CITIZEN:Citizen has added another object from their growing design-art collection to the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. The Ballistic Rose, created and designed by Tobias Wong, is a bullet proof corsage, "a handmade ribbon rose constructed from a single strip of ballistic nylon. This floral hybrid protects your heart in an uncertain world. Wong's bloom is both a high-tech talisman for the tender-hearted and wry fashion statement.". Good timing, we could all use a little protection right now.

In fact Philip Wood, the owner of CITIZEN:Citizen, would like to add the Ballistic Rose to your permanent collection. CITIZEN:Citizen's website just underwent a major overhaul, and to mark the event one creative MoCo Loco reader will add a Ballistic Rose to his or her collection by writing a clever, uncertain-times appropriate "quote" for the Rose's CITIZEN:Citizen page. Leave your quote in the comments section here and next Wednesday Philip Wood will choose the winning quote. Enter as often as you want.

The winner will get the now classic Ballistic Rose with certificate of provenance and archival collectors box shipped to their door and their winning quote up on the CITIZEN:Citizen website.

Sovrappensiero's new project is about favorite objects from the past that live on in attics and basements, holding onto memories and stories. Grandmother's doilies become fossilized with dust from the cellar to take on a new form as Waiting, trivets that will bear witness to new stories. Missing is an old vase that is not longer in fashion, so long unused that no one even sees it anymore. Saving is the abat-jour that accompanies the user along the journey to finally stand as a trophy, protected under glass. Sovrappensiero reminds us that things relegated to the past can and will haunt us if they are of sentimental value.

+ sovrappensiero.com

John Hodgman was in San Francisco yesterday evening at a fund raising event for 826 Valencia.

He was on superb form, so much so, that interviewer Dave Eggers could barely get a word in, let alone a question. Hodgman talked about the pleasures of his new found fame that included sharing first class aircraft cabins with the likes of Peter Berg and Rachel Hunter. He also told the crowd that George Plimpton (former editor of The Paris Review) had been his inspiration from an early age. In fact, it was Plimpton's ad campaign for Intellivision video games that persuaded Hodgman that being the "PC" was the right thing to do.

Here's Plimpton selling video game systems.




Hodgman also played a couple of his political attack ads aimed at friends, people who had let him down and hotels. Here's the one attacking is friend, Johnathan Coulton for his cat sitting skills.
via videosift.com

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

It was funny on election night to see all the networks go over the top with their data visualizations and their sophisticated touch data screens. CNN took it to eleven with their holograms, at least we know Larry King still has a future.




Posted by Ed Cotton

Data from Akamai shows that Obama become the new number 1 new story in internet traffic volume since records began (2005).

Obama beat out a mix of celebrity deaths and sporting events to claim the number one spot.




Posted by Ed Cotton

"The only woman-run, hybrid specialty garage has opened in the Bay Area, which has more Priuses ? 70,000 as of 2006 ? than most states... Ms. Coquillette, 30, an Ohio native, hopes to become a prophet of the all-electric future that some Californians dream of... But being a prophet is different from making a profit." Thanks, Lincoln. (via NY Times)

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

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

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.

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)

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.

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

This is just too fun not to share even though its not about houses or house plans. The Unplggd blog from the Apartment Therapy family of blogs posted a piece about our office in connection to our work on the workalicious blog about office spaces.



Unplggd has a series where they show the workplace of a blogger that they like or follow. We are very pleased that they follow our blog workalcious and asked us to share our workplace with their readers.

The workalicious blog is about, you guessed it, the workplace! We write about office design, office furniture, accessories, about office culture, and we also like to share examples of interesting workplaces.

So check out our office:
Behind the Blog: Workalicious

and check out workalicious

Technorati Tags: modern design

Awhile ago I was driving down one of our main local roads and noticed a house in the middle of it. I didn't remember a house being there and thought that I was seeing a strange mirage. The closer I got, the more real it appeared, until I was forced to slow down and drive around the thing, at which point there was no doubt about its authenticity.

A big truck tractor was towing this entire 1200 square foot house balanced on two huge steel I-beams and a bunch of wheeled dollies. Progress was slow but steady as it inexorably moved toward its next incarnation. Just that morning it had departed its original home where it had been seasonal housing for migrant workers.

