All human artifacts and activities — not just our objects and architecture, but also our organizations and operations, policies and procedures, systems and infrastructures — have been designed, and too many of the most critical have been badly done by professionals and politicians who didn’t know the first thing about design. While we cannot blame them for what they didn’t know or couldn’t see, the stakes have gotten too high for us to continue in this way. — Places Journal
On Places, Thomas Fisher, dean of the Minnesota College of Design, argues that the 21st century is poised to become the "invisible century of design" (rivaling the last hundred years, the invisible century of science). Who will be the Einstein and the Freud of the new design century? We need a... View full entry
Hillman Curtis, a former rock musician who became a prominent first-generation Web designer and a visionary figure in the Internet’s evolution from a predominantly text-based medium to the multimedia platform it is today, died on Wednesday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 51. — nytimes.com
Very sad. Hillman Curtis was an extremely talented designer that I closely followed while growing up in the web. Too young. Check out his "Artist Series" profile on Daniel Libeskind. Also, Remembering Hillman Curtis, by Gary Hustwit, filmmaker of Helvetica, Objectified and Urbanized. View full entry
“One of the things that may come out of the study is that the design of those cones [the north-facing oculi] may have inadvertently or in some other way, you know, turned out to actually have reflections coming in when Renzo sold you a bill of goods that said it wouldn’t.”
That’s how Criswell remembers the exchange weeks later.... He is clearly proud that he stood up to Strick, a man who, he says, isn’t accustomed to having people talk back. And he’s proud that he insulted Renzo Piano."
— D magazine
Great story on the creation of the new Museum Tower in Dallas, which is baking the very district it's meant to be an anchor for... View full entry
The clouds, made of 100 per cent environmentally friendly foam, soap bubbles and helium, can float as high as 20,000 feet and can travel up to 20 miles before they break up.
The clouds were formed to celebrate the launch of WiFi hotspots from The Cloud, giving Sky Broadband Unlimited customers free and unlimited access to WiFi in popular places such as The London Eye.
— thisislondon.co.uk
Ms. Lin conceived "What Is Missing?" as the fifth, and last, of her memorial projects, which began with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1982. — post-gazette.com
If you're looking for something to do on Earth Day, consider a visit to www.whatismissing.net, the site developed by noted artist and activist Maya Lin that launches its second stage Sunday. View full entry
Creating anything new, particularly a creative collaboration, is an act of pathological hope. It has been said the difference between construction and creation is this: a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists. It was with this sense of hope that this project began—an idea borne not only of the notion that we had something to say, but that we could express it in an engaging, thought provoking, and intellectually rigorous way. — Lantern
The first issue of Lantern, an online publication preceding the print versions, celebrates 'Illumination.' In the inaugural issue of Lantern, an online and print publication, we reflect on the nature of illumination, exploring both the lit circumference within the lantern’s glow and the... View full entry
The traveling Archizines exhibition will be opening in NYC tonight, at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. We're excited to have both the Archinect 'zine and Bracket [on farming] included in the exhibition. If you're in the area, make sure to come by! Opening Reception: April 17, 2012, 7 PM... View full entry
The work of Spanish architect Julio Salcedo is shown in this book as a series of built and speculative projects. Salcedo's houses, early achievements that stunned both academic and professional circles with their freshness and precocious sophistication are presented with unpublished competition... View full entry
The rural as a strict counterpart to the urban appears to be a condition of the past. — http://www.monu-magazine.com/news.htm
The rural as a strict counterpart to the urban appears to be a condition of the past. At least, this is what Kees Christiaanse posits in an interview with us entitled "The New Rural: Global Agriculture, Desakotas, and Freak Farms". He points out that, today, non-urban spaces interact so... View full entry
A distinctive scent can be observed when unwrapping a newly purchased Apple product from its packaging. Apple fans will certainly recognize this smell. The scent created for Greatest Hits encompasses the smell of the plastic wrap covering the box, printed ink on the cardboard, the smell of paper and plastic components within the box and of course the aluminum laptop which has come straight from the factory where it was assembled in China. — air-aroma.com
Archinect and Woodbury School of Architecture are proud to present: Publish Or... bracket [GOES SOFT] Thursday, April 19 6:00 p.m. Sonic landscape by Health and Beauty. WUHO Gallery 6518 Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90028 (map) Come say hello, mingle, and check out selected entries from... View full entry
Historically, the signal box, or the switch tower, has been a crucial piece of railway infrastructure, guiding railcars at these junctions to their designated lines. These prosthetic armatures were manually operated logistical nodes in the heyday of railway commuting. As technology progressed... View full entry
Staffers at some London data centers won’t be burdened with long commutes when the 2012 Olympics roll into town this summer and jam up city streets. Instead, they’ll have futuristic sleeping pods to crash in so they can never leave work.
In the past month, a London company called PodTime has sold 19 pods at £1,375 ($2,190) a pop to three collocation facilities, including a data center operated by Interxion, says Jon Gray, the founder of the 1-year-old company.
— wired.com
The French designer Phillippe Starck said in a radio interview with France Info that he is working with Apple on a “revolutionary” new product that will be unveiled within the next 8 months. He gave no hint at what the product might be. He said he met regularly with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs before his death last October. — forbes.com
The people who run the Swedish home-furnishings behemoth are launching a bold push into the business of designing, building and operating entire urban neighbourhoods. Where once they placed a couch in a living room, the Swedes now want to place you and 6,000 neighbours into a neglected corner of your city, design an entire urban world around you, and Ikea-ize your lives. Their bold, high-concept notion of an urban ’hood could be an important solution to the housing-supply shortages... — theglobeandmail.com