the project Diller Scofidio + Renfro. “Spaces for education and socializing are intertwined to encourage new forms of collaborative learning among students and faculty.”

“The architecture of the (campus) revitalization program is really powerful and brings medical students, dental students, graduate students all together and makes us feel more like we are part of the community,” said Kally Pan, a doctoral candidate in P&S and a member of a student committee that participated in the design process.

The Medical and Graduate Education Building incorporates green design and building techniques that will create a welcoming environment and contribute to the long-term sustainability of the entire neighborhood. The University is planning the building to meet LEED-Gold standards for sustainability. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a national design standard for green buildings and sustainability which is administered by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).

For more than two centuries, Columbia University has been a premier destination for medical education, training generations of outstanding physicians and scientists. It was the first medical school in the United States to award the M.D. degree in 1770. The new building is intended to keep Columbia at the forefront of innovations in medical and graduate science education.

The post Columbia University Medical Building
by Diller Scofidio + Renfro appeared first on Dezeen.

Beautiful work by the handful of students in Lund University‘s School of Industrial Design made the design festival rounds this year with “Yesterday Today Tomorrow,” a series of future-thinking products that employ traditional craftsmanship, natural materials and the hand-driven mechanics of the days of yore.

Jiang Qian’s Lo-Fi Washer, a human-powered washing machine, is a refreshing throwback to the days before electricity. With this project,Qian wanted to “see if low-technology appliances have any potential in modern society.” One great aspect of the design is the ability to wash a small amount of clothing at a time, which may not seem like an advantage at first, but how often do you end up doing a big load of wash in order to justify cleaning that one shirt you want to wear tomorrow? Though I doubt the Lo-Fi Washer will catch on in a major way, it’s still a great solution for delicate items that require hand laundering.

Gabriella Rubin and Kornelia Knutson reconsider the kitchen with Root, a food storage system that bucks conventional refrigeration with a compartmentalized cabinet. Each section has a different temperature and humidity specially calibrated for different kinds of food. This method not only saves energy, it helps your groceries last longer. The set-up can easily be customized to fit whatever space you have available in your kitchen, whether you only have enough room for a mini-fridge (or, in this case, a mini-Root) or you want the full-sized model. From an aesthetic point of view I love the idea of storing my produce in a wooden unit, and Rubin and Knutson have tricked out the cabinets with extra features like a magnetized wooden strip to hold cans, helping you get the most out of the space.

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Chilean architects Surco Studio have completed a rusted steel and concrete entrance and administration block for a school in Chile that was severely damaged by an earthquake.

Sheets of weathered steel overhang the concrete exterior walls to frame the entrance to the building, which leads in towards the school’s reception, as well as to new classrooms.

Located at a crossroads in the city of Linares, the school is named Liceo María Auxiliadora and the new building displays a statue of the Virgin Mary in the window above its wooden entrance.

Exposed concrete walls also feature inside the two-storey building, while large areas of glazing separate rooms from the double-height foyer.

Other projects we’ve featured in Chile this year include a house made from prefabricated modules and a library filled with daylight.

See all our stories about Chile »

Photography is by the architects.

Here’s some more explanation from Surco Studio:

Administration Curricular Building Liceo María Auxiliadora de Linares

The project is part of the reconstruction of a building belonging to “María Auxiliadora High School” who was seriously damaged by the earthquake of 27 / F. It was located on the corner facing the main square of Linares, Seventh Region,Chile, in an important position within the city.

The opportunity to rebuild on the same site enabled with the sort proposed building a facility that grew without apparent order program according to the years; In this way was concentrated in the new building all the administrative and curricular program, before dispersed in school, as well as wards of agents and the main entrance to the school, thus replacing poor access and a few classrooms, for a more public one condition under its own logic to where it belongs.

Moreover, the building seeks, through architecture, a reading of the next emblematic elements that may influence your decision, where a rusty steel pediment stands up to the patina of brick Cathedral of the city and, on the opposite axis, a deciduous plant wall accompanies the green of the Plaza de Armas. The intersection of the two fronts forms a double height access that holds a picture of the virgin becoming a kind of urban cave.

Thus, the corner has been dematerialized in access with double eaves height, welcoming to pedestrians and mediating between the scale of the city and the gymnasium. On the other hand is looking to continue with the axes of existing buildings hiding, somehow, the trapezoidal layout of the city of Linares, which prevents the pursuit of orthogonality at the apex.

The double-height access to and qualified in turn penetrates inside the building, creating multiple views among the various levels and venues, also becoming the gateway to the former chapel.

The solution also had to fit a limited budget for government funds allocated to reconstruction work, for which completion tasks eliminated, making the expression of each raw material, concrete, steel and wood, along with the design structural building, equip themselves with the work atmosphere and thus the final image.

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Name of the work: Administration Curricular Building Liceo María Auxiliadora de Linares.
Authors: Surco. Juan Paulo and Felipe Alarcon Carreno
Location: Linares, Maule Region, Chile.

Promoter: Hosted by the Ministry of Education Reconstruction Plan. “Breakdown Plan 1″
Land: 367.7 m2
Constructed area: 735.4 m2

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Year of project: 2011
Year of construction: 2011
Predominant materials: Reinforced concrete in sight, Steel, Glass DVH, Corten steel and radiata pine wood.
Photographer: SURco.

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