wendy minyu wen - dvr - tan

High Density Living

Wendy Minyu WenRMIT Industrial Design

Content.Part I01 Abstract06 First Observation14 Second Observation22 Research38 What is Sharing Flat74 PROBE82 Inspiration84 Concept Development95 Chosen Concepts98 Development113 1:1 Mock up115 1:5 Mock up117 PIN124 Semester 1 Summary

Part II126 Design Stage II128 Aim129 Sketches131 Mock ups135 Anthropometric137 Concept Developments143 Material153 Joinery159 Making the Actual Model167 Testing the Actual Model184 Conclusion188 Appendix199 Bibliography

The topic that I’m focusing in this project is the sharing flat in Melbourne city. As we know that, due to the increasing of population growth, inflation and increase of living density, has lead to the concentration of development in the city, many of which include tiny one bedroom apartments, and nowadays, most of the people are particularly being attracted to the large

apartment development, because everything seems to be easy to access in the city.

ABSTRACT

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There are many different problems arise when people are living together and have to share their space with different people.

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Is it possible if we can provide more privacy and space for storage when sharing flats?

MAIN FOCUS

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Living in the city apartment is getting trendy for people who go to school or work in the city, and whose children have finally left home, are downsizing into the inner parts of the city, most of the people nowadays are particularly being attracted to the large apartment development. Also, due to the enlarging population, inflation and rise of living density, has lead to the concentration of development in the city, many of which include tiny one bedroom apartments, we could see that Melbourne has follow the lead of Asian cities such as Hong Kong for extreme density, peo-ple had to live in the city apartment and also share the limited space with one or two people.

The theme that I am focusing on this project is the sharing space in the city apartment. Students is the majority of people who are living in the city apartment and most of them had to share the space with one or two people to lower the cost of living. Inner city apartments is an attraction for students because everything seems so convenient of living in the city, this is because every-thing is just around the city, e.g. school, work, social, shopping, and transportation. However,

there are some problems existing on sharing the space in the city apartments.

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Due to the existing problems, I started to observe people on how they use the space and furniture.

The way of doing my observation is I went to different apartments, taking photos of every single room in the apartments, even

balcony, and took photos of most of their furniture.

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FIRST OBSERVATION

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Apartment Space

CompactSmall rooms

Limited storage spacesOpen Kitchen

Using Mirrors to maximize the living space in vision

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While observing the 4 different apartments, there are similarities and differences between each ones. The similarity is about the storage in each of the apartments, each apartments are having the same problem of storage, they are having too much stuffs and don’t have enough space to store, the result of this is the living room always looks messy and unorganized.

The other problem for sharing the space in city apartment is about Privacy. Obvi-ously, privacy is an important issue for sharing space between people, but in the other hand, it is hard to provide privacy in a limited sharing space. During my ob-servations, my target group is overseas students who live in the city apartment, most of them are living with friends, so during the time of their study in Australia, they have to share everything of the living area between people, furniture, toilets, balcony, living room and also many other sort of things to share with, but share so many personal space and furniture with another person could effect to the personal life.

One of my friend whose sharing her apartment with friends told me the worst experience she had about privacy of living in a share space is when her friends coming over for a visit, they can’t really have a space for private chatting/group while they don’t want to disturb the other flat mates in the apartment.

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Simple structure furnituresWindowsillStuffs under the bedExtra drawers and shelfs needed

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From this first observation, there are some points I discovered. Most of the apartments are using open kitchen, because open kitchen is suitable for compact living, to make the living room looks bigger than it should be; the other thing is there are big mirrors in the apartment bedroom, this is another method to make the bedroom looks bigger than it was in vision.

I have also discovered the method they use to ‘maximize’ the space. I found out peo-ple are like to use double layer bed in apartments. Double layer bed is the top part of the bed is for sleep and rest; the bottom part is a big desk for working, and then there’s a ladder beside for the user to climb up and down. This is a genius way to maximize the space in the room and also has saved a lot of spaces in the tiny bedroom but also has achieved the user’s needs. The other thing that I found out during the observation is they like to use the windowsill as an extra shelf in the room; there are books, paint-ings, pencils that evenly placed on the windowsill. Also, they needed extra drawers and shelf in the room just to give more storage.

The other thing I found out is, IKEA seems to be an ideal place to go when they need for furniture, this is because the majority of people that I observed are oversea stu-dents, and they told me that IKEA furniture are easy to assemble, simple in terms of aesthetics, and the most important is they are low cost, that’s why IKEA has attracted so many oversea students who live in the city apartment while they study in Australia.

