Daisalux | David Cuartielles + Björn Walhström [2007]

Research commissioned: Multisensorial evacuation of building.
Project developed: Red alert. Evacuation systems and visions for saving lives.

Daisalux is a medium-sized company that was founded in Vitoria/Gasteiz in 1988. It is dedicated to the design, manufacture and commercialisation of emergency lighting, centralised equipment, portable lighting, signalling systems, emergency kits, signposting illumination, etc. Ninety-eight professionals work in the company, 26 of which are in the R&D&I department. 

This unit worked together with the AESWAD artists’ group based in the Swedish city of Malmö around the concept of multisensory building evacuation.

Their shared work process began with the initial surprise of the company on noting the high level of technical knowledge of the artists (one of whom, David Cuartielles, comes from the world of electronic art, and another, Björn Wahlström, a musician and performer interested in exploring ways of transferring artistic performance expression to industrial design processes. See as references: www.arduino.cc, www.gohan.cc, www.aslongasthereislife.com).

The group members acted as mediators in the processes of generating concepts and new products, inviting the company to rethink its innovation logistics from the key concept of emergency as linked to the idea of “saving lives” with its activity. In some way, this reflection, which humanised the field of the company’s business, has provided a new social dimension to the company’s R&D&I outlook.

According to the company’s managing director, the result was primarily a general rethink of the R&D&I developed by the company in the last seven years and the generation of a catalogue of ideas of new products and technologies to apply to existing products for their enrichment or potential new markets, thus allowing Daisalux to continue with its R&D&I field for the next five years.

Predictably, some of the applications of the ideas generated would be capable of becoming more specific in terms of new industrial patents in the short term. In any case, the effect the experience has had on the company’s way of looking at its own reality has undoubtedly benefited it greatly.