‘Future Bathroom’, What to make? Or How to Make? Challenges in meeting sustainable needs.

This paper is a case study that describes a design research programme, ‘the future bathroom’, undertaken by the authors which illuminates both challenges and solutions for inclusive and sustainable design. A co-design research methodology was adopted and engaged older users and community lay researchers to help overcome the barriers of developing a comprehensive understanding of the issues related to highly personal, private and intimate activities. We adopt the term co-design to describe an approach to design that encourages both user involvement and interdisciplinary design. Our challenge has been to provide an environment where an exchange of ideas between stakeholders could take place and to foster what Manzini (1) has referred to as a ‘creative community’. From the project emerged both insight and understanding of age related disability and bathroom use and potential design solutions to support these needs. Adopting an inclusive approach to design research we have developed flexible, durable and sustainable solutions that meet the diverse and changing needs of bathroom usage The paper discusses how sustainability in the context of inclusive design might need to consider more ‘what we should make’ rather than ‘how we should make’

Designing a novel virtual collaborative environment to support collaboration in design review meetings

Project review meetings are part of the project management process and are organised to assess progress and resolve any design conflicts to avoid delays in construction. One of the key challenges during a project review meeting is to bring the stakeholders together and use this time effectively to address design issues as quickly as possible. At present, current technology solutions based on BIM or CAD are information-centric and do not allow project teams to collectively explore the design from a range of perspectives and brainstorm ideas when design conflicts are encountered. This paper presents a system architecture that can be used to support multi-functional team collaboration more effectively during such design review meetings. The proposed architecture illustrates how information-centric BIM or CAD systems can be made human- and team-centric to enhance team communication and problem solving. An implementation of the proposed system architecture has been tested for its utility, likability and usefulness during design review meetings. The evaluation results suggest that the collaboration platform has the potential to enhance collaboration among multi-functional teams

Changing ideas of bodily cleanliness

The modern bathroom reflects Western ideas on the handling of bodily wastes, and consequently ideas of cleanliness. Taking a historical study as the point of departure, the purpose of this paper is to understand the extent to which the idea of cleanliness influences the possibility of converting the water closet to a more sustainable technology. An examination of historical changes demonstrates that our present ideas on cleanliness are distinct in their own way. It also demonstrates that our present ideas of cleanliness represent a drawing together of several loose ends, development towards which having been incoherent. Great variation has been apparent in practices surrounding, and the social importance of, cleanliness. People have lived in different ways and have had different ideas about how to behave. The Roman culture thought of bathing and relieving oneself as social duties. In the Middle Ages, uncleanliness ruled the day as people had a very natural and relaxed attitude to bodily waste. Following the urbanisation process, cleanliness was thought of as a step towards progress and a sanitational cure for epidemics in the cities. In more recent times, cleanliness became a project of orderliness and became institutionalised in society. The water closet is inextricably linked with our present ideas of cleanliness. This could impede a future conversion of the water closet, these ideas in several ways conflicting with the more sustainable toilet system. Nevertheless, it is also a point of this paper to illustrate that our present ideas of cleanliness are not self-evident. On the contrary, our ideas are contextually bound and might thus change, for instance, due to a strengthening of e.g. the environmental discourse

Future bathroom: A study of user-centred design principles affecting usability, safety and satisfaction in bathrooms for people living with disabilities

Research and development work relating to assistive technology 2010-11 (Department of Health) Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 197

How events can influence in the customer experience at Out of the Blue Hostel: an internship storytelling

