AIA Explains How Healthcare Reform Will Affect the Architecture Industry

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When you think about big civic moves like the recently passed healthcare reform bill, it’s usually in wide, all-encompassing pictures and not industry-specific. By way of Archinect, we found this interesting piece at The Architect’s Newspaper, interviewing the AIA Trust‘s Executive Director, Ann Casso, and the architecture organization’s top lobbyist, Andrew Goldberg, about how the new healthcare reforms will affect architecture firms. While there aren’t specifics within the bill that focus on architecture directly, it’s interesting to read their interpretation on how they see the changes affecting their members and the industry as a whole. Based on their answers, the AIA seems sort of half and half on the bill, which explains why they didn’t take a specific side before it passed (or really after, for that matter). Here’s a bit about that:

The AIA has long supported the concept of making insurance more affordable for architecture firms, especially smaller firms, which often have struggled with rising premiums. But AIA members differ on how to achieve that — we’ve heard from members who run the gamut of viewpoints, from those who support a nationalized single-payer system to those who prefer a market-based approach.

For that reason, we did not take a position on the health care bill. We did, however, work to eliminate provisions that would be burdensome on and unfair to our industry, in particular an amendment that was added to the Senate bill at the last minute last December that would have forced construction firms with as few as 5 employees to provide insurance. The bill that Congress passed today eliminates that provision.

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Online design debate prompts BusinessWeek list of 27 Most Influential Designers

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pJust before the New Year, Helen Walters, Editor of Innovation and Design at Bloomberg BusinessWeek, wrote A HREF=”http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2009/12/come_on_designe.html” a blog post/A criticizing a (UK) ITimes/I piece which was in turn criticizing certain government-funded design projects as being a waste of bread. Walters’ central take was that the blame for this misconception was the fault of the designers themselves: “Designers need to step up and fight back and prove their craft is not a 20th century anachronism,” she wrote. This then sparked a bit of a debate:/p

blockquoteThe response was swift, spirited, and fell mainly into two camps. Some thought I was being deliberately incendiary and borderline irresponsible; others agreed that perhaps the design industry has an issue. Many quite rightly pointed out that “design” is a much larger proposition than the graphic design of this particular rebranding exercise, while there were numerous lively and articulate defenses of design as a process, not a style or an artifact. Companies such as Apple, Procter Gamble and BMW were cited as corporate leaders that clearly understand the worth of good design./blockquote

pPrompted by this, and in an effort to promote a better understanding of the design industry, Walters then rounded up IDEO partner Diego Rodriguez, RKS Design’s Ravi Sawhney and Deepa Prahalad, Angel investor Dave McClure, and pediatrician/preventive medicine specialist Dr. Jay Parkinson to collaborate on a list of “The 27 most influential designers and design thinkers making an impact on business today.” With some names you’ll recognize and others you’re seeing for the first time, the report is well worth a read and A HREF=”http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/02/0201_worlds_most_influential_designers/1.htm” accessible here/A.br /
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Design Within Reach Patches Things Up with Alan Heller

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Back at the very start of the year, we posted about Design Within Reach‘s new management’s desire to patch up all the rocky relationships it had damaged in the years prior (that’s putting it lightly, in regard to some specific cases). This included a link to a NY Times story about one such furniture manufacturer in particular, Alan Heller, who according to his telling had been stabbed in the back when DWR stopped selling one of his products (a Mario Bellini chair) and immediately rolled out their own, which looked unquestionably similar. While that bad blood existed just two months ago, it appears that DWR’s new efforts might be working, as we ran across this otherwise slightly cryptic press release if you didn’t happen to know the backstory:

Design Within Reach, Inc. and Heller Inc. have amicably resolved the litigation captioned Heller Inc. v. Design Within Reach, Inc., et al., Case No. 09 CV 1909 (S.D.N.Y). Both parties are pleased with the resolution of this dispute and look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship in the future. In particular, the parties wish to express Heller’s strong belief in the new direction of Design Within Reach, and Design Within Reach’s deep respect and support for Heller and its designs.

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New Retailer Made.com Launches Vote-to-Produce Designer Furniture Business

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The Design Within Reach, but actually within reach? Another Ikea? Threadless but for furniture? All those titles seem to stick, just maybe not quite, when reading the Guardian‘s profile of Made.com, a new online retailer which just launched yesterday. The site allows users to pre-purchase their favorite among a collection of contemporary furniture pieces by name designers and the chair, table, etc. with the most votes/purchases goes into production. Founded by Ning Li, the site has received a batch of capital to launch the outlet, with investors likely keen to the idea of “no unsold inventory and no wastage as the factory only manufactures the exact number of items ordered.” It’s an interesting idea. It’s hard to judge exactly how well-made the furniture is just by looking at the photos on their site, but idea alone, it scores points for novelty. Here’s from investor Brent Hoberman:

Hoberman reckons Made.com is part of a new e-commerce trend: “From an investment trend perspective we see an exciting transition from retailing to ‘me-tailing’ where consumers are in control, influencing which designs make it into production and with a more direct connection to the factory. Made.com is good news for talented designers who struggle to achieve scale production as it will showcase the best new talent to the buying public and generate demand for their products.”

