Open Tables Ecology Announced as Winner of Workspace Group Urbantine Project 2008

Open Tables Ecology by Working Architecture Group is the winner of the Workspace Group Urbantine Project in 2008. This application impressed judges in its detail, imagination and its engagement with the digital component of the brief.

Open Tables Ecology is a study in contemporary interaction theory, or Ubiquitous Computing.

Ubiquitous Computing is based upon using the particularities of real places and spaces to provide the basis for our interactions with digital media. This is the opposite of the old concept of ‘cyberspace’, or indeed the current experience of being on line, which is always the same where ever you are.

Open Tables is an installation that recycles real architectural objects (such as fireplaces, doors, windows etc), and combines them with open source aggregator software, digital media and interactive technologies to create a real time, three dimensional interface for interacting and working with RSS news feeds and the web. It is a physical space, which contains bridges to the web, and which facilitates the navigation, selection and creation of ideas - engaging both the body and the mind of the co-designer (formerly known as user).

WAG: Working Architecture Group are Jon Goodbun, Filip Visnjic and Cordula Weisser. WAG is an eco-innovative design and research practice, whose interests range from urbanism and ecology to architectural furniture and computer aided manufacture. Their portfolio includes residential, retail, exhibition, bar and branding projects, for clients including BBC, YMCA, German Embassy and British Museum.

For Open Tables, WAG are leading a cross-disciplinary design team, which interaction designer Alexander Kohlhofer and Fabio Barone (software developer) and Amalie Lauer (engineer) of Schumacher College.

Download the complete winning application (PDF)

Nous Gallery will be hosting an exhibition in early September showcasing the shortlisted competition applications and a preview of Open Tables Ecology.

The judges were overwhelmed by the standard of work and creativity; nearly 100 suitable entries were submitted from 19 different countries.

Shortlisted Entries:

Amenity Space ‘The Cabinet Room’, UK

Araki + Sasaki ‘SaShiMoNo’, Japan

Ar’Chic ‘The Jelly Box’, UK

CGC ‘The Mountain’, Denmark

labRAD The Netherlands

NAU ‘Sensual Immersion’, Switzerland

Nissen Adams ‘Inbox’, UK

Ocean ‘Minimal Membrane Tent’, UK

Situ Studio ‘Solar Pavilion 3’, USA