Design Portfolio

DESIGN PORTFOLIO

George Ben Architect | Designer

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PROJECT 01

SPACE GRID SYSTEM

PANEL BASED SPACE MAKING SYSTEM FOR COWORKING SPACES

An onsite quick assembling horizontal grid based panel system for coworking spaces, anchored to ceiling; to facilitate erection of, and seamless service connectivity, to vertical partition panels and offer an evenly lit and acoustically comfortable working environment.

DESIGN CONCEPT

GRID in GRID System

• Major grid size is chosen to be 1800mm x 1800mm and minor grid is 600mm x 600mm.

• Grid channels are designed to allow seamless placement of vertical panels anywhere along the grid.

• Special vertical panels are designed to meet conditions of corners and branches to match within the grid seamlessly.

• Panel size for regular panels are 1200mm and for corner and branches are 600mm in both axes.

G• rid is equipped with provision to insert power track, hence can be used for lighting and allied purposes.

• Leveling foot is provided to pressure tight and fix vertical panels to ceiling grid; this aloud anchorage to floor.

ISOMETRIC VIEW Showing possibilities of arrangement in Grid System

EXPLODED VIEW

DETAIL A Exploded Blown Up

LEGEND

01. Minor Y Channel – MS Section with Bolt Holes on Flaps

02. Minor X Channel – MS Section with Routing to insert Bolt Head

03. Ceiling Panel with MS Frame – Ferforated Gypsum Board

04. Major Grid Channel – MS Section With Bolt Holes and Routing

05. Anchor Plate to fasten Grid Connector to Slab – with 4mm concrete screws

06. Ceiling Drop MS pipe – 19mm dia 16 Guage – with threading on one end

07. MS pipe with internal thread to adjust drop level

08. Ceiling Grid Connector with Routing on all 4 sides to insert Major Grid Channel Bolt Head

09. MS frame for ceiling Panel – with clip in joinery to attach to ceiling Grid

10. Panel Top Frame – Aluminium Extruded Section

11. Acoustic Vertical Panel – Fibre Cement Board – 20mm thick

12. Panel Side Frame – Aluminium Extruded Section – with space for electrical connectivity

13. Electrical Panel – with wiring provision and switch board slot

14. L cleat to join panel frame – 2mm thick GI

15. Panel Bottom Frame – Aluminium Extruded Section – with threading for leveling foot and side skirting

16. Leveling foot to stabilise and pressure tight vertical panels into Ceiling Grid

CEILING GRID Exploded Detail

DETAIL B Exploded Blown Up

DETAIL C Exploded Blown Up

VERTICAL PANEL WITH FRAME Exploded Detail

WHY SPACE2 GRID

SPACE2 GRID System provides the flexibility to rearrange the panels within the grid at the ease and convenience of adjusting the leveling foot, and at no extra cost as panels are not structurally anchored to floor or walls.

Hence, once the ceiling grid is installed, its an easy job to assemble, disassemble or reassemble the panels to create spaces according to the changing demand of users and functions.

PROJECT 02 : Furniture Design

A protype desk setup for aspiring young musicians ( Paid work ) for mass production using steel fame and plywood / wooden surface. The aim was to limit the production cost to avail the finished product in market within a retail price range of Rs.7,500/- to Rs.8,500/-, with a fair margin to sustain.

A cost effective desk set-up for aspiring musicians

Musicians Desk

OPTION 01 :

Design similar to the conventional approach with height adjustable stand wooden surfaces.

Merits:

1. Comfortable Proximity

2. 4 x 1U slots for equipments

3. Separate speaker mounts

4. Backside open for easy connectivity

Limitations:

1. Exceeding cost limit

2. Music keyboard slot has fixed width

3. PC Keyboard position not comfortable

2 x 1U slot

Music Keyboard Music Keyboard

PC Dual Monitor Mount

2 x 1U slot

Pullout for PC control devices

Pullout for PC control devices

OPTION 02 :

Design to adapt to variable sized of Music Keyboards - Removed Keyboard Niche.