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SECOND OBSERVATION

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After the first observation, I still want to get more information from that, so I started on my second observation to look deeper in people’s behavior and how they interact

with the space and furniture around them.

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After the first observation, I still want to get more information from that, so I started on my second observation to look deeper in people’s behavior and how they interact with the space and furniture around them.

Firstly, I start to survey people on their behavior and habits, how they like to work; where they prefer to work in the apartment; and how they would like their stuffs for storage and where will be the ideal spot in the room for storage. Some of their re-sponses are interesting; this is because some the people are prefer to work on their bed, some of them prefer on work on the carpet floor. This is because working at a un-official environment is more relaxing compares to work in an official and proper

environment just like the table or school desks; and working on the bed is more comfortable and calm.

About storage, most of the response from the survey was about they usually just put their book, magazines and unused blan-kets under the shelf and tables, even under the chairs, this is because they don’t have enough spaces to allow them to put everything nicely, so they wish to have a proper spot to put everything and also hide every unused stuffs away. So the problem here is about the space, the space doesn’t allow them to put everything nicely, so they had to put things under the bed, shelf

and tables, but that way, it doesn’t have any aesthetic experience and its not pleasing to the senses.

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They prefer to work on the bed more compare to work in proper table or official school desks.

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Another important issue for the sharing space in city apartment is also about privacy, in this 2nd observation, one of my friend doesn’t have much furniture in his apartment, so his method regards to this problem is by putting different shelf and clothes hangers in the living room as room separations, although it looks a bit unorganized when different objects are placed in one small tiny space, but to me I think this is a method to separates the room and to get more privacy when one party of friends coming over, so the shelf could act as a separation element in the room to increase privacy.

In conclusion of the two observations, I think there are three major issues for sharing the space in city apartment. They are Storage, Privacy and Flexibility. These three points seem to be the most important points for people who are living in the shared city apartment for overseas students.

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RESEARCH

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There are some exemplary designs in the field that illustrates the situation of using furni-ture for small spaces. There is two of the furniture design that inspired me in a lot of ways. One of the designs is Tokujin Yoshioka’s Honey Pop chair; Tokujin Yoshioka is a Japanese artist and designer based in Japan. The projects that bring him and his company to catch people awareness was a furniture called “Honey-pop” designed in 2001.

What I’ve learnt:

This Honey Pop Chair derives all its structural strength from the Conertina folds of the paper from which it is made. The structure is similar to a Chinese lantern; the layers of the paper have been partially opened to make a fan-shaped volume, with the vertical spine of the fan at the back of the chair. Yoshioka sat on the form once it was partially opened, crushing the paper folds and creating the form of the seat and back; the cell-like paper structure enables light and air to penetrate into the volume, this has inspired the artist to name it Honey-Pop, because it looks like a honeycomb. Just unlike the most other chairs, the user of the Honey-Pop chair is sitting on almost nothing.

I think that this is a very good example and it has gives me a lot of inspirations of what I could apply to the situation of my project. This Honey-Pop chair saves a lot of spaces when it folds up, and this honeycomb structure, which increases the flexibility to the space. Also, the use of material is so simple, it’s feather-light weight and extremely du-rable.

Honey-pop chair

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The second good design example is the REK bookcase by Rein-ier de Jong. He is a furniture and interior designer as well as reg-istered architect in Netherlands. REK is a bookcase that grows with the book collection. The more books the bigger the book-case gets. The zigzag shaped, 6cm thick parts slide in and out providing as much space as needed. Therefore, the quantity of books REK will always be full. Also, with the different spaces that appear you can arrange the books according to their size. The narrow spaces are suitable for magazines.

What I’ve learnt:

I think REK is a very clever design of bookcase, this is because the bookcase will ‘expand’ with the book collection, which means the bookcase will never look empty and the empty spaces will not be wasted. I think the design of this REK bookcase is an ideal design for the people who are living in a small space, be-cause it saves spaces which the bookcase could slide in and out to provide as much space as needed for the room.

REK Bookcase

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Moulded Sofa by Muji Design; it’s the Good Design Award winning furniture piece on 2005. It consists of a polypropyl-ene and urethane cushions assembled to from a complete piece. The structure of this design is simple, just slotted in. the parts are not joined, so just in case if there is a crack, parts can be slotted in as replacement for use again. This allows changes in sofa assembly and covers to match changes in life style. Also, the cushions of the sofa and the base sections can be easily separated, so in case if it breaks, it can be replace and use again for a long time. The cushion and the base sections each use one kind of material, so it’s not complicated when for disposing. Most of the sofa use parts are easily available in the market; therefore, the trend is that the production is done in a country with lower production cost.