The owners of this seeming mirage had searched for just the right orphaned house to adopt as their own, lovingly place it on a new foundation, and refurbish it. Many houses would not be suitable for such a trip; generally only well-built wooden structures can withstand the stress of such a move. This house had all the qualities they were looking for: charm, integrity, and affordability. The entire cost of the house and having it moved was $10,000.

By the time they have it completely fixed up with new plumbing and electric service, an insulated stucco exterior, new energy-efficient windows, a metal roof, a completely rebuilt front porch, all of the interior walls resurfaced, and miscellaneous repairs, they estimate that the total cost of the project will be about $50,000, including the land. Not bad for what in most regards will be as good as new!

Of course new is not what they wanted; they bought this early twentieth century house (it's actual date of construction is unknown) precisely because of its special vintage quality. It reminds one of the owners of the house his grandmother lived in, with 9 foot ceilings, three smallish bedrooms, tongue and grooved fir flooring, cast-iron radiators, built-in cabinets, drawers and even ironing board, and the intangible quality of a by-gone era. They plan to retain the original floor plan intact, only altering a walk-in closet to become the mechanical room and turning a room off the kitchen into a dining space.

The house made the entire trip with just a few places where the plaster cracked in one corner, which is easily repaired. This is one very solidly-built house, made from the sort of fir that no longer can be bought. There was only one place under the kitchen sink that had suffered leak-induced rot over many years; everything else is as straight and true as any carpenter would want.

Another late twentieth century vintage home of about 800 square feet came from property leased from the Federal government and the house needed to be moved. With local help, the buyer of this little home added an additional room onto the original to comply with the homeowners' association square foot minimum. She has thoroughly enjoyed the process of remaking this simple cabin into her charming home, imbued with the wonderful quirky qualities that spring from her fanciful mind.

Once a house is moved it must comply with current plumbing and electrical codes, so these elements were completely redone. Most of the windows were replaced with second hand units that gave her just the views that she wanted. The exterior was resurfaced with rough-sawn lap siding and a new metal roof was installed. The original interior plastic paneling was replaced with sheetrock, and decorated with lots of natural wood trim. The whole feeling of the place is one of lovingly crafted touches wherever the eye lands. The new owner says, “I would much rather live in something recycled than buying something brand new which has no character. I let this house come together…it just evolved!”

Creating new life for old or abandoned houses has got be one of the most sustainable ways of making habitation. This is the ultimate form of recycling, where most of the basic components of a house are utilized intact instead of being tossed into a landfill or burned. There is a tremendous savings in the embodied energy of the house (in both materials and labor), so that all that needs to be done is to repair and polish the original dwelling to create a whole new life for it. Hoorah for these people who have the vision and willingness to take on these projects!

these maps are by uk artist chris kenny. i think they are stunning. the detail blows me away. i made a google map with the fairs i covered this week (+ others that were mentioned in the comments and emails i received.) this map is open to be edited by anyone, so go ahead and add fairs from your area to it. (you need a google account to add fairs to the map but anyone can view it.)

i’d like to thank grace for having me here in this space. highlighting these fairs, artist’s & diy projects has been such a thrill. my aim in promoting these fairs has been to encourage people to check out their local holiday fairs for your gift buying needs. these events are really fun to attend. usually there is music, food, sometimes workshops, and of course truly unique holiday gifts. these tough economic times are forcing everyone to cut costs this holiday season. i believe supporting your local economy, and artists is always a good place to put your money + there are always some incredible deals to be had at these shows. this season if you’re in the chicago/milwaukee area i’ll be selling here, here, and here. stop by and say hi. i love meeting people at these fairs because i’m usually holed up in my studio all day chatting with my cat (no joke). for more info about what i do you can check out my shop, blog & flickr. happy holidays!

The idea of making walls by stacking bags of sand or earth has been around for at least a century. Originally sand bags were used for flood control and military bunkers because they are easy to transport to where they need to be used, fast to assemble, inexpensive, and effective at their task of warding off both water and bullets.

At first natural materials such as burlap were used to manufacture the bags; more recently woven polypropylene has become the preferred material because of its superior strength. The burlap will actually last a bit longer if subjected to sunlight, but it will eventually rot if left damp, whereas polypropylene is unaffected by moisture.

Because of this history of military and flood control, the use of sandbags has generally been associated with the construction of temporary structures or barriers. Using sandbags to actually build houses or permanent structures has been a relatively recent innovation.

