One can acquire certainty only by amputating inquiry.
~Marvin Minsky

BUILDING MATERIAL / SYSTEM / PRODUCT RESEARCH

The DTS Project House does not attempt to innovate by developing new technologies but rather innovation is achieved by how existing and already developing technologies are assembled and advanced. Thus, research specific to technology served three purposes: the first was to document the most advanced developments in known technologies, the second was to make the DTS design team aware of new experimental technologies, and thirdly was to identify developing technologies that the DTS Project House might help advance and evaluate.

The owners and design team conducted a variety of types of research from attending trade shows to attending specific product launches to reviewing public web sites and product data to visits to vendor’s showrooms and fabrication shops to discussions with vendor’s design and management teams to product testing to constructing mock-ups to participation in crowd funding campaigns to consulting with experts in specific technologies to inspecting and testing actual installations to discussions with end users.

In many areas of design and construction technology is ever changing and constantly improving. So, when does the necessary technology research process end? It is an extreme challenge to balance the need to make decisions so that construction can proceed apace with not specifying technology that will be considered obsolete by time it is actually installed and is operational. The fact that the DTS Project House is intended to be an integrated structure with every technology decision affecting other decisions makes it even more critical to make technology decisions at the right time. The owners and DTS design team have generally waited as long as possible to specify technology and have continued the research process to the absolute last instant erroring on the side of the right technology versus schedule.      

The end product of this research process was to assure the DTS Project team was thoroughly aware of the technology options available to implement the design intentions, but the research process was begun and driven with a documented criteria for judging and evaluating each area of technology researched. The criteria relevant to implementing design intentions was developed prior to commencing research of a particular area of technology as it critical that the design intent take precedence over the seductive qualities of many current technologies. The more technical evaluation criteria was refined and expanded as the process developed more information about each area of technology under consideration.

Trade Shows

mills studio and the owners visited general building industry trade shows and trade shows for very specific areas of technology. Trade shows provided an awareness of new materials and products coming to market and the most current advancements to products and devices already on the market. Trade shows offering an overview of material and product trends provide useful insights into general directions for technological innovation and help identify specific areas for more in-depth research, while also helping place very specific technologies in a wider context as no technology is significant in isolation.

Just as the back-in-forth between the universal and particular is important in design, the same back-and-forth is also important in accurately evaluating technology and avoiding the seductiveness of the unique and new. The entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell who founded Atari suggests one of the best ways to understand industry and innovation and then make useful cross connections among industries is to move to Las Vegas and for several months attend every trade show in every industry.

Thus, it was critical to attend a balance of general and specific trade shows and shows related to as many areas of technology as possible. Attending trade shows over time provides insights into what technologies the industry sees as viable and will spend the money to develop sufficiently to provide confidence for their inclusion into the DTS Project House.  

Examples of trade shows attended for specific technologies included Light Fair and IES for lighting, CEDIA for home automation, World of Concrete for concrete, Western Pool and Spa for pools and spas, and RE+ for photovoltaic and solar.

Product Launches

mills studio and the owners attended public and private product launches to keep up to date on the most current technological innovations offerings. One of the most significant technological product launches was for Tesla solar roof tiles. The owners attended Elon Musk’s personal launch of Tesla’s solar roof tiles and Power Wall 2 on a back-lot at Universal Studios.

Although Tesla roof tiles were not ultimately installed on the DTS Project House, Tesla’s entry into this market lead the DTS Project team to consider photovoltaic roof tiles and conduct in-depth research of Tesla’s  product and other domestic and international manufacturer’s products.

Public Websites / Videos / Product Data

mills studio and the owners diligently utilized publicly accessible websites and video channels of individuals, organizations, and specific vendors and manufacturers to gain real time information on industry trends and innovations in all aspects of technology. Competition among  manufacturers and sites to distinguish themselves and gain attention has lead to an increased quality, completeness, and usefulness of information easily available on websites and videos.

Among the most useful content of websites and video channels were reviews of products and technologies from the differing perspectives of the end user, the installer, or a technologist. The internet was used both actively to search for specific information and passively with website subscriptions providing notifications of developments in technology. Often, information in a review or an article provided a lead to other sources or areas of exploration that were not originally considered.

mills studio and the owners used the detailed product data provided by manufacturers and vendors to evaluate technologies and products for how well they met both the technical and non-technical intentions for the DTS Project House. Detailed product data and compliance specifications are now publicly available on most all products and devices, including detailed white papers on many. This information makes it possible to fully understand the implications of using the materials, products, and technologies under consideration and understand how they will or will not integrate with one another in larger systems.

It is most beneficial to combine information from manufacturers with evaluations by third parties and end users since it is necessary to be somewhat skeptical of unevaluated claims directly from the manufacturer. mills studio often found a correspondence between the quality and completeness of data (indicating the level of testing and a openness to third party evaluations) provided by a manufacturer and the quality of the product and / or technology.

Showrooms and Fabrication Shops

mills studio and the owners visited hundreds of showrooms and fabricator’s shops to see the impact of technology on the current offering of materials, products, and devices. These visits were intended to introduce unknown technologies and provide in-depth knowledge of specific technologies under consideration.      

Certain products greatly impacted by technology, such as exterior doors and sofa mobile backrests, involved visits to a dozen or more showrooms to see what innovations numerous alternative manufacturers provided, and some products were one of a kind manufactured by a single manufacturer.

