Hasta La Ideas

“…The pursuit of happiness” is written right in our Declaration of Independence, but while we Americans pursue it, we’re lousy at catching it. The UN-commissioned 2017 World Happiness Report has been released and we’re not even in the top ten.

The report, put together by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, comes out each year. The idea is that world leaders can review the document to see where and how to improve their own citizens’ well-being.

So how do you measure happiness? The SDSN looks at survey results from 155 countries that provide data on the following positive and negative areas:

GDP per capita. Self-explanatory.

Freedom to make life choices. Self-explanatory.

Healthy life expectancy. Self-explanatory.

Social support. Not government-based; specifically they’re asking “If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not?”

Generosity. Specifically, “Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?”

Corruption. Do you feel you can trust the government in your country?

Positive affect. How often do you experience laughter and enjoyment?

Negative affect. How often do you experience worry, sadness and anger?

As they do every year, Scandinavia just crushes it. Here are the top ten rankings and their scores, with 8 indicating Utopia:

1. Norway (7.537)
2. Denmark (7.522)
3. Iceland (7.504)
4. Switzerland (7.494)
5. Finland (7.469)
6. Netherlands (7.377)
7. Canada (7.316)
8. New Zealand (7.314)
9. Australia (7.284)
10. Sweden (7.284)

The U.S. is 14, just ahead of Ireland and just behind Austria. If you want to see where your country is, you can download the PDF here. If you’re too lazy to do that, I’ll put the image of the charts down at the bottom of this entry.

In addition to the main document, the SDSN has also put together some supplementary reports, like “Happiness at Work:” “Since the majority of people spend much of their lives at work, it is critically important to gain a solid understanding of the role that employment and the workplace play in shaping happiness for individuals and communities around the world.”

Freelancers get a shout-out here: “We find that being self-employed is associated with higher overall life evaluation in most developed nations, but that self-employment is also associated with the heightened experience of negative emotions such as stress and worry.” I’ll have to say that’s true.

Obviously they didn’t drill down as specifically as “industrial designer,” but if you want to find the column that your job falls within, and are curious how your Job + Life Evaluation stacks up against the others around the world, here’s one of the charts:

Sorry for the blurry text, that’s how they provided it. So this happiness report is probably making graphic designers unhappy.

The “Cantril Ladder of Life” they’re referring to basically means “On a scale of 1-10.”

Here’s how job satisfaction looks around the world:

The percentages of folks satisfied with their jobs:

The document(s) are huge, but they’re free, so those of you interested in this sort of thing ought flip through them. One surprising tidbit I found is that folks in China are no happier now than they were 25 years ago, despite that nation’s staggering industrial growth. “[Researchers] attribute the [low] happiness…to rising unemployment and fraying social safety nets.”

We Americans are no better off. A sub-document called “Restoring American Happiness” had this to say:

The central paradox of the modern American economy, as identified by Richard Easterlin (1964, 2016), is this: income per person has increased roughly three times since 1960, but measured happiness has not risen. The situation has gotten worse in recent years: per capita GDP is still rising, but happiness is now actually falling.

The predominant political discourse in the United States is aimed at raising economic growth, with the goal of restoring the American Dream and the happiness that is supposed to accompany it. But the data show conclusively that this is the wrong approach. The United States can and should raise happiness by addressing America’s multi-faceted social crisis— rising inequality, corruption, isolation, and distrust—rather than focusing exclusively or even mainly on economic growth, especially since the concrete proposals along these lines would exacerbate rather than ameliorate the deepening social crisis.

Yeah, good luck with that!

Hey Norway, you got room for one more?

A+Awards: it took just 18 minutes to regrow the timber used to build this entirely wooden warehouse in Switzerland, according to Rossetti + Wyss Architekten, which won a 2016 Architizer A+Award for the project.

The Zurich firm designed the Workshop Andelfingen for the regional government’s waterways engineering operations centre to house vehicles and machines, and as a place to undertake minor construction work.

The structure is built solely from wood, slotted together using techniques adapted from traditional log construction.

It took just two days to assemble the parts on site, and even less time for the soft wood harvested for the project to replenish – due to the amount of evergreen trees replanted in the country and the speed that they grow.

“The timber used regrows in Switzerland in 18 minutes,” said Rossetti + Wyss co-founder Mark Aurel Wyss.