It was an Iranian-born architect named Nader Khalili who has popularized the notion of building permanent structures with bags filled with earthen materials. Actually his first concept was to fill the bags with moon dust! Attending a 1984 NASA symposium for brainstorming ways to build shelters on the moon, Khalili coupled the old sandbag idea with the ancient adobe dome and arch construction methods from his homeland in the Middle East. He realized that bags filled with lunar “dirt” could be stacked into domes or vaults to provide shelter.

Khalili came up with a further refinement on this building concept on Earth: for a more permanent, shock-resistant structure, why not place strands of barbed wire between the courses of bags, thus unifying the shell into a more monolithic structure?

At first Khalili was filling his experimental bags with desert sand, but then he evolved his idea of “superadobe,” where bags or long tubes of polypropylene bag material would be filled with a moistened adobe soil that would dry into large adobe blocks. In this case the original bag material was merely the initial form and would not necessarily be an integral part of the eventual structure.

Soon after these first experiments, Khalili began publicizing his work through newspaper and magazine articles and conducting workshops and seminars on the techniques that he was perfecting. Many people who read about his work, visited his compound in Hesperia, California, or studied with him there, decided to go ahead with their own experiments with his ideas.

Among these “early adopters” were Joe Kennedy, Paulina Wojciechowska, Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer, Akio Inoue, and Kelly Hart. I believe that it was Joe Kennedy who coined the more general term “earthbag” to suggest that the bag could contain a variety of earthen materials.

Paulina Wojciechowska was the first to write an entire book on the topic of earthbag building: Building with Earth: A Guide to Flexible-Form Earthbag Construction was published in 2001. This featured some of her early experiments done at Khalili’s CalEarth, along with several other case histories.

Akio Inoue, from Tenri University in Japan, has done extensive experimentation with earthbag construction, both on the campus of the University and in India and Africa where many other domes have been built for assistance programs.

Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer (a couple) became enamored with earthbag construction after studying with Khalili, and worked on a variety of projects, both for themselves and for clients. In 2004 they wrote and got published another book, Earthbag Building: the Tools, Tricks and Techniques, based on their particular experience.

Kelly Hart (the author of this article) first began experimenting with earthbag building in 1997, after being exposed to the concept while producing his video program, A Sampler of Alternative Homes: Approaching Sustainable Architecture. He later documented his experience in actually building his own home in another program titled Building with Bags: How We Made Our Experimental Earthbag/Papercrete Home. Both of these programs are now available as DVD’s.

In the meantime, Nader Khalili was continuing the promotion of his “Superadobe” technique and eventually decided to patent the idea, which he obtained in the U. S. in 1999, using very general terms that cover using bags made of any material being filled with virtually any material, and combining these with barbed wired between the courses. While having made many public statements that this concept was his gift to humanity, he obviously wanted to capitalize on the potential economic reward.

Many of us who had been engaged in promoting earthbag building on our own were contacted by Khalili and asked to enter into contracts with him in order to continue our work. It didn’t take much research to discover that his patent could easily be disqualified because he had been publicizing his techniques through various media for at least four years before he even applied for his patent. Patent law clearly states that such publicity occurring prior to one year before the patent application would disqualify it for consideration.

So now the door is wide open for anyone to take this concept and run with it, and more people are doing so all the time, all over the world. While Khalili (and most of his students) have focused primarily on using the bags to form large adobe blocks, others have tried filling the bags with a variety of other materials, such as crushed volcanic rock, crushed coral, non-adobe soils, gravel, and rice hulls.

Earthbag building is unique among all other building technologies in that it can be either insulation or thermal mass, depending on what the bags are filled with. This is a very important distinction, because these characteristics of a wall greatly influence how comfortable, economical, and ecological any given system will be.

Safety is of prime concern with all building technologies, and much experimentation and testing has been done to establish guidelines for many ways of building. Khalili has established a relationship with the building department in Hesperia, California where CalEarth is located, an area where earthquakes are naturally a great danger. In 1993 live-load tests to simulate seismic, snow and wind loads were performed on a number of domed earthbag structures at CalEarth and these exceeded code requirements by 200%.

In 1995 dynamic and static load tests were performed on several prototypes for a planned Hesperia Museum and Nature Center to be constructed using Khalili’s Superadobe concepts with both dome and vault shapes. All of these tests exceeded ICBO and City of Hesperia requirements.