Though after reading that, could you also start raising some anti-spec red flags?

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Design and the public good

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pThe UK’s a href=”http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/apdig”Associate Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group/a (APDIG), in partnership with the a href=”http://www.dba.org.uk/”Design Business Association/a, has published the findings of its Parliamentary inquiry into public sector procurement of design and creative services, in a report entitled “a href=”http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/apdig/content/design-and-public-good-creativity-vs-procurement-process”Design and the Public Good: Creativity vs. the Procurement Process?/a”/p

blockquoteemAPDIG and the Design BusinessAssociation undertook this inquiry, building on the findings of the Cox Review of Creativity in Business, to assess the relationship between government and its design providers, and to explore design’s potential to unlock innovation for the public sector. We take the term design in its broadest sense, as a verb rather than a noun, as a set of tools that enables a better way of doing things – whether that means designing effective policy, designing out waste, or designing services that work for users./em/blockquote

pa href=”http://groups.yahoo.com/group/designpolicy/message/400″According/a to Gisele Murphy of a href=”http://www.designwales.org/”Design Wales/a, “the report highlights how the UK Government could benefit from working effectively when commissioning design. The recommendations aim to achieve value for money in commissioning creative work, improve collaboration between designers and public sector buyers, and most importantly, ensure that decisions are end-user focused. The text includes several informative and concise case studies.”/p

pa href=”http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/apdig/content/report-launch-design-and-public-good”strongRead press release/strong/a (a href=”http://www.dba.org.uk/events/designandthepublicgood.asp”DBA version/a)br /
a href=”http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/fckimages/APDIG-DBA%20report_PRINT.pdf”strongDownload report/strong/a/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/design_and_the_public_good_16183.asp”(more…)/a
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Apple snaps up prominent wearable computing expert

pWhile he was a grad student pursuing his PhD at MIT’s Media Lab, A HREF=”http://devaul.net/” Richard DeVaul/A developed “memory glasses,” a spectacle-mounted display wired to a small wearable computer running Linux. As the project’s name suggests, it was intended to remind the user of things they needed to do or context-relevant facts they needed to remember, sort of like virtual post-it notes. “I can improve your performance on a memory recall task by a factor of about 63% without distracting you, in fact without you being aware that I’m doing anything at all,” DeVaul explained./p

pimg alt=”0devaul.jpg” src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/0devaul.jpg” width=”468″ height=”416″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

p align=centerDeVaul (bottom left) and colleagues model the memory glasses/p

p”The things that I want help with are, in a sense, very simple,” DeVaul A HREF=”http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-11-23-memory-glasses_x.htm” told IUSA Today/I/A while describing the project. “Basic things. If I’ve been sitting in front of my computer for six hours, and haven’t gotten up to eat, a little thing would remind me, ‘Rich, go take a break.'” DeVaul’s glasses were subsequently featured on an episode of Scientific American Frontiers called “A HREF=”http://www.pbs.org/saf/1309/video/watchonline.htm” Never Forget a Face/A.”/p

pDeVaul invented these glasses way back in 2003. So why are we telling you about it now? Well, because A HREF=”http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/03/wearable-computing-expert-now-apple-prototype-scientist.ars” Apple’s just hired the guy/A. Of course the glasses aren’t the only thing DeVaul’s done and is valued for; the wearable computing expert was a co-founder of AWare Technologies, “a company focused on technology-driven solutions to the problems of physical inactivity in the corporate health and fitness market” that did work for everyone from DARPA to the Olympics. But here’s to hoping that in a few years we’ll all be queueing up for iGlasses.br /
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Pure Design co-founder raises the bar(s)

