This week's picks:

+ Matali Crasset's interactive chandelier at matandme, "the light changes colour to the colour of the food [underneath]".

+ Studio Job's Industry collection at designboom, "a cabinet, a screen, a dresser, a table and a pedestal all inlayed with white dyed bird's eye maple and black dyed tulip tree veneer. The studio adapted this traditional woodworking technique using modern laser cutting technology. The pieces all feature intricate and thin patterns, achieving something not possible before.".

+ Asobi design studio's Plye Lamp for Intra Lighting at DesignEast, "The restrained use of bundles of lights offers the possibility of creating different spatial effects.".

+ Igor Pinigin's ANEMONA lamp at Behance, weighted at the bottom the "lamp can be freely rotated and tilted. Several lamps can be assembled into dynamic figures.".

+ Amélie Lachance, Alexandrine Lemaire, Christine Mongeau and Jackie Richardson Allume-moi lamp (light me up), a simple wooden block that transforms into an ambient lamp. Via TrendsNow and AEDII.

+ Patricia Urquiola launches the colorful polycarbonate Frilly chair for Kartell at designboom, "Urquiola wanted to create a fabric effect and incorporated pleats for her final design.". .

+ We Make Money Not Art interviews designers El Ultimo Grito, curators of the Nowhere/Now/Here show at LABoral on now until April 20, 2009.

+ Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec narrate a video of their design portfolio with insights on some of their best known works. The video is in French with English subtitles, click on the Quicktime icon on the lower left side. Via Dezain.

Pentagram's work on the new Quantum of Solace is a stunning example of design as key differentiator. The design is pure restraint and understatement, but is so clearly "on brand". The designers have resisted the temptation to draw on spy category cliches and instead have created something fresh and new. Kudos to the client for supporting a brave design.




Posted by Ed Cotton

Many writers are speculating that brands can learn a lot from Obama’s victory and that it was a triumph of branding, messaging and media understanding. Obviously tactics appear on the service to be easily repeatable, but without the context it's  meaningless.

Despite the grandiose plans brands have for themselves and their desire to create culture, they can never and will never single-handedly have the power to incite true social movements.

Brands however much they would like to be, aren’t human beings, they are products that try very hard to relate and understand us. They cater to our needs and wants, but are by their nature abstract and not made of flesh and blood. The credo of C21st marketers might be to become more human, but it’s a stretch and the entity of the corporation is always a more desirable, more defensible, more convenient and a safer place to be.

Obama succeeded because of the power of his human journey, his humanity, his chance to make history and his ability to connect. People aspired to the hope and change he stood for and trusted him to deliver it. They were voting for a person who provided them with the hope they wanted at the time; a promise that things could be better.

Timing is everything and Obama only needed to do this once and seize the moment. He had to find a way to position himself on November 4th, 2008 as the change that people were looking for. Brands unfortunately don’t have the luxury of the short window of time, they don’t have just one zeitgeist moment to seize, but a multitude, because they have to sell 24/7/365.

The best brands are undeniable in their power to help define us, but they are transient, disposable and easily replaced. They are things, not people and there are limits to the impact they have on the breadth of our lives and our futures.

However, once every four years two people contest for the right to become the most powerful person in the world. These candidates have the news media of the world reporting on them every second of the day, which means they dominate mind share. No brand could ever come close to this level of dominance.

When it comes to voting, we chose the human being that best represents the way we feel. Sometimes this feeling is one of ambivalence, because our lives are under control, but there are rare occasions, and this year was one, when we seek a leader who we want to lead us to better, brighter, future.  

Obama made history, he was the man chosen for the moment and lessons from his success are virtually impossible for brands to replicate.



Posted by Ed Cotton

MTV or Music Television built its brand celebrating the new art form of the early 80s, the music video. It gave the music industry just what it needed, the eyeballs of a young generation to promote its product which it made a buck a disc for.

Fast forward several decades to the emergence of MySpace as THE music brand and you see a radically different notion of the role of music. Music is given away and streamed, the value of this is to provide exposure and shared advertising revenue for bands and record companies. The money is not made in the music, but in the merchandise and concert ticket revenue.

