Category: Internet of things

Women Interrupted: the untold stories of women in design and architecture. In researching my first book on smart homes I ended up uncovering a lot of women’s work. Work that wasn’t very well documented. Work that was largely forgotten. Then through my work travels, I kept visiting homes, museums, galleries where I would find out… Continue reading Women Interrupted: the untold stories of women in design and architecture.

How to organise diverse events : a production checklist Yesterday, the 4th edition of Ada’s List annual conference took place at the Financial Times building in London. I volunteered to produce it back in July and I wasn’t even in the country when it took part (holidaying / writing retreat for my new book). And everything… Continue reading How to organise diverse events : a production checklist

How green really: how measuring what happens inside a building is the ultimate Climate Change data challenge. I left my role as Head of Labs at Bulb in late April and moved on to work with Overlay a project incubated by ING Labs researching how financial institutions could utilise building data to develop a new… Continue reading How green really: how measuring what happens inside a building is the ultimate Climate Change data challenge.

Modern Love: how to teach design history In case you’ve been hiding under a rock you’ll have noticed it’s the 100 year anniversary of the Bauhaus this year. I graduated from a 4 years industrial design degree from the University of Montreal in 2004. I graduated knowing nothing about the Bauhaus and not only that but… Continue reading Modern Love: how to teach design history

On business travel (for women) I take anywhere between 40 and 70 flights a year. 90% of these are for work as I give talks around the world. Unlike George Clooney in Up in the Air, I’m a woman so packing is a completely different affair. It’s a niche expertise but I wanted to document how… Continue reading On business travel (for women)

Men’s fashion in the City In London, if you have even a passing interest in the sartorial you’ll find yourself with plenty to lust over. It’s not as good as my year spent in Milan in 2005–6 but much better than my uni years of Montreal winter wear and the abayas and kerkushas of my teenage… Continue reading Men’s fashion in the City

Making it!? (a writeup) Three months ago, Adrian McEwen and I were talking as we do about this and that. He’s been the co-founder of DoES Liverpool since 2011 and I started selling the Arduino in the UK in 2007. I never considered myself a maker but enabled others to become makers though my work running… Continue reading Making it!? (a writeup)

Starting tomorrow I kick off the first leg of a little tour of places across Europe that have inspired me for my book on Smart Homes (which you should totally order by the way). I’ll be interviewing people along the way and recording it all for an upcoming podcast, so fear not if you hate… Continue reading Rabbit holes & the convoluted history of modernism and home design.

An extending process In my book, I mention briefly the history of industrial design which I studied. It had never occurred to me to research the history of design education per se but this is fast becoming my newest obsession. I went up to Leeds last week and at the Henry Moore Institute, at the… Continue reading An extending process

Smarter Homes: how technology has changed your home life (an introduction) I’ve spent the last year writing a book on smart homes for Apress. It’s obviously not to get rich, but to explore some personal obsessions and share my findings in public. I’ve had the best time writing too, but I know that not everyone… Continue reading Smarter Homes: how technology has changed your home life (an introduction)