Civic Service is a program from Parsons’ DESIS Lab co-founded by Eduardo Staszowski, Elliott Montgomery, and Core77’s Dave Seliger. Civic Service hosts a range of events to encourage interagency collaboration in local government and inspire civil servants to become intrapreneurs within their agencies.
Civic Service is about many things. It’s about dedicating your career to serving the public. It’s about the innumerable services that a city delivers every day to its residents. And it’s about using design to make these services more user-friendly and human-centric. Civil servants are a reflection of the cities they serve—in New York City, we are dreamers, visionaries and creators. We founded Civic Service to empower civil servants with inspiration, tools and a network of like-minded colleagues.
This past weekend, we took an exciting step toward bringing service design as a tool for change to local government. With the help of civil servants from a variety of New York City agencies, we prototyped our first Civic Service Workshop. Four fantastic Parsons Transdiciplinary Design graduate students—Meagan Durlak, Reid Henkel, Mike Varona and Joe Wheeler—carefully led the participating civil servants through the service design process.
News: American firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has revealed designs for a skyscraper in Jakarta that will be over 500 metres high and will harvest wind energy through an opening at its peak.
With a proposed height of approximately 530 metres, the Pertamina Energy Tower will be twice as high as Wisma 46, currently the tallest building in Indonesia, and will feature an integrated “wind funnel” that generates energy from prevailing air currents.
SOM designed the building as a headquarters for state-owned oil and gas corporation Pertamina and it will be constructed as part of a proposed campus that also includes a mosque, a performing arts and exhibition centre, sports facilities and an energy plant.
The exterior of the tower will be glazed and will gently taper towards the top to frame the opening of the wind funnel. This curved facade will feature solar shades to allow natural light to enter, without the problems of solar heat gain.
“Pertamina Energy Tower’s iconic presence will stand as a model of sustainability and efficiency, as well as collaborative workplace design,” said SOM director Scott Duncan.
“The headquarters’ performance-driven design supports and reflects the ambition of Pertamina’s mission and forges an innovative model of green development in Jakarta.”
The building is scheduled for completion in 2020 in Jakarta’s Rasuna Epicentrum neighbourhood and will accommodate up to 20,000 Pertamina employees.
Pertamina reveals plans for SOM-designed tower in Jakarta
Plans were unveiled on Monday for Pertamina Energy Tower, a highly sustainable corporate headquarters in Jakarta, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), the renowned architecture, engineering, interiors and planning firm. Created for the state-owned energy company, Pertamina, the large-scale project will feature a performing arts and exhibition pavilion, a mosque, and a central energy plant in addition to the office tower. Rising more than 500 metres above Jakarta, the tower will be a new landmark on the capitol’s skyline.
The architectural expression of Pertamina Energy Tower reinforces the sustainable strategies at the core of its design. Gently tapering towards a rounded top, the tower opens up at the crown, revealing a ‘wind funnel’ that will take advantage of the prevailing winds and increased wind speeds at the upper floors to generate energy. Precisely calibrated for Jakarta’s proximity to the equator, the tower’s curved facade will mitigate solar heat gain throughout the year. Exterior sun shades will dramatically improve the workplace environment and save energy by reducing the need for artificial lighting in the office interiors.
The 99-story tower will accommodate 20,000 employees and will be the centrepiece of the Pertamina campus in Jakarta’s Rasuna Epicentrum neighbourhood. Conceived as a city within a city, the campus design endeavours to create a new model for a corporate headquarters – one that is more like a bustling city – with vibrant public spaces and communal meeting areas, such as a 2,000-seat auditorium for lectures and performances and a public mosque. A central energy plant will serve as the energy production hub for the campus, a literal and figurative “heart” from which energy and services will be distributed. A covered walkway known as the “Energy Ribbon” will knit together the constellation of campus programs and span across land bridges and gardens to create an array of accessible public spaces. The project is slated for completion in 2020.
Regular, Angulate, Slim, dining chair designed with the main motif.RAS is coated with eco-friendly paints are available in a variety of colors and can..
TERRA NATION makes going to the beach an even better experience by designing beach equipment and beach going footwear. With head offices in Niederdorla, Germany, TERRA NATION would you like to apply your industrial design and footwear design skills to their pursuit of improving the beach visiting experience.
The beach environment, global user habits and the nature of products used to meet the needs of beach visitors are fields that are constantly explored. One of TERRA NATION’s areas of interest is the technology, behavior and aesthetics of footwear that can be used in such environments. Sound like a fun job? Apply Now.
The final part of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s triology documenting his walk across Europe in the 1930s was published in September. Its cover by Ed Kluz, shown left, fulfilled an interesting brief – to offer something new but to keep in mind the tradition of Fermor’s illustrated covers, designed since the 1950s by the late John Craxton…
The Broken Road is the third volume of Fermor’s series that charts his journey on foot from The Netherlands to Turkey and succeeds A Time of Gifts (1977) and Between the Woods and the Water (1986).
The most recent instalment, which covers Fermor’s route from Romania onwards, existed as an unfinished manuscript on his death in 2011. It was then edited into book form by Artemis Cooper and finally published by John Murray.
Since the 1950s, the covers of Fermor’s books were illustrated by the artist John Craxton. As a painter, Craxton once shared a studio with Lucian Freud – thanks in part to his patron Peter Watson – and according to the Tate’s biography he was influenced by the work of Graham Sutherland and Samuel Palmer.
Craxton produced cover art and hand-lettering for the following of Fermor’s books: The Traveller’s Tree (1950); The Violins of Saint-Jacques (1953); Mani (1958); Roumeli (1966); and Three Letters from the Andes (1991).