As Techcrunch told us in October.

"But today the labels have all but given up on DRM, and users can now play virtually any song ever recorded on demand for free. MySpace has created the first ecosystem that has a shot of producing sustainable revenue streams for artists based on advertising, merchandise and concert sales.

If it works, the next step is the fall of per-stream fees and download fees. Instead labels will see music consumption for what it really is - free marketing. Labels will compete to encourage song downloads and streams to move those songs up the charts, attracting premium advertisers, merchandise sales and sold out concerts."

What's interesting to see here is the role music has played as a glue to generate revenue for media companies, but the context of that revenue generation has changed over time.

It seems that MTV has lost its way as a brand with television no longer being the dominant media of the youth generation, music video dying as a form and the network shifting focus away from music to regular television shows.

Apple became the next brand to exploit and dominate the music channel with iTunes and the iPod, but the software was always just there to sell the high margin hardware. iTunes has now being panned by the critics for not keeping up with the times and Apple has a few other heavyweight players including Nokia trying to take a big share of the hardware business.

Another player is MySpace, who came out of the gate in October with a relaunched music service that achieved incredible traction. Just a few DAYS after launch, the brand streamed one billion songs.

At the recent Web 2.0 conference there was all kinds of speculation about the potential for an MP3 player to be launched by MySpace.

However, this isn't really the game anymore.MySpace's core competence is all about community and from day one its community has been focused on music. This is something that can't easily be copied and Apple, Nokia and Sony will struggle to make this happen. The story here is not about an iPod rival from MySpace, but instead the arrival of MySpace as a formidable media player in the new world of music.

Posted by Ed Cotton

I was really delighted this afternoon to find a new rolu post waiting for me in my feed reader. I clicked on over (because rolu posts are best enjoyed on their own page) and was absolutely blown away. With all due respect to the many other fine blogs I enjoy reading, to me rolu|dsgn has the most original, interesting, and brilliantly told architecture and design related posts on the web. This latest piece is something special, and I cannot recommend strongly enough that you give it a look.

The post describes an almost daydream of a vision, one of Minneapolis skyways converted to chic modern cabins, that was actually turned into reality by the firm CITYDESKSTUDIO. It's a great story of people connecting through common love of design, of seeing interesting things in unusual objects, and turning inspiration into reality.

Here's a quick look at the project. Read the rolu post for the details.





First sea container homes, now this. Wonderful!

I enjoyed browsing CITYDESKSTUDIO's work on their site. They've done a lot of nice projects. For some reason their kitchens really appeal to me. They're bright and cheerful and clean. I'm a morning person, and kitchens are morning person places. I can easily see myself in any one of them, having banana pancakes and hot tea, and reading rolu posts on my laptop (though I very seriously caution you against mixing maple syrup with keyboards). Take a look at a couple of examples:






Did you see the blue Eames chair? It's like they're reading my mind.

By the way, Matt was incredibly kind to mention Future House Now in his post. I'm not writing this gushing praise as a reciprocal gesture, but I must admit it pleases me endlessly to be included in such a good story in any way.

The rolu blog is my favorite site on the web. I say that in all honesty. If you haven't given it a look yet click on over and say hi. You will not be disappointed.

Image credits - CITYDESKSTUDIO site

I've admired rammed earth homes for a long time, even though they're not really appropriate for the climate I live in. It's just that rammed earth walls are mesmerizing to look at. I get lost staring at the different layers of soil, in varying subtle shades of earth tone, flowing gracefully along along a wall. To my eye, rammed earth walls epitomize the very essence of natural beauty.

I can't think of any rammed earth builder that does it better than Terra Firma Builders Ltd. They have a way of crafting the most gracefully curved walls. Their designs blend with the surrounding landscape. Inside, massive earthen walls and sturdy timbers comfortably intertwine with delicate, artistic finishing. It's a totally unique aesthetic.










Terra Firma's website is fantastic. There's a wealth of images of their work in their portfolio. There's also a great explanation of why rammed earth is an effective, sustainable building solution.

