The Door Reimagined
Explore the future of how people will secure and pass between architectural spaces.
CHALLENGE:
The door hasn't really changed in the last 100 years or so, but it is time to shake things up. Create a prototype to demonstrate a vision of what the door could be in the next 100 years, with an emphasis on person/door interactions.
ACTION:
Using a knowledge of human centered design and product interaction, we took a step back and evaluated what a door symbolized. We then took that concept and transformed the way the concept of a door could be interacted with.
OUTCOME:
Going beyond just the door, we reimagined how architectural spaces are constrained. Rather than constricting people to flow through a doorway, we envisioned a future where people pass freely from space to space without hindrance.
The Design Process
Myself and a fellow master's degree student began the design process by carefully analyzing the design prompt. Doors aren't things we often think about beyond the utilitarian mindset of opening and closing them, so we looked for any clues or hints about which direction to go. We didn't find any. So we decided instead to step back and look beyond the initial prompt and investigate what makes a door a door.
While politely debating how to define a door in a technical sense (it gets complicated when one considers revolving doors and curtains), we came to the realization that doors cannot exist without walls. Walls are what define architectural spaces, and doors simply allow a person to pass through a wall. With this newfound appreciation for walls, we decided that the best way to reinvent the door was actually to reinvent the wall. This led us to the idea of creating a 'wall' that was only a wall when it needed to be. We named our idea the Invisi-wall.
Fabrication and Testing
Obviously, we couldn't make a magic portal for a practical project like this, so the challenge quickly became how to make a 'disappearing' wall a reality. To accomplish the disappearing affect, we made the Invisi-wall out of slats of acrylic that could be retracted upwards and out of the way. The slats were constrained to a foam core frame with guide rails, and each slat had a small horizontal tab at its end allowing us to lift the slats by hand to simulate the slats retracting out of the way.
An important aspect of the Invisi-wall concept is that it shouldn't feel confining like a normal wall does. Clear acrylic was used to accomplish this, but this made it difficult to maintain one of the key features of a door: controlling access to a space. We therefore included the ability to 'lock' the Invisi-wall, with faint red and green overhead lighting to confirm to users the status of the door.
The Finished Product
The finished product, which in this case was a simple, small-scale prototype, was proudly displayed in a small exposition alongside other teams' door concepts. The Invisi-wall got lots of attention because of its bizarre functionality, but people were quickly able to understand the concept and appreciate its intent. The Invisi-wall may never make its way into the architectural spaces of the future, but it was a valuable design exercise for showcasing how humans could interact with doors in a new and exciting way.
Project Photo Gallery
The Invisi-wall.
A key feature of the Invisi-wall is its transparency.
The finished product.
The Invisi-wall.