What I’ve learnt:

The reason that I like this design is because the design concept and the construction of the sofa make it possible to easily produce an entirely new sofa. Normally, when a part of the sofa is damaged or been used in certain of time, people usually just dispose the whole thing. But in this concept from Muji, people won’t have to go dispose for the whole things, they can get the parts they want easily then just assemble the sofa parts together, just to make the way and colour they like to suit their home, and this is also the way of adding their personal identification in a product. In addition, the concept of this design is sustainable, because we can recycle the certain sofa use parts again and again, which increase the durability of the product and eliminates the waste to the environment.

Moulded Sofa by MUJI

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I’m a MUJI fans since I am young, the reason I like MUJI is because I like the MUJI philosophy of Simple, Functional and No brand. All of their designs are simple and clean, they don’t have any complexity in MUJI’s world. MUJI has also influenced me for my design, I want to apply MUJI’s ideas to my concepts.

Muji is a retail company founded in Japan on 1980 which sells a wide variety of household and con-sumer goods including furniture. Muji is distin¬guished by its design minimalism, emphasis on re¬cycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging, and no-logo or “no-brand” policy. There are a few designers who are working under Muji for the product design and illustration, Kazuko Koike is the main

adviser and creative director in Muji.

Muji’s basic philosophy is to develop new and simple products at the most reasonable process, while utilsing the best use of material. Ouyang Yingfei, a design critic, has made a comment on Muji, “From nothing to everything, from everything to nothing. This is the collective personal experience of our gen-eration, who struggled through the consumer boom and rampant brand names. Once we compose ourselves, we then realized that true simplicity and clean out quality are actually very desirable.” Less is more; Muji is the example of this sense. Simplicity and Minimalism is Muji’s strength. Muji’s simple colour use and clean out lines embody an interesting creativity. Muji’s style mainly fulfills the demand for the brief, rustic and natural lifestyle, colorful and complicated patterns doesn’t exist in Muji’s product lines.

SIMPLE FUNCTIONAL NO BRAND

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important factors in sharing flats

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After the observations and some of the design thinking and ideas from the researches I done through out the four weeks, I could see there are some problems in living in a sharing space in the city apartment. The most important objectives in this situation are the Privacy between people, and the Functionality of the furniture in terms of the ease of storage. As we know that, apartments have limited space, so it’s very important to have Flexibility in furniture for the users.

Sharing the space

Privacy

Functionality

Ease of Storage

Flexibility

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opportunities/methods

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Flexibility

Functionality

Privacy

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In my own opinions, I think there are several methods and opportunities that could apply to the problems for this proj-ect. The first method is Flexibility, this involves ready to assem-ble furniture and the knock down fitting design furniture.

As we see that most of the IKEA furniture is using the ready to assemble and knock down fitting features, this is because this features saves a lot of time for people to assemble the parts together after they purchase the furniture home. Also, I think this is an ideal furniture mechanism for oversea students who moves house frequently or traveling around cities, because they can just unassembled the furniture into parts once they move in or out again.

Ready to assemble furniture

Knock down fitting furnitures

Flexibility

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The second method that I think it could apply to the problem is Functionality, by bringing in the concept of Collapsible furniture into the space. When it comes to space management, folding furniture is the most trusted practical solution to yield flexibility with ease and com-fort.

Collapsible furniture is one of the fundamental survival strategies for small space. For example, the chairs could be collapsed or folded up after the guest has left, this way has saves a lot of space when the furniture is not in use, also increases the functionality of the chair and the flexibility of the space use in the apartment. In addition, collapsible furniture is also one of the designs that are easy for transportation and storage, and it also provides extra space for the living environment.

Functionality

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The third method that I think it could apply to the prob-lem is by bringing Privacy into the space. This is because students often have to share everything in the room with their flat mates, it may effect to his/her personal life in a lot of ways. Just like some times friends coming for a visit, one party in the room wants to have more priva-cy with his/her group of friends, but is always hard to achieve this due to the condition of lack of space they had. Therefore, if there are any room separations that could apply into the space just to give more personal privacy to the residence in the space.

One of the examples in this case is sectional furniture. Sectional furniture could bring in the separation ele-ment, to make the room look more organized and it could ‘expand’ the size of the apartment in vision. Sec-tional furniture also means by arranging the furniture into sections in the room, for example, sofas or tables could position in section, evenly divide up the space into two section. The other examples is the airplane business seat arrangements, Chinese Ping Feng and the office parti-tions, they are also very good examples of binging pri-vacy for the users and space.