Probably the most interesting thing I found on their site is that they use an unusual insulated rammed earth wall approach called SIREWALL (SIRE = Stabilized Insulated Rammed Earth). SIREWALL was developed by Meyer Krayenhoff, an environmental builder of over thirty years, who also founded Terra Firma. Here's an explanation from the SIREWALL site:

Stabilized, Insulated, Rammed Earth (SIRE) walls are made using rebar and insulation enveloped with the mass of 14 – 20 inches of rammed earth. This combination, along with SIREWALL®’s system for quality control and soil blending, builds walls that exceed current standards for energy efficiency and compressive strength. SIREWALL’s customizable forms refined over the last fifteen years by SIREWALL’s expert builders, work seamlessly with unique designs and modern finishes that have timeless appeal.

I always thought that would work. We've seen that concept applied to concrete walls, so why not rammed earth too? Actually, reading their FAQ, and noting that they're in Canada and do their building in British Columbia, I've learned that rammed earth can be a solution for climates other than hot, arid deserts, especially with the SIREWALL approach in place.

Note that Terra Firma builds complete homes only on their home turf. But they will build walls elsewhere, and let your builder finish the house. They also train and certify builders in the SIREWALL system, and offer design and consulting services. Wherever you are, whatever type of rammed earth project you might be considering, I think these would be the people to talk to.

I have new hope of living in a rammed earth house yet!

Image credits - Terra Firma site

Here's something I saw on Inhabitat today that looks extremely interesting - the World House Project:

"The Evolution of Home

The WHP is a multi-year, collaborative initiative led by the Institute without Boundaries (IwB) that will explore the evolution of shelter and plan for the next generation of holistic housing design. The project will build on the research concepts of IwB’s inaugural project, Massive Change, using the same method of interdisciplinary design innovation.

The home is the intersection between the individual and society. On one end of the spectrum, urban sprawl and monster houses consume huge amounts of energy and pollute the atmosphere. On the other, over a billion people live in urban slums or in the streets without shelter.

The ambition of the World House Project (WHP) is to generate a system that achieves a balance between these extremes, and operates on the principles of sustainability, universality, technological responsiveness and balance, so that we may create dwellings that promote the long-term health of nature and human cultures."

They're benchmarking homes from around the world, old and new, studying them to gain an understanding of important implications of "climate, culture and terrain." The team, international and interdisciplinary in nature, will examine housing in the framework of twelve core elements of housing design and work to "create dwellings that are grounded in the principles of ecological design and that promote the long-term health of natural and human economies." The twelve core elements are: identity, social, communication, spatial, constructional, air handling, energy, water, waste, food, mobility, and finance. That's a very compelling list, indeed.

Here are a few images from the World House Project scrapbook on Flickr that I really like:






I've always imagined that homes could (and should) be built in this way!

It will be very interesting to see what comes out of this project. I'll be looking forward to watching it.

Image credits - World House Project Flickr photo album

I was checking back in on some of my favorite architects' sites and noticed that Building Studio has done a major update since my last visit. There are several projects on the new site that I don't remember seeing before. Here's a sampler of four different projects:







The works cover the full spectrum of residential building, from private homes to vacation cabins to urban infill. All of them have a serious sustainable bent. Click over to the Building Studio site for lots more images and full details on all their projects.

Image credits - Building Studio site

Several of my favorite blogs posted interesting homes yesterday.

On the ever-cool BLDGBLOG Geoff Manaugh points out the compact Single Hauz from front architects. They remind him of the billboards outside his LA home. You can put them practically anywhere, even in the middle of a lake, which is what Manaugh says he'd go for. Personally, I've always wanted to live in a meadow.






Jetson Green brings us a sleek Cape Cod beach house by Independence Energy Homes. At 7,000 square feet it's probably not quite in my price range. I also usually frown on very large homes, but this one uses geothermal heating and photovoltaics to meet all its energy needs. It also has an air exchange system and low or no VOC materials for good indoor air quality, a permeable driveway, water conserving fixtures, and is built from "rapidly renewable materials." Very nice. Still, give me a 2,000 square foot, $200,000 home with all these features. Now that would be an accomplishment.






