Alessi Teapot


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Tea and coffee service set integrating components traditionally found in a tea or coffee service into a singular, customized object

Posted: Jun 7th, 2010 / Last Edited: Jul 26th, 2011 Print

Description

  • Our Tea and Coffee Tower design presents a concept that allows for mass production and mass customization of a traditional household item—the tea/coffee service. The design retains the traditional notion of a teapot (spout/handle/body) and contains the components traditionally found in a tea or coffee service—vessel for beverage, creamer, and sugar service--in a singular, integrated object whose form can be varied/customized based on a set of functional and ergonomic preferences. While the Tea and Coffee Tower has been designed to establish a fluidity between its constituent components in a singular object, it has built into it another level of variability: the object can transform—the constituent parts contained in the singular form can come apart and fit back together again.

    Through our design exploration, we were able to establish a conceptual framework and design parameters that, theoretically, allows for infinite variations within the contained system set up for this specific design. The final form of the Tea/Coffee Tower can be varied to adapt to the specificity of four functional/ergonomic criteria: “handedness” of the consumer/user i.e. left or right handed individual; grip size of the consumer/user; preferred volume allowance for the beverage (i.e. a one cup service or a four cup service); and preferred volume allowance for the creamer. The primitive model used to design the variations of the object embodies the design rules for the object in a flexible environment that allows for the transformation of the object in an integrated (non-static) way without jeopardizing the integrity of the original design intent. So, for example, the designer/maker can push and pull on the baseline or datum model until a satisfactory resulting form that meets all of the specific functional/requirements of a consumer is achieved.

    While there can be multiple formal variations to any set of given preferences, it was our intent to allow the designer to retain final authorship over the final result for this particular design study. Furthermore, while this design concept posits limitless possibilities and powerful implications for mass production/mass customization, because this was a commission for Alessi, it was our decision to make this a more precious object by limiting the edition to only 100 possible variations. These 100 variations were established through statistical/market research. So, for example, because 13% of the population is left-handed, we made 13% of the Tea/Coffee Tower variations for left handed consumers. We also established variations that would allow for a broad range of grip sizes and anticipated volume preferences based on similar research.

  • Our Tea and Coffee Tower design presents a concept that allows for mass production and mass customization of a traditional household item—the tea/coffee service. The design retains the traditional notion of a teapot (spout/handle/body) and contains the components traditionally found in a tea or coffee service—vessel for beverage, creamer, and sugar service--in a singular, integrated object whose form can be varied/customized based on a set of functional and ergonomic preferences. While the Tea and Coffee Tower has been designed to establish a fluidity between its constituent components in a singular object, it has built into it another level of variability: the object can transform—the constituent parts contained in the singular form can come apart and fit back together again.

    Through our design exploration, we were able to establish a conceptual framework and design parameters that, theoretically, allows for infinite variations within the contained system set up for this specific design. The final form of the Tea/Coffee Tower can be varied to adapt to the specificity of four functional/ergonomic criteria: “handedness” of the consumer/user i.e. left or right handed individual; grip size of the consumer/user; preferred volume allowance for the beverage (i.e. a one cup service or a four cup service); and preferred volume allowance for the creamer. The primitive model used to design the variations of the object embodies the design rules for the object in a flexible environment that allows for the transformation of the object in an integrated (non-static) way without jeopardizing the integrity of the original design intent. So, for example, the designer/maker can push and pull on the baseline or datum model until a satisfactory resulting form that meets all of the specific functional/requirements of a consumer is achieved.

    While there can be multiple formal variations to any set of given preferences, it was our intent to allow the designer to retain final authorship over the final result for this particular design study. Furthermore, while this design concept posits limitless possibilities and powerful implications for mass production/mass customization, because this was a commission for Alessi, it was our decision to make this a more precious object by limiting the edition to only 100 possible variations. These 100 variations were established through statistical/market research. So, for example, because 13% of the population is left-handed, we made 13% of the Tea/Coffee Tower variations for left handed consumers. We also established variations that would allow for a broad range of grip sizes and anticipated volume preferences based on similar research.

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