Tree-inspired PC wins Dyson design award

One of the main arguments that Windows users offer during those habitual debates with Macheads is that PC boxes are much easier to upgrade; instead of buying a new machine every year, you can simply swap out components ad hoc. Well a graduate of Ireland's National College of Art and Design imagines taking this convenience a step further, with a tree-shaped rig -- known as Cultivate - the Sustainable Living Computer -- whose CPU, RAM, hard drive, and other swappable parts extend from the motherboard-packing "trunk" inside removable "branches." Designer Laura Caulwell won a cool €2,000 $2,929) for her concept, and also earned the right to compete for January's annual International James Dyson Award in Australia, which offers up £15,000 ($31,476) in prizes.

[Via The Register, photo courtesy of Electric News]

[iptydafu @ Nov 9th 2007 10:54AM]

man, even she looks embarrassed that she won with that piece of crap design

[blade417 @ Nov 9th 2007 10:56AM]

That's a computer!?!?

That's awesome.

I want one*


*Pending specs.

[G-MaN 202 @ Nov 9th 2007 10:58AM]

wow that is a good concept now if i ever see it in stores that would be even better....(of course i never will)

[aeo @ Nov 9th 2007 11:06AM]

There's no mention that her "prototype" works as a computer. I assume she was just paid for her design and the difficulty of implementation is left up to engineers? Just goes to show that all the glory is reaped by the front guys (actors, designers, etc) and the grunt work is left to the grunts (software developers, engineers, writers, etc). Sometimes I wish I had gone to art school instead.

[Dean @ Nov 9th 2007 11:09AM]

hmm, so the parts are modular and upgradeabel? wow, sounds like a PC. is the award realy for the outward appearance of the device? do people realise your computer will be inoperable while your CPU puff is being sent back to the manufacturer for upgrade? please, can someone tell me what the big deal is with this thing?

[insertAlias @ Nov 9th 2007 11:11AM]

I'll stick with my ugly box pc, thank you.

[brett @ Nov 9th 2007 11:15AM]

...wait, wait, wait.

so my pc is going to be balls on a stick? Will the operating system be called PhallOS?

[shooby @ Nov 9th 2007 11:21AM]

heh heh

[riggs @ Nov 9th 2007 11:23AM]

you win the intarwebs

[HineyWipe @ Nov 9th 2007 12:54PM]

Sorry, but the name "Big Blue" is already taken.

[narco @ Nov 9th 2007 11:19AM]

Is she sitting on train tracks? She might be good at designing things that look like trees, but she's obviously not very bright.

Fishes,
narco.

[beeperr @ Nov 9th 2007 1:26PM]

That was my first question: why the train tracks?

[Chad @ Nov 9th 2007 11:22AM]

Unless that design also comes with a solution for signal degridation over long distances this design is useless (as a PC anyway). Why do you think the sytem board is always so cramped? It's to keep the data bus as short as possible. This design just screams "Hey there stray noise! I'm ready to be violated!"

[cmonkey @ Nov 9th 2007 12:09PM]

I'm glad someone said it. This isn't even form over function. This is a complete lack of function, in an ugly form.

[Magallanes @ Nov 9th 2007 11:45AM]

Marvin the Martian wants their martian tree back.

[blomster @ Nov 9th 2007 11:59AM]

Can I use it to top a Christmas tree?

Can it shoot out sparks like a Tesla coil? Then I'd buy one for sure!

[pjnofrills @ Nov 9th 2007 1:00PM]

Does it play Doom?

Seriously though.... This award was sponsored by the Dyson vacuum company. It might as well have been a giant yellow monstrosity.

[Sintax @ Nov 9th 2007 1:51PM]

gawd... that was one of the stupidest designs I have ever seen. Seriously is this what the future holds? "The Cultivate computer tree also features silver aluminum 'leaves' which act as external heatsinks, cooling down each component. They are attached by the user, and can be bent and curled into all manner of shapes."

Who the hell wants to bend and cur their heat sinks in to all manners of shapes???

Tell me this is just a idiotic burp of things never to come, some type of inter-dimensional cross over between alternate realities, where dinosaurs are still alive and the PC is actually some thing you hang your coat on...

[melloncollie @ Nov 9th 2007 2:41PM]

Design something better. Go ahead, do it.
Seems to me what nearly every commentor on Engadget does is bitch and leave negative omments. Why not something productive? It's annoying.

On subject:
It's an interesting form, but it has no technical standing. I think what was the focus of this competition was design (in terms of its geometry and aesthetics).

[Sintax @ Nov 9th 2007 2:51PM]

haha, okay I will design something better, send me an email so I know your email address and You will be the first to see my 3d renders.

[Simon @ Nov 9th 2007 3:04PM]

That thing doesn't even look good...and wouldn't work as a PC...was it the only entry?!?!

[theCardinal @ Nov 9th 2007 3:10PM]

I saw this at the degree show at the NACD in Dublin. It's a pretty interesting design, with a few nice aspects, such as the way the heat sinks are leaves. It looked a lot better in person than it does in that picture.

I didn't get much of a sense of it being much more than a concept though. And the majority of current technologies would not fit inside the modular balls. Also, one of them was the PSU which would mean the cable hanging out of it instead of the trunk.

[Dean @ Nov 9th 2007 3:22PM]

who else thinks she was stoned when she thought of this? mmm, i like balls and computers, hay lets make a computer out of balls!.... moments later, i love smokin trees, hay! I will make my balls computer into a tree!!

i would take a sexy tower case over this stoner imac any day

[knowlimits @ Nov 9th 2007 3:47PM]

Wow, this reminds me of the artist who suggested graphics cards should be connected via USB, because the difficulty of undoing the two screws that kept his computer case closed. I'm sorry, but if you can't undo those two screws, you really shouldn't be swapping out the graphics card. And a graphics card using USB? What a joke!

[tiuk @ Nov 9th 2007 6:29PM]

Seriously, where can I go to be one of these people that just has to think up crazy looking things that don't even have to work? It sounds like the best job in the world.

[Nersh @ Nov 9th 2007 7:43PM]

I like it. And anyway, it's a concept, like catwalk fashion or auto show cars, it's about crazy new ideas that push boundries forward.

[Pavan @ Nov 10th 2007 2:39PM]

The only PC design that never loses suckiness?

[brian @ Nov 11th 2007 8:34AM]

i would totally hit that.

[ADR @ Nov 12th 2007 12:15AM]

Wow she won $3000 for essentially copying a design done by Frog Design 10 years ago. Of course that was a potted plant with flower petals that were the different components.

Wow where are these design contests where I can pirate another design and win $3000 cash.