57 | June 2016

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age | june 2

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57

COVERSTORY Artificial intelligence in design

INTERVIEWRichard Hutten

The best way to predict the future is to create it

2

CONTENT

june 2016 | turn the page

25

FEATURE

Futurism

5

UPCOMING

8

COVERSTORY

Artificial intelligence in design

22

INTERV IEW

Richard Hutten

14

DES IGN EVERYWHERE

28

TEN GOLDEN T I PS

13

FEATURE

Back to the future

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FEATURE

HoloLens

4

ED ITOR IAL

16

S tudy a s so c ia t i on i . d

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CONTENT

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38

FEATURE

Loving design

46

VERSUS

A tale of two cities

32

INTERV IEW

“Identity is more

fluid than before”

50

GADGETS

36

ONE TO WATCH

Puck Meerburg

48

ALUMNI

“We add value to waste”

34

FEATURE

Ergonomics in a digital world

42

FEATURE

Millenials as customers

40

DO I T YOURSELF

How to hack

44

INTERV IEW

Data with reason

Rens de GraafQualitate Qua

Chéron HuskensEditor in Chief

Ilse de CockPublicity

Christianne FrancovichSecretary

Suze MelissantTreasurer

Alicia CalderónChairwoman

Elisa EngelsmaAcquisition

Stijn BuurmanjeExternal Affairs

Floris JansenLayout

We are living an exciting time to be

a designer. The fast development of

technologies and the connected world

create many possible scenarios about how

our future could be, giving designers many

opportunities for innovation development.

From Turn The Page, we want to portray

this moment in issue 57 under the name

of “A digital future”. Dive in its first pages

to read about Artificial Intelligence and

autonomy (page 8) or check this edition’s

Design Everywhere photo on page 14,

an impressive image that will leave you

E D I T O R I A L

C O M M I T T E EO F 2 0 1 5 - 2 0 1 6

speechless. Do not miss this number’s

great interviews; go to page 22 for Droog’s

designer Richard Hutten or Puck Meerburg

in One to watch on page 36. No matter if

you are a Millennial or not, you will find our

guest writer’s article interesting on how this

generation is shaping the way companies

do business (page 42). I hope these pages

will make you dream about the possibilities

of the digital future.

Alicia Calderón

Chairwoman!

J.É

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EDITORIAL

4 june 2016 | turn the page

TRANSFORM

September 14th - 16th, 2016

Rochester, Minnesota, USA

Are you a designer interested in healthcare and how you

could contribute to advancing medical technologies?

In this noteworthy design conference, designers and

doctors come together in collaboration with Mayo

Clinic, and take a look at how human-centered design

thinking has helped generated many health innovations

through the past years. The three day event is filled

with speakers (including the co-author of Freakonomics

Stephen J. Dubner), lively discussions and possibilities

to engage with healthcare professionals and their

current projects.

September 1st - 11th, 2016

Helsinki, Finland

Visit Finland at its warmest time of year and, at the same

time, explore the biggest design festival in Scandinavia.

The theme of the Helsinki Design Week this year is

“Better” and will dive into the question “What justifies

us to design more?”. Check out their website for more

details of the programme and possibilities of becoming

a volunteer!

P R I Z E W I N N E R SFrom the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering

io.tudelft.nl/prizewinners

VID I FOR PAINT INGS UNDER MAGNIFY ING GLASSLast week Dr Maarten Wijntjes was awarded a Vidi

scholarship by NWO for his research project about how

we can apply the visual art of painters to other areas, such

as online shopping.

BROODBROEDER WINS AWESOME FOUNDAT ION ROTTERDAM’S P I TCH NIGHTDoing something about discarded bread in public spaces

and making Rotterdam more beautiful by promoting

understanding between different cultural groups in the

neighbourhood. With this idea, IDE master’s student

Titus Wybenga won € 1,000 to turn his graduation

design into reality.

TEAM IDE STUDENTS WINS CL IMATE HACKATHON 2016With the winning idea ‘Bezorgeloos’ the team focused on

another distribution of delivering packages by trucks within

the cities to reduce the CO2 emissions. With a local depot

and a notification on an app, citizens can pick up their

package.

STUDENT PROJECT HEADREST WINS A IRCRAFT INTER IOR PR IZE CRYSTAL CAB IN AWARD 2016Unfolding the side wings of the HeadRest reveals a

hammock construction which cradles your head as you

lean side wards, preventing sliding and nodding. This

graduation project of Manon Kühne won the Crystal Cabin

Award in the category University. All three nominated

projects were from Delft.

