the helen hamlyn >researchassociatesprogramme

show and symposium autumn 2004

Helen Hamlyn Research Associates 2004

Innovation for an inclusive society:

an exhibition of industry-funded projects

by 16 new design graduates of the

Royal College of Art

Show: 6-14 October 2004

Royal College of Art

Open every day 10am-6pm

Symposium: 5 October 2004

Show designed by Alan KW Lam, Yanki Lee and

Pablo Abellan Villastrigo of HAPYdesignhouse

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city-light: 28

projects that support urban quality

of life

Matthew Dearlove 30

Megumi Fujikawa 32

Merih Kunur 34

Ruth Dillon 36

office-age: 38

projects that explore demographic

change in the workplace

Harriet Harriss and Suzi Winstanley 40

Kyushu University, Japan 44

Research associates 2005 47

Research associate profiles 48

Thanks 52

Message from the Rector 3

Message from Helen Hamlyn 3

Overview by Jeremy Myerson 4

Research partners 6

RCA departments 9

health-check: 10

projects that promote independent

well-being

Gero Grundmann 12

Indri Tulusan 14

Richard Mawle and Chris McGinley 16

open-house: 18

projects that address transactions

in the home

Tobie Kerridge 20

Katherine Gough 22

Peter Fullagar and Daniel Jones 24

Jac Fennell 26

Yanki Lee 27

>contents

Illuminated seating units by Megumi Fujikawa, RCA Interaction Design: prototypes from an interactive public lighting project with Philips Design. See page 32

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>message from the rector

>message from helen hamlyn

Universities today operate in a climate in which it is not only desirable to interact with business but essential. The Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration, commis-sioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has set the tone for a world in which academia and commerce move ever closer.

In this context, the Helen Hamlyn Research Associates Programme at the Royal College of Art is a shining exemplar of good practice. This year 16 RCA design graduates have worked up with industry partners: the out-comes of their collaborative research hold the promise not only for socially inclusive new thinking in business but new products with broader appeal in the marketplace.

I am very grateful to our external partners, and to the Helen Hamlyn Foundation, for supporting the Research Associates 2004 and the College in the drive to engage with business in the community.

Professor Sir Christopher FraylingRector, Royal College of Art

The Research Associates Show and Symposium 2004 is the fifth in the series and marks an important milestone in the life of the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre.

It means that more than 50 Royal College of Art graduates, drawn from right across the spectrum of the design disciplines, have now completed the programme and are out in the working world.

During their time as research associates, each young designer will have engaged with the key principles of inclusive design on an industry project with practical application. Already we can see evidence of our former research associates using the skills and ideas they have acquired with the research centre in their professional lives.

This is very encouraging and I am sure that the Research Associates 2004 will also go on to do great things. I wish them every success during this event and in their future careers.

Helen Hamlyn Founder, Helen Hamlyn Foundation

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>overview: innovative, inclusive and international by design

Jeremy Myerson Co-director, Helen Hamlyn Research Centre

2004 marked a year of firsts for the Helen Hamlyn Research Associates Programme. With the framework of interaction between new Royal College of Art graduates and industry research partners well-established over a five-year period, we decided to use our newest set of collaborations as a platform to innovate in a number of directions.

The programme’s research narratives were revised and expanded. For example, we introduced a ‘Health-check’ theme related to independent health and well-being. This builds on past projects looking at the design needs of older people and has long been an ambition of the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, given our record of research into design for patient safety.

Changing dynamicsWith our ‘Open-house’ narrative, we pioneered a group of projects looking at inclusive design in relation to the changing dynamics of the home. This theme enables more cross-generational analysis and brings us closer to other centres of research expertise in the RCA, such as the AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior and the Interaction Design Research Studio.

With our ‘Office-age’ theme, we embarked on our first major international research collaboration – with the Faculty of Design at Kyushu University in Japan, whose own projects are featured in the 2004 Show and Symposium. ‘Office-age’ deals with the impact of an

ageing workforce on office design and gives the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre its own special angle in an area that we anticipate will grow in political and economic significance over the next few years.

Quality of lifeAnd for those who argue that inclusive design thinking overlooks the power of technological change, we explored digital and sustainable technologies as part of studies of public space and vehicle systems in our ‘City-light’ narrative, a long-standing theme which promotes design for urban quality of life.

We even planned our annual exhibition of projects in a new way this year. To demonstrate our commitment to user-based design, our research associates worked with Visiting Doctoral Fellow Yanki Lee from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in a series of workshops to trial a participative design process as part of her research. You can see the results in the RCA galleries.

To cap it all, we commissioned two filmmakers, Steve Connolly and Adam Clitheroe of Rewind Films, to make a documentary on the life of the Research Associates 2004, entitled ‘Designing for People’.

This film is screened in the exhibition and captures some key moments from a year in which our talented research associates and our resourceful industry partners never stood still – and, between them, never failed to come up with the unexpected.

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Research Associates share ideas about the 2004 Show in a co-design workshop to advance participative design

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>research partners

Capoco: an independent British design house founded in 1977 which specialises in fundamental design for city buses. It has worked for clients across the world – from the UK to Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Africa.It is a founder partner in Newbus, a venture dedicated to advanced technology for passenger transport vehicles. Capoco’s Design Director Alan Ponsford is a world authority on accessible bus design.www.capoco.co.uk

Dams Internation: is now the largest manufacturer and supplier of office furniture in the UK. Formed in 1967, the company is at the forefront of mainstream commercial furniture design. It currently distributes product through retail, catalogue and office furniture dealer networks in the UK. Dams also has interests in Europe, as well as new ventures in China and North America; it is committed to developing products in many new market sectors.www.dams.com

DEGW: was founded in London in 1973. It is an international design consultancy that is focused on the planning and design of environments for working and learning. DEGW applies to design a unique research-based understanding of user needs, related to organi-sational and cultural change over time and at scales that range from the chair to the city. The firm aims to create solutions and environments that help organisations and their people to thrive. www.degw.com

The Faraday Packaging Partnership: is a powerful R&D network. Through access to the UK’s best academic and commercial experts, it generates new thinking, tools, techniques and processes for the design, manufacture and supply of packaging for fast-moving consumer goods. The Part-nership provides insight, vision and R&D effort focused on increasing consumer value and realising novel pack concepts. www.faradaypackaging.com

GlaxoSmithKline: is a world leading research-based pharmaceutical company with a combination of skills and resources that provide a platform for delivering strong growth in today’s healthcare environment. It has 85 manufacturing sites in 37 countries and manufactures almost 4 billion packs per year. GSK’s mission is to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. www.gsk.com

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association: provides guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services that meet the needs of blind and partially sighted people. Through extensive research into eye disease and high-profile campaigning, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association is helping to push eye care up the nation’s health agenda.www.guidedogs.org.uk

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Hewlett-Packard: a global manufacturer of computing, printing and imaging products, and solutions, services and consultancy. HP Laboratories is Hewlett-Packard’s central research organisation and its innovation engine. Recent emphasis has been on developing new ways of combining user research with both conceptual and industrial design. www.hpl.hp.com

IDEO: is an internationally renowned, user-centred, experience-focused design agency. Operating as a global network, its work explores new relationships between products, services and environments. IDEO has evolved from designing products to creating experiences and to consulting on the creative process itself.www.ideo.com

Marks & Spencer: is one of the UK’s leading retailers of clothing, food, home products and financial services. Some 10 million people shop with Marks & Spencer each week in over 375 stores. Since first establishing ready meals in the UK over 30 years ago, Marks & Spencer has built a speciality food business, known for its quality, value, freshness and innovation.www.marksandspencer.com

The Orange Group: is one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies and a subsidiary of the France Telecom group, with operations in 19 countries across Europe and beyond. It provides a broad range of personal communications services and other digital cellular telephone services. At the end of June 2004, Orange-controlled companies had over 50 million customers worldwide. www.orange.com

