CORE77 COMPETITION
One Hour Design Challenge v1.0
Hosted by: ip_wirelessly
BEGINS:
Monday, August 6th
7 AM PST (2 PM GMT)
THEME:
Water-saving designs for the bathroom.
BRIEF:
From the sink to the tub to the toilet to everything in between, how can we use design to save water in the bathroom? Next week when you’re in the shower, turn off the water, lather up, have your brainstorm, rinse, then log in.
PRIZE:
One Nintendo WII.
(Not bad for an hour’s time)
Welcome to version 1.0 of the One Hour Design Challenge. We’ll be opening the doors for the competition on Monday August 6, 2007 at 12 PM PST (7 GMT). It will run for one week closing the doors at 1PM PST (8 GMT).
Voting will be open for one week.
There are a few changes from the first go around:
There will be a specific topic for this one. Last time we were loosey goosey so this time we’re going to change it up a bit. The 1HDC is meant to be fun and to provide you with an opportunity to flex your concept development skills. We will continually play with the topic(s) to help promote this concept.
Top 5 Designs will be selected through forum voting only. No voting for one’s self (we all know you love your own design). This should, hopefully, open some good constructive dialogue as well. Winner will be selected and announced by Core77 Administration.
Voting Criteria will be as follows:
A. Quality of product concept
B. Quality of Form Development
C. Craftsmanship of Presentation
D. Within Time limit
Prizes will be provided by Core77. Grand Prize: A Nintendo Wii - yes, you read that correctly.
I forgot that today is a holiday here in BC (Canada) and I am going to go play in the mountains. I am opening the doors for submissions now. Doors will close at the same time next Monday.
I will open up a Photos forum and a voting forum. Let’s keep general discussion and questions in here.
can we post more than one submission? didnt read anything about that in the rules/overview? just curious… thought of another concept (maybe) while in the shower tonite.
I’ve been really impressed with the quality of the presentations. The sketching of some, as expected, is outstanding. I feel like I need a handicap now hehe.
Something I find interesting is how so many concepts approach the problem from the fascist (or socialist now that I think of it) approach. That is, either regulating how much water gets used or nagging the user. I hope someone gets inspired from this criticism, because if a design benefited the user and reduced the water use, that would be gold!
I agree with this. Lets remember that the user has to buy what you are designing!!!
I don’t think anybody is going to pay for a product that will force you to spend less water in a painful way. Reducing water use and at the same time improving the user experience would be great.
People dont think of water untill it is not comming out of the tap, then OH MY GHOD the plumber is now he most popular person on the planet. A good supply of water is what used to make empires, and for many the ultimate in luxruy.
or until they pay $2.00 per Liter for a bottle of it, while bitching about the price of gas.
indeed. funny how even the concept of water conservation would be totally different if approached from a social/ecological point of view from a country that doesnt have a supply of good clean drinking water.
to the original comment about facist/socialist solutions, i do certainly also notice a theme of control by force in some of the concepts. perhaps masochistic even. “use your water well, or you’ll be burned/frozed/flooded/electro-shocked/punished”
i guess as a concept theres something be to said for the hard road, but i as well would guess that a consumer wouldnt pay to be lectured/cut-off.
Some thoughts on the entries. First off a lot of very good ones some that have some problems (this is not diss’ing them just pointing out tech issues) that if addressed might allow them to be turned into real products.
Using grey water to flush toilet, all of these need to adress how the float works in the tank. The way the system works now is the float uses potable water to refill the system to make it ready for next use, so for a grey water system to realy be usable and not just go down the over flow tube that has to be adressed. One way would be to use a combination of a sloan type tankless flush valve in combination with the tank. If the tank is NOT full of gray water for a flush then the sloan would do the job. If this system was used a much larger gray water holding tank can be speced, perhaps ala the old high tank units where10-20-30 gallons of gray water is pumped up to it.
The flooding shower basin, what if your roomie is hung over or other wise distracted…lots of water on the floor.
3 Instant shower, sorry but demand heaters have been around for 20 years, still used on many boats.
Reminder products (drains, plugs, displays etc) they work for a bit but soon its just visual noise and you dont even see it. That said most would sell well for a bit of time but will not really solve the problem.
5 Max the duck, lots of smart faucets out there that allow you to set the exxact temp you want and hold it. Max has a “cute” factor, but not a real solution.
Smart shower, only viable in high end new construction or re models. The need to learn a language to operate is problematic and you might as well go for broke and use voice reconition.
7 tooth brush, fine idea but i think people would get wonky over the “tank” becoming a petre dish for bateria from your mouth
Skinnys distance sensor shower, quite good but needs some timer to prevent people from just standing in the sensor area.
9 awa64s timer, nice retro fitable but I wonder how long people will use it, after a time its just “oh well not today”.
benz119 not bad, what about the elderly or young with lower grip strenth, how about just putting a rubber band over it to defete the switch?
I don’t know how many people are familiar with Kohler’s DTV shower. You can adjust almost everything on this bad boy. Temperature, where the water is spraying from. It’s huge fun! There may even be a timer function or something that tells you how much water you’ve used.