H E L S I N K I D E S I G N W E E K

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UPCOMING

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A quick look at the curriculum vitae

of Roland van der Vorst shows

an impressive range of roles and

functions. His personal motto is a

poem by Nietzsche: Glattes Eis,

ein Paradeis. Für Den, der gut

zu tanzen weiß. “There are two

ways of developing”, says Van

der Vorst in a lounge room at the

Freedomlab campus. “One way is

to set a target. That is how many

people and companies work: I

want to lose ten pounds in six

months. Or: I want five percent

annual growth in the next ten years.

Another way is to place yourself in

a new context and let that context

redefine you. It is a more risky

and challenging way, but also

more exciting.”

Roland van der Vorst has been appointed part-time professor Strategic Design for Brand De-velopment. He will combine his activities at IDE with his work as managing director of Freedom-lab, an innovation lab in Am-sterdam associated with Dasym investments. Van der Vorst is inspired by the change of con-text at IDE: “I like Glattes Eis.”

text by Michel Heesen | photo by Hans

Stakelbeek | layout by Chéron Huskens

" I D E N T I T Y I S M O R E F L U I D T H A N B E F O R E "

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"Place yourself in a new context and let that

context redefine you. It is a more risky and

challenging way, but also more exciting."

Van der Vorst started his

professional career as assistant-

researcher at Radboud University

in Nijmegen. “That is one side

of my personality,” says Van der

Vorst. “I like working in solitude,

reading, writing and reflecting.

My other side is that I like to be

on stage, talk and present. These

seemingly contradicting activities

are often complimentary. For

example, after you've locked

yourself up to write a book, its

publication will get you on stage.”

After two years of academic

research, he joined FHV/BBDO,

at that time the biggest branding

agency in the Netherlands.

“There, I experienced how context

redefines you. I switched from

the introvert, deep and long-

term academic world, to the

extravert, impulse-driven world of

advertisement. During the day, I

talked to clients and managed my

team. In the evening hours, I

wrote my PhD-thesis on branding."

MIDL IFE CR IS ISIn 2001, he witnessed a big

change. “It seemed like everything

collapsed. Our office lost four big

clients in one year. The 1990s

egomania and belief in progress,

driven by technology, suddenly

came to an end.” Two years later,

he became leader of the pack.

“I learned a lot but in the end I

was not really happy in that role,

managing 150 people, writing

financial reports, hiring and firing

people.” Van der Vorst decided

to quit and started his own

communications and consulting

agency THEY. He developed

champagne brand ZARB and

wrote three books on subjects

that fascinated him: curiosity,

hope and camouflage. “I was

curious about my own curiosity

and I wanted to learn about

hope: why did I have a bumper

sticker promoting Obama? The

common denominator in my

books is expectation. Branding

is the business of expectations.

Curiosity is about challenging

expectations.Hope is a confident

expectation.Camouflage is

about positioning.”

While working on a commission

in India, travelling between his

offices in Delhi and Amsterdam,

Van der Vorst experienced mid-

life doubts. “I wanted to leave the

communication business. I had

enough of raising expectations

without the deliverance of the

promise. I wanted to switch

from promise to performance.

What does a man do when he

experiences a midlife crisis? He

either buys a Harley, runs the

New York marathon, looks for a

new girlfriend or all the above. I

felt none of this was a good idea,

so I decided to jump again: into

the world of investment funds. A

friend in Singapore asked me to

start a fund with his money.”

SL IPPERY PLACEWith his family, his wife pregnant

of their third, Van der Vorst

moved to Singapore. “Singapore

is an interesting place, fully

designed by engineers. What

does an engineer do? He solves

a problem, takes away friction.

Singapore is a place without

friction. It is a great place to

witness progress and see where

we will be in Europe in ten years,

but it is also a city without an

edge, almost too comfortable.”

In his current role, managing

director of Freedomlab,

he stimulates technology

experts, strategists, creatives,

entrepreneurs and managers

in working together to use their

creativity to solve the problems

of tomorrow.

“The world has become a

slippery place. What if Trump

wins the elections and Chinese

GDP growth is two percent less

than we expect? Will we face

a new housing crisis? Between

this interview and its publication,

the world could have changed

dramatically. There's huge

volatility. The whole world has

now become ‘Glattes Eis’.

Companies struggle positioning

themselves in all this. Identity has

become much more fluid than

before. Apple, for example, is

now also designing cars. Will

they also design a toilet? Or

offer insurance?”