Finally, on the LamiDesign blog, Greg La Vardera shows off a final pic of the completed Vermont Plat House. You can follow the entire process of building this house, from start to finish, on Greg's blog. I think it turned out really well.





Image credits - architects sites

'blinds'

analia segal

argentinean artist analia segal winner of designboom's 100% tiles competition in 2004,
is currently holding her first solo exhibition at the dpm gallery, ecuador. with all her work
segal creates objects and interiors that are often taken for granted and transforms
them into art. featured in the exhibition are blinds, wallpaper, tiles and doormats that
blur the line between architecture and art.


'w.c. tile project'

more:
http://www.analiasegal.com
http://www.dpmgallery.com

'celluar automation origin of species 2'
image © designboom

as animals grow, their bone structures increase in size. they develop into the ultimate shaped forms,
being able to support the entire structure with just one fifth the mass of the whole. this is a study
of ross lovegrove's organic essentialism. in his work he analyzes the composition and structure of bones
and finds ways through modeling and structuring. for 'cellular automation' he created complex structures
experimenting with 3d software to create pieces that imitate nature. his work is on display as part of
the second nature exhibition at 21_21, tokyo, japan.


image © designboom


image © designboom


image © designboom


image © designboom


detail

more:
http://www.rosslovegrove.com

designboom article on ross lovegrove's organic essentialism

thin L-shaped walls are used to divide up the interior of the store

duras ambient fukuoka is an apparel shop designed by sinato. located in fukuoka, japan, the store is situated
in a corner lot of a building. the interior is made up of five L-shaped walls which nest within one another.
these dividing structures are used as displays and are randomly distanced, forming both wide and narrow
two-way paths within the store.


entrance to the store which is situated in the corner of a building


the distances between the walls are done at random, various sized pathways


a view inbetween the walls




a model of the L-shaped wall formations

sinato: http://www.sinato.jp

the interactive design group sounds butter wanted to create a new way to make sound visible. while things
like equalizers and sub-titles already visualize sound, they sought to find a way to make sound physical.
using an old sewing machine as a basis, they conceptualized a prototype, which would take sound input
and convert it into a sound wave of thread on textile. the sewing machine is synonymous with producing
products in industry and thus served as a fitting analogy for the project.

http://www.soundsbutter.com





via infosthetics

Congratulation World! Change CAN actually happen. Barack Obama made history by becoming the first African-American to win the US presidency. Above is his speech from last night in Grant Park in his home city of Chicago. I would like to bring forward the following sentence from the speech; “…our stories are singular but our destiny is shared!”.

Let’s hope for change and a possible new world order.

Ping Intressant.se

Andra bloggar om: usa-valet, obama, barack obama, politik, presidentval, usa

Girls Walker has announced the beginning of the search for the next Miss Tokyo Girls Collection, the finale event for the now famous biannual real fashion festival. This is the ultimate opportunity for a would-be reader model, not only to grace the pages of one’s favorite magazine, but to actually join the stage with top teen fashion icons.

Unlike traditional pageants, where the winner is selected by a panel of expert judges, Miss TGC is eventually chosen from a panel of peers: the girls in the audience who can vote with their mobile phones.

For the original post and the latest reviews of other Japanese trends please visit our CScout Japanese blog.

At this year’s Wireless Japan Expo, Fujitsu and NTT DoCoMo debuted some new RakuRaku (easy easy) handsets made for aging users who are concerned about their health and want to keep both good records and good communication with health care professionals.

With the F884iES users can place their fingers over the camera lens, which can determine their heart rate simply by scanning minute movements. This information, along with that from the built-in pedometer, can be input into a personal “health diary”.

Read the rest of the post at the CScout Japan site.

On September 8, 2008 at the Ars Electronica digital media festival in Linz, Austria, 170 people from fields spanning business, culture, arts and technology gathered at Mission Future to explore the power and potential of open innovation and collaboration. Under the theme „We’re Open“, participants spent the day immersed in presentations, panels, interviews, breakout sessions, Future Slams, a Future Hunt, music and interactive art.

