http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/YoungPeople/CrimeAndJustice/TypesOfCrime/DG_10027666

This is a link to the directgov website, the official UK government website for citizens which has some key points about attacks and mugging.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/206

Love this short video by David Gallo and the images and videos he presents. It really shows the potential for bio-mimicry.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/27

Ross Lovegrove talks about his work and how he takes allot of his inspiration from nature.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/280
Really good teds talk by Robert Full who talks about bio-mimicry from an engineering point of view.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/18

Above is a link to a ted talk by Jenine Benyus who talks about bio mimicry and how nature has perfect solutions to our problems and also solutions for living sustainably.

An interesting website looking at biomimicry.

http://www.asknature.org/

Nature has limitless ways of protecting itself, some forms of protection consist of camouflage, intimidation, warning, and armour however there are so many more which may help to influence the final outcome.

This is my final outcome from my Ponoko project, the compass on the image is my model, unfortunately the final product is yet to be made but I will post some images when I get it back from Ponoko, for more information click on the image.

After selecting an area of study my next step was to target a specific area of crime, I was initially looking at bag theft and bike crime but soon realised these areas were well covered with numerous examples of the design problems and solutions.
I wanted to focus my efforts on something which was not so commonly designed for so I opted for attacks/muggings.
With this in mind I referred back to the brief which had a selection of words picked to try and aid our projects direction. From the list, I selected;
· Inclusive
· Living
· Bio-mimicry
These words loosely represent what I want to achieve with this project.
I am aiming to design something possibly aimed at the female population with the intention of looking at how animals defend themselves against predators or each other to hopefully direct the final outcome.

For our newest project we were given the choice of a self-directed project or a forth client based project working with the first bus group to improve safety.
I have decided to undertake the self-directed project as it will hopefully give me a better understanding of what to expect in my forth year.
After looking at the design council website and reading up on current live issues within design I choose to base my project on design for crime.

This is a small project I worked on for a friend, it is a business sign for a door which I designed then cut using a CNC router. The material is a black plastic which has an aluminium layer on the top. As the router cuts away the aluminium it exposes the black plastic which makes the design visible.

This is my final outcome for the Balmoral Group project.
It is my design for a portable temporary shelter for a domestic south east family affected by flooding.
The shelter is designed to allow people to personalise their own (temporary) home and hopefully full them with a greater sense of personal belonging, privacy and personal space indoors and out.

The image in the top left is a randomly generated shelter using a selection of the five different shelter sections.

Above is an image which depicts how the different sections would be connected together.
This should be an effective, simple and safe means of fastening each piece together, a hasp is strong and quick and ought to apply enough pressure to ensure a tight connection between the seals.
There are three area on the inside of each section where these would be positioned ensuring full closure from the outside, once a padlock is attached the whole connection is completed and protected.

The shelter would be far more practical if each section was able to stack. This would also improve the logistics of the product and help to lower costs.

With a solution like this the floor then becomes a separate piece which could either be made in-house or sourced from another company.

These five sections are the basic pieces which can be used to create the shelters.

The problem mentioned below was solved by extending the distance the archway protrudes out from the cross-section.

Taking into consideration the market aspect of the product and the hierarchy and social status of Britain I have decided to break down the shelters into different components which could be coupled together to created shelters which will differ in size and shape allowing the user to customise their own (temporary) home and hopefully give them a greater sense of personal belonging, privacy and a delineated personal place indoors and out.

In doing this I have encountered a problem where one of the main sections (the cross section) has four weak points on the floor where the end sections where removed.