How should students prepare for

this volatile world? “My son plays

with Lego. When it collapses,

he doesn't bother, doesn't think

of it as a setback. He just starts

building something else. That

mentality will help. I believe

students have chosen the right

faculty to prepare for this world:

design thinking, experimenting

and trying to bridge contradictory

demands is part of the DNA of

this faculty.” 3

www.rolandvandervorst.com

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INTERVIEW

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INTERVIEW

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Gerd Kortuem has been appointed professor Internet of Things. His research at IDE focuses on Internet of Things, smart cities, human computer interaction and data science, and explores the design of connected products and services for a sustainable future.

text by Michel Heesen | photo by Hans

Stakelbeek | layout by Alicia Calderón

Before moving to Delft, Gerd Kortuem

headed the Ubiquitous Computing and

Sustainability Lab at the Open University

of Milton Keynes, a thirty-minute ride

from London. One of his researches was

about smart cities, with intelligent energy,

transport and mobility systems. “Smart cities

is basically about the boundary between

technology and people”, says Kortuem.

“For example, domestic energy systems. As

local energy generation is becoming more

viable, homeowners increasingly become

what we call ‘energy farmers’. It used to be

profitable to sell your own solar energy to

the grid. These days this becomes less and

less interesting as it is more efficient and

more economical to use it up locally. That,

however, leads to a much more complex

relation between people and technology.

It's not just about technology, it's about

understanding behavioural changes, a

shift in demand and how that all relates to

social practices.”

According to Kortuem, automation, where it

completely takes away control, is not what

people want. “People want to feel in control

yet at the same time do not care about

minute technical details. For example,

many people like the idea of having their

washing machine run when the sun shines

and their solar panels generate energy.

Technology enables a fully automated

process. However, if people are able to

push a button, knowing that their machine

will then do this, they feel more in control.

Technology based on small interventions

is more easily accepted than a fully

automated process.”

CONTROL OVER PR IVACYAnother part of his research was about

public transport in the smart city. “We

developed an information system based

on fine grained navigation hints: this is the

right bus, that is the wrong stop, this is how

you get back on track. Pretty much like in

a car. It makes navigating as simple as in

a private car. One of the parameters in

the system is a crowd indicator for buses,

offering the possibility of choosing a new

route using less crowded buses.”

Again, one of the main issues Kortuem and

his co-workers had to solve, was about

control. “The system enables people to

request information directly from each

other, rather than storing locations of users

everywhere in a central database. This

enables users to make their own personal

trade-off between functionality and privacy.

People are more willing to disclose their

location when they have the feeling of

being in control.”

According to Kortuem, data and how to

make sense of it has become important

design material. “In many design schools,

education is still focused on designing an

object, on creating an artefact. Increasingly,

D ATA W I T H I N R E A S O N

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INTERVIEW

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design is not only about the physical

object, but about designing product service

systems. Also, the manufacturing process

becomes increasingly important, with

3D printing techniques and embedded

electronics. Fabrication is no longer

something that comes at the end, after

you've completed the design. Designers

need to understand this and need to

anticipate. We call that 'fabrication-aware

design'. I am glad to see that the faculty

of IDE has also appointed a professor of

Advanced Manufacturing.”

DATA-L I TERACYIn Milton Keynes, Kortuem was also

involved in the Urban Data School, aimed

at educating kids on the use of data.

“We used to talk about IT-literacy, about

kids learning how to use a computer.

Nowadays, it is not about the box anymore.

We now have the Internet of Things:

products with embedded computers,

sensors and a network connection. Many

decisions in life are influenced by data.

There's an increasing need to understand

digital aspects. None of that is taught in

schools at the moment.”

Kortuem and his researchers decided to

dive into data-illiteracy. “Our aim was

getting kids interested in data, showing

them that it is not just dry mathematics, and

to explore how to use data in a classroom.

Most data sets are of low quality. It takes an

effort before you can use them in teaching

methodologies. We used a city map

showing actual solar panels: how much

they generate, how much the city could

generate if every roof would have solar

panels and so on. This way we could teach

the kids not only about data, but also about

sustainability and the societal impact of

new technology.”

Kortuem explains how new technology often

raises ethical questions. “New technology

not only creates value, it also destroys

value. We have a poor understanding of

how to predict and measure the impact

on society. For example, we try to reduce

emissions by introducing new mobility

schemes. That might be great in reducing

our carbon footprint, it could also have

a very negative effect on the business

case of public transport and therefore on

whole communities.”

Another field that Kortuem wants to explore

at IDE is the long-term impact of connected

products. “What is a sustainable Internet

of Things? It is potentially a nightmare in

terms of sustainability if you put electronics

in each and every product. Can designers

help extend the lifetime of a product, for

example by improving upgradeability?

