Baby Stroller

Wouldn't it be convenient to have a baby stroller that could lock up like a bicycle, The body could close up to make a kind of locker, or it could just fold and lock for storing on the streets.

Biomimicry

While visitng Goblin Valley, about a year and a half ago, I was enthralled by the rock forms, and the geological history of the site. The rocks were formed over thousands of years of rain fall, and wind which eroded the red sandstone. While hiking through one part, I could just imagine pools of water forming in the indentations, and little rivers running across the formations. And then I just wished it would rain, because it all looked like an elaborate, and incredibly enticing waterpark. Sliding through caves, over the bumpy landscape. If I ever design a waterpark this will be the concept for it. The red rocks of southern utah.

My Kind of Bookstore

I love bookstores, I feel at home seeing all of the books on the shelf, all kinds of information stored in the shelves. But at the same time I feel a bit uncomfortable because all the books are pristine, the books that aren't are the display books which have been leafed through, and looked at. But they are the books that don't get bought, and the pristine books beckon me to open their pages, but I feel guilty in making a sellable book into a non-sellable book just by looking through it. Many bookstores, probably first was Barnes and Noble have reading couches, and encourage you to stay and look at the books, but very few people do it, I think because of this sellable to non-sellable factor.

Another thing I love about books is used books, especially those with markings. I love that these books have a history in themselves, the person who read the book has put themselves into the book, and they have also been influenced by the ideas contained in the pages. Probably because I have such a great attachment to the books I read, and I assume that everyone else does too.

So what if bookstores were a mix, between library and bookstore. If you could open a book, and sit and read the whole book through, crack the spine, mark the pages and not feel guilty, but then buy a clean pristine copy of the book if you liked as well. There would be two parts then to my bookstore, not physically separate, but in concept, every book in the store would be accompanied by a readers edition. One you could sit with in the store and absorb. There would be cozy corners to sit in, coffee and tea to drink right there while you read. You could and would actually be encouraged to interact with the book, change it physically. Some might say if people can read the book in the store they won't buy it, but I think if you get the opportunity to change and be changed by a book you are more likely to buy it, because it has become a part of you.

I would love to have such a store, not just to create this new kind of environment, but to have the books that get read. Because the owner of the store would also be the owner of these most precious editions which hold the history of all their readers.

Childhood

I had a very magical childhood with my brother, I cannot count all of the playhouses we had, because we built so many, one in the attic of our garage, one dug out of the empty spot of land next to our house, and one built in a tree in an empty field about 15 minutes away from our house, that once we finished building, we never actually visited again. It's actually a funny story, I found out later that a friend of mine did play in that treehouse, and they never knew who built it, and were always worried that we would come back and kick them out.

I sometimes feel that now that I am grown up my apartment has become my playhouse, but it's not the same, it's just home, and the excitement of visiting in free time is lost. I would love to have an adult playhouse somewhere, where I could read, and enjoy myself, just get out of the house. In the book Walden I think that Henry David Thoreau got to this, and his playhouse, a cabin he built near Walden Pond, gave him the opportunity to inspect life, and escape from the buy more, and work more feelings of everyday life. He wrote the book during the experience and the insights and ideas he has in this playhouse is unbelievable, what could this do for me, or us as a people?

Foreigners

"If I am a foreigner, there are no foreigners."
Julia Kristeva "Strangers to Ourselves"

If we can at times do things that surprise us, and have feelings that seem uncharacteristic for us, then we can better understand the actions and feelings of those who are different than us. This could be the key concept to erradicating hate, but the problem is, uncharacteristic actions or feelings aren't something you can force on a person. But it may be interesting to design a campaign around this concept, to help people who have had "foreign" feelings understand it in this way.

Ideas for Conquering Throwaway Culture

Two main ideas:

Create more value:
-Higher prices create more percieved value, but somehow I don't think this will be the answer, because high-priced objects are not as available to middle and lower class people.
-Smaller runs of products would encourage the owner to value the object as unique, and irreplacable by any substitute, and in this case prices could be reduced to slightly higher than Target prices instead of incredibly high it would require to create a true percieved value from price.
-Objects that are more timeless, or even more difficult to achieve, new but timeless.

Values could be reformed, we currently value convenience at almost the highest level, which is probably, or almost definitely a result of the busy lifestyles we live. And why do we live this lifestyle? to be able to buy more convenient products.
- I once noticed that there are a great amount of old people around the city of Zürich during the day time, they have no job, yet they are not bored, because living their life takes all day, they do little errands, bringing their bottles to recycle, visiting their friends, washing their laundry, and maintaining their homes the old fasion way. The price is lower for doing things the "old fashioned way" and it fills the time that they spare by not having a job. And I suppose the way they use the time is more fulfilling as well, I'd much rather be baking a cake from scratch, and having a spic and span home then working day in day out.

Throwaway Culture

It has recently become clear that that throw-away culture the US (and also germany, but to a lesser degree) currently embraces is damaging the environment, and possibly damaging our opinions on products, and consumption. How to combat this throw-away culture? Factors such as (this list should probably be better, or more scientifically defined, but here's an idea of what I'm thinking) quality, durability, price, popularity, reparability, ease of maintanence, longevity, individuality, trendiness, and nostalgia determine what value we place on a specific object, and the value in turn determines how long we will hold on to specific objects, and how we mentally categorize them on the terms of throw-away product to precious heirloom.

Then one way to conquer throw-away culture would be to put more value back into everyday products.

Stinky Pillows

In the middle ages, pillows were filled with spices, and herbs to cut down the smells that were coming from the feces-covered streets.

Feces covered streets are a thing of the past, but perhaps spice-filled pillows shouldn't be...

Selling Days

I remember one of the highlights of my elementary school education was selling days. These usually happened once or twice a year. And all the kids would make or bring little things to sell, not with real money, but with the classroom currency.

What if my design school did this? I think it would be really fun to have a bunch of design students make their concoctions, and open one night to sell to the general public. The products would no doubt be more interesting. It would be a kind of exhibition, mixed with consumption. Fun for us to show off more of our personal work, and fun for the public to see what we're doing and actually get to take some of it home with us!