It’s a new year and a new feature.  A weekly recap of new posts on e2d2.  Last week showed an interesting trend of low tech interactives that transform a space.  This just goes to show that it doesn’t take a mobile device and an app to engage guests.  The first post was the Obliteration Room.
Kids were given stickers to transform this stark white room.A similar transformation occurred  with the Room of Heights where guests were asked to write on a wall.  Depending on their height, they would write at a different level and that created a beautiful stripe across the space.
Guests write on the walls to create a bold horizontal stripe.Also using pens, this installation by Karina Smigla-Bobinski uses hundreds of ink pens affixed to a giant balloon and guests are allowed to push the balloon around the room to forever change the nature of the space. 

These examples are a great reminder that the tools to tell a story don’t need to be the latest technological gizmo, they just need to be the right tool for the job at hand.  And this same thinking can actually be applied to architecture.  Do you ever find yourself asking, “What is the best architectural cue to describe this part of the story”?  The answer? Skeuomorph Design.  The Wikipedia definition is great:

“A derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original. Skeuomorphs may be deliberately employed to make the new look comfortably old and familiar”.

A great example is a commentary on the use of materials on the original iPod by Frog Design’s Luke Williams.  The iPod and the Bathtub outlines how Apple used chrome and glossy white materials that both echo the cleanliness of a bathroom to remind users that inside the box was an equally simple, clean and easy interface. So next time you are trying to find that just right material or shape, look to the past and think about what forms in our collective consciousness reflect that idea.