In 2006, at the request of Dr. Owen Geiger of the Geiger Research Institute of Sustainable Building, the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point conducted several controlled and computer-monitored tests to determine the ability of polypropylene earthbags filled with sand, local soil, and rubble to withstand vertical loads. Their written report concluded that “overall, the earthbags show promise as a low cost building alternative. Very cheap, and easy to construct, they have proven durable under loads that will be seen in a single story residential home. More testing should prove the reliability and usefulness of earthbags.”

Despite the success of these tests, earthbag building concepts have yet to be incorporated into the International Residential Building Code. Obviously more enlightened acceptance of the demonstrated viability of earthbag building needs to occur!

It is difficult to know how many residences and other earthbag structures have been made at this point, probably hundreds if not thousands. Many of us have been promoting the technique for use as emergency shelters, and certainly some have been built for this reason. It is easy for folks to accept this way of building temporary shelters because it fits the historical model of sandbag use.

But many of us have also built substantial homes using earthbags, and in the process realized how truly versatile and sustainable the technique is. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of these earthbag homes are still standing long after their conventional counterparts built contemporaneously have disintegrated.

Tactile surfaces are making technology and information much more accessible to people with visual handicaps

As a range of new interfaces and surfaces for digital devices are developed, it is becoming easier for visually impaired people to use devices sighted people take for granted. Tactile displays enable digital data to be felt rather than seen, making it easier for blind and partially sighted people to access the Internet, keep their credit card details secure, and take and archive pictures.

Cases

Touch Sight Camera

This Samsung design embosses 3D images on its flexible Braille display, turning images into a surface that can be felt. It also captures a few seconds of sound to accompany each picture, making them much easier to search and archive. Images can be shared online and downloaded to other Touch Sight cameras.

ReEnvision

Smooth touch-screen technology on debit card readers hinders visually impaired people by requiring them to give their PIN to the cashier. This design provides a low-cost solution, sitting flush on a debit card reader to provide tactile buttons.

Sentio

Although blind people can’t see, it doesn’t mean they don’t want to look good. This was Matthew Wagerfield’s approach when he incorporated tactile technology into this watch. The clock’s face features two seven-segment digital displays that rise 1mm above its surface, providing a tactile function for the blind and a visual spectacle for the sighted.

Saifu

Saifu is a tablet PC that uses a conceptual magnetized liquid material called magneclay. The oil based synthetic reacts to a magnetic charge, rearranging itself infinite numbers of times to display Braille or tactile 3D images in relief.

Trend Impact
These designs demonstrate many of the ways in which technology is making up for the difference in people’s abilities, leveling the playing field and making more activities and roles accessible to more parts of the population.

Of course, many of these technologies can provide benefits to sighted people. For example, a tactile surface could be applied to a bedside clock, enabling one half of a couple to find out what time it is without disturbing the other.

Recent years have seen a flourishing of organizations that gather people with common interests participate in do-it-yourself activities

In a reaction to the digital age, creative people are finding ways to build community in the real world to share knowledge, projects, and ideas. People are looking to the Internet to find outlets for active creativity, rather than merely passive entertainment or consumption.

Cases

The Make Lounge

North London’s Make Lounge brings arts and crafts into the 21st century. One-off workshops are delivered in a branded “drop-in” environment, attracting those looking to dabble in activities such as millinery, jewelery making, or knitting.

The School of Life

Located close to some of London’s top universities, The School of Life makes adult education accessible and cool. Opened in September 2008, the space features a shop that sells books, art, courses, vacation packages, and consultancy to those seeking intellectual adventure. Beneath the shop is an underground classroom that hosts regular courses across five central themes - work, play, family, politics and love.





Maker Fair

Dubbed “Woodstock for inventors,” Maker Fair is a two-day event for people who love to make things themselves. Everything from arts and crafts to engineering and science, sustainable design, food, and music are represented. The event is no small job for organizers Make Magazine and Crafts Magazine: the last Maker Fair attracted 65,000 people.

Trend Impact
Although the Internet may provide us with instant, free information, we still thrive on real-world human interactions. Creative people are going online to connect people with common offline interests.

