Social Media by Design: A Q&A with Architect Lira Luis

The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) hosted its 15th Industry Roundtable from January 6 to 8, in part exploring social media’s role as it affects designers, architects, and manufacturers from some of the most present brands in the design community. Although a White Paper on the event won’t be available until next month, Contract had the chance to speak with Lira Luis, one of the panel speakers at the two-part discussion “Work: Who, Where, How. The Intersection of Culture, Workplace, and Social Media,” that looked at how social media is changing the way the A&D industry conducts business.


How has social media changed your definition of “work”?

Lira Luis: Social media—whether I’m designing a core and shell building or an interior space—has enhanced my work as an architect; I see it as a tool. For example, in a recent restaurant project, I was in search of consultants to work with, so I reached out to people in my social media network for recommendations, particularly on LinkedIn. I also ask colleagues about their experiences with specific manufacturers when searching for products to specify.

How has it changed your work environment?

Luis: The work environment has become more and more collaborative. The experience of one colleague becomes the shared experience of others in the profession from which we can all learn.

Has social media changed how you relate to clients? Manufacturers? Brands?

Luis: Yes. What I normally look for when I select products/manufacturers, aside from quality, are experiences dealing with them. I ask questions like, “Will this manufacturer help make it easier to accomplish the design objective?” Or “Will this manufacturer or brand cause delays on the project?” Then I look to SoMe [social media] for those kinds of experiences to be translated, like how responsive they would be to my questions [from their level of interaction].

As far as clients, or potential ones, I find that if you add value to connecting, more often than not it results in project leads. Sometimes it may not be directly with the person, but it will be someone from his or her own network. It's like the online version of word-of-mouth marketing.

Has it solved design-related problems you had experienced in the past?

Luis: It doesn't directly solve design related problems, but it does add another platform to make communication lines accessible to everyone in a project team.

Has social media created any problems in your work?

Luis: While SoMe has enabled the ability to constantly be in touch with others more than ever, this has become a double-edged sword. I find that if we rely solely on this type of platform for communication where body language is absent, it can lead to miscommunication.

Do you have any advice for designers looking to use social media to their advantage?

Luis: It can be a very useful tool for designers or it can be a tool for wasting a lot of time. Knowing what you want to get out of social media from the beginning is key.

Lira Luis, AIA, RIBA, NCARB, UAP, LEED AP BD+C, is a global American architect specializing in organic architecture and is the founder of Atelier Lira Luis, LLC. To learn more about her work visit liraluis.com.

Student Hubs: The New Campus Hot Spot

 
By Jeff Vredevoogd

As summer turns to fall, schools everywhere are preparing for a flood of students, and this year’s incoming class may be more connected than ever before. Yet while technology continues to support the ongoing evolution in teaching and learning, research shows there’s no substitute for direct face-to-face collaboration. This need for constant collaboration and connection is driving the emergence of a new type of learning space across college campuses—“hub zones” that offer a place for students to meet, gather, and work together.

Students look for spaces that help them connect with others before, during and after class. But what makes a hub hubbable? How much campus space should be dedicated to these zones? How can college administrators support the design of these spaces?

A survey of higher education facility planners, architects, and designers, Hub Life: Insights that Shape Campus Spaces. Simultaneously, we gathered insights from students–-primary users of hub spaces on campus-–inviting them to highlight their hubs in a short video contest submission. The results reveal some interesting touch points about hub zones:
 
• They enable teamwork. More than 70 percent of respondents identify collaboration as the primary benefit of hub zone learning. It may seem obvious that people depend on hubs when they need to hold team sessions, work on group projects, and meet with others.

• Technology is top priority. Nearly half of respondents note technological capability (WiFi and electric power) as being important to hub design and layout. Technology needs to be there as an enabler–like a sail on a boat rather than the anchor tying the user to one place.

• Accessibility is key. On average, up to 30 percent of space in student buildings, residence halls and libraries is allocated for hub zone use. As you walk a facility, you quickly see examples of hub spaces, even in areas you didn’t expect.