It might be less flashy than designing

new stuff, but it is a fundamental ethical

challenge.” 3

www.kortuem.com

“It's not just about technology, it's

about understanding behavioural changes, a

shift in demand and how that all relates to social

practices.”

IDE-alumna Laura Klauss (29), co-founder of Better Future Factory, has won the public choice award of the “Prins Friso Ingenieursprijs”, an annual award of excellence of the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers (KIVI). At Better Future Factory, a company aimed at design for sustainability, Klauss is responsible for technology and prototyping.

by Michel Heesen | photo by Hans Stakelbeek | layout by

Elisa Engelsma

“ W E A D D VA L U E T O WA S T E ”

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june 2016 | turn the page

During a trip to an annual rock festival on the former sea bottom of Flevoland (“A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise”), Laura Klauss and a couple of her friends talked about their experiences in working as a freelancer. They all experienced the same difficulties. “We all had enough commissions, but also experienced that you often work in solitude and that business continuity is difficult”, explains Klauss. “You can’t execute two full-time projects at the same time. It means that when a deadline is postponed, you either have to cancel your next project or work overtime, trying to execute two full-time projects at the same time.”

Klauss and her friends decided to work on a joint project for fun, inspired by a waste product of Lowlands: disposable plastic beer cups. “We decided to work on it for half a year, just for fun without payment. Possible revenues would be re-invested in the project. Our subject offered a clear deadline: the next Lowlands festival.”

Klauss and her friends used their complementary skills in developing a recycle workshop, based on a machine with the ability to turn plastic waste into a souvenir. “We were invited for the next Lowlands, which offered an excellent stage for promotion. It was a big hit, a live demonstration of the circular economy. After Lowlands, we got calls from a number of companies and events. They all wanted to hire our machine and have a recycle workshop, interactive, on the spot. We ended up giving performances in a dozen countries, including Qatar, Peru and Angola.”

According to Klauss, festivals offer fertile ground for promoting an idea. “Festivals not only attract big brands, such as Heineken or Warsteiner, but also a certain public, more avant-garde and open to new ideas. Many of our clients encountered us during a festival or heard about us from other visitors. Much of our promotion was by word of mouth.”

FROM FREELANCE TO A BUS INESSIn the early stage of developing the recycle machine, Klauss and her friends found out that a group of students at Delft University of Technology was working on a similar development. “The recycling process involves four stages: washing and drying plastic waste, shredding it into flakes, extruding it into printer filament and finally 3D printing. We focused on extrusion, the students had been focusing on shredding. We decided to join forces and the Perpetual Plastic Project was born.”

Their business form gradually developed from a cooperation of individual freelancers to a general partnership and then into a limited liability company. “This way of gradual development offered a natural way of getting used to each other as business partners. After all, being friends is one thing, but being business-partners means sharing the same space every day and having a joint bank account. It’s almost like being married. I believe it is a good thing to evolve a business gradually. I think some start-ups want to become a full-blown limited liability business too soon, just for status.”

Better Future Factory is housed in the Impact Hub Rotterdam, an industrial looking office space in a busy street in the centre of Rotterdam. The office is a showroom of recent projects and ideas. Klauss shows a waste refrigerator and an automobile dashboard. “We have made cufflinks out of refrigerator interiors and use disposed dashboards to make 90% recycled filament, which is the ‘ink’ of a 3D printer.”

NEW MARBLE ANGOLAOne of the latest projects of Better Future Factory was designed for Angola. “In Angola, the streets are full of PET waste”, says Klauss. “There is no deposit on PET bottles, in fact, no garbage collection at all. We have developed a low-tech machine that turns disposed bottles into a product that people can use in their homes: wall tiles. I remember at IDE, we learned how PET crystallizes, but not how that looks. It looks like marble.”

Wouldn’t there be a market for recycled tiles in The Netherlands as well? “Probably. We are currently developing a small production facility. However, PET in The Netherlands is already recycled and not a waste product anymore. Our goal, however, is to design and prototype the first fully recycled house, with a construction of pressed plastic bags and 3D printed lights. We’re most interested in the innovation itself, not the production. It is not our goal to produce millions of tiles a year. We are a design office, not a manufacturer.”

Klauss considers the Angola project to be the best example so far of the kind of project that Better Future Factory intends to work on. “It covers all stages from analysis to prototyping and production and it is a nice example of our way of thinking: working in a local context, with low-tech machines, adding value to waste. Instead of designing a product and then thinking of materials, we start with the material.” 3

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turn the page | june 2016

57 | June 2016

turn

the p

age | june 2

016

57

COVERSTORY Artificial intelligence in design

INTERVIEWRichard Hutten

The best way to predict the future is to create it