London Bound

I'm off to London tonight - and as fun as this sounds, I'm dreading the 11 hour bus journey that comes first.

Aside from that, I'm quite excited to be visiting again, however it has been somewhat tainted by the recent riots that have been so widely publicised recently. I'm not going to go on much about that though, as the internet is already crawling with opinions and outbursts regarding the riots, with blame being put on several things.

I am however excited that after returning from London it's only two weeks until term starts again! Third year should be fun, even as the workload increases. GIDE is coming to Dundee this year and we have new studios to make into our homes for the next academic year - I hope to do a post about the reshuffle soon, as well as GIDE, once we find out more about it.

Apologies for the short but sweet post - I'm really busy with my work at the moment and have several things taking up all my time! I will however post further on what GIDE is, the new studios, London and our new academic choices, come start of term.

Caio!

Plumen 001

Although it may sound like some kind of chemical compound used to "get rid" of foreign secret agents, the Plumen 001 is in fact a lightblub. I have come across this deisgn in several places now, namely on the Dezeen website, at EcoBuild and at the Deign Museum, along with in several design magazines. It's what environmentalists have been eagerly awaiting - a clean redesign of the energy efficient light bulb. We openly welcome you to our homes, Plumen 001!

There is a small issue with this though, and that is the small fortune you may have to part with to light your home with these. At a painful £19.95 each, the price is sure to be an issue for mainstream consumers. Although efficiency is something we must concern ourselves with due to the environment becoming an ever more important factor in our daily lives, the current (and often dreaded) energy efficient light bulb does leave a lot to be desired - so it seems Hulger and Samuel Wilkinson (the brains behind the Plumen 001) may have cracked onto something here, especially given that the UK have relatively recently introduced the EU ban on importing high energy filament bulbs. I guess rival designers will soon pounce on this nice little niche in the market, and come up with their own solutions to the energy efficent lightbulb - which should eventually drive prices down.

Taken at the Design Museum, March 2011

So, it would seem this is at least a step in the right direction. Yay for green design! I just now need to justify to myself why £19.95 is a reasonable price to pay for a lightbulb. Damn it.

Design Studies: Snooping in London

Further to my recent posts about ethnography, I thought I'd explain my findings during my primary and secondary locations.

My primary location - a place in which we are unfamiliar with, somewhere we do not regularly occupy, and therefore feel a reasonable amount of discomfort in - was the London underground system, primarily in the business district, stretching into the ExCel exhibition centre. These places were locations that I felt generally out of my depth, as busy business men smoothy made the transition from work to transport with their silent unspoken etiquette. This was something a student in particular would find intimidating, as you are an amateur to their world, and feel like you are getting under their busy feet. Do I stand? Do I give them my seat? What do I do when I can't reach a rail to steady myself? How do you get across the extremely busy carriage if you find the stop's doors are on the opposite side to which you are? Do you apologise if you brush up against someone? It's all easier said than done, but regulars to this do it with ease.

Oh, and apparently nobody apologies in London.

this was just the entrance hall, mid morning!

We also had to select a secondary location - somewhere where we felt comfortable, a place that we regularly visit. For this, I selected my local bus stop - in which I visit up to 4 times a day. I understand that if an older person were to come to the stop I would allow them on first so they don't feel like they are holding up the bus by getting on last, I'd also help them with any bags. I understand that you allow the people to alight the bus before I board. I understand that you only say "you first", "no you" a maximum of twice, or the politeness catch 22 will never end. I also understand, that at an empty stop you should always sit at the waiting seats towards an end, so that others arriving can sit on it without feeling they have to sit right next to a stranger, or do the awkward slide along. Not all stops have a "No Smoking" sign - but everyone from Scotland is aware of the law stating you may not smoke in a bus stop with 3+ sides. This means a post is ok to smoke at, a side with a roof is ok, but not two sides and a roof. I know all this because over time I have absorbed the unspoken etiquette.

All of these things are learnt through doing, but how could this be made more apparent for newcomers? My primary and secondary locations have highlighted that although I find my daily routine easy, I only perceive it to be easy as I have done it for so long. A new surrounding brings new customs to adhere to, but how can you prevent that awkward "oh look, here's an out of town-er" stare? This brings me to my next task:

Relating This To Interior & Environmental Design


Signs can be overwhelming. Yes, we need minimal signage to direct us generally, and warn us of serious dangers and hazards, but bombarding a person with ways in which to behave and react would be inappropriate - in fact it would do the opposite of it's intention and leave the newcomer even more intimidated by the whole situation.