Pearson Matthews: is a design consultancy that for many years has focused on healthcare, believing that design has a great deal to offer when used to make connections between individual, commercial and social needs. Our strategic futures thinking is matched by our proven ability to deliver – taking research and developing it through to ground-break-ing products.www.pmuk.com

Philips: Royal Philips Electronics is one of the world’s biggest electronics companies with activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology, and 165,600 employees in more than 60 countries. Philips Design is a multi- disciplinary community of researchers and designers within Philips, looking at how design can best serve people’s current and future values and needs.www.design.philips.com

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Steelcase: is the world’s pre-eminent designer and manufacturer of products used to create high-perfor-mance work environments. Steelcase research explores the notion of work as a social activity and speculates about the role of office design in cultivating organisational culture. A main objective is the harmoni-ous integration of architecture, furniture and technology to enable individuals and organisations to work more effectively. www.steelcase.com

Targetti Sankey SpA: is an international manufacturer of lighting products based in Italy. Its expertise in interior and exterior lighting and street furniture, combined with the foundation of its Lighting Academy La Sfacciata, underline its commit-ment to innovation across a wide range of lighting applications. www.targetti.com

At work in the studios of the Royal College of Art

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>RCA departments

>architecture & interiors The Department of Architecture and Interiors is

recognised as one of the most energetic architecture schools in Britain, an engine room for new ideas. Using London as a research platform and ‘live’ laboratory, its programme combines experiment with plausibility, working closely with specific areas and particular groups of people.

Head of Department: Professor Nigel Coates; Academic Co-ordinator: Mark Garcia; Research Tutor: John Smith

>communication art & designThe Department of Communication Art and Design reflects the multidisciplinary nature of contemporary communications. It combines the disciplines of Graphic Design and Illustration – both of which have an unrivalled track record at the RCA – to provide a creative and energetic working environment for the exploration, development and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

Head of Department: Professor Dan Fern; Deputy Head: Jeff Willis; Senior Tutors: Professor Andrzej Klimowski, Jon Wozencroft

>industrial design engineeringThe Department of Industrial Design Engineering celebrates the fusion of industrial design and engineering with products and systems that address the whole spectrum of human experience. At MA level, its joint course with Imperial College provides a detailed education and training in industrial design professional practice for graduate engineers. The department actively encourages funded research.

Head of Department: Professor Tom Barker

>vehicle designThe Department of Vehicle Design pioneers new approaches for our mobile futures. Central to its work is an understanding of the broader issues of vehicle design necessary to optimise opportunities for mobility: accessibility, aerodynamics, environmental impact, ergonomics, legislation, materials, production, safety and technology, as well as aesthetic principles.

Head of Department: Dale Harrow; Research Co-ordinators: Helen Evenden, Paul Ewing, Andrew Nahum

>interaction designAs new technologies develop, new fields of design emerge. This department is a pioneer in the field of interaction design – the design of interactive products, services, systems and experiences. Leading companies employ its graduates and support the Interaction Design Research Studio. Although concerned with emerging technologies, its focus is on people.

Head of Department: Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam;Research Administrator: Lynn Williams

>design productsThe Department of Design Products does not embrace any one design ideology or favour a specific style. Its purpose is to create a culture engaged in an on-going debate about all aspects of design that thrives on new ideas, new ways of doing things and new areas of exploration and risk-taking.

Head of Department: Professor Ron Arad; Deputy Head: Hilary French

Poster campaign to promote eye health by Gero Grundmann, RCA Communication Art & Design: a project in collaboration with The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

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health-checkprojects that promote independent well-being

Save your sight Gero Grundmann Circles of care Indri Tulusan Which pill when Richard Mawle and Chris McGinley

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>save your sight: a campaign to improve eye health

Gero Grundmann RCA Communication Art & Design

As we get older, our eyesight deteriorates. The problem for people over 45 is not simply loss of visual acuity but the real possibility that they could develop such eye conditions as glaucoma, macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy which pose a threat to health and well-being.

Regular eye check-ups will ensure that such conditions can be detected for early treatment. But according to The Guide Dogs for Blind Association, not enough of us take our eyesight seriously. As a result, eye-threatening illnesses remain undetected.

Vigilance required “The challenge is to raise awareness about eye health and encourage people to take eye tests regularly and be more vigilant,“ says Paul Day of Guide Dogs, a charity which has expanded its remit in recent years from providing guide dogs for blind people to being an educator on eye health and ophthalmic research.

As part of its Healthy Eyes campaign, Guide Dogs teamed up with the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre to develop a new communication programme which aims to encourage people over 45 to be less complacent about their eye heath.

Research associate Gero Grundmann interviewed medical professionals and visually impaired people, studied award-winning healthcare campaigns and visited Finland and Germany for overseas comparisons

research partner: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

in the early phases of his research. He concluded: “It is all about targeting people where it matters – at the point of denial.”

Grundmann then developed a range of creative ideas designed to promote the message about eye health in the context of people’s everyday lives – on the street, in the gym, at school, while driving or shopping.

The campaign is spearheaded by a high-impact communication idea entitled ‘Number Plate’ which encourages drivers to take an eye test before they lose their licence and get taken off the road. This can be expressed either in poster form or as a real number plate.

A further concept expands the remit of fitness coaches to include healthier eyes with healthier bodies. ‘Eye Coach’ is a laminated information guide for fitness trainers to use during their work in gyms and health spas. It is available both as a complete manual and as a quick reference card.

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For schools, a ‘Little Optician’ activity pack introduces eye health to pupils who can then in turn engage their parents in the issue. The pack includes playful materials to test for visual acuity, field of vision, blind spots, colour blindness and so on.

Feast your eyes The three main aspects of the campaign aimed at drivers, fitness centres and schools are supported by additional communication materials. These include: recipe cards bearing the message ‘feast your eyes’ to encourage healthy eating to combat eye disease by

increasing lutein levels; eye health information incorporated into packaging for protective eyewear such as sports goggles; and mirrors which reveal campaign messages when they steam up.

All facets of the programme have been evaluated by Guide Dogs, and key community and business partners have been identified to roll out the main campaign mes-sages. “A whole new range of creative opportunities have been developed to enable us to move forward,” says Paul Day of the Guide Dogs communication team.

Left and above: different elements of the camapign target over-45s at the point of denial

health-check

research partner: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

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>circles of care: a new approach to healthcare based on social networks

Indri Tulusan RCA Interaction Design

research partners: Orange and Pearson Matthews

As western economies struggle with escalating health-care costs, there are growing calls for a paradigm shift from a system that simply treats patients to a model for health services in which the focus is on prevention rather than cure.

Within this context, there has been rapid growth in the market for self-monitoring and self-diagnosis products that enable people to take a more proactive approach to managing their own health. But, according to Helen Hamlyn Research Associate Indri Tulusan, there is an ‘in between’ space between self help and the expert help of medical professionals that has received relatively little attention from designers, manufacturers, service or social providers.

This is the social network of friends, family, work colleagues and neighbourhood facilities such as health food shops and fitness centres which operates alongside the GP or hospital professionals in helping us to maintain our health.

Complementary modelTulusan’s study is a collaboration between the RCA’s Department of Interaction Design, healthcare product designers Pearson Matthews and mobile network company Orange. It has identified the social network as a complementary healthcare model and given it a name: Circles of Care. “The question we sought to answer,” she explains, “is what kind of new circles of

Above: research participants were encouraged to sketch their own circle of care on a special glove. Opposite: the concept mapped through different life stages

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health-check

research partners: Orange and Pearson Matthews

care can be evolved and what new services are needed to sustain them?”

The project began with a cross-cultural analysis of individual attitudes to maintaining health by focusing on a user group of 20 people (ten in the UK, ten in India and Italy) who had recently moved to a new town or country, necessitating the creation of a new circle of care.

Displacement was the key factor to get people to focus on the social relationships that support their health and a user research exercise invited participants to define their own circle of care on a glove.

