UCLA IDEAs Lecture Series: March 10, 2015
GE Appliances: Micro-Living
Lou Lenzi, Design Director
Urbanization and down-sizing are two terms used to describe an emerging shift in residential housing in the US. In turn, this shift will fundamentally change how we interact with the appliances in our home, spurring new design and manufacturing techniques coupled with new purchase behaviors. This presentation will describe GE Appliances approach to addressing these challenges, including its use of a new cocreation lab and Microfactory to aid in its development.
For the past 3 years, the Design team at GE Appliances has been studying the increasing demand for high-density living spaces in the US, assessing the impact this trend will have on current product designs and exploring new design concepts that fundamentally reimagine how we design and manufacture home appliances to meet these new housing needs. Working prototypes are now being prepared for in-home evaluation in early 2015.
Lou Lenzi the Design Director at GE Appliances where leads a team of 22 designers responsible for all industrial design, user interface design, and user experience design activities for GE’s $5 billion major appliance business. Prior to joining GE Appliances in 2011, Lou held senior design leadership positions with IBM, RCA, Thomson, Audiovox, and GE Healthcare. Lou holds a BS in Industrial Design from the University of Cincinnati and is Fellow of the Industrial Design Society of America.
IDEAS LECTURE SERIES
The IDEAS Lecture Series charts a dynamic new future for architecture by engaging speakers from a broad range of disciplines. The series looks beyond the field’s traditional boundaries and explores topics arising from unexpected quarters—entertainment, automotive, aerospace, and tech industries—in order to explore rapidly emerging new technologies, possibilities for interdisciplinary growth, and the role of Los Angeles in the evolution of architecture. The Architecture and Urban Design IDEAS Lecture Series is generously supported by Paul and Herta Amir.
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