At a Darren Aronofsky-hosted discussion for National Geographic’s new “One Strange Rock” series, numerous astronauts touched upon their belief in alien life. Between their advanced scientific background and an outside-of-Earth perspective, astronauts……
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On the evening of Saturday, 24 March, as Beijing went dark for Earth Hour, a bunch of people climbed on 30 stationary Mobikes parked outside the Opposite House and began cycling. Their pedal power inflated and lit up Australian artist Lisa Roet……
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Apple has requested the addition of 13 inclusive emojis, including prosthetic limbs, guide dogs and a hearing aid, to better represent people with disabilities.
The company submitted the series of emojis on 23 March to the Unicode Consortium, the organisation that reviews requests for new emoji characters.
If approved by the Unicode Consortium the new characters will be included in the Emoji 12.0 update in 2019, according to Emojipedia.
Designed to create an “inclusive experience” for its users, Apple has designed symbols depicting wheelchair-users, and visually impaired people using support canes.
Other planned icons include two different types of guide dog, a prosthetic arm and leg, and an ear with a hearing aid.
The company worked with international organisations such as the American Council of the Blind, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation and the National Association of the Deaf to develop the designs.
“One in seven people around the world has some form of disability,” said Apple in the submission.
“The current selection of emoji provides a wide array of representations of people, activities, and objects meaningful to the general public, but very few speak to the life experiences of those with disabilities.”
“At Apple, we believe that technology should be accessible to everyone and should provide an experience that serves individual needs. Adding emoji emblematic to users’ life experiences helps foster a diverse culture that is inclusive of disability,” it added.
The firm believes that these new icons will provide more options to represent people with disabilities, but states that the emojis are not meant as a comprehensive list.
“Every individual’s experience with their disability is unique and, therefore, the representations have unlimited possibilities. It would be impossible to cover every possible use case with a limited set of characters,” Apple explained.
Unicode, whose other members include the likes of Facebook, Microsoft and Netflix, decides what emojis should be used and what they should represent, with members deciding what the design looks like on each of their operating systems.
Apple’s last update, in July 2017, saw the company release 52 new icons, including a zombie, sandwich, elf and a woman wearing a headscarf.
Images courtesy of Apple and Unicode Consortium.
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Bent metal, embossed glass and carved wood all feature in this lighting collection from New York design studio Allied Maker.
Allied Maker, a Long Island-based design and manufacturing studio run by husband-and-wife team Lanette and Ryden Rizzo, played with circular and triangular geometries to create the four lights.
The designs, called Tri Cone, Grand Aperture 4, Contour Wall Lamp 22 and Concentric 15, were all launched at the Architectural Digest Design Show in New York last week.
Tri Cone is a pendant lamp, comprising a pyramidal metal frame that encases a cone-shaped shade. Metal balls are located at the junctions of the metal frame, and also support a circular glass disc at the base.
Triangular shapes are continued in the glass, which is embossed to deflect the light from above in different directions.
“The light is diffused by a micro-pyramid texture in the glass, resulting in a beautiful expanse of diffused light,” said Allied Maker.
For Contour Wall Lamp 22, Allied Maker designed a simple arch form, made from bent metal, with a handmade glass globe at the end. The wall lamp is set on a hinge so that it can swivel away from the wall.
“The simplicity of the form creates a geometric statement, while providing a diffused glow through the handmade globe,” said Allied Maker.
Curved forms are continued in the black metalwork that bends under the four glass discs of Grand Aperture 4 – a chandelier designed for “grand spaces”.
Circles can also be found carved into the round wooden shade of Concentric 15. Made with a lathe, the ridges are designed to create shadow patterns when lit.
“The shade is carefully shaped on the lathe to achieve a pleasing curvature,” said the studio. “The geometry of the fixture, particularly the concentric circles, create a topographic texture in the wood that is highlighted when illuminated.”
The light can be mounted on the wall or the ceiling. It comes in various wood finishes, including blackened or bleached ash, white oak and walnut.
