Hasta La Ideas

Spanish studio Mi5 Arquitectos have completed a youth centre with a star-shaped interior on the outskirts of Madrid. (more…)

It was a great experience to be one of the judges on the IxDA Student Design Competition, sponsored by Dell, and now the Finalists have just been announced! (If you aren’t already signed up for the conference, be sure to book your tickets. (I’ll also be giving a talk at the event; please come on by!) Here’s the official word from the IxDA:

The competition had over 40 entries, representing university programs in Australia, China, Columbia, Denmark, India, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. Of those many entries, five have earned a full scholarship to Interaction10, as well as the opportunity to compete for the Grand Prize: a Dell Tablet Laptop. The Runner-up will receive a Dell Mini Netbook.

IxDA community members who will be attending the conference will have the opportunity to meet these talented students at Interaction10, and see their work first-hand. The finalists will be presenting posters of the work described below, as well as describing the work they will be doing on-site, just before the conference begins, in a live design challenge. Conference attendees will be invited to vote on both pieces of work and contribute to who will be selected for competition winner and runner up.

The finalists (in no particular order):
* Indicates the designer who will be continuing on in the competition in the case of a team project submission.

Future Mobile Interfaces
Kevin Cannon*, Tobias Toft
Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design

Exploring future mobile UI concepts and how they might change in the new few years.

Get Around (The Personal Travel Assistant)
Vincent Steurs
Delft University of Technology

The Personal Travel Assistant (PTA) is a mobile application called Get Around. It supports you in getting around; from finding your way to meeting up with friends, traveling along, finding a nice bar or the closest supermarket and much more.

The goal of the PTA is to increase the usage of public transportation. The means is offering citizens a service which makes them feel as being in control over the situation when traveling from A to B, using public transportation. The project is part of a bigger program called ‘Connected Urban Development’, an initiative of Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group and the cities of Amsterdam, San Francisco and Seoul. The mission of the program is to demonstrate how to reduce carbon emissions by introducing fundamental improvements in the efficiency of the urban infrastructure through information and communications technology.

With current technologies such as GPS, 3G internet connectivity and digital compass, we are at the beginning of a mobile revolution. Social networking is mainly an online activity these days. What if we could integrate it in our daily lives, merging in our every day routine of getting around? With Get Around I explored the possibilities a mobile application could offer. Why should we meet at a specific time and place if our phone could help us find each other? Could we find out who is traveling on the same route, or find friends when walking around down town? Yes we can! And Get Around shows you how.

(more…)

Photographer Roland Halbe has sent us these photos of a kindergarten in Granada, Spain, designed by Solinas + Verd Arquitectos of Seville. (more…)

Very cool little camera — it’s digital, has an auxiliary power crank if the battery runs out, has a bunch of cool built-in lenses, and you build it yourself. Find out more about the camera and the project developed by Shree Nayar and graduate students at Columbia University. Check it out.

In the south of Thailand, in the small town of Surathani, there is a public library directly on the pier which I have ‘discovered’ while waiting for the night boat to an island. It is run voluntarily by a couple (with the help of their daughter) and despite the fact that it exists already since five years and is under high demand by the locals (since there is no other library in town), it still doesn’t get any governmental support. I was really thrilled by the welcoming atmosphere of the place and the idealism of its owners – this is service design at its best! Besides the fairly big selection of books and magazines in various languages (I found two interesting books in English language to take with me to read on the island) they also offer painting and music workshops for the local kids, plus the place seems a popular social hangout for the locals. The only income to run the place is by selling coffee and tea plus the odd donation of foreign travelers. Their book stock is gained solely from donated books – so in case you would like to send some over we can provide the mailing address.

Please click for more pictures!

(more…)