Seperation ElementExpand the SpaceArrangement

Privacy

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CONCLUSION

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Durable

Eco/Sustainable

Weather Resistant

Light Weight

Life Spam

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In conclusion, living in small space, in most cases, young people may still have to share the room with friends. Kitchen is one of the important part of the home. The challenge of small space living is to use what you have, but the space. The efficient use of the space is as important as only owning what you need. For instance, when people are sharing the kitchen, there might be a lot of foods and other stuffs for two people, but the problem is without enough space to store all the foods and kitchen utensils; or there might not have enough space for two people to cook together. Sharing spaces is always a challenge in a limited space.

Another issue of sharing the limited space within two people is Privacy; this is also another challenge for the is-sue. Sharing a small space is always hard to provide privacy, especially when one has got a friend come over the place, with increasing numbers of people doing some work in the home, the small space has become more limit and treasurable. At this moment, they want to have more space in a small environment; this becomes a question of flexibility. A unique furniture arrangement is required to offer a storage solution for the sharing of small space in this case.

Anthropology is the science of humanity. Form follows function; a good piece of furniture design should first consider how the design would affect to the user and also should always observe the users before applying any design elements for the design.

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What is Sharing Flat?

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As we know that, due to the increasing of population growth, inflation and increase of living density, has lead to the concentration of development in the city, many of which include tiny one bedroom apartments, and nowadays, most of the people are particularly being attracted to the large apartment development, because everything seems to be easy to access in the city. Therefore, there are many different problems arise when people are

living together and have to share their space with different people. The concentration and the main questions of this project that I’m focusing is: Is it possible if we can provide more

privacy and space for storage when sharing flats?

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current trends

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From my research, I can see there are some current trends of sharing flat. In terms of aging, numbers of professional people in their 20s and 30s who are now sharing. According to BIS Shrapnel’s analysis, the population profile of inner city apartment occupants in Melbourne indicates that the large majority can be divided into three categories. The first one is Students, with the growth mainly coming from overseas stu-dents; the second group is Young professionals, who are typically employed in white collar occupations in the Melbourne CBD fringe locations; the third group is the Empty nesters, such as older singles or couples

without children living in the family home.

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20s and 30s social life

convenience financial concerns

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Definitions on sharing flats key words

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Population growthInflation

SpacePrivacy

Storage

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the result of sharing flat | bad side

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Definitions of flat mates key words

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CommunicationCompanionshipFriendshipConflictStressCulturalFinancial commitments AgreementSeparationResponsibility

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In my opinion, Companionship is one of the major aspects in sharing flat; therefore, I’ve looked into people’s behavior in sharing flats. Research shows that people with similar attitude tend to stick together as interests and hobbies are common, however, everyone has a different behavior and attitude towards different things, therefore, the way a human will behave depends a lot on how they look at the situation and what they expect to gain from it. The other important aspect is the Financial commitments. Sharing the flat is always the best way to lower the living cost. Flat mates needs to negotiate an acceptable way of managing shared financial commitments such as rent payments, electricity bills, telephone accounts including toll calls, international calls and internet costs, renting furniture or acquisition of major items needed in the flat. However, conflicts may arise when there’s one people doesn’t take his/her responsibility on the bills.

Communications is the major aspect in sharing flat, they have to have good communications during the period of living together in the flat, otherwise there will be a torture during the period of time. However, sometimes people have to share the flat with people coming from different countries, so different cultures may act differently. The beliefs of certain culture are taught to children from such a young age that they are greatly affected as they grow up, and also the residents in the flat may have different standards of cleanliness, conflicts may arise again in this situation. Privacy is also a major aspect, living with room mates mean much less privacy than having a residence of one’s own, there-fore, some people will cause a lot of stress and unsecure emotion.

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Companionship

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Commitments

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Emotion

stress

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Communications

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In terms of social life, it is a much better way to make friends when sharing flat, especially for young professionals, a room in a share flat or house can make their urban life feeling less isolated; and peo-ple prefer to live in the city because things seems to be more easily accessible, shops, restaurants, work, school and transportations are all around in the city.

There’s also financial concerns, the high rents which are forcing many more than preciously would have had to have lived together are the direct result of increased demand for rental properties, caused by population growth that has been directly lobbied for by land spectaculators.

