A sample of CAD rendering done in PhotoView360 and V-Ray Next for Rhino. The products are collections I have helped to develop and design as part of the development team at Tenzo AB.
Project: Fastener-free dining table suitable for delivering to downtown high-rise apartments in Vancouver.
Constraints: Client wanted a design that had no additional fasteners - the focus is on clean and honest joinery. Material must be local alder wood from Vancouver Metro area. The technical solution must allow gravity to resolve its own structure.
Research insight: During development of the concept, we discovered that the choke point between warehouse and end consumer was the size of a standard elevator in downtown Vancouver apartments - the same area of town where the premium consumer segment could be expected to have their residences and offices. This limiting factor influenced the proportions and dimensions of the tabletop and the way we ended up designing the method of assembly. This consideration led to an additional constraint of a flat-pack design to fit a standard 8ft tall elevator.
Execution: Each leg has three contact points with the tabletop for maximum stability. Each leg has two prongs bent in a gentle curve allowing a triangular spread of contact points to the tabletop and resolve with a mortise-and-tenon joint. The angle of approach of the bent legs allows for entry into the mortise in the tabletop, but once assembled the weight of the table applies perpendicular pressure to the tenon, preventing it from coming undone. Disassembly is possible by flipping the table over and pulling the legs out. Bending was achieved by taking rectangular profiled lengths of alder and ripping them to 3.5mm thicknesses with a very thin saw blade, and laminating them back together on a curve jig. The sheets were kept in the same order to preserve the grain detail. The end result was bent leg details that appeared to be an intact piece of solid wood.
Description:
A dining table positioned for the premium market, intended to highlight the social importance of coming together to share meals and company. Client brief mentioned keywords such as long-table, and communal dining in Scandinavian-inspired contemporary living spaces in downtown Vancouver.
Gravity resolves the structure of the table without the use of hardware/fasteners to join the legs securely and cleanly to the table top. Local alder wood was used for its ability to balance strength, flexibility, and warm tactility, while expressing a subtle and clean visual grain texture.
The Trapeze table disassembles easily by utilizing the natural flexibility of wood to load and release tension through good wood joinery.
DEVELOPMENT NOTES:
The tabletop measures just under 200cm in length and 85cm in width, and the legs are meant to be angled into the recesses and geometrically lock in place without using screws or other pieces of hardware. This approach resonated positively with the client and we were able to signal that “premium luxury” and “efficient flatpacking” were not mutually exclusive terms for positioning a product in that segment.
Designed and produced by Julian Araneta, Georgia Mackenzie-Macpherson, and Stephanie Tong.
Malmö FF grundades 1910 och är genom tiderna Sveriges mest framgångsrika lag. Under de senaste 109 åren har klubbens matchtröjor utvecklats från den rödvitrandiga rugbytröjan till den välkända himmelsblå.
Detta projekt, i samarbete med MFF Supporterhuset, visar matchtröjans förändring genom tiderna där funktion och stil har ändrats i takt med tidens mode och textila tekniker.
Bilden lanserades den 21:a mars 2019 på Supporterhusets Utställning “Matchtröjan - Historia, nutid och identitet”. Under eventet visades ett 60-tal originaltröjor och Erik Niva föreläste om tröjornas spännande historia.
Stort tack till Mikael Jönsson, Henrik Larsson och Linus Larsson
A clean block of wood is sliced into segments by knives that seem to float in midair. Magic.
The Slice Knifeblock is functional and aesthetic simplicity in a clean and sharp form. Place the pride and joy of your kitchen tools on display without compromising the safety of your hands, nor your knives.
THE BUSINESS CASE:
The brief was simply delivered in that there was an opportunity to place a wood-based product in store at the $50 retail price level within home interior products. With the emerging trend of serious home chefs and the proliferation of prosumer kitchen tools, we found an opportunity within this segment for a holder that could both securely store and beautifully display kitchen knives while keeping them accessible when needed. With simple production processes and assembly steps, costs during manufacturing were kept to a minimum and scaling up to large batch production was straightforward for most suppliers to comply with. The resulting pitch to Make Vancouver, the retail shop interested in carrying the product, ensured a positive profit margin for all stakeholders throughout the supply chain.
In hindsight, a $50 retail price tag was found to be on the low end. A higher retail price would not have been detrimental to the product’s positioning as a premium home interior item.
Produced for and sold profitably by Vancouver Special. Designed by Julian Araneta, Marcela Gutierrez, and Eunji Kim.
