In architecture news the works of 20th-century architects Le Corbusier and Philip Johnson were the starting points for new projects in Canada and India.
Product designs have three basic categories from a user’s point of view – the purely functional design with an almost brutish exterior that we love for the solution they provide, the pro aesthetic designs that take a conventional product and revise it to a new level to trigger an emotional response in us (after all humans are visual creatures) and the rare unicorn – that merges functionality and aesthetics seamlessly to create the best design. The Baseus Personal Refridgerator concept by Jiujiu Hu certainly falls in the aesthetic category but that doesn’t stop us from loving it any lesser!
With a form factor that merges an almost android design with that of a retro TV, this portable personal refrigerator is here to serve us, literally. The heat of summer is upon us, anything that is cold or chilled is in demand. This cute robot-like design with its shiny reflective surface (truly it only needs big eyes to make us fall in love even more) and its leather strap is a way cooler alternative to the old-school icebox or coolers we lug around everywhere (can you imagine how much cooler Netflix and chill would be with this by your side?). The anthropomorphic form comes with a shelf inside, allowing you to store your items in 2 layers – a tall shelf for the drinks or even a cooling facial mist and a smaller space to store flat objects. Social distancing will be a breeze with our own portable personal fridge holding our drinks means no reason to visit the crowded shops at the local park. And for those of us in quarantine, this fridge can serve as the Wilson (Tom Hank’s friend in Cast Away) to our isolated homes.
The refrigerator gets its materials right – wood, a matte plastic exterior, leather, and glass – balancing all these traditional elements with just the right ratio. With the emotional connection that this personal refrigerator brings to the table, one thing is sure, you will not end up forgetting it anywhere you go!
Discussing how the organization is supporting its Fellows from a distance
In the midst of isolation, Summit continues striving to create and maintain community. This week would have brought together 1,700 members—including the current, second class of Summit Fellows—for Summit at Sea, a three-day event that blends workshops, talks and experiences.
While dismayed that the event was canceled, the change of plans hasn’t slowed Peter Nyeko, a Uganda-based Summit Fellow and CEO of Mandulis Energy, a company that uses agricultural waste to produce clean energy. “When I first discovered Summit, I saw it as an opportunity to interact with others who care about impact and making a positive difference in the world,” Nyeko tells us.
Summit’s first class of fellows, a beta test of 40 aspiring, inspiring entrepreneurs dedicated to social good, spent 2018 networking with one another and the larger Summit community. “Summit is a powerful platform, but because of the price point, which sustains the business, access wasn’t available for the folks who were doing the most good in the world,” explains Gabe Quintela, the Fellows program director. “We decided to bridge that gap and use the Summit platform as an impact accelerator that can really push individual leaders and social enterprises forward.”
Gathering for the first time prior to the flagship conference in Los Angeles last November, the second, 81-person class of Fellows agreed to honor Summit’s ethos: make no small plans. They also received a mentor within the Summit community and spent two days leading up to the conference exchanging ideas.
Summit adheres to eight principles, including building friendships, going on a learning safari and embracing the unexpected. Some goals are broader than others, but Summit’s reputation for assembling a powerhouse of creators remains paramount. “There’s an obvious benefit of having Fellows in the mix,” Quintela says, “It gives the community an ideologic diversity and a sense of taking something with existing traction and growing it.”
In the six months since Summit LA, Nyeko won two grants—one from Canada and another from the UK—and has nearly digitized the entirety of his business. He’s partnering with another Fellow, Rahul Gayam, bringing Gayam’s electric vehicles from India to Africa. Nyeko is also building a trio of apps and sorting out funding to supply smartphones to farmers throughout Uganda so they can engage digitally in the formerly handshake-only business of buying and selling agricultural waste. “I feel like I’ve discovered my tribe,” Nyeko says.
Summit’s past events allowed Nepal-based Nasreen Sheikh to find her “soul family,” as she calls her class. Sheikh is the founder of Locwom, which promotes quality education, employment and health care by empowering women, educating children and building learning centers in underserved communities. A former sweatshop worker, Sheikh opened her second school earlier this year, “because of Summit,” she says. “They’re like, ‘Let’s just do the work.’ There’s so much hope and courage and support, it’s actually shocking.”
We want to continue creating a clear support system
To accommodate the current circumstances, Summit has remained steadfast in its digital monthly meetings with the current class of Fellows, who represent 23 countries. Quintela and his team have also added a series of digital live masterclasses with the likes of Cicero’s Geoff Davis, Cleo Capital’s Sarah Kunst and former Twitter CEO Dick Costello. Unlike with fireside chats or keynotes, the Fellows have opportunities to receive direct advice from masterclass speakers, a significant differentiator between Summit’s Fellows program and other organizations. “We are industry-leading in that sense,” Quintela tells us. As far as the future is concerned, this class of Fellows graduates in September 2021. Until then, according to Quintela, “We want to continue creating a clear support system and make it as valuable to them as possible.”
