Daniel Dobrogorsky

“Currently the only way to monitor a Bathroom’s water consumption is by taking an educated guess using the household’s external flow meter as an indicator. The connection between instantaneous water usage and short term consumption is invisible. If this information could be readily and accurately available to the user, a greater appreciation, understanding and saving of water could be achieved. With this in mind, 51% of all water used in a typical suburban home is used in the bathroom[1] therefore the most savings can made here.

 Koolhaus is a tap ware variant that integrates Bathroom water consumption information with a contemporary and functional aesthetic. Koolhaus allows users to monitor the accumulative water volume that each Bathroom appliance has dispensed during the day. Each bathroom appliance has its own flow rate device installed which relays inflow water volume data back to the Koohaus. The Koolhaus faucet displays this usage information from its convex LCD. Detailed usage data can also be routed to the haus’s computer. This allows the users to keep a detailed water log and review past usage figures.  

Whilst bathroom appliances/components themselves can be modified to provide low flow rates and adhere to sustainable water standards, water usage at the end of day still rests with the user. By educating the user and displaying consumption information, they are able to enjoy their bathroom and the water provided from it – responsibility.”

[1] Government of Victoria, “Target 155 Campaign 2010”, Victorian State Government, Melbourne, http://www.target155.vic.gov.au, (accessed June 6th 2010).

 Model was Rapid Prototyped and hand sprayed.

 “The Kitchen Hideaway is a future virtual-reality concept that allows the inhabitants of a communal building to imagine being in a kitchen, preparing a particular meal rather than having to do this in a ‘real’, large & expansive kitchen.

This concept placed 4th from1300 entries submitted to the Electrolux Design Lab Competition 2010 themed towards compact living within the year 2050.  The following images outline the presentation that was given at the 100% Design London Exhibition during the competition final.

The Home Base creates the user’s own computer generated kitchen. It also provides a Viewport so the user can see their virtual space from reality. The Head Set allows the user to enter their Kitchen Hideaway and cook their own surreal virtual meal. The virtual actions of the user are accurately transmitted to an automated food factory within the building where the meal is prepared with real ingredients. The final meal is then delivered to the user. In addition, by handling the building’s occupant meals in bulk, space and energy savings can be optimized. It also eliminates the wasted energy that would be used shopping for groceries. 

The Kitchen Hideaway creates a virtual food preparation area that occupies no physical space so the clutter, energy costs and maintenance of your own physical kitchen don’t exist anymore. Everything inside this space is indistinguishable from reality. It allows the user to fully customize their own virtual kitchen and share it with others. It also gives those with physical disabilities a chance to cook in their Hideaway without restriction. The user’s personal recipes can also be saved and replicated on demand – when the user doesn’t feel like cooking – ‘virtually’.”  

Check out the video below to see the other 7 Finalist Concepts.

The Aerodynamic-Dashboard is a multipurpose storage device for commuter cyclists.  It provides quick access to small essentials (within its main storage compartment) without getting off the bike. This design configuration also provides a dashboard surface for the rider to place small items such as a phone or other hand held device. 

Frontal lighting and turn signalling are unified whilst the aesthetic appeal of the once skeletal pushbike has become elevated. Lighting/signalling controls are located at the rear, above the handlebar and night riding visibiltity is also increased via the reflective decals. The Aero-Dash creates a streamlined/drag resistant presence at the front of the bike, guiding laminar airflow over and below the rider rather than through the rider.

 The product is attached via a quick release handlebar mount, the front nose handle aids during mounting. The Aero-Dash PET visor can change connection points to allow for compact handling and storage. 

This project really morphed from my previous ‘Eco-Chic’ assignment however key inspirations proved to be planar bodies and existing motorcycle nose cones.

This assignment’s brief required the product be developed to a prototypical stage, therefore a final model was constructed as shown below.  

The two product designs shown here (in situ.) were a result of a quick three week design assignment looking for products to help commuters in times of climate change and high fuel prices. I focused in on cycling and looked at ways to increase safety and decrease user effort. The ‘Hear Stream Helmet’ blocks the hissing noise of wind turbulence over your ears to allow traffic sounds from behind to be clearly interrupted.

