Environmental-Friendly design

-Keeping in mind the building's operating and maintenance issues while still in the designing process gives you improved working environment, higher productivity, minimized energy and resource costs and prevention from system failure.

Over the past decades, some changes had to be made. In the past, not a lot of attention was given to our planet, and this made a huge negative impact many years later. Today, a lot of education and awareness is given to pay attention and respect to our environment. 
 Designers and architects came up with a different range of inventions and disciplines to design environmental-friendly landscapes, buildings, products and much more.

Some characteristics that one should keep in mind when designing for environmental-friendly are ;

Optimizing Site Potential
-One should always select the best site. Maybe even reusing or rehabilitating existing buildings. The landscape and location of a building effect transportation methods and energy use. 

Optimizing Energy Use
-The designer also has to keep in mind the decreasing demand for fossil fuels and the impacts of global climate changes. It is essential to find a way to reduce the energy load as much as possible, and increase the efficiency and the use of renewable energy.

Protecting and conserving Water
-In a number of countries including Malta, fresh water is scarce. A sustainable building should have a system to treat and store rain water, and also re-use it if possible. The effort to get reverse osmosis or government-provided water on site consumes a lof of energy in pumping, transporting and treating. 

Optimizing Building Space and Material Use
-It is also important to choose wisely the materials needed for construction. They need to minimize as much as possible the environmental impacts such as global warming and human toxicity. Health and safety on site is also an important issue for the worker.
Enhancing Indoor Environment Qualities
-The indoor environment effects a number of qualities on a human being, such as comfort, health and also productivity. The indoors also have to be properly light up by daylight, good ventilation and moisture control.

Optimizing Operating and Maintenance Practices

A facade of a sustainable designed building with closed windows that open automatically every hour, depending on the sunlight to save light.

The same facade but with some of the windows opened.Solar-Panels, a common energy-saver to decrease the use of electricity.The use of huge windows was initially used in the Bauhaus movement, and is still used today to get in as much daylight as possible, almost like having a sky-light.

not mentioned. (2013). Warm and Household Pleasant Residence with Sustainable Characteristics in Venice Read more http://www.bestofinteriors.com/other/warm-and-household-pleasant-residence-with-sustainable-characteristics-. Available: http://www.bestofinteriors.com/other/warm-and-household-pleasant-residence-with-sustainable-characteristics-in-venice/. Last accessed 14th january 2014.

Streamlining

A couple of years following the end of World War 1, a financial problem was created. It was known as the 'Great Depression'. To solve this problem,designers stepped in and acted by designing eye-catching products, things that as soon as customers saw them, they wanted to buy and own them, even if they didn't really need them or had one already but was less attractive. Consumerism was born to lift the economy back on its feet.
Later, designers came up with the concept of streamlining. This style was originally influenced by Art Deco, but unlike this movement which mostly consisted of upwards movements and geometric and angular shapes, streamlining was more simplified yet infused a sense of dynamism, it was much more curved and organic.
It's thought that streamlining is Art Deco on the move. This is because this particular movement makes the object look like it is moving when it's not. This idea was not applied to transportation vehicles only, but to every product designed.

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Plane interiors over the years, second picture from the streamlining era.

A common influence was the teardrop, its curves unconsciously show movement. This tear-drop shape helped when it came to transportation vehicles. Due to this smooth, pointy shape, it helped vehicles go faster without any extra fuel consumption.

Crossley streamline car 1930s

Da LaLee and his teardrop shape car 1938

After the 1920's, America started to look at the streamlining movement as modern and as a new profession of industrial design.

This new movement was all about speed lines and repeated horizontal lines to suggest the product streaks through space. The shapes and forms rarely followed any function. Aesthetics was more important at the time. It gave technology a better look and feel. This helped to sell consumer goods, especially technological products.

Streamlining nowadays

The Exelero Car, a modern interpretation of a legendary sports car from the 1930's which disappeared in WW11

Budd Steinhilber. (2011). /. Available: http://www.industrialdesignhistory.com/node/1022. Last accessed 14th january 2014.

Design for Sports

Sports design is a very specific type of design, because it pushes the technologies and materials to their limits and tests their abilities. Sporting good depend on extensive research on the human body, safety, ergonomics and aesthetics. After research and multiple developments, the product is usually designed on a computer software and later tested and multi-produced.

