Global Visiting Professorship at TUM

In early February 2024, I completed a four week funded fellowship at the Technical University of Munich’s Straubing Campus. There, I was invited by the Chair of Biogenic Polymers, Prof. Dr. Cordt Zollfrank to research emerging research topics in renewable material alternatives, principally made from cellulose. The trip could not have been more inspiring, and I am deeply grateful for the invitation and opportunity to develop new partners in this important future area of material science- highly relevant to the future of industrial design. Special thanks to Dr. Zollfrank, Petra Peklo and the whole team, some pictured below:

It was also a total pleasure to be a visitor in Bavaria and Straubing, a beautiful small city located on the Danube River north of Munich.

BioDesign Challenge

I was delighted to be invited to serve as a judge for the annual BioDesign Challenge in New York City, hosted at the Parsons School of Design and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). The competition explores the opportunity and implications of emerging bio-technology. Great work presented from global contestants and a pleasure to meet so many interesting colleagues on the panel hailing from numerous different disciplines connected to the field of BioDesign

Reimaging Alternative Technology for Design in the 21st Century is being released in May.

REIMAGINING ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR DESIGN IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Reimagining Alternative Technology for Design in the 21st Century surveys traditional, underused and often abandoned technologies and design systems to explore how forgotten knowledge can be relevant to meet society’s goals today, as energy conservation, single-use product pollution and climate charge are top of mind. Written for designers, architects, academics and a public audience interested in the subject matter. Peer reviewed and published by Routledge, Abington, UK and New York. Available spring 2023.

Preview of My Upcoming Book: Reimagining Alternative Technology for Design in the 21st Century

My design lab students have explored redesigning products for the home aimed at reducing energy consumption. Seen below is David Shaltanis’ ID Thesis, Moove. Here, Shaltanis modernized wind-up razors used in the Apollo space program to explore the potential of “de-electrifying” home appliances. Electric appliances are responsible for more than doubling electricity use in the US home since 1980 (according to a US Department of Energy report.)

Human Centered vs. Life Centered Design

The Flyease hands free shoe by Nike. Great for the disabled who can’t bend but at what ecological cost. I can’t think of a better example of Cradle to Grave design. Monstruous hybrid, disposable, 8 different materials?

Revisiting Past Technologies for Health and Sustainable Design

My book is progressing! Covering passive lighting (Luxfer Prism canopies below), hand powered technologies including push mowers, carpet sweepers and many more examples. How can we reinvent these passive sustainable inventions for contemporary design today? This is the fundamental question of the book. Stay tuned……

(Re)Integrating exercise in daily routines

Before we let automation and comfort completely run our lives, how can we find opportunities to use our bodies during our busy days, for posture, health, fitness and stress reduction?

Barbell stool - a stool that is designed to be lifted and used as a barbell during a break - with a rubber coated slightly flexible stem.

Barbell stool in barbell mode

Other details throughout interiors and on details of products could give us a nudge to stand up and do something more physical - away from the handicap door openers - every opened door helps. This high lights an area to pull a door that require more force because it has less mechanical advantage at the end.

Toy design from our Naef / Virginia Tech competition is now being sold at the MOMA Store.

Congratulations to Sarah Ahart and Bryanna Dering for this fantastic accomplishment!

Rounded bullnose details in wood - a sense of effortlessness in form

Council “Drift” Stool designed by Branch

Sinonimo Essential espresso making set - note the rounded edge detail abutting the stainless press disc

Feiz studio for artifort : Balans

Giving bags a home...... part 1

Upcoming Book: Revisiting Obsolescence in Contemporary Design

"Histovation" book is now ..."Revisiting Obsolescence in Contemporary Design." The title has a signed contract is due for publication by early 2022. The book will examine examples of obsolete technology and design which could be repurposed today to improve energy and resource savings for a growing and competing global population.

Why not reintroduce this design as an electric commuter vehicle?

3d Printed bathroom sink part of the 2018 Solar Decathlon Mideast winning FutureHAUS in Dubai, UAE

The organic easily cleaned futuristic sink concept was 3d printed and finished by Kohler as a part of the FutureHAUS. It showcases modern technology and design for “Cleansibility”. FutureHAUS from Virginia Tech was the only American team invited to compete. I advised ID students Peter Kang ‘19, Neil Slinde ‘19 and Matt Corbin ‘19 in their development process.

