Managing Constraints in Design Projects to Encourage Making, Iterative Design and a Deeper Learning Experience

Design education has been challenged by the need to teach students design, when being a designer has proved difficult to define and articulate. The solution adopted by design educators has been to dismantle the design process into smaller, easily managed segments, such as manufacturing and ergonomics. This approach has largely been successful and graduates make the transition from academia to professional practice with relative ease. Recently however, design has expanded beyond its traditional borders into new areas such as experience design and digital manufacturing, this requires new learning products which is resulting in an overcrowding of the curriculum. Furthermore, increased student numbers in programs like Integrated Product Design, where model-making in workshops is fundamental, is placing additional pressure on delivering efficient and effective learning experiences. This paper will present a case study from the Integrated Product Design program at the University of Technology Sydney where subjects have been re-structured in response to these pressures. The subjects involve the design of an object and the making of functional prototypes using technologies both internal and external to the university. Fundamental to this re-structure has been the management of contextual factors through the use of constraints and the demonstrated engagement with the iterative process

LOOK

The LOOK series of mirrors was included in the exhibition, Safety Catch (UTS Gallery 8 August- 1 September 2006). A prime objective of the Safety Catch project was the presentation of a response from an Australian perspective to the emergent issue of critical design. In the exhibition, the concept of critical design was understood as design that asks questions and engages the user in reflective and speculative processes, challenging preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life. As curator of the exhibition, I invited a range of Australian object designers to respond to issues of safety and security. Following the framing concept, I selected the mirror as an object that could be investigated further. The LOOK series of mirrors emerged out of questions around the extent of impact an object could have on the user's awareness of and interaction with things and people around them. The series was composed of three round, same-sized mirrors, each incorporating a different component that literally challenged the user's view. The mirrors were configured in such a way that while maintaining their primary reflective function, users also looked 'into' the mirror, inviting a reflection beyond themselves. Confronted with elegantly incorporated yet disturbing elements such as red laser target lights, tangles of barbed wire and rifle bulles, the tone of the design intervention was provocative and used the strategy of a 'double-take' to elicit response

CRS

The CRS (crease) container project is an investigation into the application of creasing or pleating using sheet metal. Inspiration was drawn from the way dress makers are able to make fabric follow the human body. Many garments such as dress pants and suite jackets are created using some form of pleat or crease to ensure that unsightly and uncomfortable crumpling of the fabric is minimised or completely avoided. Pleating or creasing fabric is relatively straight forward; performing this process on sheet metal is not as simple. Following on from previous sheet metal experiments which investigated the idea of complex form creation using a combination of manual and technological methods, I adopted the same idea of perforating the sheet metal along a designated fold line. CRS is a concept for combining perforating and manual folding as a means to create objects, in this case a series of containers. The objects are constructed using mild steel, the perorations are made using a laser cutter and colour is applied using spray-painting technolog

Taking It Personally: 3D Bioprinting a Patient-Specific Cardiac Patch for the Treatment of Heart Failure.

Despite a massive global preventative effort, heart failure remains the major cause of death globally. The number of patients requiring a heart transplant, the eventual last treatment option, far outnumbers the available donor hearts, leaving many to deteriorate or die on the transplant waiting list. Treating heart failure by transplanting a 3D bioprinted patient-specific cardiac patch to the infarcted region on the myocardium has been investigated as a potential future treatment. To date, several studies have created cardiac patches using 3D bioprinting; however, testing the concept is still at a pre-clinical stage. A handful of clinical studies have been conducted. However, moving from animal studies to human trials will require an increase in research in this area. This review covers key elements to the design of a patient-specific cardiac patch, divided into general areas of biological design and 3D modelling. It will make recommendations on incorporating anatomical considerations and high-definition motion data into the process of 3D-bioprinting a patient-specific cardiac patch

Design Research Units and Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs): An Approach for Advancing Technology and Competitive Strength in Australia