Management and Design Teams

mills studio and the owners endeavored to talk directly to the management and design teams of companies manufacturing and or supplying technologies under consideration for installation in the DTS Project House. These discussions provided insights into the general directions of technological innovations and how these innovative companies were directing their specific innovations. These discussions helped the DTS Project team determine which industry innovations were likely to appeal to a mass market spurring further continued innovations and support versus which ones would appeal to a niche market unlikely to provide the economic incentives for continued support.

mills studio and the owners purposefully looked to incorporate technologies that were tested sufficiently to provide reliable operation but still in development so that the DTS Project House requirements might influence and enhance their continued innovations.

Testing

Once identified for possible inclusion in the DTS Project House, certain products, assemblies, and devices were tested to confirm they would properly integrate and that they would indeed align with the design intentions. Technologies such as security camera software, telephones, and Sonos speakers were pre-configured to evaluate their efficacy prior to final decisions regarding their inclusion. Devices like remotes were tested for fit in the hand, graphic readability, and charge life. “Assemblies” such as switched glass and short throw projectors were tested to determine if in combination they could perform in place of a television.

Mock-ups

mills studio constructed on-site mock-ups of various technologies proposed to be implemented in the finished DTS Project House. Mock-ups were used to test proposed materials and procedures for installation and evaluate how the actual results aligned with design intentions. Installation mock-ups offered the opportunity to not only evaluate the proposed installation details, but also look at alternative details to what is proposed. The shift from concept to drawing to full size installation does not always translate as expected so it is useful to consider as many alternatives at full scale as practicable.

Among the mock-ups constructed on site were an exposed concrete test wall, a stone filled gabion, and steel siding panel. The exposed concrete wall tested various formwork textures and formwork configurations. The gabion mock-up included a bay and horizontal beam filled with different sizes of stone and alternative sizes and attachment of “cages” holding the rock. The “metal siding” panel looks at different sizes of metal angles in different adjacencies and different attachments along with the possible mixture of wood with the metal.

   

Crowd Funding Campaigns

mills studio and the owners attempted to keep informed of the most current and innovative individual technological initiatives and ideas through accessing crowd funding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The owners made contributions to many product development efforts and where projects were fully funded, the owners received products for the DTS design team to further review and evaluate.

Among the projects of interest was “The Future of Home Security” by Abode, Peeple’s caller id for the front door, AirDog’s drone for Go Pro cameras, Docking Drawer, Black Sun’s revolutionary solar collector, a non-proprietary home automation system by Epiphany, Nebia shower heads using 70% less water, iOn capacitive switching, the Ninja Sphere, and a wifi switched glass film by Sonte.

Among the proposed initiatives of interest, many were fully funded and are now providing publicly available products and technologies, with some, such as Docking Drawer now considered industry leaders in their space. Both unfunded and funded proposals often initiated research into unconsidered areas of technological development.

Experts

mills studio and the owners actively sought experts in various areas of technology and solicited their input. These experts provided specialized experience that added to the conceptual and design knowledge of the project consultants. Experts that would not provide products for the project were chosen to provide impartial evaluations of considered technologies. These experts brought their biases based upon experience but had no self-interest influencing their recommendations.

Some experts were colleagues or friends, some were recommendations, and some were identified or listed as resources in the myriad of articles, reviews, and videos mills studio and the owners consulted. Some experts provided their expertise via their writings or speeches greatly expanding the number of available perspectives.    

Among the experts consulted were specialists in the manufacture of concrete, photovoltaic and energy storage installations, home automation, material sciences, concrete formwork, and green design.      

Installations

Wherever possible, mills studio and the owners visited installations in finished buildings to gain the knowledge that only direct experience in the context of a finished building could provide. Some installations were visited to experience the most current technological offerings and innovations, such as Robert Fortunato’s Green Idea House, and other installations were visited to experience specific materials and technologies under consideration, such as Tesla solar roof tile installation.

Among the many finished building installations visited were Dominus Winery (Napa Valley, Ca) and South Mountain Community Library (Phoenix, Az) for rock filled gabions; Goggle Charleston East and Bay View (Mountain View, Ca) for SunStyle photovoltaic roof tiles; the Getty Villa (Los Angeles, Ca) and Clyfford Still Museum (Denver, Co) for board formed concrete; numerous private residences (southern California) for exterior doors to KNX Basalte home automation to fiberglass swimming pools to photovoltaic panels; Armand Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, Ca) for lift up doors; Newport Beach Civic Center (Newport Beach, Ca) for stabilized decomposed granite walking paths; and Apple Chicago (Chicago, Ill) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles) for glass elevators; the Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, Mass) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art for exterior motorized shades; and Apple Union Square (San Francisco, Ca) and Apple at the Grove (Los Angeles, Ca) for stretched glass textile and stretched textile mirrored ceilings.   

End Users

mills studio and the owners sought to talk with end-users of as many contemplated technologies as possible to gain insights that only those who have lived with and repeatedly used a technology can provide. End users were contacted to find out how material and product assembly technologies, such as stone filled gabions, performed and aged over time and how interactive technologies, such as KNX, either simplified or complicated the user experience.

The most dispositive contact with end users were direct discussions, but sometimes contact was through reports and evaluations issued by end users, and sometimes it was simply the comments and reviews of end users on websites. Often, the input of end users raised issues both positive and negative that were unanticipated and could only be identified by intimate and prolonged use of the specific technology in the real world.       

The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.
~ Nolan Bushnell