Week 7 has consisted of some research and a lot of design work, but I have tabled crits until next week so there is little output to show. I decided that next week, before spring break, I will present my pre-interim presentation with my whole committee. Up until this point, due to schedules, I have been unable to get my whole committee together to discuss my project, but next Thursday that will change. I won’t be taking a spring break, but instead use that time to get ahead on their design changes and avoid and surprises as the actual interm presentation which is in a month.
During the course of my research I came across an article in Wired magazine from January which seems like it was written for me! The title of the issue was “Atoms and the New Bits” detailing how do-it-yourself has moved from software to hardware, i.e. people now have the capacity to make their own products and sell them worldwide without a huge investment in equipment – which is exactly one of the ideas for the Milwaukee Innovation Center.
From the article:
Tech Shop
In June, Local Motors will officially release the Rally Fighter, a $50,000 off-road (but street-legal) racer. The design was crowdsourced, as was the selection of mostly off-the-shelf components, and the final assembly will be done by the customers themselves in local assembly centers as part of a “build experience.” Several more designs are in the pipeline, and the company says it can take a new vehicle from sketch to market in 18 months, about the time it takes Detroit to change the specs on some door trim. Each design is released under a share-friendly Creative Commons license, and customers are encouraged to enhance the designs and produce their own components that they can sell to their peers.
Local Motors
Local Motors plans to release between 500 and 2,000 units of each model. It’s a niche vehicle; it won’t compete with the major automakers but rather fill in the gaps in the marketplace for unique designs. Rogers uses the analogy of a jar of marbles, each of which represents a vehicle from a major automaker. In between the marbles is empty space, space that can be filled with grains of sand — and those grains are Local Motors cars.
Read the whole article here: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_newrevolution/all/1
Below is a preliminary rendering of the interior office space, and a couple photos I was playing with:
Preliminary Interior
Interior
Exterior
