KAZERNE LAB: making life easier

For this assignment, Kazerne Lab selected four young design couples from Eindhoven. A separate space for each design duo was provided in the heritage buildings of Kazerne. Here, they only got 48 hours to work on the assignment, as it were a pressure-cooker. The audience could follow their progress through the windows. On several moments, feedback was provided by the jury and a couple of companies in Eindhoven were ready to directly contribute to the prototypes.

The jury was an important player during the process. With feedback based on their field of work, they offered the designers new perspectives and insights. The jury consisted of Elmer D. van Grondelle – Teacher Advanced Automotive Design TU Delft and an established name in the field of car design industry, Daan van Tulder – Industrial designer and winner of the first Renault Design Award in 2013, May-Britt Mobach – She was at the very heart of RTL Boulevard, worked for several lifestyle magazines and launched the online fashion and beauty platform Amayzine, and Ton Roks – Journalist, under which Autovisie (Autovision) and Octane magazine.

The design and jury process was filmed and made public on 22 September 2015 in a mini series of five episodes by a substantial social media campaign.

Love – Studio Thier&vanDaalen

Within the theme ‘love’, this duo started with words like: sensuality, tension, growth and synergy: 1 + 1 = 3. From here, a series of products arose from which the different components need one another to fulfill their function, just like in love. “Together you are more, that is our feeling concerning this series of products and our feeling concerning love,” says Iris. In the finale, a design was presented that could function as a stool or a table. It exists of two materials in two parts that once assembled are enormously strong, while the two separate pieces are easy to ship flat.

Explore – Studio Nuance

Backpackers wander all over the world, discover new cultures, make photos, take souvenirs and create new memories. At home, the backpack takes up a lot of space in the attic or a cupboard, until the next trip or holiday. From this idea, Joey Dogge and Lars Janzee designed a Love Seat in which the backpack becomes the back of a seat. At arrival, the backpack is easily clicked on the Love Seat, creating a platform to share traveling stories with family and friends. By this integration, valuable storage space is saved.

Play – Joost Jansen and Jesse Kirschner

This duo normally isn’t a duo, and has complete different backgrounds: Jesse is a parametric designer specialised in 3D printing, while Joost is known for his extravagant fashion designs and extensive colourful style. Together, they collaborated on the idea that clothing can be produced playfully. They reprogrammed the Kinect, a game computer that exists of a camera and software that ‘sees’ motion and turns them into actions on the screen. An on screen projected dress is therefore easily adjustable that is trying the dress in front of the camera, in length, width, shape, colour, design, material, etc. Think of what this could mean for people with disabilities, that have trouble visiting stores, or need adjusted clothing.

Wisdom – Alissa + Nienke

In their research of wisdom, the couple ran into the term Neoteny: a phenomenon in evolution, in which animals, under which humans, keep certain youthful characteristics as sexually mature adults. That is the reason why we, as human beings, will stay curious and playful for the rest of our lives, and why we can continuously learn and absorb our surroundings. Alissa + Nienke translated Neoteny in a series of curtain panels; Graphic Blinds. The window covers is build up with several layers of different designs, that can be individually movable and rollable. This way, a game of light and shadow is created. Different atmospheres can be created, to implement curiosity and playfullness into our daily lives. Graphic Blinds is being developed as blinds and as room divider

Kazerne Social Design Lab

Thanks to the support of the DOEN Foundation, artists, designers and other creatives will be working on crossover initiatives to discover new solutions for societal issues. Taking a fresh look from a different angle, they will approach current social, cultural and economic issues with the inspiration and new perspectives required to find innovative solutions. This may sound rather high-flown, but it is in fact an extremely practical process.