Hasta La Ideas

TEDSPACE. Renderings of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate (Courtesy Rafael Viñoly Architects)

I.M. Pei‘s John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is getting a new neighbor: the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The new facility, situated on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston beside the JFK Library, will be designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects. It will house interactive, educational programs about American government with a focus on how cool the Senate is. The institute has confirmed that the attractions will incude a mock-up of the Senate chamber (photo-op alert!), but we’re crossing our fingers for an exhibit devoted to the saucy colloquialisms and favorite desserts of LBJ or an animated look at a day in the life of the majority whip (Cue Devo soundtrack).

Renderings unveiled yesterday (pictured) offer a preview of the 40,000-square-foot space, designed by Viñoly to work in harmony with its Pei-designed neighbor. The ground level of white precast concrete will have punched window openings, while a seamless, two-story cladding will house the model Senate chamber. According to Viñoly, the cladding will be visually separated from the single-story volume by a ribbon skylight, expanding the lobby and greeting visitors with a naturally illuminated reception area. The site will be surrounded by oodles of outdoor public space, including a lawn bordered by triangular volumes that will both define the building’s entrance and geometrically connect the institute to the JFK Library. Groundbreaking on the project is slated for this fall.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Journalism students task colleagues around the globe with bringing Millennium Goal stories to life

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals—the ambitious list of global objectives put together by world leaders in September of 2000—have just five years until the deadline and are seriously behind schedule. With pie-in-the-sky targets like education for everyone everywhere and ending extreme poverty and hunger, students at the Knight Center for International Media from the University of Miami’s School of Communication decided to take a different approach to the high-minded initiative.

Realizing that often the most effective way to effect change in people is to tell the human side, Knight collaborated with journalism students around the world to tell the stories behind the goals.

Asking budding reporters in Africa and Asia to respond to different Goals, the students at the Knight Center compiled a website of the completed multimedia stories, including video, infographics and photo galleries.

Using all three mediums, a group in Lagos, Nigeria–Subsaharan Africa’s largest city–tackled the biggest challenge facing the United Nations—the eradication of poverty and hunger. In the overpopulated city, the students tell the story of the unexplained demolition of a market that was home to 10,000 people. Following those that returned, the story shows the determination of some to survive within the rubble of extreme adverse conditions.

Other stories cover topics such as equal education in India and maternal health in Sierra Leone. Supplementary info on the site helps viewers contact NGOs working towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals in the related countries. A social media component allows for sharing, discussing and embedding each part of the website, bringing the stories to all wired corners of the world and opening the project up for dialogue and interactivity.

pFolks, you have to wonder why no one else thought of this a long time ago:/p

pimg alt=”0panascholfrie.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/0panascholfrie.jpg” width=”468″ height=”424″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pThis headphones packaging design (released last month by the European branch of Panasonic) was designed by Berlin-based A HREF=”http://www.s-f.com/Awardsneu/tabid/1022/Default.aspx” Scholz Friends/A, a creative agency whose motto is “Surprise! Convince!”/p

pAs Scholz Friends A HREF=”http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/design/panasonic-earphones-the-earphones-note-13745005/” explained to the Coloribus Global Advertising Archive/A,/p

blockquoteThe selection of earphones is huge and the products are often interchangeable. Only a packaging with a clear visual idea is able to stand out at the market among the generic packagings of the competition.

p…The earphones show at first sight for whom they are made: for passionate music lovers./p

p…The new packaging was met with positive reactions from retailers and clients because it clearly stood out from the generic packaging of the competition. As such it helped to attract new target groups for Panasonic./blockquotebr /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/in_a_category_of_vastly_similar_products_scholz_friendss_clever_package_design_quickly_distinguishes_the_product_17041.asp”(more…)/a
pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IbX4eV0e3qqIJYV8UVmezjkbIYQ/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IbX4eV0e3qqIJYV8UVmezjkbIYQ/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/
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pB[Update: This project was originally and erroneously credited to a UK-based design firm, who posted the project on their site with no proper attribution, leading one to believe the work was theirs, whether by accident or negligence. Please note that the designer is A HREF=”http://dandesign.org”Daniel Dobrogorsky/A.]/B/p

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/07/0koolhaus001.jpg” width=”468″ height=”331″ alt=”0koolhaus001.jpg”//div

pDaniel Dobrogorsky’s A HREF=”http://dandesign.org/2010/06/06/koolhaus-tapware/” Koolhaus concept/A is a faucet that lets you know how much water you’re using–not just from the Koolhaus itself, but throughout the entire bathroom, even dividing the bath tap and shower tap into separate categories. /p

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/07/0koolhaus002.jpg” width=”468″ height=”331″ alt=”0koolhaus002.jpg”//div

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/07/0koolhaus004.jpg” width=”468″ height=”331″ alt=”0koolhaus004.jpg”//div

pI’m not crazy about the form factor–seems like a part from an extreme athlete’s bicycle–and the screen’s a bit too small for my tastes, but I realize these things are subjective, and overall I find the concept solid. Am also glad Dobrogorsky left toilet water consumption off the display–while it’s easy to take a shorter shower, I wouldn’t know how to begin curtailing toilet usage./p

pHit the jump for some cool developmental shots./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/daniel_dobrogorskys_koolhaus_faucet_concept_helps_monitor_your_water_consumption_17008.asp”(more…)/a
pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/p8Rqm8jjatbshsljDJy4q6YNrhE/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/p8Rqm8jjatbshsljDJy4q6YNrhE/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/
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