by Davis Adams Following a trip to Willow Springs International Raceway with Chrysler, it’d be remiss not to pay more attention to the 2014 SRT Viper TA. It’s the…
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News: Google has joined up with automotive manufacturers including Honda, Audi, Hyundai and General Motors to integrate its Android smartphone operating system into cars.
The news could bring Google into fresh conflict with Apple, which is understood to be working on similar plans and hopes to make its iOS operating system the industry standard.
Google has formed the Open Automotive Alliance with Honda, Audi, Hyundai and General Motors, plus visual computing firm NVIDIA. It aims to make the Android operating system that Google developed for smartphones and tablets a common standard for connected cars.
They claim the system’s openness, customisation and scale will allow carmakers to easily incorporate cutting-edge technology, but will also create opportunities for developers to create new experiences for drivers and passengers.
“The car is the ultimate mobile computer,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. “With onboard supercomputing chips, futuristic cars of our dreams will no longer be science fiction. The OAA will enable the car industry to bring these amazing cars to market faster.”
However rival tech giant Apple is also rumoured to be working with motor brands to develop in-car computing, according to Jonathan Ive’s biographer Leander Kahney.
“They’re working with all the world’s major automotive companies to bring iOS to cars,” he told Dezeen. “That could be a huge deal for them because that’s where most people listen to music.”
The first vehicle equipped with Google’s Android technology is due to roll off the production line later this year, bringing the 700,000 existing Android apps to the dashboard. Open Automotive Alliance is inviting more carmakers to join in the hope that Android will become the dominant platform for in-car computing.
“Millions of people are already familiar with Android and use it every day,” said Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps at Google. “The expansion of the Android platform into automotive will allow our industry partners to more easily integrate mobile technology into cars and offer drivers a familiar, seamless experience so they can focus on the road.
The post Google joins forces with major auto brands
to bring Android to car dashboards appeared first on Dezeen.
D’une hauteur de 30 mètres, ce château d’eau construit entre 1938 et 1941 et situé dans le village belge de Steenokkerzeel a été aménagé par Bham Design Studio pour un particulier qui en avait fait l’acquisition, le lieu étant à l’abandon. Une nouvelle vie incroyable, proposant ainsi une maison singulière au design soigné.
Le richissime collectionneur d’art Dakis Joannou a demandé à son ami l’artiste mondialement connu Jeff Koons de lui peindre son yacht. Appelé Guilty, ce bateau de 35 mètres pensés avec le designer Ivana Porfiri propose des couleurs impressionnantes, faisant de ce dernier une véritable œuvre d’art véhiculée.
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in our next movie from Miami, show director Marianne Goebl discusses the trends that emerged from Design Miami 2013, including a renewed focus on female designers such as Charlotte Perriand and Maria Pergay.
Design Miami 2013, which took place in Miami from 4 to 8 December alongside the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair, featured a large number of vintage furniture pieces by iconic 20th-century designers.
“Design Miami’s intention is to offer a journey through design history,” Goebl explains in the movie. “At the same time we present a strong pillar of contemporary experimental work.”
One of the standout pieces on show this year was a one-room prefabricated house designed by French modernist architect Jean Prouvé, which was on sale for $2.5 million.
“For the first time we have a full-scale architectural structure [at the show], which Jean Prouvé designed in 1945,” Goebl explains.
Prouvé was well-represented throughout the show, but so was the late architect’s frequent collaborator Charlotte Perriand.
“It’s also a year of seminal women designers,” says Goebl. “We have a solo show on Charlotte Perriand, where you can discover an interior that she designed in Paris for the Borot family.”
She continues: “We also have an interior dedicated to Maria Pergay’s furniture made from stainless steel from the 1970s.”
Other pieces of vintage furniture included Soviet art deco furniture presented by Moscow’s Heritage International Art Gallery.
“For the first time an exhibitor from Russia is showing some kind of propaganda furniture that was designed in the 1930s to 1950s,” Goebl explains.
Goebl then goes on to discuss the work of contemporary designers on show, claiming that there is a growing trend towards merging digital and analogue experiences.
“There’s a field that is not categorised yet,” she says. “For example, Maarten Baas‘ Grandfather and Grandmother clocks, or the Clock Clocks by Human Since 1982.”
Goebl claims that the collectible design market has now fully recovered after a few rocky years during the recent financial crash.
“The market had been affected by the crisis in 2008 and 2009,” she says. “But since 2010 we’ve really registered a continued, healthy growth.”
