A few years ago, Scott Adams, author of comic strip Dilbert, approached IDEO to create Dilbert’s Ultimate Cubicle which addresses many of the issues connected with partition-based offices: lack of personal control, absence of privacy, inadequate space and tools, and so on.
The result is a modular cubicle that allows each worker to select the components from a “kit of parts” and personalize the space.
Practical considerations include modules for seats, computers, displays, and lights; more whimsical modules provide a hammock, an aquarium, and a hamster wheel.
The project won the 2002 IDEA Gold award.
Now Adams is designing Dilbert’s Ultimate House (DUH).
Together with tech-savvy fans, architects and energy experts he imagined an environmentally friendly virtual home.
The house isn’t real, but the technologies employed are available: rooftop solar panels, Energy Star appliances, ozone-safe evaporative coolers instead of air conditioning, legions of Roomba, and a home theater in the basement (not to mention an astronomical observatory shaped like Dilbert’s head).
Tours begin September 28 at dilbert.com.
From Popular Science.