The findings of this research revealed that people have three universal requirements to support their own health: fitness of body, autonomy of mind and relatedness to others. The study chose to explore this third aspect in greater detail, creating a Circles of Care map which addresses health activities across the span of different life events, from childhood to old age via leaving home, marriage and having a family.

The study identified the main activators and patterns of behaviour within circles of care, such as family caring,

partnering and friends coaching. From these insights, a series of eight service narratives were created which illustrate how the space between self-help and expert help can be populated with new services that activate the social network. Some services use network technology: Health Heritage Blog, for example, is an online family health diary that dispersed family members can access and contribute to wherever they are living in the world.

A manifesto for changeThe main output of the project is a special publication which sets out a manifesto for the Circles of Care model. This describes its main characteristics and the opportunities for new services to be created. ”The study has identified a neglected terrain in design for healthcare,“ says Mike Pearson of Pearson Matthews. “Now the aim must be to flesh out an exciting concept with case studies to demonstrate its potential.” Stephen Hope, international research manager at Orange, adds: “The value of this research is in a people-centred approach that provides the glue for the technical framework.”

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was observed by handing out a specially-designed research diary to a group of patients taking prescribed drugs for such conditions as asthma, depression, diabetes, epilepsy and enlarged prostate.

>which pill when: medicine packaging that aids compliance in taking prescribed drugs

Richard Mawle and Chris McGinley RCA Industrial Design Engineering

One consequence of a rapidly ageing population is the growing number of older people in society who must take prescribed medication on a strict regime of compliance. However, many older people find it difficult to take their pills or medicines to a regular timetable.

Older patients take three times as many drugs as the general population and their rates of non-compliance are higher – 55% compared to a 43% non-compliance rate for the general patient population. Overall, one in every two consumers of prescription-only medicines is said to be non-compliant.

The cost of this problem is enormous – estimated at £60 billion a year worldwide. In older patients, non-compliance accounts for 40% of all hospital admissions and contributes to 125,000 deaths a year. A quarter of nursing home admissions are due to an inability to take drugs as prescribed.

A stubborn problemPlenty of different compliance aids exist to tell people which pill to take when. But according to Christopher Wood, innovation manager at pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, “This is a problem that refuses to go away. The question is how can we integrate the compliance aid into medication packaging in a way that is low-tech but of high value to the user?”

In the first year of the two-year project, existing compliance solutions were analysed and user behaviour

research partner: GlaxoSmithKline

Older users directly influenced the pack exemplars

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A trio of design concepts were then generated to communicate three distinct problems related to non-compliance: accessing the pack, taking pills on the move, and remembering to take the medication. The resulting prototypes demonstrated how packaging could incorporate some form of low-cost compliance aid.

In the second year of the project, the study substantially expanded the user research base by consulting four distinct groups: people suffering from specific medical conditions such as asthma and arthritis; medication users with severe mobility impairments; a broader cross-generational group to gain insights into diverse needs; and a medical professional group of pharmacists, carers and nurses.

Each group assessed the initial prototypes and design iterations were introduced and refined in response to user feedback. Three proposals emerged from the study: the Access Pack, which has an easy-to-open matchbox-style mechanism and an access aid as an intrinsic part of

the packaging; the Moving Pack, which has a special box detachable from the main pack to support discreet use of medication on the move; and the Remind Pack, which has a collection of prompts such as stickers and cards that can be removed from the pack and placed around the home as personal reminders.

Creative response These three-dimensional pack exemplars form the centre- piece of a special Compliance Kit produced to provide design guidance on the issue for GlaxoSmithKline’s in-house design teams. The kit, styled as a First Aid box, also includes simulation tools such as spectacles and gloves to better understand the reduced capabilities of older people, as well as visual prompts to highlight compliance issues and stimulate a more creative packaging approach.

health-check

research partner: GlaxoSmithKline

Left: visual prompt in Compliance Kit for designers to make packs easier to access. Right: the kit styled as a First Aid Box

Envelope desk concept for homeworkers by Peter Fullagar and Daniel Jones, RCA Industrial Design Engineering: the product is set for manufacture by Dams International

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open-houseprojects that address transactions in the home

Weather watchers Tobie Kerridge

On a plate Katherine Gough

Home work Peter Fullagar and Daniel JonesBiographical objects Jac FennellHome Yanki Lee

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>weather watchers: animating networked objects in the home

Tobie Kerridge RCA Interaction Design

research partner: Philips

We’ve always had a special relationship with the objects that surround us in the home. These private possessions create a sense of who we are, for other people and for ourselves. As digital technology extends through the domestic space, these objects share data, linking with each other and with spaces outside the home.

This project explores how these networked objects might behave. What form and other characteristics will they adopt? In particular, how might these digital objects physically move in order to describe the streams of data which flow through them?

Intense relationshipsResearch associate Tobie Kerridge is collaborating with consumer electronics company Philips on the study. He explains: “Much research around the home focuses on how people communicate with each other. In this case I’m interested in how individuals make and use tools to pursue and expand their own interests, creating intense relationships with objects.”

To explore these relationships, the project identified domestic meteorology as a focus for the research. The process of putting together a user group revealed a national community of weather watchers who record data using a range of equipment. “Between the observer and the weather are the tools,“ says Kerridge. “These instruments, their construction, the rituals around their use, and their functions and measurements enable a

Above: domestic meteorologist with self-built humidity sensor. The dish (top) receives data from passing polar orbiting weather satellites

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weather-responsive objects for the home – input sensors, software and moving output devices – to demonstrate this more intense relationship between a user, their objects, and the world outside. The study will now go into a second year of experimental development in partnership with Philips.

“This project has opened a persuasive dialogue on the language of movement of networked objects,” says Steven Kyffi n, Senior Global Director of Design Research at Philips. “What forms, sounds, luminescence and gestures should these digital media carriers adopt in the home so that the relationships with people are enriched? That’s what we intend to pursue to understandbetter a language of mechanical mediation.”

open-house

research partner: Philips

compelling experience for the weather watcher.”Research material emerged from fi eldwork with

three domestic meteorologists. Within their homes, the research associate found sensors and logging instruments, screens, printers and satellite-receiving equipment. Together with hourly data pushed onto the internet, all were accessing and adding to a growing, distributed archive of meteorological data. At the core of these processes was a visceral set of movements, translations of the weather’s shifting energies.

Suite of prototypesInsights from the user research have driven the development and prototyping of a suite of connected,

Climatic shifts become translated into movement and data by sensing equipment. This data is passed to a suite of wireless prototypes which move responsively

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>on a plate: making food packaging easier to use

Katherine Gough RCA Industrial Design Engineering

research partner: Faraday Packaging Partnership with Marks & Spencer

Everyday food packaging is an accepted part of our lives and an indispensable part of our economic system. But despite major advances in convenience and cost reduction, such packaging is not easy to use.

According to the Faraday Packaging Partnership, a consortium which aims to encourage innovation in the field, there is growing frustration among consumers that packs are difficult to open and belated recognition among pack producers that new designs should be more intuitively usable in form.

Visual communication“The visual communication of the pack is central to the user’s relationship with the product,” explains Faraday Packaging managing director Dr Walter Lewis. “Compa-nies need to understand two things – first, how the form, aesthetics and semiotics of the pack can support ease

of access and use, and, second, how to make practical improvements as a result.”

This study, led by RCA Industrial Design Engineering graduate Katherine Gough, set out to investigate the issue of packaging usability with video ethnographic techniques and to develop a practical design tool that could be adopted by Faraday Packaging members to evaluate how inclusive their packs are in use.

“In partnering with the RCA, we were especially inter-ested in the idea of designer as ethnographer, creating a seamless creative process based on interpreting real customer needs,” says Dr Lewis.

The project began with a review of how packs communicate, what physical, visual and cognitive problems customers currently face and how inclusive design can address them. Faraday member Marks & Spencer provided the main food packaging case study.

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pack being assessed. Analysis of the shape provides a measure of inclusivity – the fatter the shape, the more the visual communication of the pack is working right through its lifecycle to aid ease of use.

