Project One: Designing for Disasters

Product Poster


Scenario Storyboard


Orthographic Drawings

Rationale

The Heat Flask is an insulated food or beverage container. It is targeted at single-person households in urban areas of China.

It works on vacuum technology which eliminates temperature change by creating an airless vacuum space between two stainless steel walls. The inner portion consists of a multi-layered stainless steel structure, with a layer of carbon steel that has high heat conductivity.

This combination enables heat to be absorbed and conducted quickly, retaining that heat for as long as possible. The carbon steel, heat retaining plate means that it can also be heated by an induction element. The outer container has patented vacuum insulation to prevent heat loss. This system is equally capable of retaining heat or cold efficiently.
It conveniently warms its contents on a stove top, while ensuring that there is only a heat loss of 3-4 degrees C per hour.

Its main body has more thinly insulated walls which keep the exterior of the flask warm, allowing the user to grip the pot warm up his or her hands, preventing Frostbite, which is a very common and real danger in times of a blizzard or snow storm.

In times of a blizzard or a snow storm, where energy has to be rationed, the Heat Flask comes in handy as it allows more to be achieved, with less, conserving commodities. The Heat Flask is especially useful in such times, as it allows for gas and energy to depleted at a slower rate as a shorter period of time is needed for cooking. It can however, also be used in Summer, to keep food and beverages cool.

Reflection

The journey through Project One: Designing for Disasters has definitely not been an easy one.

My group initially decided upon Afghanistan as our chosen country which was struck by a blizzard as it was the most severely affected of the lot. However, after the first week, it became clear that obtaining information and research about the Afghanistan, let alone the blizzard of 2008 was next to impossible. Information that we did manage to gather from articles online were vague and unreliable.

After the first week, we did however, have a better grasp of what a blizzard was and what it entailed. We moved on to China as our chosen country to focus on and dove into doing more research: The events that transpired, how the country handled it, etc. We managed to get two interviews, one from Perisher Valley and one from China. Both interviews were extremely informative and really guided us onto the right paths.

As the weeks went by, we stopped working in groups and went on to do our individual concepts, some of which I struggled with. My initial ideas included a Heatmug, Heatpick and Heatpod, as I felt one of the most important and integral factors of blizzard rescue are centered around preventing Hypothermia and Frostbite. My initial concepts needed heaps of work and more research, I was unclear of my target audience.

More weeks lapsed and with more ideas churned out, I eventually chose a concept and decided to move on with it. My chosen idea was a food or beverage container that could sit on a stove. It was targeted at single-person households living in urban areas.

This container would be insulated with vacuum technology, allowing heat to be retained efficiently. This allowed the user to save his or her fuel and energy, as the contents of the container stayed warmer for longer. On top of that, the sides of the main body of the container kept one's hands warmed as they were a little less thinner than the rest of the product, preventing frostbite.

I played with different forms and shapes, but finally decided to go with a simple for that was sturdy and solid.