Hasta La Ideas

It’s kind of amazing that a lot of our society’s infrastructure is predicated on us not being synchronized. For example, there’s that college prank where everyone flushes a dorm toilet at the exact same moment, causing water pipes to burst; and an amusing urban legend goes that if everyone in China jumped off a chair at the same moment, it would knock the Earth out of orbit.

Sadly, this if-all-of-us-do-it-at-the-same-time-something-breaks thing may be true of electric cars, at least in Germany. A recent study done by the German branch of the World Wildlife Federation found that if one million Germans in 2020 all plugged in their electric cars to recharge after getting home from work, the resultant power drain would require massive amounts of coal to offset, which would in turn offset any carbon savings.

Today, the German plants that deliver marginal electricity are fueled by coal. That is the main problem, according to the study. The research adds that to produce the same amount of energy, coal emits more carbon dioxide than even gasoline.

“The irony is that you don’t need a lot more electricity for electric cars,” [vehicle expert Viviane] Raddatz, said. “But the problem is that if they cause these peaks, we would have to have power plants that would be ready to start (as) the massive charging starts.”

This apparently would not hold true in the United States, where, amazingly, there are more forms of greener electricity generation in the works.

Read all about it here.

via cnet

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Project Masiluleke, or Project M for short, has been a cause celebre in several design subfields since its primary announcement last October. The project, which centers on text messaging to distribute information about HIV/AIDS treatment in deeply afflicted parts of South Africa, has been warmly praised by interaction designers, proponents of socially conscious design, advocates of technological leapfrogging in the developing world, and much of the design and innovation press as well (like Fast Company…and us).

If there were any concerns that this was a well-meaning but impractical solution that succeeded better in the minds of designers than the hands of users, though, they can be confidently put to rest, as this special report on health care and technology in April 16th’s Economist points out.

The article, aimed at as pragmatic an audience as any publication on earth, introduces the project with a touch of skepticism, observing that “modern wizardry like molecular diagnostics and digital medical records seem irrelevant” in much of the developing world, and describing initial doubts about the effectiveness of high-tech to improve lives in the poor places of the world, by none other than Bill Gates.

It then proceeds to note that “the response has been spectacular,” and outlines numerous related health care projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere that are succeeding in providing services to populations that had formerly been written off as unreachable:

The most promising applications of mHealth for now are public-health messaging, stitching together smart medical grids, extending the reach of scarce health workers and establishing surveillance networks for infectious diseases. The use of the technology is spreading: a recent report funded by the UN Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation, two charities, documented more than four dozen projects across the developing world.

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The Cooper-Hewitt just unveiled the 10th edition of its National Design Awards, crowning Bill Moggridge with the Lifetime Achievement, and a host of other individuals and firms with the top honors. And the winners are…

Lifetime Achievement: Bill Moggridge
Design Mind: Amory B. Lovins

Corporate Achievement: Walker Art Center
Finalists: Dwell Magazine and Heath Ceramics

Architecture Design: SHoP Architects
Finalists: Architecture Research Office and Michael Maltzan

Communication Design: The New York Times Graphics Department
Finalists: Hoefler & Frere-Jones and Project Projects

Fashion Design: Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein Collection
Finalists: Thom Browne and Rodarte

Interaction Design: Perceptive Pixel Inc
Finalists: Potion and Lisa Strausfeld

Interior Design: TsAO & McKOWN Architects
Finalists: Ali Tayar and Work AC

Landscape Design: Hood Design
Finalists: Andrea Cochran and Rios Clementi Hale Studios

Product Design: Boym Partners
Finalists: Salvor Projects and Smart Design

Learn about the judges and get more info at the site.

Image above: Boym Partners

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Julie Lasky, in full floral splendor on DesignObserver today. Here’s the start:

When the Italian design gallerist Rossana Orlandi serves sit-down dinner for ninety during the International Furniture Fair in Milan, she doesn’t mess around. Her table stretches the length of a baronial hall that would make Beowulf feel comfortable. Running down the middle of the table is a trail of raw vegetables: fat leeks, juicy radishes, rotund red cabbages and bushy branches of rosemary. Guests forage for foie gras and antipasto tucked under the leaves, and some even munch on the centerpiece. These are resourceful times, green times, surprising times, Orlandi’s table reminds us. Our dull, bovine economy can yet make room for the occasional spot of indulgence. I spoon ham-and-potato salad from a little clamshell near my plate and look across the table at the reassuring sight of the Dutch designer Marcel Wanders. He’s wearing pearls.

Lot’s more big boys in there too. Read the whole thing here.

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While their Billings Index once again ticked up slightly this month, the American Institute of Architects is apparently suffering regardless of how the industry it represents might possibly be on the mend. In a recent announcement made by their…