Category: Design comment

Georgy Holden’s post last week got me thinking. Do have a look at it. Georgy made a link between the philanthropic housing activities of the 19th century ‘model village’ builders and the lessons for today with the push for the private sector to build vast amounts of new homes. She is so right that there…

In 1887 William Hesketh Lever, a grocer’s son from Bolton, purchased a large parcel of swampy land in Birkenhead with the intention of building a soap factory. That factory was the start of what is now the global company Unilever. William Lever, later Lord Leverhulme, had a strong vision for business, but it is his…

‘All designers probably say the same thing, that inspiration is everywhere and in everything. We study the work of great mathematician and designer, Buckminster Fuller and others like him – it leads to new ideas.’ So says lighting designer Ian Cameron. https://camerondesignhouse.com/collections/collection The source of ideas can be fairly general. For example, the Inspiration for…

Smart products are elements of product-service-systems which use processors, sensors and communication technologies to collect and communicate data. The most common example is the smart phone which is a multi-functional device that uses its embedded technologies in different ways according to the installed apps, for example as activity tracker, health monitor, shopping assistant, etc. Based…

Fixation on a known idea or on a known way of solving a problem is a commonly observed phenomenon in creativity and design. Often, attachment to initial ideas or repeating solutions or parts thereof is seen as a negative thing. But does it always lead to worst outcomes? Researchers are not so sure about it.…

Good news, for everyone involved in the design and construction of the built environment: the UK Government is putting aside £72 million to ‘transform the construction sector’. It is doing so through setting up a ‘Core Innovation Hub’ (https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/142/overview). The announcement defines three innovations it wants the hub to focus on: a digitally driven manufacturing…

Research carried out by Professor Charles Spence, Head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University has found that for most people taking photographs on holiday results in digital amnesia where a scene is taken and then forgotten. In contrast using more than one sense, such as drawing, which involves both vision and touch, can…

This week the UK government announced a proposal to encourage recycling of bottles and cans by creating a returnable deposit scheme funded by increased prices on drinks. Scotland have already announced plans for such a scheme and the Welsh Assembly are also considering this. Such schemes, for glass bottles, we around from early in the…