Over 25 speakers lead discussion, sharing their expertise and opinions on topics including the future of intellectual property, open source, crowd-funding, social networking, the future of creation, open community, open business and open arts. Over the coming weeks and months we’ll be posting video clippings and summaries of Mission Future 2008 sessions on the Mission Future website, so visit http://missionfuture.trendpool.com/ to find out what went on.

An enormous amount of gratitude is due to all the speakers for sharing their foresights and insights with us, and equally sincere thanks go to our participants, whose contributions were key to the success of the day, to Ars Electronica Linz for their support in realizing this first major undertaking of Mission Future, and to our sponsors, the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, Weingüter Retzer Land, Art Directors Club, Red Bull, Carpe Diem, Linz 09, Indigo, Der Standard, Linz Tourism, Groupile and rebell.tv.

Building on the success of the 2008 event, the goals for Mission Future 2009 are now far loftier. We intend to receive speakers of the same high calibre as those we were privileged to hear this year, to tap into the knowledge and experience of participants to even greater effect, and to further advance Mission Future’s initiative to create tomorrow’s economy.

(Photo: Oswald Schröder, Elizabeth Stark and Joichi Ito discuss the future of intellectual property. Credit: Ars Elelctronica)

There has been a lot of reaction in the blogoshpere concerning our latest report called “5 Key Design Trends“. That’s fun, we like the discussion to continue and evolve. Below I’m posting a few of them. Check them out, they are all an interesting read.

Apartment therapy, Psfk, Home rejuvenation, Dexigner, Hi-id, Design Milk, Designophy, Mocoloco, Martin Koser, Trendbites, Desire to inspire, Live modern, Trendbird, Gems Sty, bwl zwei null, Frizzifrizzi, A ghost of daisies, Will it brand, Das Kulturmanagement blog, Addidea, Daidesignblog, Moneyfoxs, Foxerus, Yourtail, Daymoon design, Heyho, polymerclay daily, Docstoc, Design Latvia, Change the thought, Ffffound, Designcentre, Fav.or.it.

Andra bloggar om: design, trender, inspiration, kultur, framtid

It’s confirmed! CScout Japan will be taking part in the PSFK Conference Asia in Singapore on October 10th. We’ll be on a forum on “Asian Youth Trends” moderated by Ian Stewart of MTV along with other Asian trend professionals from around Asia, and trying our best to tie together what is indeed a highly variable geographic and cultural area.

Read an interview with CScout’s Michael Keferl in preparation for the conference: PSFK Conference Asia Speaker Michael Keferl

Also representing the Tokyo beat will be architect Mark Dytham of Klein-Dytham and PechaKucha fame, and Daryl Arnold of Profero.

If you’re in Singapore, or are able to come, contact us and we’ll meet up.

A snapshot of the latest trends of Location-based Service (LBS) in Beijing, Shanghai, Hongkong and Tokyo.

Trend Description:

Many people would agree that Location Based Services are becoming more and more popular worldwide and are opening a host of opportunities for business, but few would agree on the business model that will best monetize the service. Nokia, the mobile market leader, expects to ship 35 million GPS-phones in 2008 and the latest  ABI report blueprinted a $ 3.3 billion market value for LBS, but still the way to whip up revenues from existing technology and infrastructure remains unclear. Here we filtered some promising, if not profitable, practices of LBS in Asia to summarize new trends for industrial practitioners and those who may be concerned.

Cases:

GyPSii is a social networking platform headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherland. It has partnered with Shanghai Rannuo and China Unicom to launch its GyPSii service during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and has opened a China Data Center to enhance local user experience. What GyPSii is doing in China is encouraging its network users to send back location information via mobile devices and integrate it into the digital map. Other users (who are also content creators) then, can experience a seamless mobile lifestyle, connecting with friends and communities, searching UGC and viewing maps and directions to points of interest.

Naviblog X is Japan’s first location-based moblog/mobsearch website. With this service, usrs can easily create their mobile diary sites within 60 seconds even if they know little about programming.  After the sites are created, they point their mobile phones to the QR Code auto-generated with the sites and transfer them to the mobile phones of their friends or clients to log on the sites. It is also designed to geo-tag users’ information by one-click. Naviblog is said to be used on non-Japan phones soon.