So how can the design of the location help improve acceptable etiquette in busy a metropolis? Perhaps a simple floor plan on the carriage floor may help - similar to that of footsteps found on the ground at cash points, making people aware of how far away they should stand from the user for security and privacy when access private information, such as that of bank balances.

A consistent distance away from everyone means that there's less chance of the awkward squeeze, and perhaps align these with easy access to rails for each passenger to hold on to. Footstep places would of course need to be much closer together in order to hold a similar amount of people to present numbers, but by arranging them in a more logical fashion, it would perhaps allow for a calmer organised structure of people to travel - thus making it less daunting for newbies.

Pompidou Centre

Another thing that I found was missing was clearer signage to platforms. In a large crowd, it was difficult to see which way to go when switching line at one station. We travelled a lot on the DLR to Lewisham, however several DLR lines travelled in that general direction, although with different final destinations. Perhaps colour coded lines on the ground directing you to each platform would prevent people having to scout for signs - something that slows up crowds and irritates people who know where they are going. Following a simple thing like this would make it easier for people who have never experienced such a place before to blend in with the masses of regulars. This form of direction is regularly seen in hospitals, and an example is given above from The Pompidou Centre, Paris.

As far as The ExCel goes, it was quite well laid out, and made it easy for us to make our way around. It was more intimidating in terms of the social aspect, as we were out of our depths in terms of knowledge, rather than navigation.

London: Snap Happy

I thought I'd take the time to share a few photos I took while visiting London:

Ai WeiWei's Sunflower Seeds

They make me happy! A mix from The Design Museum, The Tate Modern & The Millennium Bridge.

Starbucks: "New & Improved!"

Recently while in London, we stopped off for a pretentious Starbucks in Waterloo after visiting The Tate Modern. 

60% recycled fibre you say? 

This could of been avoided completely.

After we dashed about trying to grab the last available table, we ordered our drinks, and were chatting about our plans for the rest of the day when something suddenly dawned on me - we all had paper cups. This would be fine if I had specified I was taking away, or if there was no clean mugs available for the time being, but I took a quick snoop about the other tables, and realised everyone had them.

Then, I glanced over to the counter where the drinks are prepared, and there were no mugs stacked up like normal. Not one single reusable mug. This branch wasn't even a small stand where you grab a coffee on the go, it was a proper coffee shop, with seats and Wifi - so there's no need for paper cups?

On their website regarding their recycling efforts, they state that "Reducing the environmental impact of our cups depends on the success of two interrelated efforts: developing recyclable cup solutions and dramatically increasing our customers’ use of reusable cups. "

There were no "recycling points" and as I've already said, no reusable cups.

It's all very well to talk the talk, but it appears they are far from walking the eco friendly walk - and in a large metropolis such as London, you really would expect better.

Shame on you Starbucks. Shame on you.

Design Studies: Ethnography

So further to my last post, the next step was to read up on Ethnography.

                                     

taken from the linked site above

A condensed explanation is shown above, and further reading on this can be found in the link, also given above.

This process makes quite a lot of sense when you think about it really. Observe, realise, and only then design. I think we subconsciously take this into consideration, but a much more in depth approach needs to be taken when we design for a user. In a way - everything is service design. If it has a purpose, a use, or a reason for it's existence, it provides a service, regardless of scale. Pin pointing ways in which to reduce, time, effort and complexity is good design, and all this can only be realised through laborious observations, that may be lengthly to complete, but are invaluable when reducing down to a final outcome.

For example, myself and a few class mates took a short trip to London for a conference for our course. While travelling through the business hub every morning for the three day event, I found it difficult to understand how to behave amongst hundreds of black shiny shoed business men, with their Starbucks lattes, broadsheets and pin striped suits, all of which silently walk at 10m/s. They automatically understood the tube etiquette, which seemed to change for this line only, compared to the likes of Whitechapel.

Do I need to go on a course before boarding?