This is my design thesis research undertaking that highlights the connections between human population displacement in the event of natural or anthropogenic disaster scenarios. Through statistical analysis of federal and provincial operations within disaster preparedness, my research led me to exploring local neighbourhood outreach initiatives. My findings shed light on the underlying potential for municipalities and neighbourhoods to respond to disaster in their areas and remain resilient during the crucial first few days. On top of increasing the odds of survival during a disaster, this bolstering of community resilience has the added benefit of creating stronger bonds between neighbours and, in the event of disaster, a higher likelihood that rescue operations can focus primarily on the harder hit areas as more neighbourhoods operate in a higher degree of independence. The research culminated in the design of a community action plan focused on preventive measures and the use of household items already available to a large number of locals in the Vancouver area.
Statistics gleaned from Parks Canada, the Canadian tourism branch, and sales performance figures within the outdoor and recreation industry in Canada and especially in coastal areas such as Vancouver and Vancouver Island show that over 65% of residents engage in some form of physical activity and engage with nature and the outdoors on a regular basis every year. Of those 65%, an overwhelming majority describe themselves as hikers and/or campers, and this is backed up by the sales statistics of tents, hiking boots, sleeping bags, and other outdoor preparedness products over the period of 2011-2014. Since 2014 the outdoor market in North America has been on a track to grow at least 5% over the long term with over USD 5.5 billion projected by 2020 (and as of this writing in Q1 2021 the estimated size of the N American outdoor market is at USD 6.6 billion).
Using these figures as the basis for finding design opportunities, the project turned to local community initiatives - both volunteer and government funded - to increase disaster preparedness and awareness especially in the most at-risk areas of the core of Greater Vancouver Area. The city, although situated geographically in a spot unlikely to be devastated by tsunamis, is nonetheless vulnerable to landslides and rising sea levels that would instantaneously affect hundreds of thousands of residents due to the population density in these pockets. Within the at-risk neighbourhoods are some shining beacons of exemplary community outreach action involving local volunteers who take stock of disaster meeting points for residents, availability of shared resources such as food, warmth, portable shelter, etc and with a handful of groups already relying on the donation of used outdoor gear from local residents in order to bolster community centres with emergency supplies.
Taking their lead as example, I found the opportunity to provide indoor storage solutions for outdoor gear in order to encourage residents to consider products to furnish their homes with that allowed them to keep their outdoor gear within easy reach. A survey of over 40 participants responded with information about the way they store their outdoor gear, where in the home, and what kind of outdoor gear they have. They also responded to the frequency of engagement with nature in their spare time, and the survey results reflected the statistics provided by Parks Canada from previous years.
The biggest hurdle to convincing Vancouver residents to stow their outdoor gear in the main living area of the home was described as being several factors: one, it was unsightly. Two, in the context of disaster preparedness, nobody wants to be staring at their emergency kit everyday. The optimal solution would be easy to reach storage that was hidden in plain sight.
A range of products were proposed to satisfy the different scenarios reflective of the kinds of homes in the most at-risk areas of downtown Vancouver: multiple-family dwellings and high-rise apartments, rental units, and townhouses.
Backpack “Handa” - the Tagalog word for “ready”, is the quintessential bug-out-bag for the avid outdoorsperson who might already have a go-bag behind the door or in the closet. The bag is a statement piece of the identity of this kind of consumer as a “prepper” - proudly showing their ability to simply grab-and-go in the event of emergency.
Beacon ceiling storage lamp - the Beacon is a lamp with five compartments meant to stow away emergency items for warmth and nutrition such as dry foods, water, sleeping bags and warm clothes. Mounted via a pulley and cable system, the lamp can be lowered to access the storage compartments and raised to keep it out of the way. The bottom face of the lamp has a dimmable set of LED panels to provide a range of lighting solutions for the room.
Medicine Cabinet / Go-Bag - meant to be a wall-hung solution that hides emergency kits in plain sight, the Medicine Cabinet is a slim, fabric-wrapped shelf that can quickly be converted to a rudimentary backpack or dismounted from the wall and thrown in the back of a car for easy transport of small important items such as medication, emergency blankets, tools, etc. The fabric is seamed, draped, and pleated in a way that is both pleasing to the viewer and functional as a means of creating stuff pockets for mobile electronics and quick-access items like hand tools or bandages.
My advisory panel encouraged me to focus on the backpack as a representative item of the collection. Asking the question of "what makes home feel like home?", the Handa backpack functions as a wall-mounted shelving unit that blends seamlessly within the home environment, and can accommodate your tent, sleeping bag, first aid kid, and extra jackets or blankets. In case of emergency and the need to evacuate, the Handa can be pulled off the wall quickly, its backpack straps accessed with ease, and evacuation with basic shelter and warmth can be facilitated in less than a few minutes.