• Design to adapt. Flexibility is the number one trend in hub zone furnishings, including ease of maneuverability and white board access. At the same time, adaptive spaces are multi-use spaces, with elements that don’t always include casters.

• Size matters. The majority of respondents say zones should be designed for less than 10 people. Most facilities have more dedicated spaces (classrooms, conference rooms, etc.). Hub zones fall everywhere else. They are the places where planned or unplanned activities take place.
 
These results reinforce something we all know—a college campus is a dynamic, humming, communal place. Successful learning spaces, including hub zones, encourage engagement, which drives deeper levels of learning. The design and planning that goes into hub creation reinforces the diverse learning styles, design requirements and activities that these hubs support. 
 
To learn more about hub zone design and the research survey, contact herman_miller_education@hermanmiller.com.
 
As director of Herman Miller Education, Jeff Vredevoogd leads the effort to expand the understanding of evolving learning trends and the impacts on higher education environments. With more than 25 years experience in the commercial furniture industry, Jeff partners with higher education leadership to develop spaces that have a positive impact on teaching and learning. He is a member of Educause, the Society for College and University Planning, and Acuho-i.

Designing for Digital Retail Engagement: Thirteen Tried-and-True Technologies

These 13 tried-and-true technologies, compiled by our sister publication DDI, are changing the game for the in-store experience:

 
At a busy train station in Tokyo, drinks supplier JR East Water launched the aCure touchscreen vending machine, which uses an embedded camera and face-recognition technology to determine the age and gender of each user, and recommend soft drinks based on his or her profile. This concept could be easily adapted for use in-store, offering product suggestions within a supermarket or even a fashion boutique.

 
U.S. fashion brand WE has introduced a Twitter Mirror within dressing rooms, enabling patrons to take a photo of themselves modeling a garment and upload it to Twitter. Meanwhile, a touchscreen scanner displays information about the in-store and online availability of different sizes and colors, while an additional screen can be used to browse WE's e-commerce site, make purchases and arrange home delivery. (Credit: Photo courtesy of RVDA)

 
In Spain, Diesel is using interactive installations in its dressing rooms, where shoppers can log onto their Facebook account through a Facebook Connect app and publish images of themselves trying on new outfits. These can then, of course, be commented on by friends.

 
At its Inspirience Centre in The Netherlands, domestic appliance brand Miele gives its visitors use of an iPod Touch to help them navigate the space. Customers register online in advance to make an appointment with a product advisor. In the Inspirience Centre, a GPS-enabled iPod Touch—preprogrammed to the user’s requirements—guides them around the store to items of interest and automatically triggers relevant products to appear on high-definition screens. It also causes their preferred scents and sounds to be emitted as they enter a new zone. The system also provides valuable shopper information by monitoring visitor routes, hotpots and dwell time.

 
Aiming to provide some distraction for young minds is the dual-screen billboard by Ford in the United Kingdom. The billboard had one screen for adults, which played an interactive video of a new car model, and a lower-placed one that provided puzzles and games for children. In total, 11 screens were installed at airports and retail centers nationwide, each generating more than 20,000 interactions over a two-week period.

 
Adding vitality to a somewhat ordinary product, home fragrance brand Ambi Pur installed interactive demo booths at retail centers across Spain to promote its new 3volution range. Customers could hold one of the products in front of the screen to trigger an augmented reality (AR) visual depicting scenes related to the fragrance, which was accompanied by scents emitted from the booth.

>> View the rest at DDI

What is your take on incorporating technology into retail design? Is it the way of the future, or a shortcut to real customer engagement? Share your thoughts with us below in the comments.

Have an iPad? There’s a Design App for That!

 By Douglas Wittnebel,  AIA,  LEED AP, Principal, Gensler

I have always been a sketchbook architect and artist. As such, I have been documenting my excursions to places around the world in journals, moleskins, sketch tablets, and even on napkins. But more recently, these more traditional surfaces for my scrawling have given way to a new tool in my arsenal--selected digital experiments with the iPad.