There were no signs to say you virtually do not talk while aboard the train. There were no signs warning you that there would not be any bin facility for the next 30 minutes of your journey. There were no signs to say you have to be extremely well balanced to be able to squash into a 20cm square area of floor space, with no access to a rail to steady yourself, as the carriage jolted forward - as well as no signage to say that you may not also brush into someone else, even if they are a mere 5cm from your face. This to me, was bad design. A floor pattern may of helped, giving people a plan to adhere to, a sign to be aware if you are taking things onto the carriage that you will soon wish to dispose of, you will not be able to dispose of it any time soon. These things would quickly come to light if someone was to spend time researching this from an ethnographic perspective.

Whaam!

The Design Museum, London

With my upcoming visiting to London next week looming, I have been trying to get a list together of places to visit while I'm down there. We have a few extra days to explore as we are down for 5 days, with Eco Build only occupying 3 of them.

For me, The Tate Modern is a must. I've never had the time to visit before - as the only other time I've ever been to London was for the same excursion last year, to which time was an issue. I've been looking through their extensive list of permanent pieces, along with the current exhibitions, and have come to the conclusion I may need to dedicate a whole morning or afternoon for The Tate Modern. They have 27 pages listing all their works by Andy Warhol, and house Roy Lichtenstein's Whaam! - something I am desperate to see as it's over 4m long! I remember thinking that some pieces that you have longed to see can be a let down in scale, a particular example of this was Dali's paintings I seen while visiting New York's MoMA. Some of them were post card sized - something you would never assume from images printed in books.

Ai WeiWei's Sunflower Seeds Exhibiton

Ai Weiwei's current installation piece entitled "Sunflower Seeds" is something I want to get the chance to see - as the scale of it seems like something that would be very powerful to see, and have more of an impact than mere images.

Next on my list of places to visit is The Design Museum. I'm hoping to find some kind of inspiration for my current project there, as things have taken a dip in terms of motivation. I always do this - storm into a project like a hurricane and then the calm in the middle comes, and then it's a mad dash to the finish line, but hey - it works.

The V&A is another place I'd like to visit, but I'm not sure if I will gave time to spare. I guess I can use it as an excuse to visit again during the summer - as I do need to spend some time taking in the culture from the comfort of some of Camden's finest bars.

Living in Dundee and coming from Edinburgh means I've never had a real sense of travelling times within a city - so I always assume it to be "no bother" to "pop across town" - although in reality, we could be talking about an hour or more. I suppose I will just have to see how much I can squeeze in - although I'm not in any way fussed to see BigBen or The London Eye. Actually, I'd be quite proud if I never see them, in a kind of anti-tourist type way.

EcoBuild: One week until LDN

Well, I have had my confirmation email, assuring me my pass for EcoBuild 2011 is on it's way!

To those who are reading this and are not in the sustainable industry, I am not surprised if you are moving your cursor to exit this post now - but don't.

Everybody is in the sustainable industry. Do you eat? Do you heat your home? Do you travel by any means other than walking or cycling? I'm going to put all my money on your answer being yes.

Without sounding like a Green Peace volunteer that chases you down the street asking for phone numbers and email addresses - protecting and reviving the environment is something we should all concern ourselves with. People seem to think (or tell themselves to ease the guilt) that it won't affect them in their life time, so why bother. It's too much of an irritation to their daily life to consider recycling that sandwich carton, or not take the plastic carrier bag for their meal deal at lunch.

Well, without harping on - it will. I try never to use plastic bags, either just using that age old technique of carrying the one item you have purchased by hand, or using reusable jute bags. It's so easy to incorporate into your lives, and, if everyone was to do this also - would make a difference. I posted a video a few weeks ago about turning off computers - something that seems to trivial and tiny, but, on mass makes an astounding difference.

EcoBuild 2010

Well, why am I going on about saving the rain forests and being green? Aside from it being a personal interest - next week is EcoBuild in London - an annual conference in which thousands of people from various industries gather to educate and promote sustainable products. It's a fantastic opportunity for us young student designers to gain knowledge about products covering a vast array of topics, including contraction materials, surface finishes, techniques, and services that are all from a sustainable background - and the best part is, it's free to attend!

There are also various speeches given throughout the 3 day event (Tues 1st March - 3rd March 2011) including several familiar names - one household name this year being Kevin McCloud - although I personally am not a fan.

This will be the second time I myself will be attending, although hopefully this year without the mix up of passes there was during 2010's event - to which we waiting in a line longer than the average street.

I will post my findings after my visit - along with any other worth while things I encounter during my visit to London.