Tom Barker

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For the American basketball player, see Tom Barker (basketball).

Tom Barker (b. 1966) is a British designer and academic. Head of the Industrial Design Engineering department[1] at the London Royal College of Art, he was reported to be "[t]he youngest RCA professor on record when he got the job" in 2004 at the age of 38.[2][3]

SmartSlab cube, 2006 Mostra di Architettura di Venezia, (Venice Biennale of Architecture).
SmartSlab cube, 2006[4] Mostra di Architettura di Venezia, (Venice Biennale of Architecture).

Barker invented SmartSlab,[5] a multimedia large scale digital LED display panel system,[6][7][8] in 1999, whilst working on a Millennium Dome zone with architect Zaha Hadid. Barker also developed the V/SpaceLAB virtual reality system for architecture which artists Langlands and Bell used for an exhibit at the Imperial War Museum in 2003.[9]

In 1997, Barker founded DCA-b (later called B Consultants Ltd.), a multidisciplinary design practice[7] which was liquidated in November 2005[10].

[edit] Book

  • Weird Scenes from Inside the Goldmine: Innovating with Futuristic Technology and Amazing Materials in Design. Shoreditch: Black Dog Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-1906155278.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Royal College of Art. Industrial Design Engineering Department. Staff page.
  2. ^ Alex McRae (9 March 2006). Design engineers are now making a difference globally. The Independent.
  3. ^ News release with statement by rector Sir Christopher Frayling (5 March 2004). Royal College of Art appoints new Head of Industrial Design Engineering. British Design Innovation News.
  4. ^ Venice Biennale Announcement (2005). 10th International Architecture Exhibition: Cities, Architecture and Society (10 September - 11 November 2006).
  5. ^ Tom Shelley (24 September 2007). Dazzling future on display. Eureka engineering design magazine. Findlay Publications. “Massively large displays have been developed that are strong enough to mount on the sides of buildings—or even form the floors of virtual reality environments. They are based on hexagonal LED cells in a honeycomb, which are optically more efficient than square cells and are addressed using a form of Ethernet.”
  6. ^ Alistair King (6 July 2007). Slab happy. Building. “The inventors of SmartSlab describe it as an all-in-one, load-bearing, moving-image display slab. It’s also the only system that provides animated displays while retaining all the features associated with external cladding. The problem first presented itself to professor Tom Barker when he collaborated with architect Zaha Hadid on the Millennium Dome’s Mind Zone. The ambient light of the dome prevented many exhibitors from projecting images onto screens, so simple LED display boards tended to be used. But Barker, then a full-time engineer, and Hadid wanted to show moving images on a floor that visitors would walk on, so a more innovative solution was needed.”
  7. ^ a b Ruairi Glynn, The Bartlett (13 May 2005). SMARTSLAB. Interactive Architecture.
  8. ^ Laurie Manfra (April 2005). Light Tiles: SmartSlab LED panels flaunt superior graphics for everything from small-scale interiors to billboards. Metropolis Magazine (subscription only; April 2005 table of contents).
  9. ^ Imperial War Museum (2003). The House of Osama bin Laden - Langlands & Bell. IWM Collections. “Working with Tom Barker's V/SpaceLAB, Langlands and Bell used an interactive digital model to create a virtual exploration of the house and its surroundings.”
  10. ^ B-Consultants Limited: Liquidator Enters Firm. Troubled Company Reporter Vol. 6, No. 220. InterNet Bankruptcy Library (7 November 2005).

[edit] External links