US architecture firm MASS Design Group has suggested that restaurants add barriers, remove bar seating and seek local produce sources to curtail the spread of infection and allow patrons to safely eat out following the coronavirus lockdown.
The studio’s research, called Spatial Strategies for Restaurants in Response to Covid-19, comprises diagrams and case studies that detail potential physical alterations for restaurants that keep both employees and guests safe from the spread of disease.
“In the midst of this global coronavirus pandemic, when the very nature of public space has become both threatening and threatened, the future of the restaurant industry is brought into question, and its path forward remains uncertain,” MASS Design Group said.
MASS Design Group’s diagrams and case studies detail potential physical alterations for restaurants to keep both employees and guests safe from disease spread
The team has identified five key strategies to guide redesign: updating food safety and sanitation codes, sequencing and designating all points of exchange, creating space for a variety of seating configurations, amending current zoning regulations and designing legible signage.
Diagrams show the layout and division of space in each restaurant in its pre-Covid-19 state, current condition and a proposal for post-Covid-19. They point out that kitchens and food prep areas near dining spaces are subject to possible contamination, and propose moving seating away from those areas and creating food pick-up locations closer to the entrances.
It proposes outdoor seating, separating tables with distance or barriers and phasing out bars
The studio suggests that bar seating should be phased out because of its difficulty to enable safe distancing practices. Tables would be further spread out to meet the recommended six feet (two metres) spacing. Higher barriers could also provide an alternative to the necessary distancing rule, as they separate guests from one another by decreasing the risk of airborne infection with a protective shield.
“These recommendations are based on the understanding that the relationship between emerging food safety protocols and viable, equitable business models for restaurants is inherently a spatial relationship,” MASS Design Group added.
“Navigating the space between ideal food safety protocols and the application of those strategies to a business and operations plan requires design interventions.”
MASS Design Group also proposes extending dining onto the street, alleys, sidewalk, parking lots and rooftops. It says in order for more public space to be added, the area might need to adjust its current zoning regulations.
The plan also suggests restaurants could localise food production with gardens to minimise contact with supply chain hand-offs
MASS Design Group suggests that restaurants “localise” their food production by growing ingredients on vacant plots or rooftops to minimise contact between employers and the supply chain.
Hanging visual documentation to outline protocols concerning the need to wear personal protective equipment, such as masks, to encourage hand washing and social distancing and direct the flow of the restaurant’s workers and patrons are also outlined.
MASS Design Group developed the Spatial Strategies to follows its experience and research designing for infection control, and studies of current food and safety regulations and restaurant protocols.
MASS Design Group outlines how two Boston restaurants adapted to the coronavirus and how they can continue to do so after the lockdown is lifted
The studio has trialled its plans with two restaurants in the Boston area, Porto and Little Donkey. Boston prohibited on-premises dining in restaurants on 17 March but allowed takeaway.
On 18 May the city released its phased reopening plan that says restaurants can resume operations as part of phase two, but will need to follow regulations like reducing capacity and requiring customers to wear masks.
MASS Design Group hopes to gather other case studies and iterate the designs in different contexts to support restaurants as they consider how to safely reopen.
The studio hopes to gather additional case studies to iterate the designs and support other restaurants as they consider how to safely reopen
The project follows a number of other proposals by architects and designers to find ways to dine following the pandemic.
NASA will use the Danne & Blackburn-designed “worm” logo for the first time since 1992, while its astronauts will wear SpaceX spacesuits for the first time when the Demo-2 flight to the International Space Station launches tomorrow.
The astronauts will be carried aboard SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft, marking the first time that astronauts will travel to the orbiting International Space Station aboard a commercially built and operated American rocket. It is also the first astronaut launch from US soil since 2011.
To mark the occasion NASA has brought the curving red wordmark, nicknamed “the worm”, which was created by Danne & Blackburn in the 1970s out of retirement. The logo was phased out in favour of the original 1950s “meatball” design in 1992.
“The worm is back,” said NASA. “And just in time to mark the return of human spaceflight on American rockets from American soil.”
“The retro, modern design of the agency’s logo will help capture the excitement of a new, modern era of human spaceflight on the side of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle that will ferry astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the Demo-2 flight.”
The curving red “worm” logo will adorn SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Photo courtesy of SpaceX
The SpaceX Demo-2 test flight will send two veteran NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, from the Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS).
Originally planned for 27 May, the launch “was scrubbed due to unfavorable weather conditions” and rescheduled for liftoff at 3:22pm EST (8:22pm UK time) on Saturday 30 May. Behnken and Hurley are expected to dock at the space station at 10:29am on Sunday 31 May.
The worm will also decorate the front of the SpaceX-designed suits Behnken and Hurley will wear for the mission.
As shown in the dress rehearsal on 23 May, these will be white with grey contrast panels and piping, and detailed with an American flag on the right shoulder, alongside the astronaut’s name.