An example of a sporting good is the Nike's lightweight shoe which was inspired from a sock. This shoe took four years of research and development to create. A team of designers, engineers and programmers collaborated to produce this shoe that has the properties of a sock. It's upper body is made in one piece and is a combination of yarn and fabric. The materials are said to be "precisely engineered only where they are needed", and this produced a 5.6 ounces shoe, 19% less then a popular Nike's marathon shoes. The design process was described to be a "mission of micro-engineering".

A nike running shoes that allows you to listen to your music

A motorcycle helmet, featuring all the important safety features such as hard outer shell, polyester foam liner underneath the outer shell, comfort liner for the head to rest on, face shield and face/chin protector, a chin strap and also strong rivets.

not mentioned. (2013). Nike Unveils Its Big New Paradigm: Shoes Knit Like Socks. Available: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669098/nike-unveils-its-big-new-paradigm-shoes-knit-like-socks. Last accessed 11th january 2014.

JONATHAN DILLON. (2014). Best Motorcycle Helmet Guide. Available: http://bestmotorcyclehelmetguide.net/. Last accessed 11th january 2014.

The Model T

Henry Ford wanted to design a practical and affordable transportation for the common crowd,  and came up with the famous Model T. From 1908 till 1927, the automobile named "Model T" was built by the Ford Motor Company on Henry's design. Against his will, it soon became prized for its durability, versatility, low cost running and lack of maintenance. It soon had become increasingly popular. 

When assembly-line production was introduced, it allowed the price to drop drastically from $850 in 1908 to less then $300 in 1925. This first car ever produced became one of America's folkloric symbols. It realized Henry Ford's dream to "demoralize the automobile". 
From 1913 to 1925 the car was only sold in black. The engine was simple yet effective, and the cylinder head was detachable for easy access and repair. Later, Ford thought that if he mass-produced the car in different body styles and a different range of colours, it would interest and satisfy a larger mass of people. So, after a while, the Model T started to be offered as a 5-seat touring car, a 2-seat runabout and a 7-seat town card. All models were uni-formally mounted on a 100-inch wheelbase chassis. 

1916 5-seat touring car

1911 2-seat runabout car

Manufacturing the Model T

The car's engine had a maximum speed of 65 to 70 km|hr. After the 1920's, some of the engines even had battery-powered starters. It had only two gears and another one for reverse; 3 in all. The gears were controlled by foot pedals, nothing like the hand-lever we all know of today. It also had a 10-gallon fuel tank, which was located under the front seat.

Some interesting facts about the Model T:

-Its reverse gear was much more powerful than the two front ones, and this sometimes resulted in climbing a steep hill backwards.

-Between 1913 and 1917, more then 15 million Model Ts were manufactured and sold by Ford Motor Company.

-It had numerous deficiencies, some of which were;

  ~It's uncomfortable ride at higher speeds

  ~Rattling noises

  ~Not such a visually-pleasing appearance.

not mentioned. (1996-2014). Model T. Available: http://www.history.com/topics/model-t. Last accessed 8th january 2014.

Design for the Third World

When I hear the phrase "third world countries", the first thing that comes to mind is the thought of multiple organizations encouraging the public to donate money to the poor. But sometimes that's not enough. The aim of Design for the third world is to design products that make use of locally available components and making use of the few environmental sources they have or even put to work manually.   

One of the existing products is the pedal-powered washing machine. It only costs forty dollars and is perfect for developing countries that lack electricity or don't have the money to buy modern and expensive washing machines. This particular washer is a combination of both a washer and a spin-dryer, powered by a foot pedal. Designers thought that it was too much of a time-consuming and effort to wash clothes manually, so they came up with this perfect design that eases the burden of manually washing and spinning the clothes. The container has a plastic lid that the user can sit on and just paddles. 


This thoughtful product was designed to transport water. Instead of carrying a heavy container on the user's shoulders or head, the innovative water-transporter was designed in the form of a wheel, so one can just pull it after him while it turns around.


The 'Big Boda Bike' is another product designed to ease the weight when travelling things. It allows the user to carry a number of unusual heavy loads on a bicycle.

This is a mobile personal water purification tool, that can be carried around anywhere and allows less unfortunate people that don't have clean water to purify the less-clean water before drinking it.

