Marc with David Muyres, Executive Director of the Art Center Summit, in front of the Aptera.
If you aren’t at Art Center’s Sustainable Mobility Summit right now (or tomorrow or the next day), you’d do well to follow Marc Alt’s twitter feed here: www.twitter.com/marcalt. He’s live on the floor, with laptop and phone!
Wondering where that draft is coming from? Greener Gadget Top 50 Semi-Finalist Thermal Torch, designed by Gunnar Kramp, allows you to scan exterior walls for insulation deficiencies.
Poor thermal insulation in buildings causes a massive waste of energy every day. In some cases the locations of poorly insulated areas and thermal bridges are quite obvious, but in most cases they are invisible to the human eye. The Thermal Torch combines the features of a thermal camera with the features of small handsized projectors. By panning over a wall or a window frame, the thermal image is projected on the surface directly at the spot of detection.
Like this design? Wanna vote for it or leave a comment? Check out this entry or the entire Greener Gadgets TOP 50 Gallery and help determine the TOP 10 for live judging at the upcoming Greener Gadgets Conference.
One hundred years ago next Friday, F. T. Marinetti and his speed-loving Italian chums stood “on the world’s summit” to “launch once again [their] insolent challenge to the stars!” That is, they published “The Futurist Manifesto” on the front page of Le Figaro, kicking off the avant-garde movement to the bedfuddlement of the “gangrene of professors, archaeologists, tour guides, and antiquaries” that they so despised. The Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles isn’t about to let this milestone anniversary pass without the quirky celebration it deserves.
On Friday, February 20, Otis will host “Futurism + 100,” an evening of music, poetry readings, short films, and art. Attendees, who are advised to wear Futurist attire (i.e., red, black, or white), can sip Futurist cocktails (“Polibibita” Negronis) while listening to readings of parolibere poems and newly translated Marinetti writings. A Futurist DJ set will feature the remixed music and voices of the movement’s principal figures, while a screening of the short film Amor Pedestre promises a love story told by focusing solely on the characters’ feet. Once you’re good and punchy, catch the premiere of “1080 Punch-ups,” an interactive video installation by Alessandro Marianantoni and Gianluca Rizzo, projected on the “punch-card” facade of the Otis campus main building (constructed in 1962 for IBM’s West Coast headquarters).
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
There’s just one week left to snag your tickets to next Saturday’s CompostModern Conference in San Francisco. The lineup is great, the topic is better, and Alissa Walker will be there blogging it live this year for Core77!
Compostmodern is fertile ground for sustainability by design. Presented by the San Francisco chapter of AIGA and the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design (CFSD), this interdisciplinary conference explores the range of design thinking necessary to create a socially and ecologically responsible society. Designers, manufacturers and business leaders come together to find inspiration, share knowledge and explore real world opportunities for transforming products, industries and lives.
Compostmodern 09 will be held at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco on Saturday, February 21. This year’s conference demonstrates how sustainable solutions converge in our interconnected world as design, ecology, social impact, business strategies and economics intersect. Speakers include Eames Demetrios of Eames Office, Allan Chochinov of Core 77, climate strategist Michel Gelobter, Nathan Shedroff, Project M founder John Bielenberg, Emily Pilloton of Project H Design, and Autodesk Sustainable Design Program Manager Dawn Danby. GreenBiz editor and sustainability author Joel Makower will reprise his role as emcee.
Get more info and (very affordable) tickets at www.compostmodern.com.
Get a sneak peek at the speakers and what they’ll have to say on the blog.
Last night at the San Francisco headquarters of Adobe, a few dozen leaders within the sustainable design industry sat down with tapas and wine for an open discussion about our experiences. Emceed by Josh Ulm of Adobe, the evening consisted of two open conversations, one focusing on the role of the designer, and one on the state of design as an industry. Valerie Casey of IDEO and the Designers Accord, Gaby Brink of Tomorrow Partners, and Brian Dougherty of Celery Design led the sessions, and attendees including myself, Phil Hamlett of the Academy of ArtAcademy of Art, John Bielenberg of Project M, and many others, chimed. My favorite sound bite came from John Bielenberg, who declared “Sustainability needs rebranding.”
Since we take our gadgets with us everywhere, Greener Gadget Top 50 Semi-Finalist sunLight, designed by Hermann Eske, is a portable, scalable, versatile solar charger and flashlight, perfect for our everyday, everywhere needs.
sunLight represents a unique type of product. It embodies all aspects, such as generation, storage and consumption of electrical energy in one unit. All that sunLight needs to work is solar energy – you simply unfold it so that solar cell film is exposed to the sun and the enegry will recharge the batteries. Received power can be used in different ways, as a flashlight or for loading up connected gadgets (mobile phones or music players, for example).
Like this design? Wanna vote for it or leave a comment? Check out this entry or the entire Greener Gadgets TOP 50 Gallery and help determine the TOP 10 for live judging at the upcoming Greener Gadgets Conference.
For convenience sake, Greener Gadget Top 50 Semi-Finalist Laundry POD, designed by RKS Design Team, combines the salad spinner and the laundry machine, creating a new way to clean our clothes while saving energy at the same time!
While re-engineering and re-designing a salad spinner, we learned resourceful women were buying salad spinners to wash their delicates. This sparked the idea that the salad spinner technology we innovated could be used to create a portable, hand-powered laundry machine that would be far more appropriate for the task, than a salad spinner. The Laundry POD combines innovation and eco-conscious style to save energy, water and answer the need for a quick, easy, eco-friendly way to do small loads.