During the research, I have looked into what are the things that people would share in the flat. What I found out is pretty much everything. They have to share the kitchen, bathroom, toilet, living room, the shelfs, cutlery, all the kitchen utensils; some of them even have to share their bedroom with friends. This shows they are living in a lack of privacy and lack of space for storage condition space.

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After use

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I have also looked at the after use about the furniture in sharing flat. There are some ways they will take after they move out from the flat. The first way is dis-assemble their furniture, because most of them are IKEA furniture, they could be easily disassembled, this method is easy for transportation; the other way is sale it to their friends or put it online at eBay for peo-

ple who are looking for low cost second hand furniture; they might also just chuck the furniture or donate them to the society; the last method is leave in the flat for the next resident.

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dis-assemble left it in the house

disposal donate sale

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Why Share Flat?

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increasing of population growth, inflation and increase of living density, has lead to the concentration of development in the city

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nowadays, most of the people are particularly being attracted to the large apartment development.the population profile of inner city apartment occupants in Melbourne indicates that one of the large majority

is students, with the growth mainly coming from overseas students.

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student

everything seems to be easy to access in the city.

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Students have to hare the flat to lower the renting cost

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Start to share the flat with friends

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Companionship + Social life

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not enough space for storage

lack of privacy different standards of cleanliness

conflicts arise + arguments

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How to solve the problems?

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As I’ve mention above, they have to share almost everything in the shared flat; some peo-ple may have stress about the lack of storage and privacy. Therefore, I have focused on

these two major problem and came up some of the solutions for the situations.

METHODS AND SOLUTIONS

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PROBEto find out and gain knowledge about something

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“Cabinizer”Cabinet Optimizer

The first solution is about storage. Storage is one of the major problems in sharing flat, and people who are sharing

always don’t have enough room for storage. From the obser-vations I did before, what people doing now are they have to buy extra cabinets, shelves and drawers for storage. There-fore, I have come up an idea to solve this existing problem.

This idea is call “cabinizer”, it is a short form of “cabinet opti-mizer”. It is a cabinet that can store unlimited stuffs. People

can put whatever they want into the cabinizer, and it will nev-er gets full. It is a cabinet that opens up by heat sensor, once

you touch the cabinet, it will opens, once you finish using it, the cabinet will closed automatically.

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“Protective Dome”The second solution is about providing privacy. From the observation I did in the previous task, I can see that privacy is also another major problem that people facing now, especially when friends comes up to the apartment, and they want to have some more privacy, it is always a challenge for them to have more privacy in the such small space, privacy becomes so treasurable for them at this situation. Therefore, the idea to solve this problem is about building a wall in between of the space. The user can just touch the wall, from the point where they want to, after that, there will be a separation built between the spaces, so then they can have more privacy.

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“Multimedia Generator”

The third idea is about noise. Noise is a huge problem for people when his/her flat mate making some noises, no matter what in day time or night time. Sometimes people would have different time of working or study schedules, therefore, some kind of noise may appear and arguments may arise at this situation. The solution to solve this problem is a device call the Multimedia generator; it is a device in hand that will generate the noise into your favor-ite media, music or video clips, you can by tapping the device to turn off the media, or the music will finish by the time the noise disappeared.

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“Interactive Tabletop”

The fourth idea is about maximizing the living space. Sharing the small space is always a challenge for people. Conflicts may arise when two or three people want to use the kitchen at the same time. The solution to solve this problem is an Inter-active tabletop. In this concept, the table could become multifunction, the user can press the button on the table top, the table can then transform into a kitchen table or a study table, so the user can work everywhere in the house, users in the flat can all cook at the same time also don’t have to worry about the limited space.

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“Transformable Space”The fifth idea is a system that can transform the environment in the flat. By touch-ing the light switch on the wall, the room could transform to a bedroom, living room, bathroom or even an outdoor environment. This could bring the nature environment to the flat, increasing the usability for the space and also having less argument be-tween flat mates when sharing the flat. This idea is call the Transformable Space.

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“the instant wall”

The sixth idea is also about Privacy. It’s a concept call the Protective Dome. Privacy is an important aspect and the most treasurable thing in the shar-ing space. People always want their bedroom to be silence and relax after long hours of work. However, sometimes is hard to have this because other flat mates might cause noises next door. This Protective dome is creating an environment for the user which he/she can have their own private moment. A dome shape object will covered the bed, inside the dome is a quite space, there aren’t any noise and have nature sun lights and nature winds in the dome, creating a relaxation environment for the user, a contrast be-tween the outside and inside.