LV Soundwalk

Fashion makers lag behind to none in creativity if not in high-tech. With thousands of foreigners entering China this Olympic year, Louis Vuitton, the French luxury fashion brand entered the mobile space with a unique location-based audio guide, available in six languages, to three major cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The voice is coming from three locally born actresses: Gong Li for Beijing, Joan Chen for Shanghai and Shu Qi for Hong Kong. It directs visitors by mobile phones in real time through the cities and costs 17 USD for for each city in one of the six languages, English, French, Cantonese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

Trend Potential:

The convergence of social networking, user-created content and location is a big trend. Mobile-enabled LBS is important because it links up something missing on the internet. There are some major barriers for business related to mobile internet, such as licensing and sophisticated algorithms, but as some of the global players have discovered, a fast track to enter a local market is to line up with local mobile carriers, technological developers and last but not least the users, who know best what they want.

Read the original post at CScout China Blog.

On October 14, 2008, in Seoul, Korea, the Open Web Asia 2008 conference will gather web industry leaders from across Asia, as well as the US and Europe. The day long event focuses on the theme of “The Social Web.” Speakers include Shusaku Maruko (General Manager, Corporate Strategy Department, FeliCa Networks,) Jean Min (Communications Director, Ohmynews,) Loic Le Meur (Founder and CEO, Seesmic.com,) Arthur Chang (VP of Sale, Alibab.com,) and Jason Calacanis (CEO Mahalo.) As well, Korean tech blogger, writer, and CScout consultant, Taewoo Danny Kim, will also speak.

The combination of executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists is going to explore how social media is evolving on the international, regional, and country stage. The event is the first pan-Asian web technology industry conference of its kind.

A combination of factors underpins rapid growth in the Chinese mobile commerce sector.

Trend Description

China is rapidly emerging as the global capital of m-commerce applications, driven by an increasingly high-tech digital environment, the world’s largest mobile phone subscriber base (nearly 600 million), and the recent launch of the country’s own 3G standard (TD-SCDMA).

Although China currently lacks the advanced mobile applications of Europe, North America, Japan and Korea, many cellular players are now launching sophisticated mobile applications, and analysts predict the country may leapfrog more traditional m-commerce markets in the near future.

Penetration of new markets, including retail, ticket purchases and person-to-person transactions, is predicted to result in increasingly high volumes of small payments to Chinese m-commerce service providers. Because this type of transaction costs businesses far less than retail or other forms of transaction, the demand for m-commerce solutions is expected to grow and result in tremendous opportunities for these SPs.

Cases

UFIDA’s hapigo

The “hapigo” platform developed by UFIDA Mobile is China’s first large-scale, multi-functional m-commerce platform. With a strong focus on mobile internet technology, hapigo provides retailers and consumers with an efficient and effective  one-stop m-commerce shop. Last year hapigo became “the first brand of mobile e-commerce in China”, serving 200,000 retailers over 1 million mobile consumers.

UFIDA Mobile is a recently created US$13.42 million joint venture between the Beijing-based Ufida Software Company and Japan-based wireless heavyweight NTT DoCoMo.

Taobao’s WAP Site

Alibaba’s Taobao, the Chinese version of eBay, has recently launched a WAP version of the site at wap.taobao.com., in an effort to expand its reach to China’s huge mobile phone subscriber base, many of whom do not have net access of their own.

More interesting still is the way in which the site is served by a mobile interface for Alipay. Payment for most m-commerce in China so far has been processed by mobile service providers as part of the consumers’ bill. Although China Mobile may not be too happy with Alibaba’s move to cut them out of the loop with its “m-Alipay” service, its hard to imagine they can stop it in the long term.

Trend Impact

While the future for m-commerce in China looks rosy, there are still many obstacles to overcome. China is still largely a cash-based economy, with m-payment support structures only recently being developed. The rate of mobile phone uptake is also very  biased toward urban areas, especially when it comes to smartphones / PDAs.

Since voice is still the dominant application, decades-old mobile technologies are still some of the most profitable, and many mobile operators will need to upgrade large parts of their networks to the 2.5G and 3G technologies needed for most m-commerce applications. Still, with m-commerce proving increasingly popular and profitable, the financial incentives will surely continue to drive investment in both infrastructure and applications.