The daily tasks of the architect and designer in today’s business environment include the creation and development of ideas, as well as finding new ways to illustrate and capture that process of creation.  As an architect and an artist, I dedicate time and effort to keep up-to-date with these new innovations that have been released to the public, and I was fortunate earlier this year to gain access to an iPad. It since has become a daily (and nightly) companion on my journey to experiment with the wonderful range of applications for drawing, sketching, and designing on a digital tablet format.

I am finding that new avenues of opportunity come with the ability to create a mixture of digital drawings and migrating these drawing stages from one app to the next.  The top seven apps that I currently am testing and using for drawing, sketching, and creating are:

 
1. Brushes  - features a versatile app and (best of all) the actions will playback all of the brushstroke sequences. It's a delight to the eye, and to the client, when viewing on the iPad or on the big screen.

2. Inspirepro - is a kind of a quirky brushstroke app that has its own signature style. It's good for quick sketches and expressive gesture captures.

 
3. Artstudio - is a versatile range of tools and layering menus gives the designer a lot to work with and a lot of possibilities for exploring new styles.

4. Doddlebuddy -  has a simple, easy-to-use interface with a quick response time. It's very intuitive to use. Start with this one and you will move on to more apps.

5. Inkpad - is a big favorite for those Illustrator fans and devotees (like myself), and allows the user to create wonderfully flat and crisp shapes and forms with overlapping layers.

 
6. Artrage - offers a remarkable range of brushes and textures, and provides the closest likeness to a “real” palette knife approach in applying liquid media to a canvas. It's a visual delight. http://www.artrage.com/

 
7. Sketchbook pro - is advanced and versatile, holding lots of promise. It hints that more will be coming soon. I can spend hours developing design ideas with this application.

When you put the time and energy into exploring these and other apps, you come to realize the real “virtual” scenario is a mobile digital sketchbook, allowing the architect, designer, and artist to create in new and wonderful spaces and times.

While it is impossible to predict what will happen next on this creative journey, I for one am looking forward to these new tablet formats and applications that will extend the mixture of analog and digital drawing and painting. 

 

Douglas Wittnebel,  AIA,  LEED AP, is a principal for Gensler, based in San Ramon, Calif. His sketches and drawings can be viewed on his blog at http://www.drawingontheworld.blogspot.com/.

Books for Thought and Design Inspiration

Looking for some reading material to get your gears turning and stave off springtime daydreaming at work? Then check out a new Web site, Designers & Books (http://www.designersandbooks.com/), that I was privvy to receive an announcement about.

The site offers a growing resource of book titles and essays from famed designers to inspire and keep A&D professionals on top of their game. The site also features a commentators section, complete with essays and book lists by well-known curators and critics. New books and lists are added every week (on Tuesdays), such as today’s installment entitled "Books Every Architect Should Read: Seeing Things as You Have Never Seen Them Before,” by New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger.

Other contributors include: Shigeru Ban, Michael Bierut, Tim Brown, Norman Foster, Milton Glaser, Jessica Helfand, Steven Holl, George Lois, Stefan Sagmeister, John Maeda, Isaac Mizrahi, Massimo Vignelli, Eva Zeisel, and more; while book subjects range from classic texts, such as Complexity & Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi (which is cited on the most must-read lists), to literary works, such as Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace.

What are some of your favorite go-to reads and staple references that your fellow designers should scour through? Share them here with us.

--Stacy Straczynski

Re-Thinking the Center Store Design

Grocery retailers unite! Store perimeters have gotten, well, just pretty dang awesome in recent years. I'm all for the expanded bakery sections (with my bonafide sweet tooth) and adding banks and health services to the store perimeter (Eyeglass fittings at Walmart? Check.), but I'm still looking to our design brethren to make the center store a bit more, well, less monotonous.

