Moen Loft Bathroom Workstation

Moen Loft is an integrated bathroom workstation primarily targeted at first-time home buyers and remodelers who live in small urban spaces, have a fast life pace and want an easy solution. This all-in-one bathroom workstation, along with free installation service provided by Moen, makes the purchasing and installation experience totally hassle free. Features such as a customizable shelf system, water-saving faucet, integrated power outlet and easy access ‘P-trap” make it suitable for small urban living spaces and easy to use and maintain. A selection of colors allows customers to match their decorating scheme.

Submitted by askkurthow on June 30, 2011 - 7:09pm

Safe Agua

Through the collaboration between Designmatters at Art Center College of Design and Latin American NGO, Un Techo para mi País, The Safe Agua Project addresses the quotidian challenges of safe water access for Chile's poorest families living in slum developments (or campamentos) on the outskirts of Santiago.

The practical challenge for Safe Agua was to design concrete solutions for utilizing, transporting and storing water for families living in campamentos without running water. The extensive two-week field research undertaken by a team of 3 lead faculty and a multidisciplinary team of 12 students, became paramount in gaining a richer understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent to the project. This immersion in Chile allowed the students and faculty to gain experience with the communities and make personal emotional connections. Throughout the project the U.S.-based team continued to validate their design process through close contact with Chilean partners and the community of end users.

Safe Agua prototypes have been successfully field-tested with the families of the campamentos.. The Innovation team of Un Techo is currently working with government and corporate partners to scale and distribute these solutions across Chile.

Viewed as an example for the execution of socially driven design principles, The Safe Agua Project demonstrates the far-reaching potential for specifically tailored design research methodologies, collaborative processes, and creative solutions to achieve further relevant successes globally.

Submitted by cliver on June 30, 2011 - 2:42pm

Spirit: New-Generation Sustainable Automotive Seat

Spirit is a new-generation sustainable automotive seat developed by looking holistically at the life cycle of the materials and processes involved. Research shows that the foam cushion and the metal frame in standard seats have the greatest environmental impact, making them a logical starting point for a new seat design. Inspired by human bone and muscle anatomy, as well as racing seat structures, the Spirit's efficient architecture mimics and cradles human curvatures, simultaneously providing support and comfort.

Submitted by rachelw on June 10, 2010 - 5:53pm

Mobility Vision Integration Process

The Mobility Vision Integration Process (mVIP) investigates ways that expert designers can support and accelerate dialogue about the future of sustainable mobility. These mVIP cards are an experimental tool that supports rapid future scenario development on the topic of sustainable mobility so that groups and individuals can quickly enter a dialogue and brainstorm about possible outcomes, solutions and strategies. The deck contains 109 cards in 11 categories and is also available as an online brainstorming tool.