Responsive Spaces Is Honored with the Bronze A' Design Award for Sounds of Welser Interactive Installation in Installation Design

Responsive Spaces honored for installation design by the international grand jury of the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 20, 2023 /DesignNewswire/ Sounds of Welser Interactive Installation by Responsive Spaces, designed for Welser Profile, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Installation Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The Bronze A' Design Award Explained

The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.

Regarding Sounds of Welser Interactive Installation

Welser Profile is a global provider of steel profiles. The company was looking for an interactive brand experience for its visitor center. Over 13 generations Welser Profile grew into a world leader in the industry. Therefore it made perfect sense for Responsive Spaces to build upon the very core of this success story and let the product be the hero. Real client products were used to build a steel organ, which aesthetically hints towards tradition and reacts to every human touch by offering a glimpse of the underlying magic through the creation of mystical soundscapes.

About Responsive Spaces

Responsive Spaces is a studio for creative technology, that creates and develops immersive and interactive brand experiences. Its tangible and walkable digital installations focus on immersive and interactive story telling and therefore combine any kind of digital worlds with physical places and locations. Recent projects range from trade shows, exhibitions and digital enhanced architecture to live-events and digital prototyping. Responsive Spaces takes pride in focusing on the story and the messages that ought to be delivered and then leverages almost any kind of digital technology to propel them to new heights.

Award Record

This recognition makes Responsive Spaces a winner of 7 A' Design Awards. The awards span the editions from 2017 - 2018 to 2022 - 2023 of the A' Design Award & Competition.

About the A' Interactive, Experiential and Immersive Design Installations Award

The A' Installation Design Award is an international installation design competition recognizing good installation designs by best installation designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to installation designers, experiential design studios, interactive design agencies and immersive technology experts from all countries. Entries typically include sculptural installations, light installations, sound installations, digital installations, kinetic installations and site-specific installations. Awarded interactive installation designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/installation

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/147550
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/147550
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!147550
Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/217352
Further Information from the Laureate: http://bit.ly/41wcl2K

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Sounds of Welser Interactive Installation
Function: Interactive Installation
Category: Installation Design
Discipline: Communication Design
Industry: Arts and Branding & Advertising
Colors: Black, Midnight Blue, Slate Blue and Rebecca Purple
Images: 5
Client: Welser Profile

The Recognition

Laureate: Responsive Spaces
Country: Austria
Recognition: Bronze A' Design Award
Edition: 2022 - 2023
Design ID: #147550

Credits

Team: Julian Reil
Image Credits: Photos / 3D Sketches / Sound: Julian Reil Video: Isabella Rogl (das narrativ), Manuel Bauer (das narrativ)

Design Details

Unique Properties: While The design of the installation resembles an organ, it is far more technical, with sophisticated capacitive sensors that respond to touch and a dynamic sound engine that changes its sets of instruments every other minute. One of the unique features of the installation is the way in which the technology is hidden, allowing visitors to focus on the tactile and sonic experience of interacting with the steel profiles. The capacitive sensors allowing for a precise and intuitive interaction with the product, while the dynamic sound engine creates a constantly changing soundscape that is unique and engaging.
Inspiration: As a global provider of steel profiles, Welser Profile was looking for an interactive brand experience for its visitor center. "The product is the hero" was the core idea of this installation. The history of Welser is a ongoing success story, which building upon made perfect sense. Real products were used to build this steel organ, which aesthetically hints towards tradition and reacts to every human touch by offering a glimpse of the underlying magic through creation of mystical soundscapes.
Research: Through a process of exploration and experimentation, an idea was settled upon for an interactive installation featuring an organ made entirely of real customer steel profiles from Welser Profile. Visitors would be able to touch the profiles to create various sounds.To bring the idea to fruition, prototypes were tested using various materials and production techniques. The result is an installation that combines advanced production technology with carefully selected materials and an intuitive design to create a truly immersive experience for visitors.
Challenge: An alloy coating was applied to each profile to prevent flash rusting and ensure durability. However, this presented a challenge as the alloy negatively impacted the profiles' electrical conductivity. Different alloys were meticulously tested until the best solution was found. The calibration of the sensors had to be consistent across all 18 profiles, which presented an additional challenge. The developed sensor system demanded attention to detail and a lot of testing under various conditions.
Realization and Technology: Developing the organ required a combination of advanced production technology and carefully selected materials. Hidden from the users, there are a PC, 2 speakers and a microcontroller. Capacitive sensors for each steel profile are triggered by touch through the change of its resistance. The profiles are electrically conductive but are insulated by a wooden base, which allows for safe and distinguishable interaction with them. 18 profiles result in 9 tones and two different octaves on each side.
Operation and Interaction: The organ installation is an interactive experience that allows visitors to explore and create sounds by touching real steel profiles. The sounds produced by the installation are constantly changing, and visitors can experiment with different combinations of touches to create their own unique soundscapes.
Project Duration and Location: The project launched in September 2021 in Gresten, Lower Austria in the Headquarter of Welser Profile and will be a permanent interactive installation.
Specifications: Dimensions: Width 4000 mm x Depth max. 1000 mm x Height max. 3400 mm
Keywords: interactive installation, sound installation, organ, soundscapes, touch installation