Hasta La Ideas

We’re now looking back at our top five stories in October and sailing into an easy first place is the yacht designed by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs before his death, while the news was dominated by architecture in China and the integration of digital and industrial design at Apple.

At number two are these Scary Beautiful shoes by Leanie van der Vyver, which force the wearer to walk in an unnatural way.

Third place goes to a news story about the UK government no longer allowing schools to be built with curved or glass walls. Design and education has been in the news a lot recently and you can see all our stories on the topic here.

A three-storey bookcase comes in at number four in this house in Rotterdam by Shift.

Fifth place goes to the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry by Chartier-Corbasson Architectes, built next to a 100-year old mansion in Amiens, France.

Architecture and design in China were top of our agenda, with creative director of Beijing Design Week Aric Chen warning that contemporary China should “slow down” just as a Chinese company announced plans to build the world’s tallest skyscraper (above) in just seven months, using a kit like Meccano. Later that month work started on a high-density, car-free “satellite city” for 80,000 people (below) that will be built from scratch in a rural location close to Chengdu.

Apple announced plans to bring its hardware and software design teams closer together with both headed by Jonathan Ive (below), as part of a major shake-up of its management team following claims that the company is “a little bit behind” in integrating industrial and digital design.

Meanwhile Google offered a look inside its data centres (below) and Dezeen was at the Istanbul Design Biennial, where Joseph Grima curated a showcase of new technologies causing a “cultural revolution”.

We then took a closer look at 3D printing with MakerBot Industries’ CEO telling us manufacturing can again take place at home as it did before the industrial revolution and creative director of 3D printer company 3D Systems saying that printing products at home is cheaper than shopping.

See all our stories from October 2012 »

See our review of September 2012 »
See our review of August 2012 »
See our review of July 2012 »
See our review of June 2012 »
See our review of May 2012 »
See our review of April 2012 »
See our review of March 2012 »
See our review of February 2012 »
See our review of January 2012 »

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Marvin has the most boring job in the universe – but all is not as it seems…..(Read…)

Come New Year’s Eve the champagne will start flowing, and Milan-based Marco Dragotta’s designed a better alternative to the silver ice bucket that turns bottles into a sopping mess.

Dragotta’s Galaxy champagne bucket is “designed to glorify the bottles, keeping them in the ideal position to [best display] the labels…”

…but there are also ergonomic/functional improvements over a bucket: The design replaces ice cubes with ice packs, which are inserted inside the ABS housing to keep the bottles cool (and absent melting ice, dry). The entire thing spins on a circular bearing in the base, letting your guests pick their poison.

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Say what you will about St. Barts–we think Iceland is the place to ring in the new year. According to local lore, tonight is the night that cows talk, seals take on human form, the dead rise from their graves, and elves move houses. Residents celebrate with family dinners, bonfires, and fireworks, lots of them. The pyrotechnics spectacular is made possible by the country’s lack of restrictions on fireworks, and the entire population of Reykjavik–approximately 200,000 people–gets into the act. This year, those of us in less permissive nations can watch the massive fireworks display online: click here to watch the live broadcast at 7:00 p.m. Eastern / 4:00 p.m. Pacific.

Continue the explosive Icelandic fun with a New Year’s Eve screening of Bjӧrk‘s new music video, “Mutual Core” (below), commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. “[MOCA director] Jeffrey Deitch contacted me a while ago, and he suggested that we collaborate on this, and it sounded like a good idea,” said the Reykjavik native in a recent interview with Paper magazine. “Because I’m an old punk, I’ve never done commercials or sponsoring or anything like this–I’ve been really strict with it–but with this, [Jeffrey] seemed to be helping us to make a music video. That sort of makes sense to me. It doesn’t feel like sponsoring.”
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