Both the Tri Cone and the Contour Wall Lamp 22 also come in a range of metal finishes, including brass and bronze, while Grand Aperture 4 is also available in plain black.
Allied Maker presented all four designs at New York’s Architectural Digest Design Show, which took place at Pier 92 and 94, from 22 to 25 March 2018.
Other exhibitors included New York design studio Coil + Drift, which presented translucent hooped lights, simple wooden furniture and ridged walnut mirrors.
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If there’s one thing that’s been constant through all our lives, it’s been the spoon. Joseph Joseph’s Slide Spoon changes that, with a design that tackles two areas where design intervention may be necessary. The Slide Spoon comes in a compact shape that stays closed when not in use. Open it up and the spoon provides a nice scooped concavity for measuring ingredients. The scoop of the spoon comes with markings that act as measuring units, letting you measure out teaspoonfuls of ingredients. The upper part acts as a leveling unit, allowing you to level the amount you scoop out so that your spoonfuls are accurately measured. Once you’re done, close the spoon and store it in your drawer along with the rest of your kitchenware!
Designer: Rich Clough (Formative Studio) for Joseph Joseph
I stayed in the Bernal Heights area and didn’t have much time to explore, but observed what I could. I was surprised to see that the municipal government goes to the added expense of having the street names etched into the sidewalk at the intersections.
I don’t keep my head down much in New York, as you’d do better keeping your eyes up to see what (or more pointedly, who, and if they’re a threat) is around you. But looking down I also spotted this sign asking you not to dump things down the sewer drains.
I like that they drew a little crab on it, reminding you that there are living creatures on the outlet end of this drain. It’s just a simple outline of a crab but I appreciate the message they’re trying to get across.
Of course, if you look down you also see some things that are gross.
If I had to guess, here lives a couple, or perhaps roommates, where one of them smokes and the other can’t stand the smell, so it must be done out-of-doors.
And sometimes when you look down, you see things that are sad.
It was a dead hummingbird. I’d hoped it was sleeping, but nope, it was dead.
After wanting to cover Beyonce’s “XO” (from her 2013 self-titled album) for some time, Scottish synth-pop band CHVRCHES finally found an approach they felt comfortable with. Still intimidated to cover Beyonce, the three-piece crafted a pared-back……
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A third glimpse at the forthcoming Unknown Mortal Orchestra album Sex & Food, “Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays” finds funky disco components punctuating a warm pop tune. It’s a dance-worthy number that delivers on what the New Zealand band’s become famous……
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New Chinese car company Lynk & Co has added an SUV to its range of vehicles targeting the sharing economy.
Lynk & Co unveiled the new car, called the 02, at an event in Amsterdam today, and also announced plans to open “brand boutiques” across Europe.
Described by the brand as “ultra-connected”, the 02 combines an SUV chassis with the body of a hatchback. The car, which is always connected to the internet, features a large central touchscreen, wireless device charging and an advanced telemetric system.
It is the third car that the brand has released since launching in 2016.
“Sporty, adventurous, dynamic, daring, confident and fun, the 02 is the absolute centre of gravity of our brand and the heart of what Lynk & Co is all about,” said Andreas Nilsson, head of design at Lynk & Co.
“A shorter wheelbase, lower ride height and centre of gravity, combined with two-tone colour-schemes and softer, voluptuous surfaces, muscular haunches and wheel-arches, give the 02 a solid and confident stance while being agile and sporty in character.”
Lynk & Co announced today that it would start rolling out stores across Europe, to coincide with plans to start selling cars on the continent in 2020.
Rather than opening traditional dealerships, the brand wants to create a chain of “offline stores”, which it describes as “small, sociable brand boutiques in urban districts”.
The first of these stores will open in Amsterdam, followed by locations in Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels and London. Alongside these initial permanent locations, the brand is planning to take several mobile pop-up stores on a tour of European cities.
To support this roll-out plan Lynk & Co announced that its cars will be produced at Volvo’s production base in Ghent, Belgium.
