A Writing Life Built on the Power and Joy of Architecture – an appreciation of Ada Louise Huxtable in The New York Times; she died yesterday at the age of 91. The NYTimes is where she started as the “first full-time critic writing on architecture for an American newspaper” in 1963. …
Urban Times recently posted a recap of Dieter Rams’ 10 Principles for Good Design. Here’s a Fast Co post that includes a transcript of a talk the famous Braun designer gave in 1976 in which he elaborates on some of those principles. As the Fast Co blogger says, “they …
Workplace Distractions: Here’s Why You Won’t Finish This Article – WSJ article on the “epidemic” of distraction at work, what it’s costing, and what can be done about it. Much of that distraction comes from digital devices. It’s prompted academics to study the problem and companies to experiment with …
Check out the series of articles in Healthcare Design – “Research in Practice” – written by healthcare design researchers at HOK, Nick Watkins and Erin Peavey. It offers practical advice for anyone in a position to make decisions regarding the design of a hospital or healthcare facility. Research in Practice: …
[You don’t need to] understand music – take a break, watch this beautiful short (2:12 min) animation from German design studio finally on enjoying music no matter how complex it is.
LED-Embedded Rocks Used to Illuminate ‘Digital Campfire’ – Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde’s light installation, called Crystal, consists of 700 rocks on a mat. Each rock … is made out of a unique salt which grows in perfect geometric shapes around two LEDs. These are wirelessly charged via a power …
Study: School Design Can Significantly Affect Children’s Grades – UK study of primary schools finds that the design of the physical learning environment can influence children up to 25%. The results, published in Building and the Environment, revealed that the architecture and design of classrooms has a significant role …
Communicating Across Remote Workplaces – offers excellent suggestions for communicating with and maintaining good working relationships with colleagues in remote offices. Be sure to check out the rest of this new blog – The Best Workplace – from Mike McKeown, an always-thoughtful commentator with lots of experience working with …
The Secrets Of Making Time Fly While You Wait – an NPR story about how people hate waiting in lines and how they occupy that time to make it seem to go quicker. It also highlights how designers can play a role in relieving the accompanying boredom and/or frustration. …
All you need to know to get the library card right now [infographic] – shows statistics about librarians (salary, age, type of library, what they do) and libraries (number of visits, number of libraries, transactions). A couple of interesting points: Each day, U.S. libraries circulate nearly 4 times more …
Here’s a start on collections of ‘the best’ of 2012. Check back for more, suggest your favorites – this a live list. PSFK’s Top 20 of 2012 – with source of image Best of the best of 2012 science and tech articles – from the BBC; thanks to Oleg Kravtsov …
Cardboard cathedral being built in earthquake hit Christchurch – short news clip (1:45 min) about Shigeru Ban’s design for a cathedral made of cardboard tubes which is to replace the structure destroyed last year by earthquake. The city wants to use the cardboard building, designed to hold 700 people, …
If you’re an urban planner or if you’re interested in how cities work, check out the magazine The Urbanist from the San Francisco Urban Planning and Research Association (SPUR). The focus is on “good planning and good government in the San Francisco Bay Area” but the issues addressed, the …
CFP: Sound and Creative Processes, 1/1/13 – call for posts on the connection between sound and creativity from the people at Sounding Out!, a blog exploring “the role of sound and listening in our contemporary culture…” Submission deadline is Jan 1. Here are the guiding questions: How do artists listen? How …
Largest modular high-rise – post about recent groundbreaking in Brooklyn for what will be the world’s largest pre-fabricated building. The 32-storey / 363-apartment structure is the first of a planned 15. Designed by SHoP Architects (also image source). As quoted from the New York Times: …next spring, 125 …
HOK’s Leigh Stringer was part of a project team in Korea recently and makes great observations on Korean culture and work environment (love the photo, Leigh!). Here’s a selection: On being there in general: We didn’t see a lot of bikes but public transportation is good. Gangnam is an actual district where people actually …
If you’re looking for something to watch during this holiday season, you might consider Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, especially the four-part TV version rather than the shorter film version. It starts out with Christmas celebrations in the home of a wealthy Swedish family in the early 1900s, a …
Check out PhiMatrix, software that applies the principles of Phi, the Golden Ratio – PhiMatrix is a design and analysis software application for Windows and Mac. The PhiMatrix grid system quickly overlays any image in any software on your screen to identify or apply phi proportions in various …