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In conclusion, sharing flat is a not an easy task for most of the people, because sharing the flat may involve many other issues. Sharing flat is a good way for companionship and social life; however, there are also many conflicts and argu-ments may arise during the time of sharing the flat. From the investigations and observations I did, I have now knowing the two major concern of sharing flat, which is storage and privacy. Probe is a process to find out and gain knowledge about the situation. By listing every key aspects and problems of sharing flat and offering different solutions for the situa-tion is an important process in the project.

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INSPIRATION

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5 1 1

My inspiration comes from the concept of the Tangram puzzle. Tangram is a dissection puzzle consists of seven flat shapes (square, trapezium, trian-

gle),which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette)

using all seven pieces. It was originally invented in China at some unknown point in history, and then carried over to Europe by trading ships in the early 19th century.

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concepts + development

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CHOSEN CONCEPT

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developments

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material directions

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Material is a very important objective. In the situation of the students sharing the small city apartment, there are some of the material selections will be needed, which is low cost, lightweight, eco/sustainable, durable, life spam and also it needs to be weather resistance. In my research and observations, I found out that most of the furniture from IKEA is made from chipboard. Chipboard is a gluing together wood particle with an ad-hesive, under heat and pressure makes chipboard. This creates a rigid board with a relatively smooth surface. It is low cost and often used for kitchen tops and fire doors, however, the disadvantage of using chipboard is all grades of chipboard except the high density variety tend to soak up water. Once it is water logged, chip-board tends to swell and breakdown.

I think that Plywood is one of the ideal materials in this case; this is because plywood is a manufactured wood panel made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-useable and can usually be locally manufactured. Plywood is used instead of plain wood because of its resistance to cracking, shrinkage, splitting and twisting, and its general high degree of strength.

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Teak

Chipboard

Plywood

Oak

Fibreglass

Stainless SteelAluminium

ABS

Hard & StrongDurableDoes not corrode steel

ExpensiveHigh resistance to moisture

Smooth surfaceLow cost

Once it is water logged, it tends to swell and breakdown

InexpensiveRe-usable

Less weather resistance(compare to other timber)

Smooth finishesLight weight

High costHard to operate

Good corrosion resistanceEase of fabricationTough

Moderate to High cost

Light weightGood corrosion resistance

Soft (compare with other metal)Moderate to High cost

Rigid, Tough & DurableEase of fabrication

High cost (compare with other plastic)Limited weather reisitance

Strong & DurableNice finishes

HeavyHigh costCorrosive towards metal

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1:1 MOCK UP

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1:5 MOCK UP

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Pin is a modular style furniture that was design in a constantly devel-oping populated cities. It provides storage, privacy and space for the users. Nowadays, most of the people are particularly being attracted to the large apartment development, because everything seems to be easy to access in the city.

My inspiration comes from the concept of the Tangram puzzle. Tan-gram is a dissection puzzle consists of seven pieces, 3 different shapes (square, trapezium, triangle), which are put together to form shapes. By assimilating the similar concept, Pin, which goes together, comes apart, works together, and works apart. It flips, turns and sits in a number of ways. It’s a system of object that suits any usage in the apartment.

品 is the Chinese word for Pin, the reason why I named it Pin is be-cause this Chinese word consists the meaning of quality and the sense of taste. “Simplicity and Functionality” is one of Pin’s credo verses. Pin aims to fulfill the different demands of students who are living in a small sharing environment. It is a smart object with number of functions for the users. With light-weight material and compact size, Pin is easy to move around within the apartment and also convenient while they are moving out. It is an ideal furniture design for the high-density living environment around the globe.

Pin.品

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Semester 1 summary

Size of the furniture is not suitable for the apartment living space

The foldable and flipping concept is not bad, but it doesn’t follow the Tangram concept, which the users can move it around in their own compositions

Should be following the Tangram Concept in some way

Consider the material of the furniture, since it’s a modular furniture, so it should avoid using heavy materials

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DESIgN STAgE III

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FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

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AIM

Furniture should have reasonable size for the limited space Each piece should have its functions

Cost of transportationLightweight

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SKETCHES

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MOCK UPS

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AnthropometricTo make sure the height and other dimensions of the design is correct, I start to look at Human Anthropometrics.