While perimeter sales are booming, center-store sales actually have declined on a same-store basis. And I'm not entirely surprised. Let's face it. Center store is kinda boring. How are canned veggies supposed to compete with beautifully illuminated, artfully displayed heads of broccoli and craftily merchandised bunches of carrots? Today's fickle shoppers "get in, get out, and get on" with their lives (thank you Chili's for the appropriate tagline) and the poor center store simply is not growing at the rate of the ever-exciting perimeter. Whatever are grocery retailers to do?

HELPFUL TIP ALERT!! Nielsen (our parent company....Thanks, Dad!) has just unveiled a Webinar that shares strategies and views on how best to leverage in-store innovation to generate more desirable shopper behavior, such as more frequent store visits, larger basket rings, or greater customer loyalty. It's turnign design into dollars, which to me equals "pretty cool" on my rank-o-meter. Take a listen and let us know what you think. What's in store for your clients' center store?

--DDI, sister publication to Contract

(Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/Suprijono Suharjoto)

Designing Back to the Future: 2011 WT Awards

Design is always evolving, and while the latest Salone Internazionale del Mobile, which ran from April 12 – 17 in Milan, may have come to close this weekend, it’s no question that the designs presented at the 2011 WT Award exhibit at the exhibition’s Well-Tech Observatory pavilion will continue to inspire.

Now in it’s 11th year, the program presented to Salone attendees 60 design innovations that address the values of innovation, accessibility, sustainability, and quality of life. Nine winners in total were chosen across the range of categories, but here are a couple of the designs that directly apply to architecture and interior design:

 
"Masdar City, the Oasis of the Future,” a planned underground city in Abu-Dhabi, designed by LAVA, will rely solely on solar and wind energy. The town will occupy 6 sq. km. (20,000 ft. sq.) of space and offer a system of shuttle stations and tracks, in light of cars, for a zero carbon transportation system, as well as house 50,000 people, 1500 businesses, and the new Masdar Institute of Science and Technology University. http://www.l-a-v-a.net/

 
Designed by Tarta, this ergonomic backrest is lightweight, flexible, and elastic but also compact and durable. The modular dish style of the design allows for a custom build and individual fit that can improve the posture of users, from disabled people in wheelchairs to office workers. The system is convenient for application in lounge, sofa, or armchair seating, as well. http://www.tartadesign.it/

But why stop there? View all the 2011 WT Award winners and entrants at the WT Awards Web site. Some of the other entrants you may like to check out include:

 
Combining technology with sleek design, Heimdall presents a new outdoor speaker system. The luminous and wireless design is freestanding and solar-powered, with an operable remote transmitter control that can be synced to Smartphones and laptops. The aesthetic cylinder can be made from an assortment of materials—including resin, marble, wood—and features a touch screen. http://www.heimdall.it/

 
The new Energy-Photovoltaic Walkable Pavement from Onyx Solar is comprised of photovoltaic glass ceramic is integrated into the floor. The innovative product, which stores solar energy to be used inside nearby buildings, is pressure-resistant to weathering and performs like a normal floor tile. http://www.onyxsolar.com/

 
The Revolution Door by Fluxxlab modifies the traditional revolving door. Consisting of three main elements—an central pivot (that can replace each new or already installed port), a mechanical/electrical system to collect the rotary kinetic energy, and an electrical energy device that displays the amount of energy generated. http://www.fluxxlab.com/

What are your favorite design innovations? Share your thought with us in the comments below.

 --Stacy Straczynski

Mocked It for Mockett

 
Sometimes it’s truly the little things that pack the biggest punch, especially when it comes to designs that simplify. Doug Mockett & Company, Inc. recently announced the winners of its 25th annual Doug Mockett & Company Design Contest, which calls upon designers to create unique and innovative ideas for furniture parts, components, accessories, and hardware and compete for an unlimited number of First Place prizes.
 
This year, four winners were chosen (all were from the United States) and each will receive a $1000 cash prize, an engraved achievement trophy, and a royalty based on sales:

 
Rick Poliquin of Henderson, NV, for a unique purse hook design, to hang a purse or computer bag under a desk or restaurant counter.