A total of 36 solid wood planks were used to build the warehouse. Long elements form the sides of the building and interlock at the corners. These step out slightly as the building rises, creating a gently tapered form.

At the top, thin beams cross the shorter span to support the overhanging. Gaps between allow in air and make the building glow at night.

Without the need for insulation, the planks are visible both inside and out. Each has a structural purpose and only the bare minimum material was used.

“The workshop is a statement of reduction of means, creating a sculptured body made of piled up load-bearing elements,” said Wyss. “Everything that is necessary is there, with nothing superfluous added.”

Workshop Andelfingen won in the Factory Warehouse category at the 2016 A+Awards.

Organised by Architizer, the awards promote and celebrate the year’s best projects and products.

Their stated mission is to nurture the appreciation of meaningful architecture in the world and champion its potential for a positive impact on everyday life. Find out more about the A+Awards ›

Photography is by Mark Aurel Wyss.

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Light projected into a mirrored room creates seemingly infinite patterns in this installation by Turkish artist Refik Anadol, at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

For the Infinity installation, Anadol took over a cube-shaped room that sealed so no openings could be detected.

Projectors in the centre of each wall were programmed to work together – displaying light patterns that appeared to span across all four surfaces.

The artist installed mirrors on the ceiling and floor so that these moving images were reflected infinitely.

“Light is the major element in the experiment, used to blur and interconnect the boundaries between the two realms: actual/fictional and physical/virtual,” said Anadol.

“It signifies the threshold between the simulacrum space created by the projection technology, and the physical space where the viewer stands.”

The lighting sequence lasts around 12 minutes, during which time the visitor can occupy the space however they chose.

However the effect is best experienced when lying on the floor, as demonstrated in short films that show a visitor entirely surrounded by the projections.

Infinity forms part of Anadol’s Temporary Immersive Environment Experiments series of audio-visual installations, and was first created for the 40 Meters 4 Walls 8 Cubes exhibition – a project set up in 2015 by curatorial platform Artnivo in collaboration with the Istanbul Biennial art fair, at the city’s Zorlu Performing Art Center.

“In this project, ‘infinity’ [was] chosen as a concept [as] a radical effort to deconstruct the framework of this illusory space,” said Anadol.

“[It] transgress the normal boundaries of the viewing experience, to set out to transform the conventional flat cinema projection screen into a three-dimensional kinetic and architectonic space of visualisation by using contemporary algorithms.

The South by Southwest (SXSW) festival and conference took place from 10 to 19 March 2017.

Also during the music, film and technology event this year, sales of high-tech micro dwellings were launched, a touch-sensitive denim jacket was unveiled and a driverless electric car concept was announced.

The post Refik Anadol’s Infinity installation at SXSW immerses visitors in patterns of light appeared first on Dezeen.

After Benjamin Hubert rebranded his studio to become LAYER a little over a year ago, the experience design studio has been anything but quiet. Rolling out projects like the GO wheelchair and the LABB watchband, the agency is already pushing boundaries in the realm of human centered design. Until now, what has remained quiet is the space where the magic happens. 

LAYER’s new 3,500 sqft warehouse in Hackney, London resembles a gallery space more than anything. The white walls with colored deep-set display boxes show off projects to visitors and clients in an aesthetically pleasing way:

The workspaces are minimal with a few different collaborative rooms for designers to work and share ideas, including a mildly intimidating conference room.

Soft grey room dividers make the space able to accommodate various meeting types and sizes.

The workspaces definitely won’t look this clean forever—these images are good vision board inspiration for when your studio starts looking cluttered though, I guess.

It’s refreshing to see a studio display their industrial and furniture design work as as stand alone art pieces. On a slightly unrelated note, LAYER’s muted color scheme is inspiring me to redecorate my primary color-centric apartment. 

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Benjamin Hubert is the Design Concept Jury Captain for the 2017 Core77 Design Awards.  There’s still time left to apply and have your work reviewed by the influential industrial designer! Final Deadline is March 29, 2017.

The Anion is futuristic design study of a two-seater Nissan that aims to redefine the “sports car” for generation Z in 2030. Its design is focused on lightness, purity, and an iconic geometric form… but its what’s powering it that sets it apart.

It utilizes a technology developed by Grabat Energy in the form of graphene batteries that increase power capacity while reducing size. These batteries are lighter and more compact to optimize space and reduce consumption.

Designer: Juan Villaro Mañes