It’s been almost 3 years since I wrote Smarter Homes but my interest in the historical role of the home in our communal and societal decision-making hasn’t stopped. After working as Head of Labs at Bulb and doing research for Overlay (by ING Labs) I got really interested in the more administrative side of homes.… Continue reading Smart homes or smart paperwork?
Category: Cities
The world of (inconsistent) data
I left Bulb in late April 2019 and moved on to work with a team inside ING researching how financial institutions could utilise building data to develop a new generation of sustainability-led financial services until March this year. After working with Bulb, EDF & British Gas over the past 15 years, I certainly knew plenty… Continue reading The world of (inconsistent) data
Cities that make
I spent a couple of days in Liverpool this week, catching up with Adrian McEwen, an old friend, author, technical #iot consultant and founder of what I consider to be one of the most embedded and sustainable maker spaces in the North: DoES Liverpool. We talked a lot about what’s happening in his city and… Continue reading Cities that make
The why of the internet of things
(Writeup of a talk given at the IOT Summit in Dublin on June 22nd 2017 instead of slides) Good morning, Thank you for inviting me to share my perspectives on the internet of things. I wanted to talk about the why of the internet of things. As an industrial designer, I’ve always been fascinated with… Continue reading The why of the internet of things
Day 2 of Mozilla Open IOT Design Sprint: Farmnet
I’m in Anstruther (a small fishing village in Fife, Scotland) this week taking part in the second Mozilla Open IOT Studio design sprint. The whole week is organised by Michelle Thorne, the studio director and Jon Rogers who lives in the area. We’re working from an old church adjacent to a graveyard and there’s 40 of… Continue reading Day 2 of Mozilla Open IOT Design Sprint: Farmnet
From Tech City to City Gardens: the slow death of Shoreditch
About 2 years ago, I was making jokes and designed a tote bag when the government announced its Tech City program. I didn’t imagine that what would actually happen was that we would start to see the type of confused political interest that has led to proposed changes in planning laws. Maybe it’s because during… Continue reading From Tech City to City Gardens: the slow death of Shoreditch
On Shoreditch & informal innovation
View Working in London in a larger map I wrote a blog post 2 years ago about the Tech City announcement, then I wrote another blog post a year later. Because of this compulsion to write about Shoreditch and its transformation at the hand of the government and corporations, I was interviewed on Friday for… Continue reading On Shoreditch & informal innovation
Tech City UK: one year later
So it’s been a year since I wrote my long rant about Tech City UK. Someone asked me the other day what I thought about things now so I thought I’d write about it again. Silicon Roundabout / Tech City: it’s not about location Since November 2010, things haven’t changed much in Old Street, except… Continue reading Tech City UK: one year later
Say what you mean and read the book
A few weeks ago, I went to a lunch organised by 10 Downing Street hosted by Mother. This was well attended by some important members of the arts, education and advertising industries and Kieran Kumaria one of the advisors to George Osbourne ran the session. He started by stating that Mr Osbourne was a great… Continue reading Say what you mean and read the book
Deep City (the printed edition)
Giles Lane invited me to lead one of the days in the series of hands-on explorations called “City as Material” which resulted in Layered being published. I came into the Proboscis offices a few weeks later and decided to revise the Deep City talk I’d given at the Microsoft Social Symposium and put those thoughts… Continue reading Deep City (the printed edition)