Focusing on the local neighbourhoods within the Metro Vancouver region, the implementation of the Handa backpack within the downtown core - Gastown, Yaletown, and Olympic Village - areas composed of high-rise apartments and mostly single- or double-occupancy units, provide the opportunity for these areas to boost their collective resilience in the face of disaster or displacement. In a region that is at risk of flood, landslides and other disastrous scenarios in the event of a widely agreed upon inevitable near-future earthquake, the Handa is a valuable paradigm shift in the way outdoor gear is stored within the home. Rather than placing camping gear in a basement storage locker or an offsite storage unit, these items can be organized and placed securely within the main living environment.
Finally, the Handa encourages the use of what is already in our possession; the importance of this factor cannot be undervalued. As a difficult conversation to have, disaster preparedness is never at the forefront of our minds, and a subtle and gentle reminder that you already have what you need to keep warm and safe, is the best peace of mind that one can have in the event of an emergency.
Resilient Communities Through Improved Emergency Preparedness
When travelling for pleasure in new places, sometimes the GPS - known for its efficiency in directing from point A to point B - can take away from the experience of discovering memorable details and experiences that may serve for inspiration later on.
Periscape is a smart device and app for the adventurous traveler. The watch can be worn on the wrist, or mounted to a bicycle, motorbike, or automobile. By displaying a large, digital image of an arrow in the middle of the watch face, the device directs you in the general direction you need to go. How you get there is up to you and your own pace.
Project: Cork as a material in furniture
Constraint: Use discarded wine corks in a way that creates a functional design that can be used as a component in furniture.
Execution: Ground wine corks mixed with a low VOC clear resin, pressed and shaped to create a pressure-fit tenon joint that is disassemblable. The same qualities of the cork that are used for stopping wine bottles were employed in a similar fashion to create a snug and secure tenon joint for the legs of the stool.
Description: The Corky stool utilizes a unique cork compression tenon to achieve a snug fit. The resulting joint is strong and solid, and the cork material showing through adds a clean and harmonious contrast to the wood. The stool packs flat and can be disassembled and reassembled without special tools.
Recycled wine corks were ground to different sizes using an upcycled commercial coffee bean grinder. After a lengthy and extensive research phase, low-VOC bioresin was mixed with the cork and pressed to form the tenon. The bioresin holds the cork grounds together like a glue without compromising the compressible material properties of the cork.
Designed by Julian Araneta, Paul Erdmer, Evan Hutchinson, and Ryan Knott.
A visual narrative of process from R&D work for Plantiga Footwear. My role in this team was pattern and material design as a supplement to the team's overall exploration of mass customization in digital last design and technical problem solving in shoe assembly with integrated technology patented by Plantiga.
Plantiga is a startup tech company specializing in smart footwear and tracking athlete performance. Details and more information about the company can be found here. The objective of this research undertaking was to translate multiple data points detected by an array of force displacement sensors into a simple set that could be manipulated with ease.
The team found an opportunity to create a system capable of quickly generating a customizable digital shoe last tailored to the measurements of a user's foot. We also discovered a solution to embedding the force displacement sensors directly into the construction of the lower part of the shoe. At the end of the research period, our findings and recommendations were presented to Plantiga providing insight for their next stage of development.
This research team was composed of industrial design students from Emily Carr University of Art & Design's PMP Lab under the lead of Keith Doyle. Members of the team: Julian Araneta, X'Ch'e' Balam, Lauren Low, Peter Orlowsky, Bob Ross.
A collaborative studio project in 2013 between Emily Carr University's industrial design program and the University of Oregon's architecture program.
By far the largest and most complex undertaking in the history of this course, a kinetic roof structure with thermal transfer properties was proposed for a visitor centre in the desert region of Osoyoos, British Columbia. Situated by the meeting point of a flume and a larger moving body of water, the kinetic properties of the rooftop could be manipulated by an individual with the assistance of moving water to power the mechanism.
Aluminum and tempered glass panels, called "fingers", encase a volume of clear water that assist with absorbing heat from the sun when exposed during the daytime, and dissipate accumulated heat into the environment at night. The interior temperature of the visitor centre remains consistent throughout all hours of the day. Sliding insulated panels, called "shinsulators", shield the finger units from the sun or act to insulate accumulated energy from escaping during the evening. Each finger rotates on a large axle with the assistance of water as a counterweight to execute a dramatic, visually captivating gestural expression visible from all angles around the visitor centre.
Watch a video of the building in action.
Members of the group: Julian Araneta, Joseph Buccini, Ashleigh Fischer, Larry Ho, Evan Hutchinson, and Luke Larsen.
Slip-cast porcelain lamps designed with Luis Velazquez and Oskar Lundgren; Lund University, 2013-2014. Three unique lamps borne out of the same initial form foundation. Semi-translucent.
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