What is the nature of a domestic space in 2030? A place for food production and consumption? This project explores existing kitchen tools and human scenarios of making and production. How does an industrial robot arm work with a human in close quarters, and with sharp or powerful tools? The research trials robot movement developed and adapted for kitchen or workshop contexts, including repurposing of tool and action sets, and innovating hybrid tasks that blur the boundaries between commonly associated traditional male or female domestic environments.
The kitchen of the future will not be re-invented, it will be retro-fitted. This future is in stark contrast to the consumerist utopias imagined by aspirational societies of the past.
The 1950s was a time of technical innovation in the domestic sphere. In America, advancement in material technology and mass production resulted in a boom of new convenience products aimed at the newly coined ‘consumer’. This moment in history was a springing point for us, we share the same excitement for experimentation and convenience within the domestic sphere as did the innovators and designers some 70 years ago.
As such we are re-proposing the same innovations:
- Time savings enabling people to accomplish with their day
- Technology which makes previously fanciful creations possible in an everyday environment
- Introducing tools which do more than those of the past
- Time savings enabling people to accomplish with their day
- Technology which makes previously fanciful creations possible in an everyday environment
- Introducing tools which do more than those of the past
However, the intention behind these innovations has changed. These innovations are intended to drive social change and embody the values of a society growing increasingly concerned with the social injustices which it harbours.
These intentions are:
Gender inequality - To utilise the automative abilities of robotics to address the historically disproportionate division of domestic labour.
Class Inequality - The precision inherent in robotics will expand capacity, increasing the accessibility of goods and services for everyone average in a class levelling capacity.
Over-consumption - To utilise the innate flexibility of the robot in order to move society away from its obsession with material consumption. Combining existing tech with smart articulation in order to do more with less.
Gender inequality - To utilise the automative abilities of robotics to address the historically disproportionate division of domestic labour.
Class Inequality - The precision inherent in robotics will expand capacity, increasing the accessibility of goods and services for everyone average in a class levelling capacity.
Over-consumption - To utilise the innate flexibility of the robot in order to move society away from its obsession with material consumption. Combining existing tech with smart articulation in order to do more with less.
By selecting the Croquembouche, we have chosen to subvert what is typically a bourgeois meal and make it easily accessible within the domestic sphere. Through a kitchen retrofit, the robots can consolidate many difficult processes, a pragmatic solution for homes without the extravagant bells and whistles of 50s consumerism and unnecessary gadgets.
NEED LESS
A refined version of the current day kitchen. Robots will enable the complete consolidation of processes within the kitchen and the tools they require.
A refined version of the current day kitchen. Robots will enable the complete consolidation of processes within the kitchen and the tools they require.
DO MORE
A future kitchen re-defined by robots which contribute a level of precision never before seen within the domestic kitchen. This new-found precision will empower the individual regardless of class to make what they want, when they want, without sacrifice. The croquembouche is a metaphor for the potency of the class-neutralising force robotics will provide to the society of the future.
A future kitchen re-defined by robots which contribute a level of precision never before seen within the domestic kitchen. This new-found precision will empower the individual regardless of class to make what they want, when they want, without sacrifice. The croquembouche is a metaphor for the potency of the class-neutralising force robotics will provide to the society of the future.
PORTFOLIO EXCERPTS SHOWING DESIGN, CODING AND EXPERIMENTATION PROCESS
