A little over a year ago, we established our fabrication-research lab to augment our design efforts with full-scale prototyping and material exploration. We use our ability to build things as both an internal design tool and a means of communicating complex design intent to clients and builders.
Having quickly outgrown our original space, we moved our fab lab to a location large enough to house our CNC router and an arsenal of wood and metal-working equipment. We inaugurated our newly expanded fabrication-research shop with a rapid-fire prototyping exercise for the Urban Innovation Festival Hackathon.
The hackathon called for a physical intervention to support a broader design approach toward civic engagement. …and it needed to be designed and built over a single weekend.
The hanging installation was inspired by an interest in how geometry can engage with human interaction. Spiraling gradients of different shapes create swings that position users at different angles relative to each other.
Concept drawings for a tri-swirl-swing
Do different conversations take place when speakers are oblique to each other rather than face-to-face? Can privacy coexist with close proximity? What happens when you have a groups of various sizes swinging together, each with a different vantage of the surrounding environment? The system brings users together by dint of proximity and shared experience, but also encourages outward-looking engagement with the city that bustles around us.
Concept drawing for a ‘family’ of tri/quad/penta-swirl-swings
Related:
Bringing a prototype to the Urban Innovation Festival
Design Process Perspective: DMB Urban Innovation Festival Hackathon
Hacking the City
Each year, PAYETTE embarks on a collaborative effort to make our design services accessible to local communities through the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. This year, we celebrated our 8th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service by partnering with 7 local nonprofits:
- Breaktime @breaktime
- Brighton Main Streets @brightonmainstreets
- Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition @masstpc
- The Elizabeth Peabody House @elizabethpeabodyhouse
- Greater Ashmont Main Street @greaterashmont
- Greater Grove Hall Main Streets
- Animal Protection Center of Southeastern Massachusetts @animalprotectioncenter
To learn more about each of these projects, visit the link in our bio!
#designalways #artofmaking