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper makes the case that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector have the potential to benefit from connections with design research units operating within universities. It points out some of the challenges associated with research and development for SMEs, and argues design research units can allow SMEs to better meet these challenges. Additive Manufacturing is used as an exemplary emerging technology that makes explicit the new possibilities and instability of the contemporary manufacturing landscape. A case study is used to articulate the potentials and limitations of industry and university partnerships in design. In conclusion, two alternative models are analysed in order to highlight different ends to which the practitioner-based research can be put

Successful Design Briefs are not all Black and White

The task of a designer is to project the future into the present by articulating a possible outcome to an existing condition. This paper will examine the outcomes of these projections, through a comparative analysis of a controlled group of design students designing products and spaces for birthing units. Linked to a larger interdisciplinary study on the impact of birthing unit design on communication between birthing mothers, staff and family/support members, this research provided an opportunity to explore practice-led research together with case studies and literature reviews of current conditions. With the educational design directive to explore conceptual ideas, the first of two groups of students were presented with a standard written brief for the redesign of birthing units. They were asked to focus on either: a product, space, or combination of product and spatial design to address the needs of a birthing unit. A second group were given the same problem but were also provided with detailed video ethnographic information to supplement the written brief. The aim of this paper is to critically reflect upon the differences in the outcomes of a traditional form of design brief with that of the brief using video ethnography. By examination of all the factors affecting the complex context of birthing units, and the mode of communication of a project brief, this paper will present its findings that will facilitate future design briefs for birthing units to lead to more appropriate outcomes. In doing so the issue of whether or not a black and white text document is sufficient for improving the design of birthing units

Marianne Brandt: designer of icons or ‘real’ industrial designer?

In 1923, under the slogan ‘Art into industry: a new unity’, the Bauhaus adopted a new direction. Previously, the emphasis was on engaging with craft as a way to liberate the imagination of the designer, whereas now the teaching of craft was to prepare design for mass production(Marcus, 2008, 346). As a result of this change, the Bauhaus produced an array of what have become design classics which continue to resonate with people a century later. By focusing on light fittings, a prolific and high-profile area of the Bauhaus, our paperwill argue that many of the lighting designs had an emphasis on expressing ideas about form and material in accordance with Bauhaus ideology. Yet, very few could be considered genuine pieces of industrial design which aimed to meet user expectations and match manufacturer’s needs. In our view, the Bedside Table Lamp designed by Marianne Brandt in collaboration with Hin Bredendiek, is one of few complete industrial design projects to emerge out of the Bauhaus. An analysis of this object reveals an attention to detail, sound technical understanding, an emphasis on user needs and a complexity of form that went beyond the symmetrical and basic geometries of many of the Bauhaus works. At a time when industrial design was emerging as a discipline, this is an example of actual engagement with industry and manufacturing processes. These factors combined to create an innovative light fitting, free of older forms and approaches, which enjoyed both commercial and critical success. This study contributes another layer of understanding to the beginning of the industrial design discipline, it positions Marianne Brandt alongside pioneer industrial designers who designed for manufacture such as Peter Behrens, and Christopher Dresser and it elevates the Bedside Table Lamp from just another Bauhaus light to a unique and important exemplar

Immunosenescence, Inflammaging, and Frailty: Role of Myeloid Cells in Age-Related Diseases

The immune system is the central regulator of tissue homeostasis, ensuring tissue regeneration and protection against both pathogens and the neoformation of cancer cells. Its proper functioning requires homeostatic properties, which are maintained by an adequate balance of myeloid and lymphoid responses. Aging progressively undermines this ability and compromises the correct activation of immune responses, as well as the resolution of the inflammatory response. A subclinical syndrome of “homeostatic frailty” appears as a distinctive trait of the elderly, which predisposes to immune debilitation and chronic low-grade inflammation (inflammaging), causing the uncontrolled development of chronic and degenerative diseases. The innate immune compartment, in particular, undergoes to a sequela of age-dependent functional alterations, encompassing steps of myeloid progenitor differentiation and altered responses to endogenous and exogenous threats. Here, we will review the age-dependent evolution of myeloid populations, as well as their impact on frailty and diseases of the elderly

Impact of climate change on climatic zoning of common bean in the South of Brazil.

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