Industrial Design Exhibition

The industrial design department from Carleton will be hosting their 33rd Industrial Design Graduation Exhibition from Saturday, April 16 to Tuesday, April 19, 10 AM to 5 PM.

The exhibition will showcase projects centered around six different topics : Mobile Life, Firetactics, Adaptive Sports, Connected, Lota Renovation and Workspace Next.

• Mobile life : new product opportunities under the theme of travel and communication
  
  
• Firetactics: products to support firefighters


• Adaptive sports: new products that will increase the participation of individuals with specific disabilities, enabling an athletic life style.
  
  
• Connected : products to connect remote populations to meaningful opportunities through the use of technology.
  
  
• Lota renovation : practical solutions for the revitalization of the town of Lota, Chile.
  
  
• Workspace next : investigation of the impact of the mobile worker and its effect in changing the office environment.

For more information, check out IDES Graduates 2011

images : Industrial Design Carleton

Getting the community to express itself

Every so often, I come across a inspiring project that makes me think "It would be so cool to have this in Ottawa!". This is one of them. Candy Chang who's a public installation artist amongst many other things, created this really neat project where she painted an abandoned house with chalkboard paint, encouraging locals to write what they would like to do before they die.

For some reason, I find this to be a very positive way to bring people together and share what's really important to them. This could brighten up someone's day, enable someone to express themselves, sharing dreams and aspirations with total strangers, or simply make people laugh. It's interesting to see what people write and it looks like this project was a success. Wouldn't it be great if we had something similar in Ottawa. Although I think ours we should say "Ottawa could use more _______". I wonder what people would say.




Cindy's project took place in New Orleans. You can see more of her photos here.

Photos : Candy Chang

Miele official launch in Ottawa

Miele recently opened a new showroom on Bank street and had an official grand opening event this week. I got a chance to go and check out their sleek modern German appliances and try some of the excellent food prepared for the occasion. Love it!



Called Miele Gallery on Bank, it is "the first free-standing, independently owned appliance store in Ottawa that exclusively sells Miele appliances". I'm pretty sure it will make a lot of designers, decorators and design savvy people very happy. Even the inside of the fridges were staged!




I'm always happy to see places like these open in the city. I think and hope it is the first of many hip businesses to set root in this area of the city. Add to that several new modern condos being built in the same area, it is bound to become one of the hippest places in Ottawa. I sure hope so. In the mean time if you're in the area, you might want to go check it out on Saturday as there should be more cooking demonstrations sometime between 9:30 am and 5:00 pm.

Photos : MOOT