“Sales and production started in China late last year, and we quickly established Lynk & Co as a very hot property in cities from Beijing to Shanghai,” sayid Alain Visser, senior vice president of Lynk & Co.
“We intend to make a similar impact in our home European cities with Lynk & Co’s innovative approach to buying, using and owning personal mobility. We will manufacture in Europe, for Europe, focusing initially on hybrid-only electrified derivatives of our new range of cars.”
Chinese automaker Geely launched Lynk & Co in in 2016, to offer vehicles it described as “the most connected in the world”. The idea was for cars to be accessed through digital rather than physical locks, making them easily sharable.
Its first vehicle was the 01 compact SUV. It has also unveiled a concept for a saloon car, called the 03.
Lynk & Co is not the only Chinese car company to have emerged in recent years. Earlier this year, Chinese startup Byton unveiled a concept for an electric, self-driving SUV, while startup NextEV made a big impression in late 2016, when it launched an electric supercar.
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Dezeen promotion: a warehouse-turned-hotel in Singapore and a Maldivian guest suite perched above the ocean are among the winners of this year’s Awards for Hospitality Experience and Design Asias.
The AHEAD Awards celebrates the best hotel projects across Asia, which have been finished between October 2016 and September 2017.
All submissions were assessed by a panel of hoteliers, architects and interior designers, based on experience offered to guests, aesthetic and commercial viability. The winners were announced on 15 March 2018 at a ceremony in Singapore’s luxury Andaz hotel.
The Warehouse Hotel in Singapore was 2018’s big winner. As well as being named Hotel of the Year, it collected awards in the Guestrooms, Lobby & Public Space, and Urban Hotel – Conversion categories. The project, which was designed by Asylum Creative and Zarch Collaboartives, was described by judges as having a “refined design and stunning attention to detail”.
Vector Architect’s Alila Yangshuo guest accommodation in China’s mountainous Guangxi region won the prize for Resort Hotel, commended for the “artisanal feel” of its material palette. The building, which was formerly a sugar mill, features 40,000 hand-pressed bricks.
Alila Yangshuo also came top in the Spa & Wellness category.
Vommuli House Nature Discovery Centre in the St Regis Maldives was praised in the Event Spaces category. Hosting a culinary school, yoga studio, acupuncture clinic and more, the venue was recognised for its whitewashed, chapel-like interiors that boast views of the surrounding jungle.
The St Regis Maldives also came top in the Suite category for its contemporary John Jacob Astor Estate, which sits perched above the Indian Ocean on the westernmost point of an island lagoon.
The greenery-filled spaces of Singapore’s Shangri-La Hotel were also awarded in Hotel Renovation & Restoration, while the planted courtyards and rooftop bar in Beijing’s VUE hotel won the prize for Landscape & Outdoor Spaces.
Asia is one of the four continents covered by AHEAD, which also celebrates exceptional hospitality projects from the Americas, Europe, and Middle East & Africas. The awards will culminate in a global biennale in 2019, where winners from each region will contend for worldwide titles.
See below for the full list of Asia winners:
Bar, Club or Lounge
Red Sugar at Kerry Hotel, Hong Kong
Event Spaces
Vommuli House Nature Discovery Center at St. Regis Maldives
Guestrooms
The Warehouse Hotel, Singapore
Hotel Renovation & Restoration
Shangri-La Hotel Singapore
Landscape & Outdoor Spaces
VUE Hotel Houhai Beijing
Lobby & Public Space
The Warehouse Hotel, Singapore
Resort Hotel
Alila Yangshuo, Guilin
Restaurant
Brasserie at Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto
Spa & Wellness
Spa Alila at Alila Yangshuo, Guilin
Suite
John Jacob Astor Estate at St. Regis Maldives
Urban Hotel – Conversion
The Warehouse Hotel, Singapore
Urban Hotel – Newbuild
Kerry Hotel Hong Kong
Visual Identity
Jackalope, Victoria
New Concept
Trunk (Hotel), Tokyo
Outstanding Contribution
Priya Paul, Chairperson, Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels
The Hotel of the Year
The Warehouse Hotel, Singapore
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