The growth of tourism is not an exception to Azores Islands that saw a big increase of tourists after the low cost airlines started flying to the islands in 2015. The whole market is in a process of adaptation and hostels is a new concept to the island and very appreciated to the ones who visit it. Out of the Blue hostel's concept is to turn each stay into a unique experience. So me and the owners of the hostel were brainstorming ideas how to improve the concept and together we decided to create Out Of The Blue Family Dinners, where every evening we prepare homemade dinners and take guests out on night tours, creating moments of sharing cultures, ideas, dreams and time on the island between the guest and the staff of the hostel. In this storytelling I am presenting how I started doing events at the hostel and the process of adaptation to the tourism trends, guest and management needs in order to create a high quality experience. In the end I will present the reviews left by the guests of the hostel on various booking platforms. After 6 months the impact of the events is very visible through the guest reviews and feedbacks, team satisfaction and sales revenue.O turismo em crescimento e não é uma exceção nas Ilhas dos Açores que viu este fenomeno acontecer após as low coast começarem a voar para as ilhas em 2015. Todo o mercado está a adaptar-se e os hostels é um novo conceito na ilha e muito apreciado para o aqueles que as visitam. O conceito Out of the Blue é transformar cada estadia em uma experiência única. Então, juntos começamos a fazer um brainstorm como melhorar o conceito. Juntos, decidimos começar a fazer eventos todas as noites que inclui jantares e passeios nocturos, criando momentos de partilha de cultura, ideias, sonhos e tempo na ilha. Esta storytelling que vos apresento consiste em começar a fazer eventos no hostel e todo o processo de adaptação às tendências de turismo, hospedes e necessidades de gestão para criar uma experiência de alta qualidade. No final, irei apresentar os resultados de inquenritos realizados no hostel. Depois de 6 meses os impactos dos eventos são muito visíveis nas avaliações e comentários dos hospedes, assim como na satisfação da equipe e nos lucros das vendas

Painting the ideal home: using art to express visions of technologically supported independent living for older people in North East England

This paper describes the investigation of the development of future technological products to support older people in everyday living through the agency of a community art group. Recent research has identified a number of challenges facing designers seeking to use traditional participatory design approaches to gather technology requirements data from older people. Here, a project is described that sought to get a group of older people to think creatively about their needs and desires for technological support through the medium of paint. The artistic expression technique described in this article allowed the identification of issues that had also been found by previous research that used a range of different techniques. This indicates that the approach shows promise, as it allows information to be gathered in an environment that is comfortable and familiar using methods already known by the participants and which they find enjoyable. It provides a complement (or possible alternative) to standard protocols and has the potential benefit of extracting even richer information as the primary task for participants is enjoyable in its own right and is not associated with an interrogative process. Furthermore, it is argued that some of the key risks of traditional approaches are lessened or removed by the naturalistic setting of this approach

Explaining Showering: a Discussion of the Material, Conventional, and Temporal Dimensions of Practice

This article considers the increasing popularity of showering in the UK. We use this case as a means of exploring some of the dimensions and dynamics of everyday practice. Drawing upon a range of documentary evidence, we begin by sketching three possible explanations for the current constitution of showering as a private, increasingly resource-intensive routine. We begin by reviewing the changing infrastructural, technological, rhetorical and moral positioning of showering. We then consider how the multiple and contingent constituents of showering are arranged and re-arranged in and through the practice itself. In taking this approach, we address a number of more abstract questions about the relation between practices, technologies and infrastructures and about what these relationships mean for the fixity and fluidity of ordinary routines and for associated patterns of consumption. The result is a method that allows us to analyze the ways in which material cultures and conventions are reproduced and transformed. This has practical implications for those seeking to contain the environmental consequences of resource-intensive practices.Xx

Home Energy Consumption Feedback: A User Survey

Buildings account for a relevant fraction of the energy consumed by a country, up to 20-40% of the yearly energy consumption. If only electricity is considered, the fraction is even bigger, reaching around 73% of the total electricity consumption, equally divided into residential and commercial dwellings. Building and Home Automation have a potential to profoundly impact current and future buildings' energy efficiency by informing users about their current consumption patterns, by suggesting more efficient behaviors, and by pro-actively changing/modifying user actions for reducing the associated energy wastes. In this paper we investigate the capability of an automated home to automatically, and timely, inform users about energy consumption, by harvesting opinions of residential inhabitants on energy feedback interfaces. We report here the results of an on-line survey, involving nearly a thousand participants, about feedback mechanisms suggested by the research community, with the goal of understanding what feedback is felt by home inhabitants easier to understand, more likely to be used, and more effective in promoting behavior changes. Contextually, we also collect and distill users' attitude towards in-home energy displays and their preferred locations, gathering useful insights on user-driven design of more effective in-home energy display