Hasta La Ideas

Although the video below is intended to be a commercial for author Steven Johnson’s latest book, it would also be a good standalone three-and-a-half-minute podcast clip on innovation. Johnson’s just-released The Innovator’s Cookbook is a selection of essays on innovation across a diversity of fields, touching on everything from Brian Eno’s instrument swaps to IDEO’s storied show-and-tell sessions.

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Design for America (DfA) has been busy these last few months, whether leading workshops at universities across the nation and at ABWBD, winning design awards, being featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine, and, of course, a articles feature right here on Core77. In short, Design for America is launching a design revolution all across America, inspiring young designers to take ownership of social problems in their communities and working to solve them with innovative solutions.

During this past week, all eight of Design for America’s flagship studios have gone live. These studios are hosted at: Barnard/Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Northwestern, RISD/Brown, Stanford, UCLA, and UO Eugene. Student leaders from each studio attended a Summer Leadership Studio at DfA Headquarters at Northwestern, which included a surprise visit from Massive Change author (and Core77 Design Award winner) Bruce Mau.

Workshop at the Dartmouth studio launch

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Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid Architects has won this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize for the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.

The prize was awarded at a ceremony held this evening at Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham.

The building was one of six shortlisted entries – more about each one here.

See also:

RIBA Stirling Prize winner 2010 »
All our stories about Zaha Hadid »

All photographs here are copyright Luke Hayes.

Here is some more information from the RIBA

Evelyn Grace Academy in London by Zaha Hadid Architects wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 for the best building of the year
The Evelyn Grace Academy, a cutting-edge new secondary school in Brixton, south London by Zaha Hadid Architects has won the prestigious £20,000 RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 for the best new European building built or designed in the United Kingdom. This is the second year running that Zaha Hadid Architects have won the RIBA Stirling Prize; last year they won the award for their MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome; this year they have put the practice’s formidable reputation to great use by breaking new ground in school design. Now in its 16th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is presented in association with The Architects Journal and Kingspan Benchmark

The presentation of the UK’s premier architectural award took place at a special ceremony this evening (Saturday 1 October) at the RIBA Stirling Prize-winning (2001) Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, and will be televised tomorrow (Sunday 2 October 2011) on BBC TWO’s The Culture Show at 5pm.

A highly stylized zig-zag of steel and glass, the Evelyn Grace Academy is squeezed on to the tightest of urban sites (1.4 hectares – the average secondary school is 8/9 hectares). The architects received a complex brief: four schools under a single academy umbrella with the need to express both independence and unity. The architects were strongly encouraged by the client to ‘think outside the box’. With such a small space and with sport being one of the Academy’s ‘special subjects’ (each Academy school has one), the architects needed to be highly inventive. They succeeded, for instance by cleverly inserting a 100m running track into the heart of the site taking pupils right up to the front door. By dramatically celebrating the school’s specialism, the RIBA Stirling Prize judges noted ‘this is a design that literally makes kids run to get into school in the morning’.

The Evelyn Grace Academy is the first school to win the RIBA Stirling Prize, with seven schools shortlisted in previous years. It is the first time that Zaha Hadid Architects have designed a school and their first large-scale project in the UK. Previously they designed a Maggie’s Centre in Scotland and more recently they have completed the Riverside Museum in Glasgow and the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics.

Speaking tonight, RIBA President Angela Brady, Chair of the judges, said:
“The Evelyn Grace Academy is an exceptional example of what can be achieved when we invest carefully in a well-designed new school building. The result – a highly imaginative, exciting Academy that shows the students, staff and local residents that they are valued – is what every school should and could be. The unique design, expertly inserted into an extremely tight site, celebrates the school’s sports specialism throughout its fabric, with drama and views of student participation at every contortion and turn. Evelyn Grace Academy is a very worthy winner of architecture’s most prestigious award and I am delighted to present Zaha Hadid Architects with this accolade.”
The Evelyn Grace Academy is run by ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) Academy organisation, a charity set up by Arpad “Arki” Busson, the hedge-fund multimillionaire. ARK aims to offer exceptional opportunities to local children in inner cities with the aim of helping to close the achievement gap between children from disadvantaged and more affluent backgrounds.

Peter Walker, Principal of the Evelyn Grace Academy said:
“This visually stunning building makes a powerful statement to our students every day they attend school. As a new academy setting the highest expectations for all students, it is fitting that we have such an aspirational environment. The internal structure of the building supports the innovative nature of Evelyn Grace Academy’s small school system exceptionally well.”

Zaha Hadid said:
“It is very significant that our first project in London is the Evelyn Grace. Schools are among the first examples of architecture that everyone experiences and have a profound impact on all children as they grow up. I am delighted that the Evelyn Grace Academy has been so well received by all its students and staff.”

Evelyn Grace Academy was chosen from the following outstanding shortlisted entries:

• An Gaelaras, Derry by O’Donnell and Tuomey
• The Angel Building, London by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM)
• Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany by David Chipperfield Architects
• Olympic Velodrome London 2012 by Hopkins Architects, supported by the Olympic Delivery Authority
• Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres, Stratford by Bennetts Associates

RIBA President Angela Brady announced the winner, editor of The Architects’ Journal, Christine Murray, awarded the £20,000 cheque and Peter Santo, Head of Benchmark presented the certificate to architects Patrik Schumacher and Lars Teichman, and school principal Peter Walker.