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p[photo credit: Greg Southam of IEdmonton Journal/I]/p

pOne of the things I love about ID is its broad scope. With an ID skill set you can design anything from toothbrushes to furniture to stores to cars, and whether the economy’s good or bad it’s a great way to move between industries, as you’re not tied to the fortunes of any one specific product./p

pRemember Pure Design, the Umbra-esque design firm from the ’90s? Founded by the design trio of Geoffrey Lilge, Randy McCoy and Daniel Hlus, the firm was the epitome of hip design of that era, starting out with a CD rack (sooooo ’90s) and expanding into furniture that wound up on the sets of Ally McBeal and a Janet Jackson video (ditto). /p

pSo whatever happened to them? Following the departure of Lilge in 2002, McCoy and Hlus sold the company in 2005, and it subsequently morphed into A HREF=”http://www.puredesignonline.com/about.php” an upstate-New-York-based design retailer/A. And in an example of the resilience and diversity of the profession, McCoy has recently popped up on the design radar again–doing nightclubs and bars in Edmonton./p

pAfter leaving Pure, McCoy was asked by friends for help with renovations; with the successful completion of each project the requests started to pile up, and he realized he had a viable business on his hands and founded Retrofit Design LTD. Since its inception in 2005, McCoy’s firm has expanded from kitchens and residential interiors into nightlife./p

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pThe A HREF=”http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/Raising+with+warmth/2678636/story.html” IEdmonton Journal/I recently did a piece on McCoy/A and his bar design, and you can read more about him and check out Retrofit’s stuff A HREF=”http://www.retrofitdesign.ca/default.htm” here/A./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/pure_design_co-founder_raises_the_bars_16172.asp”(more…)/a
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The Big Rethink: four visions of the world tomorrow, and how to shape your company around them

pThe Economist’s a href=”http://www.eiuresources.com/mediadir/default.asp?Criteria=FullNameLocator=WORLDSearchTerm=Robin%20Bew”Robin Bew/a, who opened the conference yesterday by reminding us of exactly how deep the s*** is we’re in, posed what are perceived to be the four trends (or challenges for business) that will shape tomorrow’s world. /p

pa href=”http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/biography_sir_george_cox.htm”Sir George Cox/a (former Design Council Chairman), in his calming, measured, reassuring way, offered some reasons why we shouldn’t all start panicking and freak out. This was a nice reflective antidote to the information overload of the last two days, and perhaps the most genuinely insightful session for those business leaders who had attended to learn what they should be planning for./p

pSo, the 4 Trends: br /
1. the shift to emerging marketsbr /
2. rich world ageingbr /
3. carbon pricingbr /
4. a lack of capital/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/the_big_rethink_four_visions_of_the_world_tomorrow_and_how_to_shape_your_company_around_them_16163.asp”(more…)/a
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The Big Rethink: Virgin Atlantic case study

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pSession title: How understanding the customer’s experience has led to innovative services that encourage more people to fly Virgin./p

pa href=”http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/Design-Council/1/Our-People/Council-Members/Joe-Ferry/”Joe Ferry/a, Head of Design at a href=”http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/”Virgin Atlantic Airways/a spent 10 minutes talking us through the recent design challenges he’s faced during the last few years. Virgin have 7,500 staff, 5,000,000 passengers and 40 aircraft, which is just a fraction of what the other major players have. Joe insists that Virgin Atlantic has no right to exist and the fact that it does and is successful is entirely due to the fact that it is different. What separates Virgin Atlantic according to Joe is service and productmdash;design is at the heart of everything they do./p

pDespite the collapse in the market in response to September 11th Twin Towers tragedy Virgin undertook a multimillion dollar upgraded the first class seats and experience that launched in April 2002. /p

pWhere you sleep is now no longer where the travellers sits. The level of investment required to develop a new seat for the fleet is around pound;1-2m. Then to role that out across the fleet is around pound;100m./p

pbr /
img alt=”virgin_air_upper_3.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/virgin_air_upper_3.jpg” width=”335″ height=”513″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” /br /
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Please renew!

I’ve just sent out a second renewal notice to our inaugural subscribers. If you started with the very first issue, then issue 4, with the bird on the cover, was the last issue included in the initial subscription.

This is an important time for the magazine: our inaugural subscribers represent almost a quarter of all subscribers so it is really vital that people continue to support the magazine by renewing. I’m not sure what a typical renewal rate is for a magazine, but then our magazine isn’t typical! We’re hoping for as high a renewal rate as possible since the magazine is almost entirely funded by subscriptions. From this point on, asking for renewals will become a regular necessity, along with nurturing new subscribers. Beyond the pleasure of content gathering, design and working with our collaborators, there’s certainly lots to manage! (Thanks, Jenny, for your tremendous help.)

Part of the unique quality of UPPERCASE magazine is the open dialogue I have as editor/publisher/designer with our readers. Through this blog and your emails, I’m in direct contact with many subscribers and have gotten to know you through your blogs, flickr and messages of support. You offer so much inspiration, thank you!

I hope you are all equally inspired by our quarterly publishing efforts.

{We will send you renewal notices by email when your subscription is nearing an end, but you are more than welcome to renew your subscription anytime by clicking here. We’ll add four (or eight) more issues on to your current subscription.}

Thank you!!!