iSerendipity

Low fidelity prototype of our initial café concept. Coloured pods float around within the space. Floor projection is played on the exterior façade as a form of aesthetic visual information about the interior.

 

Track and gears system of pod movement

Initial Idea Exploration

Examining how to apply our working mechanisms from the first exercise: pulley, circular gears, and opening/closing.

 

 

A sociable space of moving circular pods. Ideas of configuration and sociability in the context of an office, workspace, cafe, bar, or speed dating…

 

iSerendipity Café Concept

This ambient café enhances mood, sociability and interactivity among people. Organic-shaped pods float amongst each other through space and glow with colour once a person steps on. Using interactive touch-screen countertops and tables to record and learn individuals’ preferences, pods carrying people with similar recorded preferences will experience more chance encounters – serendipity. Pod lights are time- and context- sensitive: initial activation of a pod stimulates an intense glow that dims over time, and time limit is based according to the present human activity and pod vacancy. The exterior façade displays the harmonious movement and colour intensity of each pod as aesthetic visual information to passersby.

Concept sketches

Overall plan

Pod Seating

Existing Spaces, Forms and Technologies

 We searched for some existing ideas and products to further communicate our concept ideas, and to act as additional sources of inspiration for more detailed planning and implementation.

Source: http://www.core77.com/gallery/MATERIAL%20TRENDS%202006/44.asp?current_image_number=15&album_id=20&context_id=1&current_photo_id=2644

 

Microsoft Surface multi-touch table

Source: www.microsoft.com/surface/index.html

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/endquote/521069794/

 

Sonic Chair pod seating

Source: http://www.bornrich.org/entry/sonic-chair-throws-audiophiles-in-true-acoustic-isolation/

IKEA Round Bed configurable seating

Source: http://ikeanblog.com/media/round-bed.jpg

 
Cafe Interiors

Starbucks
Source: http://leolaksi.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/starbucks-ekamai.jpg

coolbar
Source: http://tabetai.blogspot.com/2004/05/chilling-out-coolbar-on-anzac.html

My inspiration form was the jellyfish-like motion. I try to use two fish lines to control the movement of jellyfish. By dragging one fish line to control the turning joints, the jellyfish’s feet would move up and down. At the same time, there is another fish line to carry the whole body. The design of the white shell is to mimic the jellyfish form while hiding the internal construction of the mechanism.

 

The original inspiration was the movement created from a tornado, but as the project progressed, I found more aesthetic beauty within the simplicity of two single strands of wind moving entwined together. The mechanism employs two different directional movement, including a parabola direction and another back/forth. Thus, the flexible material of the strands together with the motion of the mechanics create a modern reiteration of dancing in the breeze.

 

Choosing to study the motion of opening and closing in biological systems, I found the pine cone a fascinating structure. In cold, wet conditions it forms a tight, closed geometry, yet in dry heat it opens and expands its scales – the movement between these two extremes are slow and subtle.

In constructing my kinetic structure, I encountered difficulty in making the mechanism work to fully extend and contract the scales due to the shape of the pivoting arms. The created motion resembles a soft breathing movement instead.