• Design Research Conference 2008, IIT Institute of Design; Chicago
  One of a few conferences I've never been to so far is the IIT Design Research Conference held each year in Chicago the home of IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology). Unlike many other conference organizers they are releasing the conference videos quite shortly after the conference has ended and that's what I've appreciated over the last years. While very often the selection of speakers tends to be the outcome of buddy networking there are from time to time some good talks available to be found in the archives.

  Pretty much the same counts for their other conference they are hosting each year the 'IIT Insitute of Design Strategy Conference' to be found here: http://snipurl.com/iitstrategy [trex_id_iit_edu]

  (tags: conferences conference design research IIT designresearch 2008 strategy&design)

To see complete inspiration library for MODERN WHITE view slide show
Today is a special October 12 - I share with you a MODERN INSPIRATION DEDICATION in honor of today's birthday. The birthday of a talented designer, artist, visonary, spirit and loving friend DONNA TOPPINGS.

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MAJORCA - "Modern lifestyle studio in SE Mallorca (Majorca). Superb daylight. Open plan. Internal and external studio spaces. Props and lighting."

I got really fired up this morning after I read a great post in architect Greg La Vardera's blog. In "Our Remodern Movement - the tipping point?" Greg suggests that now might finally be the time for modernist homes to find a place in the mainstream. I really hope so. I see the momentum. And I believe in "tipping points." I know exactly what the tipping point was for me personally, the one thing that got me really excited about modern homes. I picked up a copy of Dwell at the newsstand for the first time, the April/May 2005 issue with Charlie Lazor's Flatpak house on the cover.

I had always been interested in homes. I always dreamed of something better and more exciting than the standard fare of suburban cul-de-sacs, though I wasn't totally hooked on modern yet. But when I saw this cover, with a real family in a cool-ass house, it was like a lightning bolt. I can't tell you how badly I'd like to live in a Flatpak. It's one of the top three contenders for me. It just fits me and my family so perfectly. When the time finally comes to really build a new home I will be giving them a call to talk.

It's funny though, how "weird" most people think modernist homes are. My mother said "you want to live in a white box?" with a look on her face that was pure disbelief. Talking houses with some neighbors I could detect their nervous smiles when I mentioned concrete and steel, as in "uh, okay, sure, as long as it's not next door to my house." And look at the real estate markets. That's all you need to know. You don't see a lot of developers building modernist spec homes. Just pick up a real estate magazine and thumb through it for a minute. How many cool modernist homes will you find in the listings. Maybe one or two in a hundred page book. And they're mostly really big, expensive houses, probably built in the eighties after watching too many episodes of Miami Vice. Good, simple, modern homes for real families are hard to come by. Your best bet is a fifties ranch. Even those are a minority in the market compared to the grand total of everything else.

But I think Greg is right. This is the right time. Dwell has been so successful that some other similar publications have started to appear. Blogs like mine are popping up like daisies. Sarah Susanka's "Not So Big House" movement has a lot of followers (because it makes a lot of sense). Or consider John Brown's Slow Home Movement. And green is suddenly king. People finally realize that their choices have a real impact. Now is definitely the time of Less is More, and modernism fits that bill perfectly.

Probably the biggest helper in all of this, in my opinion, is going to be the bursting of the real estate bubble. I say that for one simple reason: it will make people change their view as to what their home really is - a home to live in and not an investment to make a fortune off of. I really believe that people won't/can't build what they really want because they are too hung up on resale value and growing massive equity. I don't know if this attitude caused the housing bubble or vice versa, but either way they combine to create an effect where the resultant high cost of housing distorts our views, closes our minds to new ideas, prices lots of people out of the market for a good home, and places too much power in the hands of developers, not in the hands of consumers where it should be. And so, here we are. With the bubble busting and home prices correcting I think we may also see home buyers making very different decisions about what they want to live in. I know this is the case for my wife and I, and I hope, at least, that this is the case for others.

It's definitely time for America to focus its attention on things like better homes, greener communities, reliable energy, even better communications technology, education and health care. These are the things that make up the infrastructure of this country. We won't have to worry about foreign threats for long if we allow ourselves to fall apart from the inside.

This whole country is at a tipping point, or near one. Modern homes are just a tiny, tiny part of that. We can choose a better way to live without giving up all the really great things we already enjoy.

Better living through design. Work smarter, not harder. Find the holistic solutions.

We can do it.