Added Merits:

1. Overcame Music Keyboard Size limitation

2. Bottom holding bars can serve as footrest

Limitations:

1. Height Not Adjustable

2. Lesser leg space height for user

3. PC Keyboard position not comfortable

Music Keyboard

Music Keyboard

PC Dual Monitor Mount 2 x 1U slot 2 x 1U slot

Pullout for PC control devices

Pullout for PC control devices

OPTION 03 :

Switched Music Keyboard and PC input devices to make comfortable positions for both. Added width adjustable pullout for Music Keyboard to adapt to various sizes. Standard 1U Slots moved up for easy reach.

Added Merits:

1. Overcame Music Keyboard Size limitation

2. Bottom holding bars can serve as footrest

3. Z - shaped stand offers better stability

4. Exposed steel frame with Plywood surface reduces cost and material Usage.

5. Reduced total width of the desk.

Limitations:

1. Limited height adjustment options

Width Adjustable pullout designed to adapt to various sices of Music Keyboards

Dual PC Monitor Mount

PC Control Devices

PC Control Devices

2 x 1U slot

2 x 1U slot

PC Dual Monitor Mount Foot Rest /Bottom Holding

PROJECT 03 : UI Design

Design of a Voice User Interface for a health tracker application with respect to walking exercise for Indian elderly.

Greetings...

FITNESS Mantra

An Indian �itness app for the Indian elderly

FITNESS Mantra

Mr. Someone

Swipe up to dashboard

Two of the major reasons for early decline of physical fitness in Indian elderly are lack of good exercise and unhealthy food habits.

Studies have proven that, use of fitness apps and wearable tracking devices give increased motivation to elderly to maintain healthy lifestyle.

Designing a fitness app for Indian elderly, who have very little familiarity with digital media, has to consider particular aspects to ensure comfortable user experience.

• Guided UI

• Large Text

• Indian Language Voice Input and talkback

This presentation is a design proposal for a voice user interface for ‘FITNESS Mantra’, a fitness app with respect to walking exercise for Indian elderly.

Young generation is mostly noted to use smartphones with single hand. The elderly, especially Indian, tends to hold phone in one hand, mostly left, and touch the screen with the other. Hence, the UI is designed with a centre focussed approach to adapt to the elderly.

“Getting old is inevitable; being old is a choice”

- Cheryl L Ilov

Voice guided registration process to ease the unfamiliarity of the indian elderly, making the first experience simple and interactive.

The process is designed as a series of inputs, one per screen, with voice asking the user to enter data.

The Logo displays a pulsating animation while the voice speaks to the user, to enhance the user - app interaction.

Registration begins with;

“Hai, I’m Casper, your �itness assistant. What can I call you?”

FITNESS

Mantra

and the screen shows up a type in bar and keyboard pops up for the user to enter name.

“Are you a male or a female?”

and the screen shows options to choose from. Thus continues.

On completion of registration, app shows dashboard and voice guides through the UI

Swipe up to register Fitness App First Startup Screen

Visual interface is maintained to be minimal as the app is primaily designed to be voice interactive.

Greetings...

FITNESS

Mantra

Mr. Someone

Health tips (swipe right), Fitness Dashboard, User Profile (swipe left)

Swipe up to dashboard

Voice Assistant Summon button is placed at middle bottom with halo to emphasise, for easy recogenition for the Indian elderly. A fluctuating pulse with a summon sound is given to indicate listening. The app gives responses as voice and also shows as text on screen.

Listening...

Hey Casper... How far am I from reachig the target today?

Hello ‘Someone’, Youve completed 1,400m today, 600m more to go.

How can I analyse my recent walking stat?

Swiping left from your dashboard, you’ve a profile tab. There is a graph that shows ...

An interactive voice user interface for a fitness tracker app can make people more interested into following schedule and meeting targets everyday : A driving force to keep walking and to keep using the app.

People seek motivation to continue doing routines everyday. Especially when it comes to physical exercise like walking, elderly require a driving force to keep walking to meet daily target.

The app’s voice assistant, Casper, is designed to keep the user engaged reminding about daily walking exercise. Casper appreciates users on successful completion of daily targets, suggests methods and tips to stay focussed on to the target, and complain if the user chooses to ignore walking exercise continuously.

