We’ve all been there: sat down at the continental breakfast buffet at the hotel halfway through your perfectly curated plate of questionable food (yum). A couple bites in you realise you forgot to grab a glass of apple juice to wash it down. As you return with your glass, who would have expected the dining table to become a crime scene: your plate of food prematurely snatched by the waitstaff. Cleared too soon.
Michelle Wu and I have had enough! We’ve designed a new version of the ubiquitous car steering wheel lock (i.e The Club) for your plate in order to secure and deter unfinished-food-thieves.
2b62f28af9f94769bd47706fae8eba63.MOV
Read below to see how we did it.
<aside> 📖 Absurd Hotel - All In One Brand
Briefing:
Constraints
Deliverable #1
Deliverable #2
Michelle and I met up to talk all things hotel, starting with listing things that annoy us about hotel life. Here’s a list of things we considered:
There were a few ideas that arose from this session, including a keycard with additional illumination abilities, a riff on chocolates on pillows, custom trays for custom (possibly kinky) items. The one that’s stolen our imagination firstly is a bathrobe with a mechanical curtain on the rear for those pesky moments you need to use the bathroom while wearing a long robe.
<aside> 💡 Other ideas/textile objects in a hotel
→ slippers
→ pyjamas
→ curtain with holders for aroma diffusers?
→ bedding with pockets for snacks[
→ towels
→ bathmat that is also a pair of slippers
→ headboard
→ sensory deprivation pillows
</aside>
Here’s a prototype of the action we could use to lift the robe.
After talking through what the workload split might be like with a textile/soft goods, we decided to do something firmer so we both had a good shot at learning something new and equally valuable. Off we set to ideating again, coming up with this new problem statement:
The problem with hotel buffet breakfasts is that often when you get up to get more food, the server prematurely takes your plate with that piece of egg you were looking forward to finishing. How might we create a device that secures your plate from grabby waitstaff and communicates that you’re not ready to part with your partially eaten food?
A notebook sketch of some ideas considered
The most humorous method we thought would be to use a car steering wheel lock. As an object it’s commonplace but also has a very specific use case and is recognisable to car thieves and plate thieves alike. Our next step was to procure one so we can break it down to see how we can recreate or appropriate for our selfish eating needs.
<aside> 💡 Shopping List
1 in. x 3 in. Random Length S4S Oak Hardwood Boards
3/8 in. x 36 in. Aluminum Round Rod
</aside>
<aside> 💡
Pedro’s Aluminium Picks
→ 5052 for flats and bars
→ 6061 for round stock
</aside>
<aside> 💡 Things to consider
</aside>
Using the steering wheel lock as the main inspiration for the form of this device, we created a general idea of how we could make the plate lock usable and recognisable.
We wanted to use the same or similar mechanism that the steering wheel lock used, a linear rod with teeth run through a key operated ratchet. In this case the key might not be necessary.
In order to recreate this tubular design we thought about using metal much like the lock we were referencing, however the thought of welding was a little unnerving and was definitely a new skill that needed learning. There’s also the question of how the aluminium would feel and sound rubbing against ceramics or glass. In the case of the lock, a rubberise material is used to soften the stainless steel.
The next best option was using acrylic, specifically frosted tubes which could be bent to match the curves of the plate.
<aside> 💡 Here’s how we might do that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uid4N1EbXRY
</aside>
Using the frosted look we could also play with using colour diffused through the acrylic (see above for this initial idea). However there were some questions that arose: how could we make the edges of the tubes look finished? And considering what we needed to fit inside of the tube (electronics, batteries etc.) the form became a bit too unwieldy, becoming bigger in diameter. Using this bigger size also makes it harder to bend, as many tools for bending acrylic maxes out at around 20mm in diameter. For reference we needed at least an inch inner diameter. Using a tube of that size also makes it clumsier to use when attaching to a plate, relying on the upper curve to secure the plate, thus excluding plates with low lips.
Nonetheless we still tested the viability of this form by making a jig and testing with a PVC pipe similar in size to what we would need. Although the bend was not bad, there was a flat surface in the middle of the bend, and it was immediately obvious next to the plate that the lip would not catch with a size that big.
The jig, made from Sam and Karina’s scraps from the last project
The final outcome
Eventually we settled on using a mix of wood and aluminium so that it would be easier to machine and look finished, matching the Muji aesthetic much closer. The wood also makes it possible to have a different profile on the clamp portion of the design, making it more universal in terms of compatible plates.