Hasta La Ideas

A full two years after then-president Marvin Malecha told his AIA colleagues he expected the industry to bounce back in six or so months, everyone is still fairly gun shy to even utter the word “recovery” anywhere near a conversation about the architecture industry. But who knows, maybe we’ve finally reached that point where it’s safe again. The AIA’s latest Architecture Billings Index has been released and once again things were moving upward, even more so than last month’s nothing of an uptick. It’s currently at a 48.1 rating, meaning it’s just-this-close to sliding over the 50 point mark, meaning there would be an even level of billings and we’d be that much closer to an actual increase. Bloomberg wasn’t holding much back, leading with the headline “Slump in Demand for U.S. Architects May Be Near End,” and even the usually overly-realistic Kermit Baker was sounding as optimistic as Kermit Baker will allow himself to be:

“It appears that the design and construction industry may be nearing an actual recovery phase,” says AIA chief economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “The economic landscape is improving, although not across the board, but doing so at a gradual pace. It is quite possible that we will finally see positive business conditions in the foreseeable future.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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pemMore food for thought regarding our latest 1 Hour Design Challenge. Teague’s awesome Radioball was the inspiration behind the project: a gestural tuner and radio in one. /em/p

pTouchscreens are everywheremdash;designers love their sleek looks and developers love their malleable pixels, but the implicit flatness of these omnipresent devices leaves much to be desired. From the perspective of human-device interaction, flat is boring. We crave real-world haptics, interesting textures, and functionally beautiful forms./p

pDeveloped by Teague’s a href=” http://bencollette.com/portfolio/”Benoit Collette/a and a href=” http://projects.kumpf.cc”Adam Kumpf/a, the Radioball is an exploratory device that encourages discovery through rich spatial interaction./p

pThe Radioball doesn’t use screens, buttons, or knobs; instead, listeners can actively engage with the radio by rolling and spinning it to find stations among the warm fuzz of the FM dial./p

pSee a href=”http://www.teague.com/2010/05/radioball-prototype/”Teague’s blog/a for more information including 3D files, code, schematics, and video of the Radioball in action (all released under Creative Commons for you to build upon)./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/competition/teagues_radioball__16601.asp”(more…)/a
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div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/05/1hdc-topper.jpg” width=”468″ height=”278″ alt=”1hdc-topper.jpg”//div

pWe’re a little over two weeks into our latest 1 Hour Design Challenge: Gestural Interfaces. In this challenge, Teague and Core77 want to see you create a simple but engaging interaction that does not rely on a screen for input or output. You are free to appropriate an everyday object or to create a unique piece of geometry, but your solution must invite the user to interact with information or their surroundings in a way that encourages discovery while delivering an element of performance. /p

pYou’ve got a href=”http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?f=35t=21539″11 days left to enter,/a so set aside an hour and dream up something ingenious. The first place winner will receive and Arduino kit, and both first and second place winners will have $500 donated in their name to NPower Seattle and Project H Design./p

pBelow, a few of our favorites:/p

pimg alt=”” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/05/1hdc-cooking.jpg” width=”468″ height=”381″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pYhan kicks a href=”http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?f=35t=21539#p148801br /
“induction stoves/a up a notch, and uses the entire surface (including the pan) as an interface. When the pan is down, the heat is on, when it’s lifted, the heat turns off. While on the stove, the angle of the pan’s handle in relation to magnets embedded in the surface will turn the heat up or down. Though originally designed for safety, we imagine that such an interface, with a few tweaks, could be nuanced and intuitive enough to give way to new culinary habits and inventions. /p

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/05/1hdc-candle.jpg” width=”500″ height=”315″ alt=”1hdc-candle.jpg”//div

pNomad proposes a href=”http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?f=35t=21539sid=2034c8f633a26879a35838d7a76d4991start=15#p149366″an interface to end a meal/a. By blowing a candle out, the diners signify they are done with the meal, avoiding the sometimes-awkward flagging down of already stressed waitstaff. What we love about this idea is that it doesn’t have to be electronically or digitally implemented. Nomad points out that staff could simply look for tell-tale (colored?) smoke or, in contrast, the candle could contain a thermally sensitive component that communicates wirelessly with waitstaff and tills. /p

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/05/1hdc-lock.jpg” width=”500″ height=”289″ alt=”1hdc-lock.jpg”//div

pFinally, LabRats have turned a a href=”http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?f=35t=21539#p148561″ pavement into a hopscotch lock./a While the potential security threat should probably be addressed, we love how physical this interface is, bringing muscle memory into the equation. The project also suggests that physical feats and learned skills could be used as a means of securitymdash;if the sequence in the pavement was complex enough and came with a time limit, a highly practiced dance or walk could be required to gain entry./p

pIn all of these examples, simplicity is key, but they also suggest new attitudes towards embedded interfaces and everyday space. You’ve still got time to a href=”http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?f=35t=21539″enter your own/a, so get to work!/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/featured_items/1_hour_design_challenge_highlights_gestural_interfaces__16600.asp”(more…)/a
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