Catalyst for user focusDesign teams can do their own scoring or conduct user research to generate the results. The tool therefore acts as a catalyst for a more user-centred design process.

A set of exemplar packaging designs, based on adaptations of existing M&S food packs and realised as 2D computer renderings, were generated to support the design tool.

“This study has created a platform for packaging companies to conduct their own inclusive design research,” says Dr Lewis. “Now the aim is to trial the tool with organisations in our network. There is real potential.”

Below left: video ethnography tracked customer interaction with M&S food packaging. Below right: vegetable pack redesign with protruding edge demonstrates ease of access. Above: design tool to test for pack inclusiveness

The way M&S segments its food customers into groups informed the research associate’s choice of four households in the UK to study: young professionals without ties; a family with teenage children; empty nesters; and a retired woman living alone.

Using video ethnography techniques, users were shadowed in their local M&S store making their food selections and at home as they unpacked and prepared meals. By following the lifecycle of packaging at key interaction points with the consumer, the project identified inclusive ways in which a pack’s visual communication can enhance access and use.

Based on the research, a design tool was developed for use by designers and marketers. It poses a series of questions related to five different packaging roles – from in-store selection to disposal – and a scoring system enables a spidergram to be generated for each

open-house

research partner: Faraday Packaging Partnership with Marks & Spencer

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>home work: rethinking home office furniture

Peter Fullagar and Daniel Jones RCA Industrial Design Engineering

research partner: Dams International

More and more of us are doing office-based work at home. Numbers have doubled in the UK in the past five years to an estimated 2.2 million people. That’s 7.4 per cent of the working population – and figures are set to increase further due to new family-friendly legislation, enabling technologies, commuting problems and corporate property cost pressures.

According to BT, a quarter of us will work at least in part from home within ten years. But while working at home as part of a more flexible work pattern looks great in theory, the demands of balancing work and home life can often make the practice difficult.

Inadequate for the taskPart of the problem is that furniture for home working is often inadequate for the task. “Too many solutions are simply a scaled-down version of conventional office furniture which doesn’t really suit a domestic setting or an improvised corner of the kitchen table which doesn’t work either,” says David Gorman, marketing manager of office furniture company Dams International.

Dams International teamed up with the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre to rethink home office furniture from the user’s perspective, using an existing contract to supply furniture to BT homeworkers as a case study for the research.

The project began with a review of homeworking trends and furniture products currently on the market.

A model for analysis was developed that enabled existing solutions to be accurately mapped in relation to overlapping physical, social and psychological boundaries in the home. What emerged was an opportunity for a furniture design that combines all three needs in one integrated solution.

Fullagar explains: “Our research found that people work longer hours at home to maintain trust with their employer and retain the privilege of flexible working. Also, without their working day structured by going to and from work, working time expands into their personal and relaxation time.”

Visits to a group of homeworkers from the Live/Work Network and BT Workabout identified that the physical boundaries of the ‘office’ are often set by the furniture,

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Below left: the user reality of working from home. Above: the Envelope concept in wall and corner configurations

research partner: Dams International

rather than the interior space itself.The research findings inspired the development of a

number of product concepts and, through collaboration with the design team at Dams International, a number of prototypes were produced and tested.

The resulting ‘Envelope’ concept incorporates a number of innovative features which enhance the personal and professional boundaries of the homeworker.

The continuous flowing form of the desk was designed to promote the idea of a contained work zone. The use of illumination, activated by picking up your pen from a groove, symbolises the ritual of starting work. Other innovations include split-height surfaces that encourage improved ergonomic use of laptops and improved access for power and connection cables.

Ready for productionThe outcome of the project is a range of home office furniture which has been developed to the stage where it is ready for manufacture. The Envelope range is now in the final stages of costing and packaging and will form part of a portfolio of products currently sold to BT homeworkers. It will also form part of a larger collection that will be promoted to the retail market sector in the UK, Europe and North America over the next six months.

David Gorman concludes: “We always hoped that the research programme would not only develop the company’s own skills, in terms of the process of design, but actually produce a marketable product. In both respects the project has been highly successful.”

open-house

>biographical objects: new electronic objects and the retelling of memories

Jac Fennell Helen Hamlyn Research Student, RCA Interaction Design

Memories are created, kept and recalled in different ways. A common practice is to use objects as placeholders for our memories of other people and places. The objects we own and surround ourselves with reflect our present life, but also prompt memories of past experiences.

Props for narration To revive memories, objects serve as props that enable people to tell stories around them. It is through the owner’s narration that the memory comes alive. Currently there are very few products or services to support this activity. This project looks at how new electronic objects can influence the retelling of memories.

To understand the practice of retelling memories with the aid of objects, camera kits were given to 25 people at different life stages. Participants took photographs of objects in their home that hold personal memories

and wrote stories about them on postcards. The findings of the study revealed the type of memorabilia objects people choose to keep, and the memories they share about the object with other people.

The results of the camera kits inspired a collection of conceptual designs that influence the retelling of memories, including a series of interactive plinths that display objects and curate the narration of memories associated with them. This MPhil study in the Depart-ment of Interaction Design builds on Jac Fennell’s work in multi-sensory memorabilia as a Helen Hamlyn Research Associate in 2003.

The Biographical Objects project continues in 2005 with the support of HP Laboratories, the central research organisation of Hewlett-Packard.

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>home: developing a co-design process with tenants

Yanki Lee Visiting Doctoral Fellow, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Yanki Lee worked as a Helen Hamlyn Research Associate studying the future of live-work buildings in collaboration with the Peabody Trust in 2000-2001. From this design research project, she developed an interest in creating new user-centred design methods in the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where she was awarded a research studentship for her Doctoral research.

Participative methodsShe returned to the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre at the RCA for the academic year 2003-4 as a Visiting Doctoral Fellow from Hong Kong. Her research focuses on different tactics to involve users in the environmental design process, studying participative and inclusive design methods across a range of different cultures and design communities.

As part of her proposition-setting research, Yanki Lee conducted a design exploration into the desirability aspects of home as part of the Home Project, initiated by the Architecture Foundation. A special corridor was constructed at the London exhibition 100% Design in September 2004, detailing plans and other design information for six recent London housing projects and tenant responses to them. The setting acted as a research tool to gauge public opinion and gather ideas on new housing design in London.

The Home corridor was curated and designed in collaboration with Hilary French, Head of the School of Architecture and Design at the RCA, Gerrard O’Carroll, Harriet Harriss and Jam Design. Yanki Lee’s Doctoral study, which has included working with tenant groups on housing design in Hong Kong, continues with Helen Hamlyn Research Centre supervision.

Visualisation of hybrid-electric urban vehicle system by Merih Kunur, RCA Vehicle Design: part of the Mobilicity project with automotive design consultancy Capoco

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city-lightprojects that support urban quality of life

Blighted landscapes Matthew Dearlove

Glowing places Megumi Fujikawa

Mobilicity Merih KunurOut of place Ruth Dillon

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>blighted landscapes: the narrative role of street lighting in urban regeneration

Matthew Dearlove RCA Architecture & Interiors

The City of London, rich and important, is ringed by neglected and devalued community spaces in Tower Hamlets that reflect the inequality of investment between the two urban conditions.

Within this context, which is common to many cities, how can street lighting play a role in reanimating neglected public spaces for the local communities to which they belong?

The opportunities for public lighting to improve the urban streetscape and support social regeneration were investigated in this project, using the London Borough of Tower Hamlets as a platform for research. The study was led by research associate Matthew Dearlove: “I decided to take a narrative approach to the research, because street lighting has the potential to create new narratives in relation to urban regeneration.”

Discovering literary LondonDearlove began the project with a series of walks through Tower Hamlets based on literary readings of London such as Iain Sinclair’s Liquid City and Lud Heat. Two key narratives were identified. One links three churches designed by Hawksmoor (St Anne’s Limehouse, St George-in-the-East and Christchurch Spitalfields); the other links three circuses (Arnold Circus, Finsbury Circus and Broadgate Circus).