Brit Liggett. (2012). Cooper-Hewitt Receives 600K to Continue Design for the Other 90% Exhibit Read more: Cooper-Hewitt Receives 600K to Continue Design for the Other 90% Exhibit | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovatio. Available: http://inhabitat.com/cooper-hewitt-receives-600k-to-continue-design-for-the-other-90-exhibit/. Last accessed 7th january 2014.

Crystal Palace

The crystal palace was first built in Hyde Park, London. Its construction started in 1850, and the building was opened for public in 1851. The architectural style was Victorian and it had cast-iron architecture. The architect of this well-known master piece was Joseph Paxton. It was later destroyed by fire.


This huge construction of iron and glass that was considered to be one of the greatest wonders of the world was based on a four-foot module. It was a  1,848-foot long ferrovitreous construction. 

Sir Joseph Paxton was a gardener and architect at the time. He revealed breakthroughs in architecture, design and construction. The crystal palace design was chosen for an exhibition building, that was meant to echibit the latest innovations and technologies all around the world. The restrictions of the design for the 'Great Exhibition of works of Industry of all Nations' were that;
-It had to be as economical as possible
-The construction had to be ready before the scheduled date to open, which was 1st May 1851.
After two hundred and forty five rejections by the committee. Paxton took interest in the project. At the time, Paston was a well-known Gardner and he experimented a lot with glasshouse construction. He created the'ridge-and-furrow' roof design by combining prefabricated cast iron, laminated wood and standard-size glass sheets.
His first drawing of his famous concept of the building included all the basic elements, and in the proceeding two weeks, he submitted detailed plane with all the calculations needed. 
The committee was impressed with Paxton's low cast and innovative proposal. Five thousand workers started working on the task to finish this great structure in Hyde Park in just eight months. In the end, construction took only five months, thanks to Paxton's brilliant design. Over 18.000 glass sheets were installed per week, and over 1000 iron columns and 84,000 square meters of glass were installed in all.



The exhibition was closed six months after its opening,and the structure was dissembled from Hyde Park and reassembled at Sydenham Hill; south London suburb. The building was then destroyed by fire in 1936.

This structure became well-known for;
-Its self-supporting self
-Maximised interior space
-The glass let a lot of light in
-It was a breakthrough technology and design
-Created a sophisticated and pro-fabricated design era 

Another iron structure  which still stands today is the Eiffel Tower, Paris

A Victorian iron and glass structure "Kew's Palm House"

Kenneth Frampton and Yukio Futagawa. (1994-2013). crystal palace.Available: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Crystal_Palace.html. Last accessed 6th january 2014.

Radical Design

This movement was born in Italy in the 1960's when design was changing. Like Anti-Design, it was against the 'Good Design'. The movement expressed its ideas through reviews, articles, participating in exhibitions and also national and international competitions, films and research. It emphasized on striking colours, scale distortion, used irony and kitsch.  The function of the product was to challenge the user the way he thought about the object. 

Designed by Bernhard and Burkard, the Curt Chair is fitted with enough anti-slip coating on the edge of its feet so that it is perfectly safe for any surface that provided in the right angle.

Selene chair designed by Vico Magistretti in 1966, Made out of reinforced polyester. This stack-able chair was a solution to a problem designers faced to stack or easy storage. Stackable chairs have become so popular nowadays that not a lot of people remember their origin.

The Boalum flexible lamp designed by by Gianfranco Frattini and Livio Castiglion in 1969.  It was made up of a luminous tube that was made from a long plastic tube with light bulbs wired up inside. It can be manipulated manually to allow the user to determine its form. A genial design for that time.

Reversible Vase designed by Enzo Mari in 1969. Made from ABS plastic. It can also be displayed upside down. A typical maneuverable and flexible product that could be applicable to modern lifestyles from the radical movement.   

 

I Sassi (the rocks) designed by Piero Gilardi in 1967. Actual chairs made out of polythene that their form disguises their function because they look like rocks, therefore are imitating a natural object. They're supposed to be soft and comfortable. 

A bicycle from these times that was inspired from the radical-Design movement:

not mentioned. (2014). radical design. Available: http://www.answers.com/topic/radical-design. Last accessed 4th january 2014.