Being a live charecter that interacts with the user through voice and vision, Casper can reserve a space in users mind, thus increase interest for the exercise.

Don’t be lazy....

Come on, Lets go for a walk..

Boo... Wee !!!

You’ve Successfully completed today’s target

Eighth Semester B. Arch Dissertation:

Smarter Homes ?

A study on extent of ef�iciency of Home Automation Technology towards energy conservation and its Possibilities in Kerala

AIM:

To compare and prove the efficiency of home automation technology towards energy conservation and its possibilities in Kerala.

OBJECTIVES:

01. To study the technology and possibilities of home automation systems

02. To study the methods and practices towards energy conservation in general, and specifically in Kerala

03. To identify the scope of domotics towards energy conservation in the context of Kerala

04. To calculate total average annual energy savings.

05. To recognize limitations of execution of automation technology in Kerala

“We’re at the beginning of a golden age of AI. Recent advancements have already led to invention that previously lived in the realm of science �iction – and we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible”

-Jeff Bezos CEO of Amazon

-Warren

Energy conservation has become an alarming necessity of the present day. Major power consumption in a household is for artificial lighting and ventilation, which can be reduced by incorporating solar passive measures. This dissertation focuses on the effect of Smart Automation systems on the energy consumption of households

“Energy deregulation will be the largest transfer of wealth in history”

Buffet CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

Smart buildings integrate technology and the IoT to provide solutions to the age-old issues of overspend and inefficiency in building construction and use. With the use of sensors, such as occupancy and people counters, actionable data about how the buildings is really used can be gathered to enable it to perform better.

Energy efficiency is at high demand these days, and man is trying all possible ways to achieve the same. Buildings are on the front line of this issue because of their high consumption of energy. Automation technology is definitely the immediate next advancement in the queue among developments in building technology towards comfort and sophistication.

“With the IoT, we’re headed to a world where things aren’t liable to break catastrophically – or at least, we’ll have a hell of a heads’ up. We’re headed to a world where our doors unlock when they sense us nearby”

-Scott Weiss Assistant Professor of Classics, Knox College

HYPOTHESIS:

Proper installation and use of automation technology smart devices and systems can reduce average electricity consumption of a typical household to 85 percent or lesser of present-day value.

SCOPE AND PURPOSE:

• Energy efficiency is on high demand these days. Automation technology is a next advancement in building technology in Kerala.

• Since the technology is not widely implemented in the state so far, such a study shall help to foresee the possible issues at execution level.

• It’ll also help to outline strategies and guidelines on efficiently implementing automation to minimize energy requirements

“The whole concept of Green Building is to reduce the demand which enables you to use fewer resources to satisfy the demand”

-Mark Nuzzolo Owner, Brookside Development LLC

OUTCOME:

The present-day building practices in Kerala has compromised many solar passive aspects of the traditional Kerala architecture as a result of changes in the social, cultural and lifestyle evolution over time.

Automation can act as a bridge to achieve the merits of the traditional architecture maintaining the present-day building practices. For example,

• A glazed opening with an automated blinds shutter can control the heat gain through exterior surfaces. The advantage of extended roof to shade the walls can be achieved, at the same time, allows more light and heat when required thus eliminating a limitation of the traditional architecture.

CONCLUSION:

Proper installation and use of automation technology smart devices and systems can reduce average electricity consumption of a typical household in Kerala to 85% or lesser of present-day value.

RESEARCH FINDINGS:

• If 25% of total households in Kerala to be automated, 555gWh of energy can be saved in a year, which is a great contribution towards energy conservation.

• Major limiting factor is lack of awareness about the advantages of Smart homes in aspects of comfort, convenience, and its contribution to the global concern of energy efficiency.

• The additional initial expense can be achieved over a period of 16 to 20 years. Expected lifetime of Smart home systems is also 20 years, hence the effective cost of installation stands nil.

“We must start rebuilding our cities around energy ef�iciency and human needs, rather than around the car and the wasted energy”

-Jay Inslee Governor of Washington

George Ben Arichitect | Designer