 

Eric Coursey of Skandia, MI, for “Node”, a wire manager that gathers multiple wires at a central point and gently curves them around the edge of a desk.

 
Saruul Herz of New York, NY, for “Polished Balance,” a new approach to table leg design, where the legs bend inwards.

 
Mark Zack of Hillsborough, NC, for a series of metal wire managers that can easily be placed or moved on a desk or work surface, as needed.

Entries are now open for the 2011 Competition. Designers can send their entries via Registered Return Receipt or FEDEX to: Contest Administrator, Doug Mockett & Company, Inc., P.O. Box 3333, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, or via email to contest@mockett.com. For more information, call (310) 318-2491 and ask for the Contest Administrator. Deadline is September 6, 2011.

--Stacy Straczynski

Design Bloggers Unite!

Blogging and social media finally is catching on among the design industry--and the news of the first new media event exclusively for interior design bloggers is proof. The first Design Bloggers Conference (Twitter: #DBC2011) will be held on February 28 - March 1 at the Sofitel L.A. in Los Angeles, hosted by Internet marketing service, DesignSherpa, and aims to bring together top influential designers and design media.

Attendees will  benefit from insight into key strategies in blogging, online brand development, design media, and new media tools. Additionally, winners of the “How Blogging Has Changed My Life” social media contest will be announced. 

“Increasingly, interior design professionals and enthusiasts are recognizing the power of blogging and social media tools to build engaged online communities and personal brands that are driving meaningful public personas and significant marketing outcomes,” says Adam Japko, president of Network Communication Inc.’s Design and DigitalSherpa division, in a statement. “So we organized a first-of-its-kind event specifically for this group, with the vision to assemble today’s top minds and thought leaders and to create a networking and learning opportunity for engaged online interior design content creators.” 

More information is available at http://design-bloggers-conference.com. 

Winter Blues: How Are Those New Year Design Inspirations Coming?

Well, we’re quickly moving into the New Year (which I believe is meant to be synonymous with resolutions, diet fads, “what’s going to be hot” lists, and a whole lot of get up and go)! It sure is invigorating, but when you live in a city where winter is characterized by sub-zero temperatures and buckets of snow, as I do here in Chicago, you may just feel like hibernating.

In an effort to rectify those dreary, and less-than-inspired desires, I thought I’d offer up a few of my go-to sources (listed alphabetically) for keeping my mind alert and my design juices flowing, The best part? They’re only a point and click away.

3rings
An extension of the A+D search platform Designer Pages, 3ring provides daily reviews on the newest and trendiest products in the design world. Follow @designerpages (http://twitter.com/#!/designerpages).

Imprint
As Print Magazine’s design blog, Imprint functions as my daily reminder to continue developing a graphic language in my sketch book, and it extends my view of the design world beyond the built environment. Follow @Printmag (http://twitter.com/#!/printmag).

IIDA_HQ
This is my absolute favorite twitter feed related to the A+D Industry. The feed sends out any and all relevant information pertaining to industry events and trends, plus it feels fun and personal. Follow @IIDA_HQ (http://twitter.com/#!/IIDA_HQ)

BMD Love Blog
From the collaborative studio of Bruce Mau Design, this very fun TumblR page is filled with links, pictures, quotes, and videos that never fail to make me smile. Follow @brucemaudesign (http://twitter.com/#!/brucemaudesign).

 

 

What Web sites, tweets, feeds, and blogs provide you with daily design inspiration? What makes them so special for you? Share the with me in the comments below!

--Brittany Hahn

Contract magazine is proud to announce a blog installation from one of three guest design student bloggers. Lisa Backus, Brittany Hahn, and La Keisha Leek regularly will be writing and sharing their design experiences at TalkContract for the next year. Check back often to see what's the buzz among the next generation of designers, and be sure to share with them your feedback and design advice by commenting below.