Like this design? Wanna vote for it or leave a comment? Check out this entry or the entire Greener Gadgets TOP 50 Gallery and help determine the TOP 10 for live judging at the upcoming Greener Gadgets Conference.
Weaning our society off of gasoline will be tough. Even if we all started riding bicycles to work tomorrow, the larger problem is that everything we eat, drink, wear, sell, and buy is shipped on the back of a smoke-belching truck.
To combat this, Art Center
is holding its third annual summit (named Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility, from February 17-19) which will focus on one of the most pressing topics in society: sustainability and transportation. The Summit will bring a host of leaders together to determine how we can continue to move people and goods around the planet in a way that makes sense given our existing resources and expectations for long-term growth.
This summit is proof that designers can take a significant and strategic role in mapping out visions for the future and offering solutions. Designers can help industries, government and society to solve complex problems as they are used to working within constraints. With regards to the issues surrounding transportation, and energy, for example, designers can take complex issues and communicate them visually, emotionally and persuasively. This becomes an important skill when reluctant consumers might be asked to make difficult choices to save energy and resources, including taking public transportation.
This year Art Center has convened some of the most prominent speakers including:
* Mary Nichols, Chairman of California’s Air Resources Board
* Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute
* The former Director of the CIA, James Woolsey
* Wind-energy Pioneer, Paul Gipe
* Bryan Nesbitt, Vice President of Design, General Motors North America
* John E. Waters, CEO of start-up and alternative car company, Bright Automotive.
Click here for more info.
Is it possible the recession will usher in a new era of unknown, more humble architects? According to the Chicago Tribune, “As the recession lingers and mega-buck, starchitect-designed buildings fall by the wayside, the example set by the Driehaus awards can only grow in importance.”
One of the best, but least noticed, architectural honors programs in Chicago is the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards recognizing excellence in community design. Every year, these awards showcase projects in the neighborhoods that are not splashy or high-budget, but remind us that a city is only as good as the small buildings that make up the fabric of its streets and blocks.
First prize winner, the SOS Children’s Villages Lavezzorio Community Center (photo above)…makes innovative use of donated concrete. Its facade consists of wavy layers of concrete, expressing the fact that donors gave materials to the building at different times as well as concrete’s inherent plasticity. Its interior spaces are spatially dynamic and uplifting, enticing both children and their caregivers….
The second-prize winner, the headquarters of Access Living, was designed by LCM Architects and is a model for combining universal design and sustainable design. It’s in River North. Third prize went to Kennedy King College, by Johnson & Lee Architects and VOA, which brings solid traditional design to the South Side’s troubled, but trying-hard-to-recover, Englewood neighborhood.
As we talked about in the post Ask Unclutterer: How can I change someone into an unclutterer?” we get many emails asking how unclutterers can live with clutterers. It reminds me of one of those light bulb jokes: How many Psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the light bulb has to want to change.
Our clutterful light bulbs — our roommates, significant others — may not want to change. But, there is something that we can change, ourselves.
If you’re up for the challenge, what small unclutterer change or efficiency enhancer are you willing to make? If you’re stumped, think about your partner’s pet peeves. Some examples I’ve seen with couples are:
These things may not bug you, but we’re talking about our partners here — the things that bother them. As I got to thinking about Valentine’s Day this year, and realizing my husband hates gifts, I thought: how about changing something I do that bothers him? I ran the idea past him and he’s all for it. We decided that I will work on keeping the house better stocked with groceries. I’ll sit down with him and templatize a specific list of items to regularly have on hand (in addition to the staples). It’s the little things that make a difference.
First, it takes 21 days to form a new habit. I like to use 30 day blocks, however, to be sure the habit gets locked in.
Start Small: Pick just one daily, do-able thing that you’ll take on for 30 days. For example, you commit to putting your clothes in the hamper before bed for the next 30 days. Selecting one thing will put all of your focus there, rather than trying to tackle several habits at once.
Be Clear: Be sure that you know clearly whether you’ve accomplished the task or not. For example, is your goal to file paper in your home office for 10 minutes each day or is it to file 1/2 an inch of paper each day? Near dinner time each day, mine will be to check off food items that need to be purchased this week.
Track Progress: Use a calendar, goal-setting software such as Lifetick or create a spreadsheet with 30 boxes to track your progress. A check mark or gold star means you did the task. Leaving the box blank of course means you didn’t do it.
Keep It Visible: Have your document pop up on your screensaver, set reminders in your electronic calendar or place in another visible place, such as on the refrigerator. As you’re forming a new habit, you’ll need prompts.
Be Consistent: When possible, do the task at the same time every day. This will make the action a routine and, in time, you’ll be pulled to complete it automatically. For instance, pop your jacket into the closet right away when you arrive home each day.
Begin: The hardest part is to begin. Pick a start day. Today is a good idea so that you don’t build up resistance to change. And, why wait to surprise your partner with a clean family room or an uncluttered car?
I think creating a productive habit will give you more mileage than your standard Valentine’s Day gifts.
Up for the challenge? What habit do you want to take on for 30 days? Let us know in the comments. And, if you choose to go a more traditional route, check out Matt’s post from last week on uncluttered Valentine’s day gifts.
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.