The ‘Aero-Dash’ is another potential product that minimises aerodynamic drag and incorporates lighting and storage capabilities. Both scenes were quickly rendered up in Photoshop. Some sketch pages are included.

This assignment made use of scenario building to forecast future needs in times of extreme climate change. The task required consideration and demonstration of future possibilities for innovative travel networks. Transport and the way in which we move about our urban environment were aspects of our assigned scenarios which were investigated.  A poster expressing  my predicted products, services and systems is shown.

It’s a real bother and quite boring getting around a large University by foot! Precious time and energy is wasted moving from point A to B. Bikes, skateboards, rollerblades and foldable scooters are good but lack many important aspects essential to traversing an urban environment. The UniGlide, fabricated from an old roller-skate, skateboard, snowboard bindings and scrap metal/fasteners will get you there efficiently and in style. The combination of the inline wheel’s undercarriage and orientated skateboard trucks allow for super tight turning and maximum stability. UniGlide – Move as one!

The UniGlide is fabricated from 100% old, used or recycled products and anyone can make their own! A Video of the UniGlide in action can be found on YouTube @: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElHhmZS4xNY

This was a strange I.D. studio project called ‘Measuring’. The brief stated we had to design a product for measuring however it could NOT use conventional units. This project really focused in on critical and lateral thinking skills because we were effectively measuring an unconventional value. Conventional values would be: weight, length, volume etc. Unconventional values could have been something like: success, love, importance, happiness, stress, patience etc. – very emotive, qualitative attributes - very weird. Of course, the product or really the concept had to be realistically capable of measuring your chosen attribute or unit.

Anyway, after a lot of idea generation and sketch pages  i choose to measure one’s “Busyness” (it’s a word). My aim was to create a universally applicable device which allows users to measure their busyness and communicate it to others indirectly, in order to prevent unwanted interruptions which create a stop start working pattern.  So office workers, students etc. could benefit. I dubbed my product the “Busy Beacon” because in open spaces the user’s busyness was determined based what colour appeared at the apex sphere of the Beacon’s body. You twist the beacon about its pivot to select which colour stay at the apex. The top sphere would actually pulse like a  real beacon would.  Green would mean  = your available for consultation etc. Amber = you’re sought of busyness. Red = don’t bother me. Simple traffic light connotations – you get the idea! For enclosed spaces the Busy Beacon came with a receiver which could be stuck outside an office or room door or wall and would display your busyness which you would select from the main Beacon body inside your enclosure.

 Deliverables for this project included a sketch mock-up model (blue foam),  presentation boards and a well finished  model (above). The beacon’s body was particularly hard to machine due to its tetrahedral form – so getting the angles correct and using  an indexing head on the milling machine helped (above). The three spheres were turned down from acrylic and polished to finish. Self suffieicent pulsing lights were inserted into the spheres to simulate the Beacon’s operation.

This brief required a new transistor radio design which fitted inside a 110x80x130mm envelope. The radio  needed to utilise injection moulded components, including a speaker, tuner, volume controller, and battery hatch and needed to house an internal PCB.

I came up with this product concept called the Radio Runners. They come in a pair and act like running weights but both function as a radio with each Left andright speaker creating a surround sound running experience. Headphones are also an option.  I decided to target this fitness market as exercising with an IPod or Walkman in your pocket really creates unwanted bouncing and uneven weight distribution. Having the audio device divided evenly into both hands overcomes this somewhat. There are a lot of flaws and work-arounds within this design however i only had 4 weeks to produce it so it’s not bad, for that time frame. 

The deliverables for this project included a sketch folio, concept renderings, exploded view renderings and a soft model. Since this was a first year I.D. Studio subject, our lecturer wanted hand renderings rather than digital renderings.

The aim of this project was to understand the key architectural elements of design: stability, dynamism, rhythm and scale. This was done by selecting  three internal spaces within the university  and using our own emotive/perceptual response to accentuate the design elements found at that location.  The brief required that we construct an acutal model which linked  the three spaces together in such as way that it evoked an “extraordinary journey”. We were also required to make a poster/map of  the linked spaces.