Interactive seating – A course on design innovation
BCNM’s own Greg Niemeyer (Art Practice) and Björn Hartmann (Computer Science) co-designed DES INV 190 alongside Bob Full (CiBER), an innovate course combining the significance of functionality with new media in interactive seating, which was held throughout Spring 2015. What started as a course led to nationwide recognition!
The CITRIS Invention Lab is practically the home of contemporary innovation at Berkeley. Mid-May, deep into the night, students in DES INV 190 toil away – sanding, finishing, and troubleshooting for their final presentations on interactive seating, ready to be displayed in Blum Hall’s ground floor. Chair design is a staple assignment for architecture students, but in a time where a chair serves more purpose than a seat, new media and innovative design become heavily involved. Important issues considered in the making of these chairs for the competition were socialization, comfortability, avoiding health implications, and extra functionality (ex. energy harvesting), to name a few.
Though presentations are long done by the end of the semester, they were just about to start all the way across the nation in Washington, D.C., where the winning team showcased their chair at the National Maker Faire!
Read more on the how a course grew to nationwide recognition in this Berkeley Engineering profile!