Mobile Info Desk

Since 2008 Roel Vandebeek and Marc Milissen (teacher at the helix campus – Maasmechelen) have been working together on a project (Hoezo, design?) To raise awareness of design and design within the technical department of wood and metal on the campus the helix in Maasmechelen, and this in different degrees. When the CC of Maasmechelen asked to design a mobile information desk (with a limited budget), this seemed an appropriate assignment for the students of the second grade wood to carry this out. In this department many basic exercises (wood joints, inlay work, …) are made to master different techniques. An annual recurring assignment is fitting two wooden slats together according to the curriculum. In the past, these “semi-finished products” were thrown away after evaluation and that is a shame. Roel and Marc want these parts to become part of a larger whole so they are not thrown away but processed in a composite form into a finished usable product.

The design of this information desk is based on this principle. The students had to perform the exercise as described above but with contrasting woods and on a longer bar as usual. The students could also choose between a number of geometric shapes that they had to make in the dark wood type, and they could determine the place where this part would come in the bar. When the corpus of the information desk was ready, it could be covered with the “semi-finished products” that the students had made, randomly linked. In this way, together and each of them, they have contributed to a larger usable whole of which they can be proud: the mobile information desk for the CC of Maasmechelen, which is located in a public space. It has been agreed with the CC that future elements will always be made in this corporate identity.