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NAVADAPT LAB + ADAPTIVE KITCHEN

A prototype kitchen being developed for an underserved minority: disabled veterans.

The domestic kitchen is the center of efficiency in a home. From food prep to cooking to cleaning, the kitchen works for its user, serving the needs of his/her body. This is true, at least, for the majority of the population.

The ADAPTIVE KITCHEN seeks to serve those with lower limb loss, visual impairment, and limited mobility, which are some of the most prominent injuries among veterans. As a working laboratory exploring the potentials of reality computing and emerging technologies in the design of human-centered environments, the NavADAPT LAB was developed to iteratively prototype and test components of adaptive and augmented spaces for application into the ADAPTIVE Kitchen. The first prototype, NavADAPT 1.0, was completed in March 2016 and exhibited at REAL2016 in San Francisco. A second prototype, NavADAPT 2.0, was completed in August 2016.

The NavADAPT LAB and ADAPTIVE Kitchen are part of a continuum of projects attempting to provide quality, affordable housing for Pittsburgh’s veteran population as well as other low-income residents. This work is being implemented and tested in the Uptown neighborhood of Pittsburgh as part of a larger effort to revitalize the neighborhood. 

PROJECT TEAM

CLIENT

ACTION-Housing Inc.

PARTNERS

CMU IDeATe
PROJECT RE_
Construction Junction
CMU School of Drama Lighting Design

SUPPORTERS

Autodesk Foundation

DESIGN TEAM

John Folan, UDBS Director
Garrett Rauck
Alexa Roberts
Rachel Sung
Naomie Laguerre

CONTRIBUTORS

Alise Kuwahara Day, UDBS Fellow; Candace Ju, William Aldrich, Samuel Day, Daniel Gomez-Latorre, Brian Bollens, Sophia Riedel, Kendra Ho, Jean Kim

IDEATE + REALITY COMPUTING

Pyry Matikainen, Reality Computing Instructor
Ruben Markowitz, Hetian Cao, Che-Yuan Liang, Yu Mao, Christine Shen, Laura Sullivan, Qiaozhi Wang

AECM CONTRIBUTORS

Lucia Madrigal, Rohit Motwani, Gundars Buka, Kenan Zhang

LIGHTING DESIGN CONTRIBUTORS

Benjamin Vigman, Olivia Loverde, Alex Stevens, Nicholas Coauette, Philip Rheinheimer

IDEATE CONTRIBUTORS

Myles Blodnick, Abdelwahab Bourai, Rehan Butt, Bryan Gardiner, Sara Guo, Luke Hottinger, Sky Krauthamer, Gillian Rosen

ADMINISTRATION

J William Gott, UDBS Fellow