Any Port In The Storm
Power access in public spaces
Anyone who has traveled through an airport over the past 10 years will be familiar with the sight of people sat on the floor so they can be near a power outlet. They’re using computers, talking on phones, even sleeping, next to their devices as they charge. It drives airport facilities management people nuts and is really not so great for the poor folks on the floor.
Recent travellers will no doubt be familiar with the wide variety of scenarios on offer to solve the above problem — essentially creating a port in the storm.
These succeed in varying ways. They are sometimes stand alone products positioned near other pieces of furniture or are the result of strange marriages between seemingly mismatched products, brought together as best they can to simply solve a functional problem without clear thought or even opportunity for visual or functional integration.
There may be some wisdom in these approaches, in that the integration of technology and furniture is always fraught with trouble so keeping them separate or relying entirely on commercially available construction hardware might be a good idea. Technology is always obsolete and being replaced/upgraded long before the furniture it’s integrated with, outlives its functional life. So the wrong kind of integration can actually create more waste and less functionality than intended.
Our recent collaboration with Arconas focussed on creating a collection of products that aim to address power delivery in a way that puts it where it is needed, where it can be found through thoughtless acts and also to mitigate against the inevitable evolutions in technology, allowing for updates without making the furniture obsolete.
The InPowerHub was conceived to locate power and give a sense of place (a port in the storm) while waiting and working while charging. This tends to be a short term activity for the most part and as such doesn’t necessarily need corresponding seating. It is composed of a wall mounted shelf coupled with sound attenuating surfaces and a specifically developed and universal, internationally configurable power delivery device.
The depth of the shelf gives the user a usable amount of space and creates a comfortable distance from the wall to not feel hemmed in and also not so deep that it pushes into the thoroughfare. The acoustic properties of the back drop offers some respite for the noise of public spaces and the swept edges locate users toward the corners to personalize it slightly and offer some articulation of the form when they are ganged together. The shelf can be mounted at 3 heights to ensure accessibility for all.
A key component of this project was the creating of the power delivery device, what Arconas call the InPower3. The work of our office centres on furniture. But we are an industrial design office, and as such do work on projects in other categories. When looking into this project, our client rightly had questions about our fit for a project like this given that electronic products are not core to our work. We have developed electronic products before, so that helped, but the clincher for them was that we possess a very clear perspective on systems furniture. If you create a box that delivers power, what do you do with it? where does it mount? how does it get used and updated and repaired when needed without impacting the furniture?
The designed power unit uses an international interface allowing AC power types for all regions and provides USB-C power, the evolving power standard for DC charging. Should any of these change, the device can be updated. The integration of these 2 products essentially creates a ‘loose’ integration relying on form and finish, through a variable interface plate for mounting, making it very reconfigurable and upgradable.
So as travellers’ need for power grows and evolves (AC to DC), products like this can create the port in the storm and hopefully make the experience a little nicer for everyone.
