Interactive Environment projects installed

News

Published: 31 Jan 2019

TU Delft master students of the Interactive Environment minor presented and installed six projects on office furnishing at AMS Institute on January 23rd.

“Interactive environments” describe a new kind of environments, with elements that dynamically “interact” with one another and with people.

Such environments may have many different functions, but what they have in common is the use of digital technology to enable them to interact with people. The goal of the prototypes installed at AMS Institute is therefore to stimulate cooperation and knowledge sharing in office environments, and all together, to create a smart and interactive ecosystem.

Here are the projects currently on display:

The CoZone

CoZone aims to create a happy medium between the flexibility of the modern workplace and the personalisation present in the cubicles of yesterday. The mobil pegboard card can be moved and repositioned throughout the floor, and employees can choose to personalize it or just use a hook to hang their coats. It offers employee a functional and fun way to customise and interact with their workspace.

Timer Gemma

The personal timer Gemma helps you organize your work and keeps you active. The timer has two sides, a break side and a task side, and the colours change according to the worker's activity. As it is visible to everyone, Gemma insures a more efficient and flexible working space with a good overview for everyone.

The Community Garden

Set in the middle of the AMS office, the Community Garden is an abstracted jungle of cocoon shaped lamps and upside down hanging plants. This unique immersive environment allows employees to enjoy a meaningful social break or take time for themselves and even take care of the plants!

Topo

This interactive map of Amsterdam serves as a platform for knowledge exchange between co-workers as well as visitors. Topo visualizes all current and former AMS Institute's projects in the city. It’s also an easily recognizable meeting point, perfect to receive guests and get them acquainted with AMS Institute's activities.

Meet

Meet is a two-part modular device, situated both inside and outside the meeting room. One module is connected to the office's meeting rooms booking system, the other module enables timing and planning of the meeting. It therefore allows users to increase productivity both in- and outside the meeting room.

Finally, "Membrain" collects the data of all the above prototypes in the smart office ecosystem. The data are then translated into both light and motion to communicate information to people within the AMS Institute building.

The end result of the Interactive Environments minor was a collection of 6 connected product concepts to stimulate people in a flex-working office to share knowledge and to collaborate.

During the coming months, AMS staff will actually experience working in this living lab.
All these prototypes will gather data of their use and of the office environment. Using these data, several master students will carry out research and improvements to the prototypes at a later stage.

Curious about working in this interactive environment? Come check it out at our office, on the 2nd floor of the building.

Want to know more or looking to collaborate?

Tomasz Jaskiewicz

Assistant Professor - Industrial Design