The Blog of the Design Studio
Milan 2013: French architect Jean Nouvel has set out his vision for the office environments of the future in a huge installation at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile this week (+ slideshow).
Commissioned by Cosmit, the parent company of the Salone, Project: Office for Living sees Jean Nouvel explore the changes taking place in the workplace and offers an alternative to today’s “unliveable” offices.
via Project: Office for Living installation by Jean Nouvel at Salone.
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I know that this group is pretty dead, but maybe we could take over/add to the discussion and maybe generate some interest in our event?
The idea of Future Office Labs is to encourage a collective exploration and discussion of new technologies and practices in the work-place.
It’s a group for early-adopters, change-makers, entrepreneurs and organizational revolutionaries; people who are excited by cutting-edge ideas, fascinated by shiny toys (go on, admit it), but frustrated when they don’t get to use them in their day-jobs.
You don’t need to be a technologist to join F.O.L.; you might be a power-user or a practitioner who can see the potential of doing things differently. In fact, one of the reasons I’m creating this group is to have a space to exchange ideas, for those who are NOT technologists, but who do have interesting thoughts about how it can be used.
But in 2032 the “workplace”, or more specifically the local array of immersive spaces we now consider optimised for work, is as valuable as ever – even though many thought it might become a relic of the past.
People used to be willing to pick up and move their entire lives to be nearer to that building and have access to a small physical address within it, in which they were assumed to do all of their work.
But after mobile technologies gave rise to “work anywhere” norms and strategies, which often created great disruptions in employee work-life balance, employees and employers began to mutually embrace the notion that there should be easily-accessible spaces where work is optimised – to both enable work and to promote the enjoyment of it.
Thus, a new generation of workplace was created, allowing workers to immerse themselves in local spaces offering a wide array of highly cocooned or interactive settings to support their needs.
via BBC News – Viewpoint: A note from your future office in 2032.
The question I would ask is why wouldn’t your speculative office include robots? – today’s technology is as remarkable as science fiction
Something to listen to while you work
Start the Week; Art and Design with Antony Gormley, Ron Arad, Christopher Frayling and Sarah Teasley, chaired by Andrew Marr.
something particular in this conversation for each of you….
and this for Toby Shark
For the next two weeks it is my pleasure to introduce Charlotte Bovis from Amanda Levete Architects to talk to you about Rhino and Grasshopper. Charlotte graduated from Oxford Brookes and went on to study at the RCA. She has worked for Future Systems and is currently working with AL_A : http://www.ala.uk.com
The format will be a lecture on Wednesday 21st / 28th at 11am in the Main Hall, then Charlotte will be available in the design studios for a limited time for questions.
Schedule Tuesday 20th November:
CHANGE OF VENUE – Third Floor space 3 – (library end with link bridge – working screen provided)
10:30am Board meeting: Leader Ronnie Maclellan CEO.
11:00am Client presentations: 5 minute presentation of current work + 15 minutes discussion. You will be video recorded.
Presenting: Aaron, Hilda, Nigel, Ross, David
Internal Review Panel: Tom Gr, Kate, Tom P, Kartic, TS + RM
Audience/notes: Antonio, Clare, molly, Peter
2pm
Presenting: Tom Gr, Kate, Tom P, Kartic
Internal Review Panel: Antonio, Clare, molly, Peter, TS + RM
Audience/notes: Aaron, Hilda, Nigel, Ross, David
4pm
Presenting: Antonio, Clare, molly, Peter
Internal Review Panel: Aaron, Hilda, Nigel, Ross, David
Audience/notes: Tom Gr, Kate, Tom P, Kartic
This is your chance to get feedback about your ideas and work from your work colleagues – please use this opportunity to your fellow office workers expand their ideas through critical feedback. If your advice is not constructive and critical, the company will fail and you’ll all be out of a job. It is in your best interests to contribute. You will be video recorded and your performance assessed by the CEO and Director.
Guys – we think you should attend tomorrow’s free lecture at 9am in the student hub – Stephen Melville is a structural engineer on the cutting edge of design. Please attend!
11:00 – Kartik introduction to prototyping
11:30 Kate, Kartik and Seb
12:30 Ross, Tom and Antonio
13:30 Lunch
14:00 Clare, Nigel and Josh
15:00 James, Molly and Aaron
16:00 Hilda, David, Tom and Peter
See you all at 11am followed by small group tutorials
T
The Institute of Making is a multidisciplinary research club for those interested in the made world: from makers of molecules to makers of buildings, synthetic skin to spacecraft, soup to clothes, furniture to cities. Learn more
Companies often spend large sums cooling network servers, but Swiss scientists have found a way to cut those costs by using computer-generated heat to warm buildings.
Physicists at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) working with IBM have created a liquid-cooled server system that can slash energy bills by as much as half while generating heat with little to no additional carbon emissions.
“Computers are an excellent source of heat that until now has been wasted,” Bruno Michel, an IBM physicist and leader of the project, told swissinfo.ch.
via Computers run hot so why not harness that heat to warm a building, Swiss researchers say.- swissinfo.
Compact and flexible thermal storage
Forschung Kompakt, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Jun 01, 2012
Biogas plants, combined heat and power plants don’t just generate electricity, they also produce heat. However, unlike the electricity they yield, the heat generally dissipates unused. A new technology is set to change this: It will allow the heat to be stored lossfree in the smallest of spaces for lengthy periods of time, for use as and when required.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121007.html
Explanation: Are square A and B the same color? They are! To verify this, either run your cursor over the image or click here to see them connected. The above illusion, called the same color illusion, illustrates that purely human observations in science may be ambiguous or inaccurate. Even such a seemingly direct perception as relative color. Similar illusions exist on the sky, such as the size of the Moon near the horizon, or the apparent shapes of astronomical objects. The advent of automated, reproducible, measuring devices such as CCDs have made science in general and astronomy in particular less prone to, but not free of, human-biased illusions.
please download the pdf here: Document 12 05112012 5 main project
Until this point we have been concentrating on an individual office – but now we must consider the office building as a system of connected workers. Individual and communal spaces connected by seen and unseen networks.