“Craxton died in 2009 so when The Broken Road cover was briefed it was necessary to find an artist who would complement the previous look but add their own style and personality,” says John Murray’s art director Sara Marafini. “Someone who would echo Craxton without imitating him.
“I admired the work of Ed Kluz and thought his style was perfect as I wanted an artist who would illustrate and also hand-letter the cover as Craxton had done. The result is, I think, a beautiful cover that completely ties in with the series but also retains the individuality and originality of Ed’s work.”
For Kluz, the design posed a bit of a challenge. Writing on his blog, he said “Craxton’s bold and playful covers are synonymous with the work of Fermor … [and] I had to ensure that the new jacket sat comfortably within the series whilst expressing my own approach.”
For The Broken Road cover, Kluz referenced the colours that Craxton has employed in his artwork for Fermor’s books Roumeli and Mani. “Whereas both of these depict a daytime scene with a sun-like motif in the sky, I wanted my design to represent a nocturne,” he writes. “The inspiration for this came from a passage in which Fermor, accompanied by a stray black dog, discovers the ruin of a mosque at night under a bright moon.”
Cooper later praised the suitability of Kluz’s work as carrying on the English pastoral and Romantic traditions of Craxton. Fermor would no doubt have been proud to see the complete set.
End papers designed by Ed Kluz for The Broken Road
More of Kluz’s work can be seen at edkluz.co.uk. Patrick Leigh Fermor’s books are published by John Murray.
A Dolce & Gabbana Christmas conjures images of leopard-print stockings hung by the chimney with care and a tree draped in black lace, but the Italian duo have put on their Santa hats (red velvet, ermine trim) for one of their favorite casas away from casa: Claridge’s. The London hotel enlisted Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana to design its annual Christmas tree (pictured). This year’s festive fair is decked out in hand-crafted Sicilian puppets known as pupi, hand-painted Italian glass baubles, and a custom-made “luminaire” framework created in Southern Italy. Note the designers, “Our Christmas tree isn’t only a celebration of Christmas as we celebrate it in Italy, but it’s at the same time a tribute to the artisanal Italian tradition.
Around ten million turkeys will be eaten in the UK this Christmas – 90 percent of them factory-farmed. Salford design agency Raw has launched a colourful yet shocking animated campaign explaining the controversial process, and hopes it will convince some consumers to opt for meat-free or free range alternatives…
Let’s Talk Turkey is an interactive website featuring a series of animated illustrations. It begins by explaining how turkeys came to be a Christmas dinner table staple and goes on to highlight the differences in shop-bought, free range and wild turkeys’ health and living conditions.
Users are then invited to pledge their support for vegetarian meals or free-range birds. Those who do are added to a list of ‘backers’ and those who are still unsure about their festive dinner choices are taken to a page providing alternative recipes, information about free range farming and links to animal welfare and organic supplier sites.
The website features some lovely illustrations and some humorous copy, but it also reveals some disturbing facts about cramped conditions, painful beak snipping procedures and selective breeding. It does so, however, without using the kind of shock tactics or gory imagery often employed by animal rights groups.
“The problem we see with many mainstream activist campaigns is that they all too often have the opposite effect or are poorly executed,” says Raw creative director Rob Watson. “Shock tactics don’t seem to get viewed, as people immediately click off a website or stop a video [when] it is gruesome and upsetting. We felt the best way to start to engage people was to present them with the facts, but make the journey more engaging – even if it’s just one element that makes them think twice and become more conscious, that’s all it takes,” he adds.
Raw came up with the idea around six weeks ago following discussions over a change in eating habits in the studio: “We’ve worked with food chains in the past but this year has seen a real shift in our studio culture, with four out of seven of the team being predominantly vegetarian, and with the horse meat scandal earlier in the year, more and more people seem to be waking up to the realities of the factory meat industry,” he adds.
Most Brits will be understandably reluctant to change their festive eating habits, particularly when organic and free range alternatives cost so much more than supermarket birds. But by opting for colour, humour and positive reinforcement over gruesome photographs, Raw has designed an educational animal welfare campaign that is easier to digest but no less compelling.
Name, fame and accolades, the perfect ingredients to a successful launch or a sustainable career! The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) opens its International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2014 and wants you – yes designers – YOU, to participate and win all of the above in just one go. The call for entries will remain open until February 14th, 2014 and the awards are open to designers, students and companies worldwide. The important dates and further instructions are after the jump.
IDEA accepts entries in the following categories:
Automotive & Transportation
Bathroom, Spa & Wellness
Children’s Products
Commercial & Industrial
Communication Tools
Computer Equipment
Design Strategy
Digital Design
Entertainment
Environments
Garden & Patio
Home Furnishings
Kitchen
Sports, Leisure & Recreation
Medical & Scientific
Office & Productivity
Outdoor Products
Packaging & Graphics
Personal Accessories
Research
Service Design
Social Impact Design
Student Designs – Concepts Welcome
For complete competition information visit: http://www.idsa.org/idea
Lors d’un voyage à Manhattan, le photographe originaire de l’Oregon Brad Sloan a pu capturer des paysages urbains, qu’il s’est ensuite amusé à dupliquer et retourner, afin de composer des images surréalistes où le haut et le bas se confondent. Des visuels spectaculaires non sans rappeler le film Inception.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
A Dolce & Gabbana Christmas conjures images of leopard-print stockings hung by the chimney with care and a tree draped in black lace, but the Italian duo have put on their Santa hats (red velvet, ermine trim) for one of their favorite casas away from casa: 
