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Minar

As our offices enter our houses, the blur of work and personal lives creates a challenge for many and hence the need arises to store items from both these worlds. Minar is a floor to ceiling storage solution that brings these worlds together in one form.

Advisor

Linda Celentan

Role

Design Research

Rendering

Year

2021

Outcome

Furniture

Research

The Dec 2020 New Yorker cover, aptly painted an image of the life we lead in these unprecedented times. The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus has altered human behavior drastically. We live our perfect lives on camera, whilst surrounded by clutter just out of its view. As our work and personal lives collide, a need for storing item from these spaces arises as well.

Current storage solutions are primarily utilitarian and somewhat monotonous visages or predominantly rectilinear forms and often inadequate for the user's purposes.

Conceptualization

To break away from current forms, early inspiration came from Castelli’s Componibili storage and Frank Gallagher’s 8 tier Rotabin for retail. Alongside that, living spaces spaces and hardware storage for various activities were looked into via interviews and observational studies.

 

Through a plethora of mood boards, sketches in 2d and 3d a circular revolving storage somewhat reminiscent of Japanese Zen sand gardens was landed upon. Since the form came from a 3D idea, scaled mock-ups were made to better understand proportions and discover potential design opportunities

Mun Mirror

Social

Lighting

Reviv-e

Regenerative

Lighting

Graphia

Diagnostic Toolkit

Design for

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Outcome

The all-in-one storage solution, Minar allows for a variety of configurations and user preferences whilst incorporating work and personal life in an aesthetic way.

Prototype

  1. Minar is attached to the ceiling with a rubberized aluminum plate which is pushed into place by rotating a metal sleeve under in order to not scuff the ceiling. This leads to a compression in the spring loaded silicon feet under the bottom most drawer, thus creating a friction and compression fit which secure the unit in place. The pipe will be 5052 aluminum which is the best blend of weight to strength as well as has high fatigue strength.

  2. All drawers have angle restricting roller bearings and are stacked on one another on an aluminum pipe. The cylindrical bearings allow for shock absorption and prevent misalignment over time. The translucent rings on each drawer are interchangeable and can be arranged as per user needs in order to demarcate which drawer contains what. Beneath each ring is a set of magnets to allow Minar to always achieve a snap fit to the closed position.

  3. The production of Minar is envisioned to be done via 2 part molds with draft angles, in Green Cast acrylic. This material was selected as it is made from recycled acrylic and can be recycled again through proper waste disposal streams. It also comes in a variety of colors, textures and finishes to help the user accommodate Minar as per their liking.

Details

The size of Minar was dictated by that of a file folder and subsequently by what one would store in it. To accommodate both work and household items, careful considerations were made as to the depth of the drawers and the divisions inside them. Objects like pens and pins and scales can be stored in tandem with toys and pillows and packets of potato chips.

Minar offers the user full customization and provides essentials at a hand's distance:

  • Slimmer sections for flat items

  • ​Deep bins for larger items​​​​​​​​

  • Inset charging ports​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • Ground illumination LEDs​​​​​​