The routes uniting these landmarks were visually documented using sketches and photographs, and

referenced against local planning guidelines, other architectural initiatives and international exemplars of best practice in urban lighting.

Having established the methodology, the project then set about identifying community partners to trial a new lighting narrative on a specific site in Tower Hamlets. Dearlove worked on the St Peters Estate in Bethnal Green with a film-making community group called Neighbourhood Watching to demonstrate how street lighting and landscaping can improve under-utilised communal spaces.

The estate was undergoing a consultation process with the local council on improving security. In response, Dearlove undertook his own programme of consultation and workshops with local residents and the council to generate a design brief and a series of design solutions for the estate.

research partner: Targetti

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The project, supported by lighting company Targetti, addresses the need for improved safety and illumination on the estate. A combination of lighting and landscaping creates an environment that allows residents to play out their own narratives on the site and create their own spaces – rather like a set of outdoor rooms. The aim was not to be overly prescriptive in how the communal spaces are used, but to make people feel comfortable about coming down to colonise and share them.

Animating the spacesWhile the landscaping provides a set of new surfaces on the estate, the lighting provides structure and animates the spaces, enabling safe 24-hour use. Dearlove’s participative research allowed local narratives, as well as

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research partner: Targetti

Below left: young tenants have their say. Above: plans and sketches to regenerate the estate in Tower Hamlets

the view of residents and the council, to surface without relying purely on anonymous questionnaires. A more personal and informal approach to canvassing information allowed for a story, a favourite activity or a dream to influence the designs, which will be advanced towards realisation as part of an Architecture Foundation programme.

The design solutions enable the St Peters Estate to develop its own special identity and environment while also responding to much-needed regeneration. In the current landscape of the city-fringes where the maintenance and redevelopment of housing estates is switching from local councils to housing trusts and residents associations, this project harnesses the individual qualities of site and residents.

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>glowing places: interactive lighting for large public interiors

Megumi Fujikawa RCA Interaction Design

research partner: Philips Design

Lighting creates ambience that affects our experience of large public interiors such as shopping malls, airport terminals or railway stations. But current lighting schemes for such spaces tend to be applied indiscriminately and exclude the possibility for individual interaction with the light.

How can we design a more responsive environment in which social patterns of activity influence the ambient quality of the lighting at a larger scale?

Responding to behaviourThis research study set out to explore innovate ways for people to interact with light in public space, building on design research by Philips into the theme of ‘the

emotional building’ – a building that responds to the behaviour and feelings of its users by visually expressing the activity inside. Within this construct, the project sought to demonstrate the important role of lighting as a signifier of changing emotional states.

The project began with an analysis of the functional, decorative and behavioural properties of architectural lighting, using Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project at Tate Modern and Herzog & De Meuron’s Laban contemporary dance centre among the case studies.

A user study at Brent Cross Shopping Centre then sought the views of visitors of different ages on how they feel about that environment and how they spend their time there. An ambiguous light ball, which randomly brightens and dims, was designed to elicit emotional responses in relation to the space.

Results of the user study subsequently informed a series of design ideas which express a new form of interactive lighting. Research associate Megumi Fujikawa designed a series of illuminated seating units

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illumination. Sophisticated electronics programming was undertaken to deliver the light behaviours to the furniture and to project patterns on the building façade. A working prototype was tested with users to explore the potential to create different atmospheres and solicit feedback.

An architectural ambience“We looked to this study to generate lighting concepts that can sustain vibrancy, adapt to changes over time and create a sense of participation and belonging,”says Job Rutgers, Senior Design Consultant at Philips. “The result achieves a difficult challenge: it constructs an ambience through light that is in itself architectural and it adds to our knowledge about the emotional building.”

The project will now go into a second year to develop architectural applications.

which glow, dim, flash and change colour in reaction to the patterns of people sitting on them at different times of the day. The intention, she explains, is not to create visuals effects for the people sitting on the furniture but to use their patterns of use of the units as a catalyst for changing the ambience of the building. Within the specific area of the seating, people share the altered state. Thus the ambience is self-generated by and for the users of the space.

The concept is extended by having the lighting patterns created by human interactions abstracted, memorised and played back on the façade of the building to broadcast the activity within to those outside and to brighten the surrounding area.

Having established the concept, the development phase of the project focused on its creative and technical realisation. Rotation-moulded plastic seats were pro-totyped, based on an existing Philips design, and LED (light-emitting diode) strips were sourced for internal

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research partner: Philips Design

Below left: user research in a shopping centre influenced the concept and prototyping of interactive lighting units (above)

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>mobilicity: scenarios for sustainable public transport 2025

Merih Kunur RCA Vehicle Design

research partner: Capoco Design

How will we travel on public transport around large cities in the future? This project set out to explore new directions in sustainable mass transit for commuters and residents in the crowded urban environment of 2025 and beyond.

Independent consultancy Capoco, which designs passenger vehicles for world markets and contributed to the design philosophy of many of Britain’s current generation of city buses, commissioned the study to mark the 25th anniversary of its founding by Director Alan Ponsford.

“We’ve considered the key drivers of change for the next 25 years – sustainable development, energy and emissions, access, information technology, integrated systems, safety, social factors and the cityscape itself,” says Ponsford. “I was keen to see if we can make an original statement about the future of mass public transport in the large city environment.”

Depiction in popular filmsResearch associate Merih Kunur, an experienced researcher in transport design who holds degrees from Turkey’s Mimar Sinan University and the RCA, began the project by exploring depictions of future multi-layered city transport in popular films. He then developed a research matrix based on three primary fields of investi-gation (spatial organisation of cities, social change and sustainability).

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interior that responds to different usage (airport-bound vehicle modules have increased luggage space, for example). The design concept has the ability to form a single train of up to six vehicle units for express journeys and then split apart into smaller modules to enable local access.

Express and local In London, for example, the smaller vehicle units collect people from around the West End before forming a single train at a given point to head out to City Airport. In Istanbul, the opposite occurs: an express train heading out of the city divides into smaller local services, thus combining express and local services in a single vehicle journey. In Hong Kong, special emphasis is given to understanding the needs of older travellers.

By combining video footage of specific urban journeys with computer modelling of a new vehicle typology, it is possible to glimpse a future of city travel that is less frustrating and time-consuming, suggests Merih Kunur: “A greater sense of privacy is given to passengers so this approach is socially sustainable as well as environmentally sustainable.”

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research partner: Capoco Design

This matrix was tested and expanded in an expert forum at the RCA at which architects and urban planners, social researchers and sustainable technology and vehicle experts came together to debate a future in which world cities are becoming more polycentric.

Insights from the expert forum informed the development of user scenarios on specific sites in three world cities. London hosted a noon-time business journey from Covent Garden to City Airport by a male executive; Hong Kong, a trip by a grandparent through a densely populated shopping district to a main train terminal to meet her grandchildren; and Istanbul, a long evening commute home across the Bosphorus Bridge by a female office worker. Each journey was filmed and time inefficiencies and user discomforts analysed.

A single vehicle design programme emerged from the analysis. In each scenario, the travel challenge of making a difficult journey across a city is addressed by a new zero-emission, hybrid-electric vehicle system that is driverless and runs on global satellite guidance sensors to fixed destinations.

The low-floor, easy-access vehicle module comes in three sizes – 12, 18 and 24 seats – and has a flexible

Left: passenger journeys in London, Hong Kong and Instanbul. Above: sketches explore accessible vehicle system

Much research has been undertaken into making the city more accessible for those with physical disabilities. But what about those people who are excluded from the urban environment due to psychological dysfunction?

In such cases, subjects suffer from a reduced ability to negotiate space; the city can become a territory of fear, anxiety or obsession. This Doctoral study, funded by an award to the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Research Council), explores the possibilities for a personally tailored response to negotiating psychological space: integrating physical built interventions into the urban fabric, and producing an digital interactive layer.