The 2011 RIBA Stirling Prize judges were RIBA President and Chair of the judges, Angela Brady; Sir Peter Cook – architect and academic, formerly of Royal Gold Medal winning Archigram; Hanif Kara – engineer, Adams Kara Taylor; Dan Pearson – landscape designer and RIBA Honorary Fellow and Alison Brooks – architect and winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2008 with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Maccreanor Lavington for the Accordia housing scheme.

The winners of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize and two special awards were also announced this evening:

• The Met, a sixty-six storey residential skyscraper in Bangkok, Thailand by WOHA architects won the prestigious RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the most outstanding work of international architecture outside the EU by a member of the RIBA.
• St. Patrick’s School Library and Music Room in north-west London by Coffey Architects won the RIBA’s 2011 Stephen Lawrence Prize. Set up in memory of Stephen Lawrence who was setting out on the road to becoming an architect when he was murdered in 1993 and funded by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, the prize rewards the best examples of projects that have a construction budget of less than £1 million and is intended to encourage fresh talent working with smaller budgets.
• The Royal Shakespeare Company won the 2011 RIBA Client of the Year supported by the Bloxham Charitable Trust. The award recognizes the role good clients play in the delivery of fine architecture.

See also:

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Zaha Hadid wins Stirling Prize	Rogers Stirk Harbour+ Partners wins Stirling Prize	Accordia wins Stirling Prize

Oregon Manifest Brainstorm

This is the fifth post in a 6-part series from Ziba’s Industrial Design Director, Paul Backett, on rethinking design education. Read the Introduction to the series, Teach Less, Integrate More here.

Designers in the real world almost never work alone, but students frequently do. One of the great failings of modern design schools is how rarely they expect students to work in groups or with external partners, and how little attention they give to the mechanics of teamwork. Just as much as sketching and modelmaking, design students must learn to share their own ideas and build on the ideas of others; to produce and receive constructive criticism from their peers.

The most successful projects I have worked on professionally came from a collective rather than individual vision. Realizing that vision isn’t always fun and games though. Great ideas come from passion and tension, sometimes even arguments. Students need to be objective, to put their personal feelings aside, to not take criticism personally and work for the greater good of the team. These skills can be learned in school, but it’s far more common for students to work independently, under a culture of competition or even coddling.

Students need a sense of humbleness and openness to outside ideas, and there’s still no better way to develop it than tough, exacting critique. Leela Morimoto of University of Oregon’s ID program gives a mid-term presentation.

My professors were tough. They took no crap off their students and called us out when we hadn’t put in full effort—sometimes dramatically. Based on my interaction with students from dozens of design programs over the past decade, I’m not sure this happens enough these days. An element of cockiness is natural for designers, but it’s up to professors to hand every student enough humbling experiences that they develop respect for the ideas and work of others. It’s the same in the professional world: we have to be open and honest in our evaluation of ideas. The more exposure students get to this type of discussion, the better.

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All images courtesy of Design for America

My cell phone rang insistently one late Monday afternoon in August 2009 as I was in my kitchen preparing dinner with my colleague, Katy Mess. On the phone, two undergraduate students eagerly explained that they were too excited about their new idea to wait for our next meeting; they needed to share it now. Thirty minutes later, I was holding the watermelon they had balanced on their handlebars during their bike ride from campus. They joined us at the table, and we offered feedback while they animatedly outlined initial observations and ideas for ridding hospital ICU’s of infectious bacteria.

Why don’t more students feel that they can track down a design mentor or professor at home because they need to share their exciting ideas? Our society needs innovative and passionate teams of people to solve its complex problems. Innovation makes our economy tick and improves our quality of life. We will not be able to downsize or cost cut our way out of the world’s current problems. How does design education tap into the passion that students and professionals have around making a difference in the world?

Mountains of articles, programs and books are produced every day about fostering innovation. Most of them directing, telling, pushing, instructing. But you don’t need to tell the average student that innovation is important and exciting. Some already have a deep yearning to work for social good. You can trace their attempts to influence the world if you follow their desire lines.

We’ve all seen desire lines, weaving dusty paths across any university campus. People make these lines everywhere, not just across the physical landscape. Their desires and movement toward their interests can be traced across social media interactions and late night conversations. Students have the time and passion to tackle social problems, but rarely the right experience or mentorship to develop ideas grounded in design research or pursue projects through implementation. Socially-minded professional designers have more experience and resources, but little time. What if design education put design methodologies into the hands of everyone who wanted to make a difference, not just designers? What if we put engineers next to biology majors and music majors and business majors and had them focus on social problems together? What if design education itself was redesigned to harness this intersection of energy in the gap between what professionals and faculty have and what students want?

It’s refreshing to coach smart, energetic students. Some designers find designing shampoo bottles to be less than inspiring. DFA lets you focus on making the world a bit better. -Shannon Ford, Motif, DFA Design Coach

In the fall of 2008, Liz Gerber of Northwestern University had a wild idea. Inspired by organizations like Teach for America and challenged by Julio Ottino, the progressive Dean of the McCormick School of Engineering, to pitch a new program for Segal Design Institute, she grabbed a book off the shelf and designed a new cover with the words “Design for America” (DFA) mocked-up across the front. She drew upon what she’d noticed about her own design students, that they were often more attracted to conservative behavior than risks and potential failure in classes in order to preserve their grades. Other students were comfortable with risk, but disappointed in the limited opportunities available for getting hands-on experience through choosing their own design projects.

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