Find the original blog at CScout China blog.

Consumer packaged goods makers enhance product designs with practical twists.

Always on the lookout for new ways to interest customers, packaging designers have found ways to enhance the pack’s contents, by using it to chill or make its contents more flavorful. No longer competing on aesthetics along, the new designs give customers a practical reason to opt for the packaging.

Cases

Fruit Stickles

Trying to help customers find new ways of getting their five a day in a less monotonous way, Fruit Stickles are skewers infused with a cinnamon or tropical flavor. The company has refrained from adding sugar to its recipe to attract a health-conscious customer base.

Robero Cavalli for Coca Cola Light

Enhancing its contents in a fashion sense rather than a functional one, these limited edition Roberto Cavalli designs have been commissioned by Coca Cola Light (Diet Coke). 100,000 bottles of each animal print will be released, bringing a sense of exclusivity, fashion and collectability to a readily available commodity.

Burn Energy Drink

Coke’s Burn Energy Drink, currently available in Europe, offers a can with a unique re-sealable top. A plastic cover can be twisted into place, with a design that is based upon the packaging of salt and other spices. With new energy drinks being constantly introduced, Coca Cola is adding special packing features to separate themselves from competitors.

Kyo No Matcha
With “fresh” and “local” being key words for food products these days, manufacturers of pre-packaged items are seeking ways to change the image of their traditionally less than healthy goods. While bottled green tea might be one of the already acceptable convenience store products, CIC Co. goes the extra mile with its Kyo no Matcha. With a twist of the air-tight cap, 1.4 grams of traditional Kyoto matcha (high-grade green tea) is released into the mineral water below, creating a serving of fresh (yet instant) tea with no added chemicals or preservatives. At ¥5,280 ($52) for a case of 24, Kyo no Matcha is nearly twice the price of regular bottled teas, but certainly within the acceptable range for products billed as healthy and natural.

Trend Impact
These products may not revolutionize the food industry, but they could inspire new approaches to packaging, putting the customer in control of the final stage of preparation before the product is consumed. It’s also possible this trend could inspire food wraps infused with certain flavors or cling film that absorbs certain unpleasant odors or bacteria.

P.S. Doesn’t Michelle make the best model?!

Breathing life into antiques.

The design week activities just came to a close in Tokyo and amidst the background blur of networking, parties and the traipsing back and forth to venues, what stood out as a highlight? For me it was the Lloyd’s Antiques store in Aoyama, who in collaboration with Ito Masaru took the theme of trompe l’oeil to design forms of the Union Jack for their installation.

While not a new concept, it was the execution that was so special. Mr. Uichi Yamamoto, well known for his work with famous cafes, catered the event with baskets of fish and chips and other ‘UK’ foods. For dessert, red, white and blue macaroons were used to form the Union Jack on a tray, and once one had been taken and devoured, there was a hostess on hand to replace the missing macaroon. The Union Jack was never eaten out of existence! UK rock songs filled the air – from The Kinks to Bloc Party – as the precious stuffiness of an antiques showroom went out the window. Rather, the antiques became the perfect backdrop for a thoroughly modern Tokyo style party.

This is a post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

Ping Intressant.se

Andra bloggar om: design, tokyo, japan, antikviteter

The video above shows some of the work from the ongoing Helmut Lang exhibition called “Alles gleich schwer”. You can experience it both in real life at renowned kestnergesellschaft in Hanover and online at the collaboration partner Absolut.

Andra bloggar om: konst, mode, helmut lang, absolut, utställning

The collaboration between BIG Architects of Copenhagen, Denmark, and NOD Landscape Architects of Stockholm, Sweden, provides not only a solution to Slussen, one of Scandinavia’s busiest intersections but most importantly privileges the pedestrian and cyclist.
When the Stockholm City Council invited BIG and NOD to act as design consultants on Slussen, the direction given was to create a proposal that reconnects the historic Gamla Stan with Södermalm. Understanding the long legacy of previous attempts to solve Slussen’s traffic chaos, the team set out to create a single form within which the different modes of traffic are layered. The proposal touches the waters surrounding Gamla Stan and slowly terrace up using ascending and descending ramps to create a new, coherent area focusing on providing an attractive and functional setting for both movement and rest.