The research investigates what happens when our sense of self and identity are disrupted through

anxiety and how this affects our relationships with the city around us. Through design, the project work seeks to allow the individual to enter the disruptive psycho-logical space between the self and the city.

Lighting in LondonAs part of the study Ruth Dillon has consulted on a lighting design project on the Kentish Town Road in London, led by Harry Dobbs for Camden Council in collaboration with the Royal College of Art. This case study has enabled key theoretical ideas to be applied to a live scheme. In particular, the design interventions explore how an imaginative level of interactivity can allow the individual to cope with the cityscape.

Ruth Dillon Helen Hamlyn Research Student, RCA Architecture & Interiors

>out of place: exploring psychological dysfunction in urban space

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To show the process of collaborative work and capture the development of the projects, the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre commissioned RCA filmmakers Steve Connolly and Adam Clitheroe of Rewind Films to make a documentary on a year in the life of the Research Associates Programme. The film, entitled ‘Designing for People’, is screened in the Show. screened in the exhibition.

>capturing the research associates on film

Knowledge blossom user interaction tool developed by Harriet Harriss and Suzi Winstanley, RCA Architecture & Interiors, as part of their project with DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase on the design needs of flexible older workers

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office-ageprojects that explore demographic change in the workplace

Capture it Harriet Harriss and Suzi Winstanley

Workplace 2015 Faculty of Design, Kyushu University

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>capture it: knowledge interactions and the flexible older worker

Harriet Harriss and Suzi Winstanley RCA Architecture & Interiors

By 2020, half of the working population in the European Union will be over 50. What will this profound shift in age balance mean for our workplaces in the future?

The trend towards greater numbers of older people remaining in the workforce for longer is being driven by rapid demographic change, shortfalls in pension funds and a stronger management focus on retaining and utilising knowledge and experience built up over time within organisations.

But the challenge of an ageing workforce seeking to contribute in more flexible ways has significant design implications. Will our workplaces and work practices be agile enough to respond to the growing numbers of people with valuable expertise to pass on?

Intellectual capitalAn international research project was set up in the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre to look at this issue, led by RCA architecture graduates Harriet Harriss and Suzi Winstanley. The study’s title – Capture It – is in recognition of the status of knowledge as a new intellectual capital that requires a shared emotional experience to be exchanged.

The project has drawn on the experience of Japan, where ageing workforce trends are especially pronounced, through a collaboration with a research team from the Faculty of Design at Kyushu University under the direction of RCA graduate Yasuyuki Hirai.

Industry partners in the study are global furniture company Steelcase, innovation firm IDEO and architects DEGW. Steelcase Director of Workplace Futures Europe, Terry West, explains: “It’s not simply about accommo-dating older people in the workplace. It’s about being inclusive, about recognising that older generations may have different ways of processing, thinking and perceiving.”

Phase one: cinematic mappingThe research began with a literature and media review. The impact of the ageing demographic on the architec-ture of the workplace was mapped cinematically and a short film was produced. This innovative approach

research partners: DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase

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office-age

research partners: DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase

Left and above: interactive user probes ‘tea-time hijack’ and ‘knowledge city map’ invited personal responses

directed the study to focus on the exchange of knowledge as a key driver of change.

Phase two: user probesIn the second phase of the project, the research associates worked with a user group of six individual flexible older workers and with four cross-generational groups based in work organisations in the UK and Japan. A series of playful, interactive user probes were created to elicit personal responses and generate qualitative find-ings about the knowledge interactions of older workers.

‘Tea-time hijack’, for example, encouraged

participants to answer questions on their tea cups; a ‘knowledge city map’ invited individuals to indicate their favourite places to work in the city; and ‘knowledge blossom’, based on observance of Japanese rituals, gathered input from office workers in a delicate, poetic way. A video diary-making kit was also issued to key individuals.

Phase three: key findingsPhase three of the project distilled the results of the user probes and referenced them against the assumptions made in the cinematic mapping of phase one. Eight key

42 research partners: DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase

findings emerged which describe the desires and needs of older people in relation to the workplace of the future.

First, flexible older workers will demand more choice and control in terms of how, when and where they work. Second, they will be increasingly curious and committed to learning, often mixing work and personal projects. Third, they will require more space and time for reflection, in recognition that flexibility can be inherently stressful because of the lack of live/work separation.

Fourth, they will look to multi-sensory work environ-ments, especially green spaces, to support their learning and reflection; and fifth, they will increasingly recognise a fundamental relationship between tactile materials and the cognitive ability to access knowledge.

Older workers will want access to and separation from ubiquitous new technology as their lives demand. They will also require triggers in the environment to facilitate narrative and memory, in recognition of the inevitable degenerative effects of ageing on the senses. Finally, older workers will crave connection to people of all ages – they will not want to be cocooned with their peers.

Phase four: design interventionsIn the fourth phase of the project, the findings of the user research were interpreted in a series of design interventions on a real site in Bermondsey, based on a derive of the district. These proposals encompass a building to focus on individual work, an interior for sharing knowledge between people of diverse ages, a series of street furniture for reflection, a shopping

Older workers in the UK and Japan were engaged in a creative process to discover personal aspirations

43research partners: DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase

bag to trade knowledge across different disciplines and a digitally-enhanced ‘acoustic flower’ for the ever curious to learn more, all linked together by a physi-cal route and data system to manifest a distributed and multi-layered narrative network.

Innovative applicationsThe body of design work includes four site-specific interventions to illustrate a scenario in which an organi-sation is sharing knowledge across two local sites, linked by spaces to connect and reflect. Innovative spatial applications of new technologies and materials both inform and express the findings of the research.

Thus the project responds in a practical way to the future needs of the older flexible worker seeking to

work across a series of networked spaces as the boundaries of the office and city are increasingly blurred. Using real stories, film, illustration and user interaction, it demonstrates and posits new design thinking to support the older worker in building and sharing knowledge.

The study will now go into a second year to proto-type and test some of the key spatial concepts, having established, in the words of DEGW director of research Andrew Harrison, “a platform to be a real voice on the subject of the design needs of an ageing workforce.”

Special thanks to the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, which is supporting an Office-Age knowledge seminar at the Royal College of Art on Tuesday 12 October 2004.

Above: ‘Grow’ design intervention transforms a local Bermondsey primary school into a 24-hour learning centre, with ‘smart acoustic flowers’ transmitting knowledge to workers outside moving between sites. Above left: ‘Reflect’ intervention creates a network of ceramic pods along the street edge

office-age

>office-age: distributed workplace in 2015 for knowledge transfer

Yasuyuki Hirai Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Japan

In Japan, the ageing society is growing faster than anywhere in the world. In order to explore inclusive solutions for this change, a research team from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, which is one of the leading national universities in Japan, set out to describe images of the workplace in 2015, when a quarter of the Japanese population will be over 65 years old.

This project marked the first collaboration between the Faculty of Design at Kyushu University and the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre at the RCA. The Japanese team comprised associate professors Yas Hirai and Minako Ikeda and four graduate students.

Transfer across generationsBased on a number of interviews, observations and workshops, the research team identified three key zones on which to base a new concept in workplaces: Distributed Office; Public Space; and Job Market. These workplaces would enable experienced workers of different ages to work creatively by using their knowledge and transferring it to the next generation.

Four scenarios were created to describe how people work in these three zones in Fukuoka city, one of the key knowledge business cities in Japan. The zones are based on a fluidity of social structure: the blurred boundary of work/life activities, the end of lifetime employment, and a hybrid (virtual and physical) workscape.

Social Post This project aims to realise knowledge transfer from older to younger people in order to maintain corporate memory and experience in the organisation. The design enables workers to pin up files and items for display to fellow work-ers, stimulating knowledge transfer in the workplace.

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Distributed officeCommunity PictureOlder people working in distributed offices need a sense of belonging. This community picture system brings them closer to colleagues. When a worker arrives at one of the satellite offices, the system takes a picture of him and composes it with those of his colleagues to make a community picture automatically. Looking at this community picture, he always knows who is in what office at any given time and how they look. The system supports communication between colleagues working in distributed workplaces.

