smokeview is a free application created by the national institute of standards and technology (nist) that can simulate the spread of a fire in any building. there are (at least) three ways to visualize the effect of fire, but only one can be perceived visually at a time: smoke, temperature and flame. to perceive these […]
Category Archives: open objects
how things are taken apart
panasonic has a highly evolved electronics recycling program, in part because of japan’s mandate that half of materials be re-used or recycled by manufacturers. their metec site shows the extend to which televisions, air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines can be broken down to their component materials for re-manufacturing. aside from the advantage of such […]
Also posted in fabrication, futurecraft, marketing, materials, product design
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XOXOXOXO
connor, matt and i are all here at siggraph on behalf of the medialab, the olpc and the creative synthesis collaborative.
Also posted in conviviality, product design
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teaching tools
i have one new rule for design: things that teach are better than things that don’t. this jigger has a rotating handle that reveals directions for mixing common drinks via george nickolopoulos
Also posted in conviviality, fabrication
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fearless learning
last week i needed to find out how to install an undermount sink, and i found a video at moen.com: today i heard about tufts medical center’s live webcasts of common surgeries: and i virtually assisted the inimitable don sadoway‘s introductory course on materials science (3.091) via mit’s open course ware: these videos are much […]
Also posted in blogogracy, conviviality, fabrication, visualization
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smokeless stove
philips is field-testing a healthier and more efficient wood-burning stove for the developing world. it works by forcing air into the combustion chamber with an electric fan, making it burn hotter and a third more efficiently while producing less of the toxic smoke responsible for as many as 1.6 million deaths a year (one tenth […]
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upcycled architecture
when i wrote about the WOBO, the bottle’s designer john habraken wrote me to tell of another up-cycling project he did in the seventies, this time using discarded industrial materials like oil drums and car parts to build buildings (see his image above). i drummed up some images of the proposed designs: which reminds me […]
Also posted in architecture, fabrication, materials, upcycling
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foot fab fetish
for the past few hours i’ve been modeling a shoe and trying to get to the heart of what makes it so fascinating – this timeless object – and i decided it’s the opacity. not because it’s hard to use (although it takes practice) but because a shoe appears to be a homogenous, solid mass, […]
Also posted in fabrication, marketing
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