AQUATICUS

Inspired by Jacques Cousteau's dream that man would one day live in harmony with fish, this diving scooter, created by San Francisco designer Geffrey Petrizzi, features an artificial gill that extracts oxygen from the water. The gill not only fuels the scooter's power source, but also provides oxygen to the diver, who can use Aquaticus to supplement a dive. Barrett was impressed with the product's well-resolved inventiveness and fantasy element.

DESIGN fuseproject, San Francisco: Geoffrey Petrizzi, principal designer; TDA Research Inc., Wheat Ridge, Colo.: Dr. Girish Srinivas, porous membrane (gill) principal engineer; Satellite Models, Belmont, Calif.: Kelly Hand, 5 Axix CNC; Manta Ray Dive Center, Monterey, Calif.: Scott diPertoro, pro diver/instructor
MATERIALS|FABRICATION model: CNC'd clark foam and hand work, foam sealant coating, auto paints
HARDWARE|SOFTWARE NT Workstation, Alias|Wavefront Studio, Adobe Illustrator

THE BIT BINDER

With the Bit Binder, r+d of Toronto successfully and elegantly brings an office filing system to the workshop. Burks touted this compact and expandable storage system for power-tool accessories—including drill bits, spade bits and screwdriver bits—as "proportional, harmonic and very smart." Users purchase sets of tools in storage "pages," which are color- and graphic-coded for easy identification between units of measurement and types of bits. Both jurors were impressed with the sophisticated details and ergonomics of the binder, which is designed to visually blend into a home environment.

CLIENT The MIBRO Group, Toronto
DESIGN r+d, Toronto: Alex Ross and Mike Doell, designers
MATERIALS|FABRICATION injection-molded polypropylene
HARDWARE|SOFTWARE Macintosh, PC, various 2D and 3D software

WORLD TRADE CENTER BATHTUB MODEL

In response to the events of 9/11, a group of students at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union in New York translated 2D documents of ground zero, including plans and site drawings, into a 3D, 1/20-scale model that was used as a working instrument in assessing, planning and recovering the area. Created voluntarily, the World Trade Center Bathtub Model reflects the sub-grade conditions at the site in an easy-to-understand manner, emphasizing that one can "enter" a site more effectively in a model than in a diagram. Both jurors were pleased that the students used architectural principles to reveal information for non-architects and applauded the use of architecture as an analytical tool.

CLIENT The New York City Department of Design and Construction, New York: Michael Burton, executive deputy commissioner; DDC and NY-NJ Port Authority: Peter Rinaldi, engineering program manager; Meuser Rutledge Consulting Engineers: George Tamaro, Meuser Rutledge Consulting Engineers
DESIGN Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union, New York: Elizabeth O'Donnell, project coordinator and adviser; Jiri Boudnic, project concept; Anthony Campusano, Netta Cocos, Erica Concolino, Stephen Delaporte, Julia Del Collo, Karim El-Tanamli, Han-Hsi Ho, Sean Khorsandi, Lukasz Kowalczyk, Karakunlun Leet, Micah Nickerson, Nicholas Pevsner, SiAe Sung and Lauren Zucker, student team; Amber Chapin, Sony Devabhaktuni, Dominique Haggerty, Ayano Hosada, Sunnie Joh, Alan Kusov, Nickolas Robertson, Amir Shahrokhi and Conamore Wibel, student volunteers; Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers; Pablo Lopez, structural engineer; Joel Voltera, geotechnical engineer
HARDWARE|SOFTWARE drawings, prototypes

Photocredit: Liselot Van Der Heidjen

SMART WRAP

Wrap it, snap it and your headphone wire is easily adjusted to your personal length preference. Designed by Singapore-based Sumajin, this small piece of elastic polymer, which comes in a variety of playful colors, is a simple alternative to tedious hand adjustment. Barrett said she thought something so small and simple was a great opportunity to create an elegant design.

DESIGN Sumajin, Singapore: Marcus Ting, industrial designer
MATERIALS|FABRICATION injection-molding, screenprinting
HARDWARE|SOFTWARE Alias|Wavefront Studio, Design Studio

PERSONAL SKIES

This installation at the moma in New York combines two interactive concepts and was originally commissioned to appear in Workspheres, an exhibition that examined the changing nature of the workplace. "Cut Skies/Under Someone's Sky" recognizes how nature affects our mood by projecting images of the sky above the work area; "A Chair with a Soul Left Behind" proposes that the chair is the most personal object in the office by reflecting the user's clothing texture onto the chair's back. Palo Alto, Calif.-based IDEO hoped the concept would inspire designers to integrate nature into work environments, creating humane and comfortable office spaces.

CLIENT MOMA, New York
DESIGN IDEO, Palo Alto, Calif., and Minato-Ku, Tokyo: Naoto Fukusawa, Bob Arko, Craig Syverson, Andre Yousefi, Deuce Cruse, Greg Tuzin, Kristiana Elite, Ben Chow and Doug Bourn, designers
HARDWARE|SOFTWARE Macintosh, PC, Ashlar-Vellum, FormZ, ProEngineer, Macromedia Director

Photocredit: Michael Moran

EMBRYO URN

When Jose Vazquez-Perez's great-grandmother died at the age of 91, his family struggled with how to simultaneously dispose of her remains and honor her life. His Embryo Urn is a poetic life-from-death metaphor and an environmentally friendly means of burial. This series of pod-like containers—made of compressed organic material, porcelain and glass—functions as cinerary urns that dissolve into the soil and produce a living monument to the deceased in the form of a tree. According to the designer from the San Juan, Puerto Rico, firm Urbana, the project challenges the American funerary industry by offering a more progressive and ecologically sound alternative. Jurors agreed, stating that the metaphor of growth and rebirth is both strong and appropriate.

DESIGN Urbana, San Juan, Puerto Rico: Jose Fernando Vazquez-Perez
MATERIALS|FABRICATION conventional sketching, model-making, baking, slip casting, glass blowing

ELEKSEN FABRICATIONS

This collection of five "soft technology" products—conference phone, remote, keyboard, wrist phone and handheld phone—utilizes ElekTex intelligent fabric. Although only in the early stages of development, ElekTek can accurately sense location on three axes—X, Y and Z—and is less than 1 millimeter thick. It's also flexible, waterproof, expandable, programmable and inexpensive to produce. According to Barrett, the project from IDEO's London office distinguishes itself from other mobile products by thoroughly solving the problem of how to have portable, accessible phones. Burks described it as a "strong collection composed of unique individual products."

CLIENT ElectroTextiles, Buckinghamshire, England: Chris Chapman, principal; David Sandbach, designer
DESIGN IDEO Europe, London: Sam Hecht, principal; Andy Deakin, Roger Penn and Chris Avis, design team
MATERIALS|FABRICATION pressure-formed fabric, lamination, injection molding, urethene foam
HARDWARE|SOFTWARE Macintosh, Ashlar-Vellum, Macromedia FreeHand, Rhino, ProEngineer

Photocredit: Richard Davies

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