Info Conveyor When experienced older workers retire, their know-how is often lost. This has been described as ‘corporate Alzheimers’. This system scans handwritten information from individuals with a micro camera and displays it, flowing ideas through a workplace on a sushi bar-style conveyor belt. Just by looking at the information as it circulates, younger workers can tap into the valuable knowledge of older people. The information can be also printed out from the nearest printer by touching it as it passes by on the display.

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office-age

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Public spaceLearning Seat A concept to enable office workers, especially older people, to acquire new information and skills while travelling on the train. It adopts the priority seats reserved for elderly and disabled people to the needs of learning. For example, the seat narrates the contents of the daily newspaper to save commuters from having to fold out their papers on a crowded train. An electronic train card is passed over a sensor to charge each user for the service.

Asking BoardThis concept provides older people with opportunities to continue to use their knowledge and experience in society. Railway platform billboards are used to help different kinds of professional communities to communicate with each other and appeal for a particular skill or expertise. Rail stations are used as a place where information and people meet.

Job market

Office-Age Team, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University: Yas Hirai, associate professor (Social Post); Minako Ikeda, associate professor (Communication Design) Masters students: Naoshige Akita (Community Picture); Yasuhito Kitoko (Info Conveyor); Sawako Kodo (Learning Seat); Koichiro Fumoto (Asking Board)

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>research associates 2005

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Architecture & InteriorsHarriet HarrissJuri NishiSheila QureshiSuzi Winstanley Research partners: IDEO, MFI, Steelcase

Communication Art & Design Thea SwayneResearch partner: National Patient Safety Agency

Design Products Jamie CobbMichael CrossJulie Mathias Research partners: Audi Design Foundation, Ideal Standard

A work in progress seminar of the Helen Hamlyn Research Associates 2005 will take place at the RCA on 15 March 2005, and a Show and Symposium of their completed projects will be held on 11 October 2005.

Industrial Design Engineering Matthew HarrisonChris McGinleyDuncan TurnerJonathan West Research partners: B&Q, GlaxoSmithKline, Osaka Gas, Thorn Lighting

Interaction Design Megumi Fujikawa Jeremy GayTobie Kerridge Research partners: Kinnarps, Philips

Vehicle Design TBA Research partner: Visteon

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>research associate profiles

Matthew Dearlove: British. MA Cantab

2004, MA(RCA) Architecture & Interiors

2003; BA (Hons) Architecture, University

of Cambridge 2000. Work: Project

Co-ordinator, The Architecture Foundation,

London; Robert AM Stern Architects, New

York; De Matos Storey Ryan Architects,

London; Michael Hopkins Architects, London; Leigh and

Orange Architects, Hong Kong.

Contact: +44 (0)7946 513 443 / mattdearlove@hotmail.com

Peter Fullagar: British. MA(RCA) Industrial

Design Engineering 2003; BEng(Hons)

1st Class Aeronautics and Astronautics,

University of Southampton 2000. Work:

Miyama Co & Masters Craft, Gifu, Japan.

Awards: Oxo Peugeot Design Awards

2003; Design for our Future Selves 2003;

BCA Concrete Design Awards 2002; Royal Commission for

the Exhibition of 1851 Scholarship; Royal Aeronautical

Society Prize 2000.

Contact +44 (0)7881 788102 / pfullagar@yahoo.co.uk

Megumi Fujikawa: Japanese. MA(RCA)

Interaction Design 2003; BFA Digital Art,

Atlanta College of Art 2000. Work: intern,

Orange 2002, web/graphic designer, Art

Space New York 2000-2001. Awards:

Design for our Future Selves 2003; runner-

up, National Grid Transco Awards 2003;

Big Wave Awards; Wearable technology, Dazed & Confused

+ Orange 2002; Nannie Boyd Award, Atlanta College of Art

2000. Exhibitions: London Design Festival 2003.

Contact: +44 0)7952 068164 / megumi_fujikawa_rca@hotmail.com

Katherine Gough: British. MA(RCA)

Industrial Design Engineering 2001; BEng

(Hons) University of Birmingham 1999.

Work experience: Project Manager, The

Sorrell Foundation; visiting tutor, IDE,

RCA and University of Leeds; rapporteur,

Design Intermedia. Awards: Lattice,

sustainability, runner-up 2001; Dyson scholarship 2000.

Contact: +44 (0)7971 788713 / katherine.gough@btinternet.com

Gero Grundmann: German. MA(RCA)

Communication Art & Design 2003;

BA(Hons) Graphic Design, Surrey Institute

of Art & Design 2000. Work: freelance

designer/illustrator and printmaker;

visiting tutor, Norwich School of Art

& Design and Surrey Institute of Art

& Design; Quadraphic Design; Julius Schroeder Printing.

Exhibitions: London Design Festival 2003. Awards: Design

for our Future Selves 2003.

Contact: +44 (0)771 935 28 15 / gerogrundmann@web.de

Harriet Harriss: British. MA(RCA) Architec-

ture & Interiors 2003; BA(Hons) 1st Class

Architecture, University of Manchester

2001. Work: Director, Design Heroine

Ltd; Co-editor, Pollen magazine; The

Architecture Foundation; EPR Architects;

architecture tutor Luton University. Awards:

Design for our Future Selves 2003; BCA Concrete Design Award

2003; Thames & Hudson/RCA Society Art Book Prize; Alsop

Prize, best Urban Strategy 2003; Nesta Creative Pioneer Award.

Contact +44 (0)7989 748193 / harriet_harriss@yahoo.com

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Richard Mawle: British. MA(RCA)

Industrial Design Engineering 2002;

BEng Mechanical Engineering, Imperial

College London 2000. Work: Dyson Ltd;

Action Graphic International; BICC

Supertension Cables. Awards: Helen

Hamlyn Award for Creativity and

Innovation 2002; The Kenny Yip Award 2002; Dyson

Scholarship 2000-2001.

Contact: +44 (0)7989 572936 / richard@mawle.com

Indri Tulusan: German. MA(RCA) Design

Products 2001; BA(Hons) Product and

Furniture Design, Kingston University 1998.

Undergraduate degree medicine, Gemany

1994. Work: Nokia research; Philips Design;

Vogt+Weizenegger Berlin; Director, Teko-

london Ltd; Interactive Institute Stockholm;

ICA London. Awards: Sciart & Experiment Award 2004; Nesta

Creative Pioneer Award 2004; Lattice Sustainability 2001; RIBA

Graphic Architecture 2001; Kenny Yip Medical Award 2000.

Contact: +44 (0)7956 1972 88 indri@tekolondon.com

Daniel Jones: British. MA(RCA) Industrial

Design Engineering 2003; MEng(Hons)

Cambridge University 2001. Work:

freelance consultant, (I-dealdesign Ltd);

CCD; Nokia; Caterpillar, Barlows Group.

Awards: Design for our Future Selves

2003; RCA Selected Works 2002; Bombay

Sapphire Martini Glass Competition; Royal Commission for the

Exhibition of 1851 Scholarship; Cambridge University Major

Project Award 2000.

Contact +44 (0)7812 334668 / dan.jones@cantab.net

Tobie Kerridge: British. MA(RCA)

Interaction Design 2003; BA(Hons) Fine

Art & English Literature, Oxford Brookes

University 1996. Work: Interaction Design

consultant; lead tutor, Nesta funded

youth arts project; interaction designer,

IDEO; Orange UK; senior interactive

designer, Winkreative, Mook, ID Media. Exhibitions:

Transmediale04, Berlin; Exhibit3, Dublin; Detour, London;

European Graduates, Amsterdam.

Contact +44 (0)7971 966009 / tobie@mac.com

Merih Kunur: Turkish. MPhil (RCA)

Vehicle Design, RCA 2003; Mimar Sinan

University 1987. Designer: KOÇ. Research

and Development Centre, Breda; Ford

Otosan; Otokar. Work: Art Director, ‘Jupi-

ter Zoo’; Cartoon for TV, London; retail

and office design, Rank Hour, London.

