Workbench
(2015) In Diploma work IDEM05 20151Industrial Design
- Abstract
- It seems that people are more disconnected to the
objects they own than ever before. What has changed
in the last decades? People had tools and the skills to
use them, but due to convenience and easy consumable
entertainment, do-it-yourself was replaced by do-it-forme.
Tasks we would have handled ourselves in the past
are now done by a product or a service. This is disabling
people.
By losing skills like building and repairing things there
is also a missing relationship between people and
their products. Additionally the rising complexity in
product architecture and the lack of knowledge and/or
confidence to repair certain things are part of creating
our modern Throw-away society. Planned obsolence and
fast product live... (More) - It seems that people are more disconnected to the
objects they own than ever before. What has changed
in the last decades? People had tools and the skills to
use them, but due to convenience and easy consumable
entertainment, do-it-yourself was replaced by do-it-forme.
Tasks we would have handled ourselves in the past
are now done by a product or a service. This is disabling
people.
By losing skills like building and repairing things there
is also a missing relationship between people and
their products. Additionally the rising complexity in
product architecture and the lack of knowledge and/or
confidence to repair certain things are part of creating
our modern Throw-away society. Planned obsolence and
fast product live cylces go hand in hand with that trend.
A “passivization” of costumers.
A current movement is working against that trend, the
maker movement. From hardware stores giving courses
in how to do things and renting out tools to repair cafes,
communal organised tool libraries and Fab Labs, the
number of public workshops is growing.
The maker movement is doing more than just giving
people access to tools like digital fabrication and co.
it is also creating a new swath of educated prosumers
(producers + consumers)2 who do not only care about
price and performance but also about the transparency
and repairability of a product. The biggest challenge
though is the entrance barrier. Most of these places still
have some geeky aftertaste and are not attractive to the
majority of people.
How do you encourage and enable people
who want to build/make things?
My research showed that the biggest problem is a lack
of having a dedicated space to work and experiment on.
Using kitchen tables as a workplace and unorganised
drawers with every tool except the one that you need is a well known phenomenon which leads to frustrations
rather than a succesful project.
While today half of the worlds population is already living
in cities, by 2030 a predicted 60% of us will call urban
areas home.3 Urbanisation. The traditional spaces for
performing craftman-like work such as basements and
garages are not existing in such a packed environment.
From the garage to livingroom
- a new Workbench for a new situation.
Workbench when closed is an unobtrusive furniture with
simple shapes and warm, light materials but when in use
is an height adjustable platform which advances with
you as your skills develop. Exchangeable parts make it
easy to customize it according to your needs so the user
will make it his own. It offers a designated area to work,
build, tinker and repair anything on and a safe place to
store tools and your work in progress. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4937139
- author
- Gschwandtl, Martin
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- IDEM05 20151
- year
- 2015
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- publication/series
- Diploma work
- report number
- ISRN LUT-DVIDE/ EX--15/50256—SE
- ISSN
- ISRN
- language
- English
- id
- 4937139
- date added to LUP
- 2015-01-19 16:29:16
- date last changed
- 2015-01-19 16:29:16
@misc{4937139, abstract = {{It seems that people are more disconnected to the objects they own than ever before. What has changed in the last decades? People had tools and the skills to use them, but due to convenience and easy consumable entertainment, do-it-yourself was replaced by do-it-forme. Tasks we would have handled ourselves in the past are now done by a product or a service. This is disabling people. By losing skills like building and repairing things there is also a missing relationship between people and their products. Additionally the rising complexity in product architecture and the lack of knowledge and/or confidence to repair certain things are part of creating our modern Throw-away society. Planned obsolence and fast product live cylces go hand in hand with that trend. A “passivization” of costumers. A current movement is working against that trend, the maker movement. From hardware stores giving courses in how to do things and renting out tools to repair cafes, communal organised tool libraries and Fab Labs, the number of public workshops is growing. The maker movement is doing more than just giving people access to tools like digital fabrication and co. it is also creating a new swath of educated prosumers (producers + consumers)2 who do not only care about price and performance but also about the transparency and repairability of a product. The biggest challenge though is the entrance barrier. Most of these places still have some geeky aftertaste and are not attractive to the majority of people. How do you encourage and enable people who want to build/make things? My research showed that the biggest problem is a lack of having a dedicated space to work and experiment on. Using kitchen tables as a workplace and unorganised drawers with every tool except the one that you need is a well known phenomenon which leads to frustrations rather than a succesful project. While today half of the worlds population is already living in cities, by 2030 a predicted 60% of us will call urban areas home.3 Urbanisation. The traditional spaces for performing craftman-like work such as basements and garages are not existing in such a packed environment. From the garage to livingroom - a new Workbench for a new situation. Workbench when closed is an unobtrusive furniture with simple shapes and warm, light materials but when in use is an height adjustable platform which advances with you as your skills develop. Exchangeable parts make it easy to customize it according to your needs so the user will make it his own. It offers a designated area to work, build, tinker and repair anything on and a safe place to store tools and your work in progress.}}, author = {{Gschwandtl, Martin}}, issn = {{ISRN}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, series = {{Diploma work}}, title = {{Workbench}}, year = {{2015}}, }