The suit is completed with a 3D-printed helmet, touchscreen-compatible gloves, a flame-resistant outer layer and offers hearing protection during ascent and reentry.
Elon Musk, who also founded Tesla, established SpaceX – short for Space Exploration Technologies Corporation – in 2002, with the goals of enabling Mars colonisation and reducing space travel costs.
The “retro, modern” design was created in the 1970s. From left: Astronaut Mae Jemison preparing for launch; astronaut Bruce McCandless on an untethered spacewalk; the Hubble Space Telescope; astronaut Guy Bluford; and astronaut Sally Ride. Photo courtesy of NASA
The company was selected along with Boeing to develop a domestic vehicle that could launch astronauts from American soil, as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The last flight from USA took place in 2011 and NASA has been sending crew from Russia since.
“This test flight is a pivotal point in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which is working with the US aerospace industry to launch astronauts on American rockets and spacecraft from American soil to the space station for the first time since 2011,” explained NASA.
Tomorrow’s planned demo flight follows the Crew Dragon Demo-1 test flight last year, which saw an unmanned craft sent to the ISS.
Behnken and Hurley are now expected to spend a few months in the ISS with NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagne. NASA believes the time could provide useful research in an eventual goal to send humans to the Moon and Mars.
“The goal of the Commercial Crew Program is to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station. This could allow for additional research time and increase the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity’s testbed for exploration, including preparation for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.”
This mission follows the SpaceX Demo-1 flight, which saw an unmanned Crew Dragon sent to the station. It makes a major step forwarded for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, established to develop a domestic vehicle that could launch astronauts from American soil.
Starring Silas Henriksen of Norway’s national ballet, the official video for Norwegian singer-songwriter and performance artist Nils Bech’s “Foolish Heart (2019)” swells with instrumental warmth that dresses an intimate physical performance. The track appears on Bech’s latest album, also named Foolish Heart, out today. Its melancholic lyrics address the heartbreak Bech felt at the end of an eight-year relationship. In fact, it was the first song he penned after the separation.
David Lewin, a designer who transitioned out of corporate and now has years of experience in industrial design consulting in Portland, Oregon goes 1:1 with Michael DiTullo examining the nuances of working with clients in product development, the benefits of studio space, seeking diversified revenue within design practice and dipping into “almost famous” stories.
The ubiquity of electric vehicles can undeniably be attributed to Tesla. Had it not been for Elon Musk’s vision to make battery-powered four-wheelers the gold standard, we wouldn’t see the entire automotive industry scramble towards competing in this new field… however, there’s an exception that can be directly linked to Tesla’s non-involment. Two Wheelers.
Tesla has dabbled in most sections of the four-wheeler industry, from sedans, to pickup trucks, roadsters, semi-trailer trucks, and even quad-bikes. There’s an obvious lack of two-wheelers in Tesla’s product portfolio, and James Gawley took it upon himself to fill that void, at least with a concept. Meet the Tesla Model M… designed to make electric bikes more of the status quo, the Model M comes with a unique aesthetic that deliberately chooses to create a negative space in its design where the fuel-tank would be, almost poking fun at its fuel-guzzling ancestors. The bike’s curvy outer body harks to the curvilinear design-language of its sedans like the Model X and Model S, and a massive dashboard occupies a significant amount of space where you’d expect the fuel tank’s inlet – giving you a whole host of data from your speed and battery level to the bike’s performance and even a detailed map to help you navigate. Pretty cool, right? And it’s compatible with Tesla’s Supercharger network too!
Basé à Budapest, l’artiste et photographe hongrois Milan Radisics vient de lancer une nouvelle série, Wrapped Gym et Wrapped Ropes, qui fait écho à l’actualité. Cette dernière est liée à la pandémie, à l’art et à la « technique d’emballage » de Christo. En effet, après le confinement et les restrictions dus au coronavirus, les autorités ont utilisé du ruban de sécurité en vinyle rayé rouge et blanc, afin de rendre impossible l’utilisation des espaces publics. « Ils ont emballé des équipements de gymnastique en plein air et ont involontairement créé des installations et des sculptures temporaires de ce temps de pandémie. De véritables œuvres d’art contemporaines qui ressemblent à celles des célèbres Christo et Jeanne-Claude.
Ainsi, dans une exploration photographique, l’artiste a joué avec l’équilibre entre l’enfermement et l’art créé involontairement, pendant le processus de fermeture des espaces ouverts en enveloppant des équipements d’activités extérieures.
To accompany author Kristin Tice Studeman’s Serving New York: For All The People Who Make NYC Dining Unforgettablee-cookbook, online shop and dining culture advocate inHouse at Home’s 100% cotton canvas apron features one of Jordan Awan’s illustrations from the book. As with the cookbook, 100% of the proceeds go to ROAR (Relief Opportunities for All Restaurants) and Robin Hood’s restaurant relief fund.
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