Exhibitions: Mitsubishi Competition, Japan, 1998; Design for

the Elderly, Nagaoka, Japan, 1994. Awards: Selected Work

Award, International Design Fair, Nagaoka, 1994.

Contact: +44 (0)7785 715070 / merih.kunur@rca.ac.uk

Chris McGinley: British. MA(RCA) Industrial

Design Engineering 2002; MEng Product

Design Engineering, University of Strath-

clyde 1999. Work: freelance designer; DooD

Design; Joseph Duggan Photography;

Central Research Laboratories (CRL);

Strathclyde University. Exhibitions: MiArt,

Milan; Design Engineering, Glasgow. Awards: Anthea & Thomas

Gibson Award 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. Most outstanding

team design, Royal Commission of Design Engineers 1999.

Contact: +44 (0)7799 388087 / chris.mcginley@rca.ac.uk

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Suzi Winstanley: British. MA(RCA) Archi-

tecture & Interiors 2003; BA(Hons) 1st Class

Architecture, Sheffield University 1999.

Work: Director, Design Herione Ltd; Oriel

Prizeman Architect; Urban Salon Architects;

London College of Printing; Data Nature

Architecture; Gensler, Boston; Chapman &

Chapman Architects, New York; Ronnette Riley Architect. Awards:

Nesta Creative Pioneer Award 2004; National Grid Transco Award

2003; Design for our Future Selves 2003, BSI Award 2003.

Contact +44 07815 056321 / suziwinstanley@hotmail.com

Ruth Dillon: British. MA(RCA) Architecture

and Interiors 2002; BA(Hons) 1st Class

Architecture, University of Central

England. Work: Kralform, London;

TP Bennett Architects, London;

independent residential and

consultancy projects.

Contact +44 (0)7952 603226 / ruthvdillon@aol.com

Jac Fennell: British. MA(RCA) Interaction

Design 2002; BA(Hons) Design Futures,

University of Wales College, Newport

1999. Work: product designer, Craftspace

Touring, Birmingham; Interaction Design

consultant, Hewlett-Packard Labs,

Bristol; Helen Hamlyn Research Associate;

Art Director Redbridge Muzik, Jamaica; Interaction Designer,

MediaLab Europe, Dublin; intern, Philips Design; intern, IDEO

Europe, London. Awards: RCA Society Award 2002.

Contact: +44 (0)781 3071022 / jac@hijacdesign.com

Yanki Lee: Chinese. PhD Candidate, School

of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2003; MA(RCA) Architecture & Interiors 2000.

Work: Helen Hamlyn Research Associate

2001; architectural designer, KaraKarakusevic

Carson architects; HAPYdesignhouse, own

studio; tutor, Central Saint Martins: archi-

tectural designer, Edge (HK) Ltd. Awards: Design for our Future

Selves 2000; The Matthews Wrightson Trust Award.

Contact +44 (0)797 7160888 / +852 97176413 ask@hapydesignhouse.com

Research students

>profiles

Why do external industry partners join the Helen Hamlyn Research Associates Programme?

‘A fantastic job of pursuing the design brief with enthusiasm, creativity and insight’ HP Laboratories

‘The initial findings heavily challenged our preconceptions and assumptions... the resulting concepts and draft designs were some of the best solution-based design the company has seen’Dams International

‘The discussion of ideas is challenging, the presentations are provocative’ Peabody Trust

‘There’s a degree of excellence in analysis, interpretation, idea creation and development’ Omron Corporation

‘An enjoyable experience with fruitful outcomes for everyone involved and a valuable learning tool for the company’Hansgrohe

‘Our business depends on a socially inclusive design approach. We couldn’t afford not to work with the Research Associates’ BAA

‘The intense focus on understanding user needs unlocks the door to new business opportunities’ Unilever

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>thanks

IndividualsPablo AbellanRichard ApplebyRoy AscottDavid BanisterRichard Barker Ingrid BaronSimon Baron-CohenGeorge & Rosemary BateDavid BellSusan BennMarion Bieber Durrell BishopRobert BlakeHans BlomGeorge BoothTiago Borges Da SilvaAndy BoucherJohn BoundTrevor BoydPrue Bramwell-DaviesSara BrasingtonRoger Brugge Bernard ButlerFelicity CallardSarah CartwrightJulia CassimCeleste ChannerAlan ChiaradiaMiranda ChowAlison ClarkeNigel CoatesDiana CocheraneRoger ColemanGrant CourtneyGary CransonJo Crellin

The Research Associates 2004 would like to thank all the individuals and organisations who provided expert support and advice in the development of their projects:

Emma CritchleyJames CumminsInge DanielsRichard DawPaul DayTom DelaeyAlan DenbighMarc DettmannPeter DixonTom DjajadiningratHarry DobbsTony DunneMargaret DurkanTim DwellyPhilips EindhovenHelen EvendenCassie EverettPaul EwingJac FennelBrenda FennellMark FenwickDan FernDavid FrohlichMegumi FujikawaMark GarciaBill GaverCharlotte GerlingsLuc GertsRama GheerawoJohn GoodgerDave GormanNeil Gridely Frank GroszmannMarianne GrundmannBrian GuthrieRory Hamilton Andrew Harris

Andrew HarrisonMatt HarrisonMike HarrisonTrevor HarleyDale HarrowMartin HayesAnn HiltonKatrina HiltonAnna HiltunenYasuki HiraiBen HookerElizabeth HowardTom HulbertTheo HumphriesRobin HutchinsonRoger IbarsMinako IkedaNoel IsherwoodEllen JacobyDavid KingColette KilmisterAndrzej KlimowskiDido van Klinken Steven KyffinJane KyteAndy LawYanki LeeElizabeth LeMoineJulia LohmannGraeme LoudonG LoynesAndrew MacGregorHugo ManesseiFred MansonIrene McAra-McWilliamMary McGinleyNeil McGinley

Pentti MikkonenJohn MorrisJeremy MyersonMichael NeedhamPaul NieuwenhuisAoife Ni MhorainGerrard O’CarrollCarla O’ Driscoll-SilvaJohn PawleyFiona PeacheyDorothy PeelSarah PenningtonDavid PethickKevin PhilipsPaul PhilipsTerry PhillipsWanda PolanskiGeoff PowerSian PrimeFiona RabyLouisa RadicBas RaijmakersPaul RandPhilips Redhill Steffen ReymannTina RimmerMichelle RiversSylvia RobertsHuw RobsonLinda RollingsMike RushJob RutgersPaul SeminaraDan SidenRichard SimpsonEddie SmithJohn Smith

Barry StollMarcia TapperGarry ThomasHellen ThompsonLisa ThompsonIndri TulusanEva TuunanenPeter Van BieneAlison WadeBrendan WalkerDavid WalkerTerry WestJeff WillisDavid WilsonDavid WhittleChris Wood

OrganisationsBT WorkaboutBlindenstudienanstalt MarburgCrossfield Excalibur Ltd Excelsior Limited Institute for Information Design, JapanKita Kyushu, JapanKlein DythamLive/Work NetworkMoorfields Eye HospitalRNIB Teleworker AssociationTooting Leisure CentreWandsworth Council SocialWandsworth Leisure Facilities

Designed by Margaret Durkan Special photography: Tim StrangePrinted by Futura Printing LtdExhibition design: HAPYdesignhouseSpecial thanks to: Encapsulite and Darren Sims of Travis Perkins (London City branch)

If you would like to be part of the Helen Hamlyn Research Associates Programme please contact: Jeremy Myerson, Co-director Helen Hamlyn Research Centre email: jeremy.myerson@rca.ac.uk

ISBN 1-905000-05-7© 2004 Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, Royal College of Art British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher. All ideas or concepts described or depicted in this document are the intellectual property of the research part-ners/designers/college. Further copies can be obtained from the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre

The Helen Hamlyn Research Centre

Royal College of ArtKensington Gore London SW7 2EU

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