Hasta La Ideas

A big marriage between two major players in the world of trying to do go via design this week with the announcement that Cameron Sinclair‘s Architecture for Humanity has acquired Worldchanging, the seven year old sustainability news site. According to the press release, over the next six months, Worldchanging will be brought/folded into Architecture for Humanity’s Open Architecture Network, which had previously functioned as more of a site dedicated to sharing resources and information instead of daily news and commentary. Once the two are blended together, which AH promises will be managed by an independent entity and will stick with the Worldchanging brand, it “will include project management tools, offer case studies on innovative solutions and provide tools for aid and development organizations evaluate their programs in the field.” Here’s a bit more info about the acquisition process:

Over the summer, Architecture for Humanity met with over sixty writers, contributors, stakeholders and supporters to envision the transition of these sites. “Worldchanging has helped frame the global conversation on sustainability over the past seven years, and we couldn’t be more excited for Architecture for Humanity to take the reins and continue to push the boundaries of what we can achieve together,” Worldchanging co-founder Jamais Cascio noted “I can’t imagine Worldchanging being in better hands.”

Many of the original writers to Worldchanging, including co-founders Jamais Cascio and Alex Steffen, have signed up to contribute to the new site.

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When the iPad was first announced, perhaps an Ikea executive said “Uh-oh,” and perhaps not. If the exec had good foresight, perhaps he did this math:

1. The iPad will become popular
2. Competing tablets will arrive
3. Tablets will become ubiquitous
4. E-book sales will rise, print book sales will decline
5. We’ll start selling less bookcases.

As an article in The Economist points out, this is exactly what’s happened. As a result, Ikea is finally redesigning what is arguably their bread-and-butter product, the Billy bookcase, making it deeper and pushing the glass doors option. Why? “The firm reckons customers will increasingly use them for ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome,” says the article, “anything, that is, except books that are actually read.”

While Ikea might not like the idea of selling fewer bookcases, they surely see the financial wisdom in e-books: Every year they print 175 million copies of their catalog, more than tripling the number of Bibles printed worldwide, and it eats up 70% of their marketing budget. Their app version of the catalog will presumably change that.

The new Billy will debut next month.

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Just two years ago it was announced that architect Santiago Calatrava had signed on to help design major new additions for Denver’s airport, an estimated $650 million project that would include “a commuter-rail station, a public plaza that links with the existing terminal, and a 500-room Westin hotel.” Things seemed to be moving along swimmingly with the South Terminal Redevelopment Program, when the first renderings and even an animation of the project were released in July of last year. However, at some point between then and last week, the relationship between the developers and Calatrava have broken down, with the architect announcing that he is leaving the project for good. Claiming that cutbacks, such as the budget being trimmed back by $150 million, have jeopardized the original vision, the architect decided to walk away. However, the Denver Post reports that the airport will continue to move forward with Calatrava’s original design plans, something the he sounds okay with at the moment, though the paper reports that the initial contract for the project stipulates that the design and intellectual property rights belong solely to Calatrava and his firm, which might create something of a hurdle down the line as construction continues to move forward without him. Here’s a bit:

From our perspective as the design professionals, the project still lacks sufficient funding, particularly dollars for the hard-cost components of the project,” Robertina Calatrava said in the letter. “It continues to set an unrealistic schedule with little or no room to develop and consolidate the design in keeping with the standards and quality of a Calatrava signature design.”

With this exit, the Denver Post further writes that Denver residents are now worried that the city might be developing something of a reputation as being unfriendly to hot shot starchitects. Sure, they’ll always have Daniel Libeskind‘s Denver Art Museum and David Adjaye‘s Museum of Contemporary Art, but with Steven Holl calling it quits on the 2006 Justice Center project and now Calatrava’s exit, some are worried that a “stay out of Denver if you want to see a building through to the end” precedent might be developing.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When Jeffrey Deitch pulled up stakes in New York and set off to start stirring things up out west in Los Angeles as the LA MOCA‘s new director, there was more than a little concern over what would happen with his former, and extremely popular, Deitch Projects gallery. After more than a year, the space on 18 Wooster Street finally has a new tenant. This week the non-profit arts organization Swiss Institute has officially finished their transition into the space, moving from the loft it had called home since 1994. Art Info reports that the Institute’s director and curator, Gianni Jetzer, recently said about the move, “The new street-level location will make the Swiss Institute more accessible to visitors and enable us to reach the downtown community in a more effective way.” The space will be christened this September 14th with its first exhibition, This Is Not My Color / The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a showing of the work of Pamela Rosenkranz and Nikolas Gambaroff.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you read one lengthy piece today, make it David Walker‘s report at Photo District News on the US Department of Justice‘s suit against the Education Management Corporation, the for-profit company behind the nationwide Art Institute chain of schools. Though there have been lots of stories written about the government deciding to start investigating and punishing for-profit schools for their often less-than-honest methods, this PDN story looks at the photography programs specifically, highlighting practices like preying on low-income students, using psychological tricks to recruit them, and making absurd promises of lucrative employment in creative fields and then not delivering once a student had graduated with $100,000 of student loan bills in tow. It’s a fascinating, troubling read and well worth the time. Here’s a great quote from a former student:

He says, “I hate to get down on folks who get swept in because I was one of them. I spent five years in high school, smoking pot, looking for the easy way out, not willing to take things seriously or work hard.

“Art Institute sees those students, and latches onto them. They say, ‘You’ll be a photographer, or a graphic designer, or a chef.” Orkoskey says he was receptive because he was hearing from everyone–his mother, his teachers, and politicians–that he’d be a failure without education.

For further reading, we also recommend reading Design Info‘s response to the piece, with advice to students considering one of these programs.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.