Anthropometric Dimensional Data for American Male

Anthropometric Dimensional Data for American Female

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AnthropometricBody Size of aJapanese Female for Year 2000 in One gravity Conditions

Body Size of aJapanese Male for Year 2000 in One gravity Conditions

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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENTS

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Materials

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Materials Exploration

12 mm Birch Plywood

Birch is a strong wood but it might

be too thin and too weak for making

tables

Beech plywood with 18mm thick is strong enough for

making tables

Pine wood is light-weight, but too soft, it will be too weak

for tables

This is a new type of material, its light-weight with wood

finishes on top, but its not strong as

solid wood or plywood

gaboon is a red wood but its not strong as beech

wood or birch wood

12 mm Gaboon Plywood

40 mm X-board Plus

25 mm Solid Pine wood

18 mm Beech Plywood

144

Beech Wood

Beech is very hard and tough. It is also strong, with a close straight grain. Beech polishes well and withstands shocks and wear. Beech wood furniture is a popular choice for many kinds of chairs, tables and other indoor or outdoor furnishings.

- Easily Worked Wood- Clean Wood Presentation- Durability- Shock Absorbent

Beech wood grain145

1:1 Cardboard model

After making the 1 to 1 cardboard model, I then realised there are some problems exiting for this design. One of the problems is the size of the design, the storage com-ponent of the furniture is too small.

The second problem of the design is the corner and the edges are twisted, it may be difficult to manufacture, and the edges might be too sharp since the current degree angle is 60. I should change and develop some of the parts in the next stage.

146

Testing 12mm thick Beech plywood 1:1 scale models

147

What I’ve learnt after making the first 1:1 mock ups:

I’ve made the table and the storage component of the design for my first experiment. After making these 1:1 actual material mock-ups, I realized there are actually some problems in my design.

The problem was the edges of the trapezium is too sharp, the degree angle was 60 degrees; it might be dangerous and hurting people’s lap easily; the height of the table part was too high, its 500mm height, when people are sitting on it, its ergonomically unbalance for the average sitting. 12mm thick plywood was the material for my first model, although it’s thin, which eliminates the material use and lightweight for the de-sign, but the problem of this it’s not strong enough and the table is easily to shake. Therefore I have to fix the height and the sharp edges for the next development.

148

Testing 18mm thick Beech plywood 1:1 scale models

150

What I’ve learnt after making the second 1:1 mock ups:

After knowing the problems of the first prototype, I start to make changes and refinements for my second attempt. I changed the material from 12mm thick beech plywood to 18mm thick; I also changed the form of the design so the tables are easier to pack in a rectangular shape; I also changed some of the dimensions of the design, the height of the table is 400mm so its ergonomically fits the user when they are sitting on the tables, or working with the tables when they are sitting on the ground. The degree angle of the trapezium also changed from 60 degrees to 70 degree, so the edges of the tables are not so sharp as before.

152

Trying Different Joinery Methods

Dowel Joint

Glue Joint

Butt Joint

Knock down fittings

153

Dowel Joint Glue Joint Butt Joint Knock down fittings

Neat strong jointSimple joinery

quick and easy to makeDrilling accurate holes are difficult

provide decent durabilitySimple joinery

helpful in projects that require uniform appearance

Smaller packages (Flat pack) to distribute

requires a less skilled workforce to manufacture

You can ‘knock down’ the furniture so when you move

Takes a long time to dryNot strong enough

Possible to shake after a period of time

154

Lacquer Finishing

Durable Water-resistant clear finishKeeps the wood grainFastest-drying

155

Making The Actual Model

159

Materials cut in pieces

The Making Process

160

The Making Process

Mitre Joint with Biscuits

161

The Making Process

After Sanding the woodSpraying 4 layers of

Shellac coating on the surface for the

furniture finishing

Allows one day to dry

162

The Making Process

Using the stitching method to make a cushion cover

163

Testing The Actual Model

167

All of the pieces can be move around so the users can rearrange their own composition

168

Each pieces can be use in different functions - working desk, seat, or storage

169

Sliding - all of the pieces can be slide in and out

170

380mm

100mm

172

380mm

500mm

1200mm

174

Mitre Joint with Biscuits

175

Tan can be use between 2 - 3 people

Studygames games

178

CONCLUSION

184

Throughout the year, I have gained so much new knowledge and skills from this Industrial design major project. From the different submissions, presentations and tasks, I learnt how communication is important to a designer. Communication doesn’t mean only for speaking, it also means commu-nications through graphics. Sketching is one of the important communication skill for a designer, it helps me develops my first and basic concepts in the first stage of the design, throughout the whole design process, sketching is one of the most important process for me in this project.