Architects including Zaha Hadid and Nigel Coates pay tribute to Lebbeus Woods, the cult building designer who dreamed up fantastical structures from a parallel universe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2012/oct/31/lebbeus-woods?fb=optOut
About Materia New materials present opportunities for fascinating innovations. Materia stimulates and inspires architects, designers and producers to applythese materials to their designs. The company is a knowledge centre for developments and innovations in materials, and their applications for architecture and design. Materia is familiar with many innovative materials from all over the world, as well having knowledge of their specific characteristics. This knowledge is published worldwide by Materia using various media.
Materia’s aim: to build together with creative professionals on a new vision for the future: Today’s inspirations is tomorrow’s innovation!
Corporate Fields – New Office Environments by the AA DRL is a book on student projects by the AA Design Research Lab. The DRL was founded in 1996 and is one of the most recognised MArch programmes today. The book visits 26 design projects that were completed between October 1997 to January 2001. These projects are a combination of various initialisation, specification and organisation that have arrived into a final research result. They are sorted by pedagogical focus and what it has achieved. All projects explore the process and forms working with the way corporate companies work in the organizational and management aspects. There are also essays by various tutors on a range of subjects relating to office design.
something to check out – http://grabcad.com/Loads of free 3D models and such and a place to upload your own for comment and criticism.
Beijing to become smart city within three years
By Sarah Marsh12 October 12
via Beijing to become smart city within three years (Wired UK).
SPACE TO WORK: BOOK REVIEW
Posted by clarewashington on October 12, 2012 · 1 Comment
I have chosen to review ‘Space to Work’, a book written in 2006 by Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross. The aim of the book is to establish a code of office design for the modern-day knowledge worker to increase productivity.
What is a knowledge worker?
The book starts off by defining what a ‘knowledge worker’ is; those who carry out work based not on performance, but on applying specific knowledge to a profession. Examples the book gives are doctors, lawyers and academics. This work doesn’t need a traditional office layout or design, something that many firms have failed to take note of in recent years. This is true of both the physical structure of the office layout and amenities it offers, as well as the hierarchical structure of the firm.
The four ‘realms’ of knowledge workers
The book looks at 43 separate case studies of offices, split into four realms of knowledge worker. These are the corporate realm, termed ‘Academy’, the professional realm (Guilds), the public realm (Agora) and the private realm (Lodge). These case studies give a good overview of what the book terms ‘new office design’ that could well lead to significant increases in workforce productivity. For this review I have chosen to summarise four case studies; one for each realm, to create an overview of these sections.
more via Space to Work: Book Review « MArch2.
Weekly CPD session – Session 3 Week 4 –
Presentation date: 9/10/2012
CPD 3 BOOK/ARTICLE REVIEW
Find a book about office working/spaces and write a short synopsis picking out key points. Your book should be about office space/environments/psychology/design rather than a “coffee table” image book.
Notes: Choose your book carefully.
Notes: Your research will be public
Notes: Upload your review to your blog
Notes: Note the time.
Submission format: link via email to tshew@brokes.ac.uk
Deadline: Tuesday Week 4 11am (16/10/2012)
Please comment below with your chosen book
I’ve often said that LED technology in its recent incarnation is one of the most important things to happen in architecture for 20 years.
Nick Holonyak was sure the LED would replace the incandescent light bulb when he presented it to GE executives 50 years ago. While the incandescent is still king in homes across the nation, the LED has transformed lighting in more ways than Holonyak could have imagined.
From those first dim red diodes to powerful streetlights in major cities, the LED has made its mark on the world.
The first LEDs were red. This wasn’t an aesthetic choice. LEDs are made by building layers of semiconductor crystals on a wafer. As the layers are added, dopants are added to determine the color of the LED. The tiny wafer is placed into molten liquid and metal contacts and leads are then added. The mixture used in the first LEDs — gallium arsenide phosphide — produces a natural red color. That’s why red became the default color choice for so many indicator lights.
New processes have delivered a rainbow of available LED colors, making them suitable for far more than battery indicators and warning lights. But for the first 10 years of their existence, LEDs were red.
read more at: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/10/the-history-of-led/
Here is a list of the Blogs submitted by our students so far – check back, this post will be updated.
Molly Northover http://mollynorthover.wordpress.com/
Tom Pond http://tomgpond.tumblr.com/
Hilda Chak: http://hildachak.wordpress.com
Sebastian Pitman: http://sebastianpitman.com/blog.html
Clare Washington: http://clarewashington.wordpress.com
Kate Jones: http://katejones949.wordpress.com/
Aaron Brownsdon: http://aaronbrownsdon.wordpress.com
Josh Greig: http://studiogreig.wordpress.
David Jarrard: http://jarrarddave.wordpress.
Peter Robinson: http://rockarchitecture.
Kartik Poria: http://kartikporia.wordpress.
Antonio Rovira: http://arovira88.wordpress.com
Tom Greenfield: http://thomasgreenfield.
Ross Dannmayr: http://rdannmayr.tumblr.com/
Nigel Dakin: http://nigeldakin.blogspot.co.uk/
