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Reflections on architecture

MLN Collaboration & Network Event

February 16th, 2015

MLN Collaboration & Network Event

As part of the Maker Library Network we recently carried out a short but intensive period of research to identify significant problems affecting local small scale charities.

We quickly identified Artlink as a very worthwhile charity based in Edinburgh to work with and asked them to provide us with their top problems that require a practical solution.

Artlink are an arts and disability organisation established in 1984 with an aim to increase opportunities to take part in the arts for those who experience disadvantage or disability in the East of Scotland.

We then sent out a call to the network to provide design solutions to the following problem:

There is a lack of adaptable resources which can be used by one or more people who don’t tend to engage with many group activities in a centre for complex needs.

With the focus being an object or series of objects that reacts based on and is shaped by the interests and sensory preferences of the person(s) using it.

The winning submission was by South African based Thingking who proposed an interactive table with basic shapes that when touched projects various patterns, sounds & vibrations on an adjacent surface.

So on the 17th Feb 2015 we'll be taking our mobile maker library to MAKLab's new micro-manufacturing facilities at Commerce Street in Glasgow whwere ourselves, Makeworks and Maklab alongside representatives from Artlink will attempt to prototype the proposal. The solutions and outcomes from the event will then be exhibited and their design made available open source on the MLN.

The aim is to utilise the Maker Library Network and combine the skills, imagination and facilities of its members to deliver a meaningful and focused tangible output which is scalable and has the potential to deliver a wider social benefit.

We are also keen to open up the discussion about accessible design which as we’ve already come to realise is very challenging. So please let us know if you have any comments or ideas.

 

 

 

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