Toluu

The Greener Grass

Flexboards Remake the ClassroomSeptember 24

Researching education over the past month, we’ve learned a few things about how people learn. We were particularly inspired by Prakash Nair and Randall Fieldings’ writings in The Language of School Design:

We should be looking beyond the ‘knowledge’ worker who is now a global commodity. Our most valuable export as a country will be creativity and innovation and these skills are not developed in the cells-and-bells model of school.
The problem: Existing classroom furniture dictates teaching style.
The disparity between our school classes and the way we do work as Design professionals struck us as a potential opportunity. By speaking with teachers, we learned that the furniture dictates much of their teaching style, while small budgets keep their hands tied from upgrading to a better system or buying new technology. According to Nair and Fielding, there are 18 different ways of learning, but we see the typical classroom system accommodating only one, lecturing, really well.

The solution: Flexboard
To s

Education and ArchitectureJuly 16

As we think about education, the school spaces in which we traditionally learn come to mind. Some architects are making bold statements and helping to shape the way our educational institutions both look and work.

Steven Holl Architects created the University of Iowa's School of Art and Art History. The design theme is centered around Picasso's famous guitar sculpture, and the "formless" interior spaces are meant to celebrate the socializing and unity important to a college campus.

Chosen as one of the top green pieces of architecture for 2008, KeiranTimberlake developed the Yale Sculpture Building and Gallery where an old brownfield site once existed. The space uses reclaimed and local materials, arriving at a utilitarian, unfinished palet

The KegstandJuly 1

To wrap up our unit on leisure and entertainment, we tapped into a demographic group that devotes much of its time to activities in this category - college students. This demographic splits its time between classroom attendance and social events, and who doesn’t think of a keg party when they think of the college experience? We'd like to present to you our latest concept, the Kegstand.



As we began defining our concept we discussed sustainability, realizing the keg lifecycle is optimal - rent, return, refill - then rent again. So we went into the field and looked for other opportunities to improve the keg experience. We discovered that the three key areas in need of our help were transportation, maintenance, and entertainment.

Transporting a keg is sub-optimal. The weight and shape often require two strong individuals to move the keg to its party location. We added handles and wheels to our concept so that the Kegstand can easily transport a keg from the store to your backyard.



Second, we evaluat

SolarDuct: A modular rooftop air heating systemJune 23

I came across an interesting new product called SolarDuct by way of Michael Pietchmann, from parent company SolarWall. In their words:

SolarDuct is based on the highly efficient and award-winning SolarWall® system. The technology has been specifically engineered for roof settings and for applications where a traditional wall mounted system is not feasible. The new modular product line will meet the increased market demand for cost-effective solar systems using proven technology.

“We are excited to be in a position to expand the solar air heating and PV/thermal markets with our new innovative rooftop systems” says John Hollick, President of Conserval and inventor of the SolarWall® technology. “Our company has used our expertise platform to develop and design new solar products that will provide increased flexibility for clients looking to integrate renewable energy solutions on their buildings.”

Get more information here!

Apsara Solar UmbrellaMay 24

In determining opportunities in Leisure and Entertainment, we checked the latest US Census report. To our surprise, the category exists and lists 50 activities by frequency of adult participation. Among the highest ranked activities are social ones, usually involving food.

We challenged ourselves to develop a product with the broadest market opportunity by considering the top 5 categories listed, and creating a single ecologically friendly product concept with applications in each category. The categories (ranked highest to lowest) are: Dining out, Entertaining Friends or Relatives at Home, Reading Books, Barbecuing, and Going to the Beach.



To increase the challenge, we wanted to identify a product for sale in commercial and consumer markets.

With sketchpad in hand, we went to Apsara restaurant in Cincinnati and headed to the patio for tem