Currently considered inaccessible to pedestrians and cyclists, Slussen is a black hole in the heart of Stockholm. It is no wonder then that Danish-Swedish collaboration has made sure to offer cyclists as well as pedestrians easy access to and through the area. The proposal turns Slussen into an urban recreational area assuring easy movement for the citizens and tourists of Stockholm. Slussen will gain a whole new kind of urban space unlike any other in the world, where artwork, a summer’s midnight stroll and outdoor theatre can cohabitate with the need to move cars, buses, trains, metro, and boats. The strength of Slussen lies in its continual and varied movement which the proposed ramped landscape only underscores. The heavy traffic of cars and buses is carefully immersed under the rising hillside. Suddenly due to the submersed traffic, large areas have been freed and are made attractive to the entire city to enjoy. As a result, new opportunities for urban life are created.

The basic traffic system has already been developed by Nyrens Arkitektkontor as part of an architectural competition, with soft traffic and a public program on the top and with heavy traffic at ground floor level, storing away boats, buses, metro, cars and trains. But instead of separating the different levels, connected only by stairs and elevators in a traditional way, we propose to integrate all public, accessible areas around Slussen by interweaving the levels using descending and ascending ramps as this will allow people to move freely between the levels.

Pedestrian zones are designed to connect the already existing promenades and road crossings, and all areas of the new Slussen are as such accessible to pedestrians. The bicycle lanes follow the road as well as the promenade along the waterfront, and are pulled away only where the curvy bays of the new Slussen are created to leave space for pedestrians to enjoy the waterfront.

Today Slussen does not take advantage of its rising topography. Seeking to utilize its unique setting the proposal uses the terraced hillside to house kiosks, shops, and tourist information stands accessible through the network of ramps. In this way, a new and active urban area is created. In addition to the landscaped contours and pathways characterising BIG and NOD’s proposal, the dispersion of light has been instrumental in developing the site and the various levels. By day, natural light will pierce through circle shaped skylights into the lower levels. By night, the skylights will be illuminated from below. The expression will thus vary from dusk till dawn, from season to season and depending on the weather. This dynamic process and the continual hum of traffic will serve as the backdrop to a new urban form and regenerate life into the surrounding neighbourhoods.

There is an animation showing the complete program as well. I will put it up in a separate post as well.

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Andra bloggar om: slussen, stockholm, kultur, arkitektur landskapsarkitektur, bjarke ingels, stadsbyggnad

The work on the interior of the New Mexico EcoSteel House is progressing. Today we share more photos taken by the owner.



Click through the link below to see a photo browser with more images of the interior and the site.

Technorati Tags: 6030 House, 6040 House, ecosteel, modern design, modern house, prefab house

The first of a new collection of house plans on the lamidesign.com/plans site. The new collection is to be modest in size, large on livability, family friendly, eminently build-able, with a contemporary modern presence and a bit of retro mid-century dash as well. The first in a series, introducing the Hus 1.



The result of my year long study of the Swedish housing industry, and my love of mid-century modernism, the Hus1 puts these influences together with practicality and livability of the many small 50s and 60s homes in my own neighborhood. The basic two bedroom house will start out at modest 1,350 sqft, or the larger 1,750 sqft 3 bedroom plan shown below. Both have the option of an additional 500 sqft master bedroom upstairs which in the larger plan allows the downstairs master to serve as a family room.



A very livable home, the L shape creates privacy for its rear terrace where family life can flow out from the living areas. Conventional construction makes this house easy to build, and the iconic traditional form won't scare the average home builder.



Look for Design Prints to come available on the site soon. Well, you will hear about it here when it happens! And yes, this is the house for which we have been experimenting with new drawing styles. Not quite sorted out yet, but when its done the new collection will have a distinct graphic look apart from the original collection of designs.

Technorati Tags: house plans, modern design, modern house, Hus1