Designer : Johanna Schoemaker

From the website:
Bushbunker represents a concept that has been designed from scratch specifically as a bushfire bunker, and comprehensively engineered to withstand the severe environmental conditions that a major bushfire produces. It has been designed for maximum survivor ability no matter the intensity or type of fire.

A series of two fire doors is used to separate the entrance/storage area from the bunkers main interior to provide a fail safe, and to create an air lock which protects against the infiltration of radiant heat through the first steel fire door. This is an extremely important design feature, as some of the most severe burns to Black Saturday fire survivors were caused by radiant heat.

To outfit the interior, the design makes use of standard off the shelf components such as steel fire doors, steel frames and sealing, bench seating, compressed air cylinders, battery powered electric lighting, storage shelving, water drums, UHF radio and EPIRB, and fire blankets and first aid. This in turn allows for flexibility in the design, and reduces costs.

The Bushbunker has been designed to comfortably accommodate up to 6 adults for an extended period when equipped with compressed air cylinders. These air cylinders also have the additional feature of providing a positive internal air pressure inside the bunker making it impossible for noxious and poisonous outside gasses and smoke to enter.

Hanging above each seating area is a series of refillable standard 20 Litre water containers which provide a gravity fed source of clean water for drinking, cooling and first aid purposes.

Due to its standardized size and modular construction, and depending on the site conditions of a home, the Bushbunker can be specially incorporated into the structure of a house or home, free standing, set into an embankment or partially or totally buried underground.

From : Bushbunker

[Press Release]

MIT unveils EyeStop: an iPhone‐like interactive bus stop for the City of Florence

May 14, 2009. MIT architects and engineers have unveiled EyeStop, an interactive bus stop designed for the city of Florence. On Saturday 16 May the project will be presented officially at the Genio Fiorentino by the President of the Province of Florence Matteo Renzi (dubbed ‘The Italian Obama’ by TIME Magazine).

EyeStop, developed by MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, is an exploration into the next generation of smart urban furniture; it aims to enrich the city with state of the art sensing technologies, interactive services, community information and entertainment. The project is partially covered with touch sensitive e‐INK and screens, so that it can deliver information to people seamlessly. Users can plan a bus trip on an interactive map, exchange community‐relevant information on a digital message board, surf the web, monitor their real time exposure to pollutants and use their mobile devices as an interface with the bus shelter. “Interacting with EyeStop could change the access to urban information in a similar way to how the iPhone has changed our mobile life” commented Carlo Ratti, Head of the SENSEable City Lab at MIT.

At the touch of a finger users can indicate their desired destination; the system will then display the shortest bus route from where they are and the position of all relevant buses real‐time. The EyeStop will glow at different levels of intensity to signal the distance of an approaching bus. Riders and passers‐by can also post ads and community announcements to an electronic bulletin board placed on the bus stop, enhancing its functionality as a public space ‐ a place to gather and exchange community relevant information.

In addition to displaying information, the bus stop also acts as an active environmental sensing node, powering itself through sunlight and collecting real time information about air quality and the urban environment. “EyeStop is an experiment into urban computing: it may be considered an “info‐tape” that snakes through the city, rising up like a pole or cropping out of the sidewalk like a shelter. It senses information about the environment and distributes it in a form accessible to all citizens” – commented project leader Giovanni de Niederhousern.

A generative parametric model produces a unique design for each bus stop, providing both optimal sheltering for users and maximum sunlight exposure for direct photovoltaic powering. Unlike the typical mass‐produced bus stop, EyeStop is designed to fit the physical characteristics of its surroundings, with each unit being slightly different from the others. Furthermore, simple materials like shiny steel, extra clear glass and gray local stone (pietra serena), together with its minimalist design, serve to optimize how it blends into the historic urban fabric of Florence.

“Since the Renaissance, there has been an interplay between the physical form of the city (urb) and its citizenship (civitas),” added Carlo Ratti. “Today’s technologies are adding new possibilities to that age‐long relationship, thanks to the addition of digital information to physical space. It is as if a new materiality were emerging in architecture, with the seamless blending of bits and atoms…”

EyeStop was developed at the SENSEable City Laboratory by Giovanni de Niederhousern, Shaocong Zhou, Assaf Biderman and Carlo Ratti, in collaboration with the Province of Florence and the local public transportation authority ATAF.

Designer : Giovanni de Niederhousern, Shaocong Zhou, Assaf Biderman and Carlo Ratti via Core77

Text from Daniel :
The overall aesthetics were inspired by a hand grenade, with the trigger being like that of the pin for a grenade. When the holder pulls on the trigger at the bottom of the light, the light beam turns on. However, there is also a power button at the top in case the individual would like to hold on the light but not have the beam on. The light is extremely small, light an ergonomic, something that could fit on the belt of a police officer, marine or regular user, and is easy to pick up and shine the light very quickly while remaining comfortable and firm the individuals palm.

The buttons on the side are to change the color of the light, with the idea being that different groups of people would have different colors of light to reveal who they are, e.g. police have blue lights, firefighters have red etc…also yellow light creates a better visual field of depth, so that would be the color used for people using it for the army or special forces. The light can also reflect back at the holder, to make it easier to see the person holding the light. If for instance, in an emergency situation, you can see who is holding the light, whether it be a child, or fully grown adult.

Designer : Daniel Bailey

In order to improve audio interactions between the user and the phone, SÉNS combines touch sensors and regular mechanical keys to provide real-time audio feedbacks. What this means is that when a user touches a key, the phone tells him what key has been touched without actually registering it as an input. The user may hover across the keys to consecutively gain feedbacks on which key they are touching.

Once the user is sure his finger is on the correct key, he then can press the key just like on any other standard phones. Once a key is pressed, another ‘click’ sound is fed back to confirm the input. This system is essentially just an audio version of what people without sight problems always utilizes; visual indications. This provides more efficient interactions and reduces the chance of making wrong inputs compared to current products used by people with visual impairment as they only provide audio feedbacks after key inputs are registered.

One of the biggest issues with ‘talking’ phones is that the sound interaction can be heard by other people nearby. Using a headset wired or wireless (if Bluetooth is available) can solve the problem, however having a headset integrated to the main phone can offer a number of advantages.

Designer : Takumi Yoshida

Designer : Avnish Gautam

Designer : Mauricio Clavero