We drove around Miami in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. The music in the movie is a track called Jewels by Zequals. You can listen to the full track on Dezeen Music Project.
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designers” says Design Miami director appeared first on Dezeen.
Japanese artist Kohei Nawa filled a dark room with billowing clouds of foam for this art exhibition in Aichi, Japan (+ slideshow).
Kohei Nawa used a mixture of detergent, glycerin and water to create the bubbly forms of his installation, entitled Foam.
Described by the artist as being “like the landscape of a primordial planet”, the large cloud-like forms were pumped up from the floor in eight different locations, creating a scene that was constantly in motion inside an otherwise black room.
The artist experimented with different quantities of the three ingredients to create a foam stiff enough to hold a shape without being affected by gravity.
“Small cells bubble up ceaselessly with the slight oscillations of a liquid,” said Nawa, explaining the process. “The cells gather together, totally covering the liquid as they spontaneously form a foam, an organically structured conglomeration of cells.”
“The risen volumes of foam link together and reach saturation, but continue to swell, occasionally losing vitality and spreading out over the ground,” he added.
The exhibition was presented in Autumn 2013 as part of the Aichi Triennale, an art exhibition in Nagoya, Japan.
Photography is by Nobutada Omoto.
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a cloud-like landscape of soapy bubbles appeared first on Dezeen.
News: car brand Nissan has unveiled a revised design for its new London taxi to replace the city’s famous black cabs, having altered the look of the vehicle in an attempt “to better reflect the iconic nature of the traditional black cab” (+ slideshow).
The Nissan NV200 London Taxi will replace the UK capital’s iconic TX4 taxis from December 2014 and the Japanese firm unveiled the redesign this morning at the firm’s European design centre in Paddington, west London.
The vehicle is based on a van but has been remodelled since its launch in August 2012, when it was criticised for being simply a black version of the firm’s taxis in New York, Barcelona and Tokyo.
“In response to feedback from the London Mayor’s office, Transport for London and other key organisations which have put their backing behind the new taxi, Nissan has redesigned the vehicle to better reflect the iconic nature of the traditional black cab,” the company said.
The new bespoke design for London features round headlamps, a remodelled grille and new front bumper panels. The update also ditches the previous diesel engine for a 1.6-litre petrol engine and an automatic gearbox, available from December 2014, and a zero-emissions electric version will be available in 2015.
“Having already overcome the unique technical challenges presented by the development of a new Hackney Carriage for London ahead of our launch of the vehicle in August 2012, we turned our attention to making the vehicle look the part,” said Nissan’s design excellence manager Darryl Scriven. “The main challenges were concerned with making sure customers can easily recognise it as a taxi.”
“The Mayor’s office and taxi drivers were very keen that we maintain the character of the Hackney Carriage, making it something that people in the city can be proud of,” he added.
The NV200 seats five passengers including two flip-down seats facing the rear, access for wheelchairs and sliding doors for easy access in narrow spaces, and it adheres to Transport for London regulations requiring a 7.6-metre turning circle. The vehicles will be produced in Barcelona and assembled in London.
The new Nissan launch comes less than a year after Chinese brand Geely bought the makers of the traditional TX4 taxis Manganese Bronze, which still designs taxis using a similar basic structure to the first black cab from 1948, in a deal worth £11 million. The takeover followed the Coventry-based company going into administration in 2012.
There are currently around 20,000 black cabs – or hackney carriages – on the streets of London, but many will have to be retired as strict new emissions rules come into force.
The post Nissan updates its new London taxi design
to make it “easier to recognise” appeared first on Dezeen.
Celebrated in the custom bicycle building community for his impeccable talent and classic aesthetic, Portland-based Jordan Hufnagel leads the charge in purposefully designed bicycles with Hufnagel Cycles. In recent years, however, his focus has shifted from handmade bicycles to finding freedom in…
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Faced with some very deep pocketed rivals, decreasing market share and customers who are constantly looking for what’s next, Scott Croyle, HTC’s Senior Vice President of Design, is a master at finding his vision and keeping…
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La revue Obscura a décidé de se consacrer au CEO de Nike : Mark Parker et précisément sur son nouveau bureau situé au siège de la marque dans l’Oregon. Alors que nous avions présenté en exclusivité sur Fubiz l’ancienne version, le bureau rénové fourmille de pièces de collection et de références à Nike.
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.
