Design 200 class blog: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Journal 09: Coleman Project - Personal Documentation

Teammates Blogs

Dan Comai

Briget_M

Our team worked on the Coleman Fit we wanted to create a product that gave the user a exercising experience but most of all give the user a nature-like, natural, and fun experience. So our team decided design a fully functional treadmill with automatic incline which adjusts accordingly to the designated paths on the Wii game that plays through your own television which can be placed onto a completely optional television stand built in. Another decision we made was to make different locations to run on within the game whether it be Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and etc. Before our final decision to make this product we all stayed open minded and brainstormed our idea on each part of the product to see what was best for the user and client.

What I contributed to the project was I gave all designs their final touches such as the product itself, the packaging, and kiosk. My role was being responsible for the design process of the product itself in designing the treadmill and the software for it. What I brought to the table was to help convey that even though our product is for exercise we want the user to forget about exercising by being connected through nature in the game, and having fun. What I felt I did well was explaining in great detail how our product was to revolutionize the treadmill and gaming experience. I think what I could have done more was to do much more research on the materials of treadmills. I feel very satisfied about our product and am looking forward to working on more.

Monday, May 23, 2011

CR04 - Course Reflection

These last couple of classes have been very revealing really showing what design is all about especially watching William McDonough on cradle to cradle design where there were great ideas to help the environment of China. When so much of the population is sticking to the way things have always been done (read: destroying the earth) it is refreshing to see somebody whose goal is to sustain it and inform people of how to do the same.

Journal 08: Media Reviews

Topic: Design & The Environment

The topic I chose is Design & the Environment because I found it very interesting and a important topic of today. I feel Design & The Environment explores achievable solutions to important environmental and social challenges whether it be design, energy, transportation, water, food, and urban development. This excited me since watching William McDonough on cradle to cradle design as he approached green design as a method for environmentally responsible building or a better economic choice.

Source 1: Green for all

"Green for All," follows architect and activist Sergio Palleroni as he continues his mission to provide architectural and design solutions to regions in social and humanitarian crisis. Palleroni already has four global initiatives underway aimed at providing architecture students with hands-on field experience building housing for the poor.

Source 2: The Green Apple

In New York, a city that is leading the charge to green its industrial skyline with several groundbreaking projects. New York combats the urban myth of the bustling city as a "concrete jungle." "The Green Apple" explores some of Manhattan's most prominent and technologically advanced structures like One Bryant Park and The Solaire, as well as the innovative minds behind them.

Source 3: Adaptive Reuse in the Netherlands

Dutch planners tap into their innate design sensibility and the industrial landscape to create a sustainable development in Amsterdam's abandoned dockyards, Borneo Sporenburg. Offering an alternative to the trappings of suburban sprawl, the development maximizes space while maintaining privacy, and uses the vast waterways as core landscape design elements.

Source 4: Architecture 2030

Buildings are responsible for almost half of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Can a collaborative effort - government leaders, architects, regulatory agencies and building suppliers - avert a climate crisis through policy change and education? Architect-turned-activist Ed Mazria may have the answer. His Architecture 2030 organization is galvanizing commitment to a carbon-neutral building sector by the year 2030.

Source 5: Building a Sustainable City

The former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, transformed one of the world's most chaotic cities into a model of civic-minded and sustainable urban planning. He reformed public transportation, added greenways, built mega-libraries and created the longest stretch of bike-only lanes in the world. But along the way, he met tremendous opposition from the very people he was attempting to help.

For more information visit: http://www.design-e2.com/

Monday, May 16, 2011

Reading Reflection 03 (RR03)

Something that I have figured out reading the last couple of chapters is that the concept of Cradle to Cradle replaces the concept of Cradle to Grave, in which "things" goods have a entry point and an exit point in the consumption lifecycle. A "thing" is born manufactured, it is consumed, and then thrown away. Then a new "thing" is purchased. The idea of cradle to cradle proposes a new model of manufacturing and consumption, one in which products are sold as a "product of service", where the manufacturer, in a manner of speaking, leases the product to a customer, the customer uses the product, and at the end of the product's useful life as said product, is returned to the manufacturer, at which time the manufacturer is able to de-construct the product, reuse many of the component pieces and materials embodied in the original product to make a new product.

And something else I found out is that the authors argue that this extra design effort can be economical for businesses when you consider the overall cost of manufacturing. They give the example of a manufacturing facility they designed in which the effluent water from the factory was actually cleaner than the influent. It took some extra money to design, but now the business doesn't have to pay regulatory fees or worry about how to dispose of its liquid wastes. Overall, that initial design effort saved them money.

Journal 07: Peer Dialogue 03

There are many things to compliment in your blog which I really enjoy. I really like the the pictures you chose for the Assignment 4. You really used you creativity to choose some of these pics. You also seemed to use very good camera angles in most of your picture which allow the people that see them to get an good observation of the picture.

http://castellandre.posterous.com/

I loved the letter form picture you took because you took a large variety of them which told me that you had a great sense of imagination and creativity coming into this assignment. The only critique I would have about your blog would be about the Found Faces assignment. A couple of your pics were great examples of the assignment, but maybe one of the pics could have used a bit more creativity; but overall you have a very excellent blog.

http://dsgn200spof2011.blogspot.com/