Here Kohler speaks about the project

https://kohler.design/solar-decathlon-middle-east/

Tidal Forms in Sand

Patterns in sand from the coast of Virginia #1, 2017.

Random sand patterns formed from wave patterns in receding tides. It is amazing to see the repeated forms of almost computer generated regularity.

'HISTOVATION' the Book moves forward

Exciting news - I am in the process of developing a title for an NYC based publisher for a book about 'obsolete' technologies that could have renewed relevance today: From Window Shutters for reducing energy costs to modern hang-dry clothing lines and lenses and fiberoptic for introducing day light into buildings there are numerous examples. Even technologies like electric trolleys and even bicycles are undergoing a renaissance in American cities in particular. What other older technologies might be reevaluated and redeployed in todays digital empire?

Stay tuned for more.

Double Edged Sword: Removing Chores vs. Integrating Physical Activity in Daily Life

This Fall in the SFCS Studio on Aging and Health, I am very excited to explore a long standing theme- one dating back to 2013 when I photographed Octogenarians on bicycles going grocery shopping in Verona, Italy. How do we (re)integrate physical activity in daily life? Driving, Elevators, Automatic Handicap Doors and other physical activity- killing "innovations" remove physical exertion.... Lack of physical activity leads to disability- How can design change this? How can we integrate physical activity that is motivating to perform? On the other hand, how can we remove dreaded activities like cleaning the bathroom and kitchen. Designing appliances in the Kitchen and Bathroom to be easily "cleanable" (see below post) should be a new design approach. While cleaning might require needed physical activity they are not always welcome.

In short, how can we decrease chores and undesirable activity while increasing integration of physical activities into daily life?

Any thoughts about this, please send to me brook.kennedy@vt.edu

OLED lighting

M lamp by David Irwin

Super loon by Jasper Morrison

By Marion Aeby

A proposed OLED flashlight - simple tube for occasions when you need only a flashlight

Driverless future? What about the almost driverless past?

Renault the automaker released the following concept for a "driverless future." Interesting dialogue on Dezeen about the practical, socio economic unintended consequences of being in a bubble all day.

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/03/06/renault-ez-go-driverless-transport-system-geneva-motor-show/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Dezeen%20Weekly%20560&utm_content=Dezeen%20Weekly%20560+CID_f6697b91f68e8f3ffcfd14ea4e8ff74a&utm_source=Dezeen%20Mail&utm_term=How%20is%20this%20a%20solution%20in%20any%20way

What happened to enjoying the random discovery of new things while walking and living in a city? Now that we have driverless cars to look forward to, I wonder more how America would have been different had we not dismantled all of our Electric Streetcar systems. Europe maintained and expanded theirs. The US has reintroduced them in many cities, including Los Angeles, Portland and DC. Roanoke had them too, remarkable for a city of its size:

Roanoke Electric Railway street car near the Taubman and Amtrak station right after WW2.

Natalie De Blois and the Union Carbide Building

I grew up during the Mad Men era only blocks away from Madison Avenue in midtown Manhattan where the television show took place. Buildings from that time period are now mostly taken for granted, mainly the early Modernist glass boxes that have now populated urban centers around the globe. So taken for granted are they that we have now forgotten how unique they were when they began to appear, especially on lower Park Avenue. Mies Van der Rohe's Seagrams Building and SOM's Lever House, the PepsiCo Building and Union Carbide, had a level of clarity in form and in some cases humanism in their foot print. Now cheap glass boxes dot the landscape everywhere and tarnish the representation of the originals. Why do cheap imitations end up representing what the great originals started? J.P. Morgan announced this year that they will demolish the Union Carbide building, designed chiefly by Natalie de Blois with guidance from Gordon Bunschaft the architect of the Lever House and PepsiCo. Are we too blind to see what we will lose by letting this happen? Natalie de Blois should be honored for her achievement. I remember once at night back in the seventies seeing this building illuminated - the light coming from the ground floor emphasized a sense of levity, like it was floating. I will miss an important anchor of my childhood upbringing. 

Design for Cleanability: A new frontier in sustainable design.....(stay tuned for this one too).

An example of "uncleanability vs. cleanability." Cleanability uses less water, less effort, less time and less chemicals to maintain. It should be part of our sustainability vocabulary!