My design was developed into this stage based on the different explorations and researches. Throughout the long explorations and researches along the process, I have worked in different perspectives and areas to improve my design, all of the challenges, which I encountered during the process, have developed my strength in different aspects. I have gained more material knowledge in design. The final material of my design was Beech wood, during the material picking design process, I have looked at so many different materials, I have to research all of their weakness and strength, plus working with the real material to test out the result of the different materials.

Making different mock up models along the different design stage, it’s a great way to help me to pick the good and bad points of the concept. Especially for the 1 : 1 scale models, they clearly shows the weak and strong side of the design which led me to improves my next design.

Due to the time constrains, I can only come up one design solution, if I could have more time, I will improve some of the dimensions of the design, and also making this design piece into a different ma-terial, so the design can be lighter in weight, so people can move around the apartment more easily.

In conclusion, I think this is a very good experience of working on a project that I am really interested in, and I really enjoyed exploring different possibilities and multiple design solutions for the challeng-es throughout this yearlong project.

186

APPENDIX

188

Dimension of the first concept

189

1300 300

25

300

600

1000

300

TOP

SIDEFRONT

ASSEMBLY

45°

135°

300

90°

60° 20

260

300

20

300

TOP

SIDEFRONT PART 1

190

320

10 2

0 3

00

90°

320

300

300

20

150

15

300

TOP

SIDEFRONT

PART 2 3

20

R5 R10

R10

260

300

150

15

150

15

300

TOP

SIDEFRONT

PART 3

191

10

15

R8

150

15

30

TOP

SIDEFRONT

PART 4

10

300

10

SIDEFRONT

PART 5

192

20

220

20

SIDEFRONT

PART 6

1300 R10

300

1000

45°

135°

300

325

TOP

SIDEFRONT

PART 7

193

325

25

1300

1000

300

R10

TOP

SIDEFRONT

PART 8

45°

135°

300

90°

425

300

10

20

280

150

15

320

TOP

SIDEFRONT

PART 9

194

Dimension of the final design

195

600

340

Hollow

492

492

600

600

70°

70°

768

462

340

462

Front

Side

Hollow

Top

Trapezium -StorageQuantity: 1

Mitre Joint with biscuits

196

340

Empty space

492

600

632

47°

70°

63°

Top

SideFront

340

Triangle StorageQuantity: 2

197

600

380

HollowNo base

600

70°

600

70°

500

532

532

782

380

500

Top

FrontSide

HollowNo base

Trapezium TableQuantity: 2

Mitre Joint with biscuits

198

BIBLIOGRAPHY

199

w

WebsitesBooks

http://www.bis.com.au/http://msis.jsc.nasa.gov/sections/section03.htmhttp://www.eclipseseating.com.au/ergonom-ics-designhttp://www.reinierdejong.com/2011/03/rek-bookcase-3/http://www.hometone.com/folding-furni-ture-practical-versatile-space-efficient.htmlhttp://www.english.imjnet.org.il/pop-up?c0=13357http://www.moma.org/collec-tion/browse_results.php?crite-ria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A24697&page_num-ber=1&template_id=1&sort_order=1http://blog.id.com.au/2011/australian-demo-graphic-trends/inner-city-apartments-housing-trends/http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/city-apart-ment-frenzy-20121230-2c1hm.htmlhttp://www.yourinvestmentpropertymag.com.au/article/melbourne-apartments-predict-ed-to-be-oversupplied-129619.aspxhttp://www.hirakoso.jp/category/furniture/http://chinesepuzzles.org/burr-puzzles/http://www.archsynth.com/copenhagenpluso-rminus/2010/1/11/tangram-architecture.htmlhttp://www.foamonline.com/types.php?car-tID=c1b5e3eb832637baf8a28253af55a770http://www.logicville.com/tangram.htmhttp://library.thinkquest.org/J002441F/tan-grams.htmhttp://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Tangram.htmlhttps://archive.org/details/gruen010

Yangjun, P. & Jiaojiao, C. (2007)Muji. Singaore: PageOne publishing

Julius, P. & Martin Z. (1979). Human Dimension & Interior Space. USA: The Architectural Press Ltd.

Alvin, R. (1993).The Measure of Man & Woman.New York: John Wiley & Sons

Rob, T. (2007).Manufacturing Process for Design Professionals. UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd

Alastair, F. (2002).The eco-design handbook.London: Thames & Hudson Ltd

Naoto, F. (2007).Naoto Fukasawa. New York: Phaidon Press Limited

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Wendy Minyu Wen

wendy minyu wen - dvr - tan

Documents

living space

inner city apartments

melbourne city

sharing space

different apartments

different people

living density

bedroom apartments