Course: Project 2 (New Futures)
Type: Group project (Petr Dobiáš, Emma de Boer, Savanne Noijons)
Date: January 2023
Duration: ~15 weeks
Significance: User Experience, Smart Home Device, More-Than-Human-Centered, ESP32, Fusion 360, 3D Printing
In the future, climate change is becoming an increasingly relevant problem. With the weather becoming more volatile, extreme weather events capable of damaging the home become increasingly frequent. Project Tempestio focuses on alerting people about upcoming weather events, so they can prepare themselves and their homes.
Tempestio is a smart chandelier that combines rumbling sounds, striking light effects as well as flowy fabric motion to bring the experience of the upcoming weather to the home, before it comes. Tempestio is a way for the house to voice its concerns regarding upcoming extreme weather like hail, thunderstorms, or heat waves. Besides communicating weather predictions to protect the home and its inhabitants, the functionality of a stylish chandelier during calm weather remains.
Tempestio (working title ChandAlert) is a semester long project by three second-year ID students - me, Emma and Savanne.
The project was done as a part of the 'New Futures' squad, which is a section of TU/e's ID department dedicated to designing for future challenges, multi-modal interaction, as well as systemic collaboration between projects.
The following page provides a concise overview of the process that lead to the creation of this special chandelier.
The project's assigned theme is ‘Servicing the Smart Home’. To us, this meant making a design that serves the smart home or its inhabitants.
Based on this theme, we identified and explored different services that we could use to start the concept scoping process.
As a group, we discussed our visions, values, topics of interest and dislikes, which were then sorted on board.
This was a crucial step to find common areas of interest for the project's design goal and ensure we design something that all members have an interest in.
We discovered that each of us has very different interests.
...and combining them into a single project idea was a challenge on its own.
During the research of seasonal weather for the first, discarded, concept, we found that the weather conditions will increasingly fluctuate in the future. This motivated us to look at ‘the bigger picture’ and explore further weather-related problems.
The objective we chose was solving the difficulty of interpreting weather information.
How can we present weather data in a way that feels natural, is aesthetic and does not overwhelm the user with needless details?
A distinction was made between extreme weather and regular weather. Extreme weather would be less frequent and could damage the house. Regular weather does not need a warning as it continually changes without affecting the house much. After a voting session, the concepts on extreme weather were chosen and the design goal became “Informing the user on upcoming natural hazards through aesthetical, non-interactive home objects.”
During the discussion of our interests, we identified that we want to design a physical product. This physical product should have a function when the weather is normal, and not be intrusive. Objects such as a piano or a teapot set were considered, but the form of a chandelier was ultimately chosen.
This form has multiple characteristics that suit the intended function well. A chandelier can be placed at eye level, in a space that is visible to all of the inhabitants. It has a clear function when no weather hazard is predicted and gives us plenty of opportunities to be creative with its shape and overall design.
Having defined the product type to be designed, it was time to conduct some research on existing solutions. We found the following two projects to be useful sources of inspiration.
A way to physicalize the weather. This transparent box can manifest a representation the weather forecast at the current time, at any chosen location, using water.
An exhibit in the Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, Shylight is a moving installation that hovers calmly in the air, creating a very aesthetic effect.
Various different forms were explored. There were very few restrictions to the chandelier's form.
That said, one requirement was that each concept contains some form of moving mechanical parts, as that was one of our goals.
This concept sketch on the left illustrates the concept that stood out.
A chandelier that incorporates moving fabric to diffuse the light as well as emulate weather effects.
How can we make the fabric move?
To realize this design, a specific type of very light and silky fabric was needed. We tested the behavior of multiple different fabric samples.
Observing the fabric behavior provided us with important insights into how to design the mechanics of the design. A vertical tugging motion was chosen.
After further concepting, we landed on a design featuring 3 rings of different diameter that appear to float in the air.
After experimenting with different slopes of the rings, the inward facing slope variation (right) was chosen.
This shape was later enhanced by adding a curve to the outer side of each ring, as we wanted to keep the rounded design language consistent throughout the device.
The top ring would house the mechanics, electronics and lights, the middle ring would house more lights, and he bottom ring would hold the fabric.
From below, the symmetric pattern in which the lights are arranged is visible.
The light sources are split into groups of 5, as we consider odd numbers are more visually pleasing when arranged in a circle. For this, we found inspiration in many types of flower blossoms.
Modelling an object can be very easy. Making it manufacturable is typically a much harder and more detailed work.
There is only so much space on a 3D printer. The rings are therefore divided into hollow sections that are to be screwed together with bolts. Each section also has a cover that snap-fits in place.
The electronic components, consisting of the ESP32 board, a relay, a servo, a speaker, a step-down converter and most of the LEDs, are housed inside the top ring.
Since the ESP32 has WiFi connectivity, the chandelier was programmed to be controlled remotely via a web-server interface.
Overall, the physical prototype closely resembles the 3D model, as it is almost entirely 3D printable.
With the exception of electric wiring, Tempestio can be fully replicated based on these CAD files.
The LED strips are controlled with the help of FastLED LED animation library. Various effect such as falling rain droplets or lightning strikes were programmed using this method.
Tempestio could also serve as a platform for many more visual effects, as well as to complement the functionality of other smart devices of the house by, for instance, creating a certain ambiance in the room.
How does the prototype affect the behavior of adults before and during an extreme weather event?
To gain input on how users expect to behave with the product around them, four qualitative interviews were conducted.
Participants were asked to explain a scenario of what they consider to be extreme weather, and how they dealt with the situation. After this, the participants were asked to explain the scenario again, imagining the product present and working in their house.
Shylight. Studio Drift. (2023, February 14). Retrieved March 8, 2023, from https://studiodrift.com/work/shylight/
Project tempescope. (2022, November 10). Retrieved March 8, 2023, from https://www.tempescope.com/