Würste und Gesetze

"To sleep well at night, one should never see how laws and sausages are made." - Otto von Bismark

The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.

ciao

Oberflächlich

Well, I just received a YouTube contact invitation from Oliver Kray, a young designer from Berlin. I watched a couple of his videos, and I have to say that he's doing an interesting job, a little bit 50's retro for my taste, but quite interesting in terms of the finished result.

Another German wall and façade-designer with extraordinary talent is Philip Gaedke. My first impression was: "Gosh, I'll have to use something like that on my next multisensory room". You know, I've never been a fan of superficial textures or any kind of ornament because most of my teachers were influenced by Loos's point of view: "ornament is a crime". For me, texture should be achieved by the own nature of the materials... but I must admit that good graphic design can do wonders and I really admire those results.

ciao

Ecotoys

Now that our lives are centered around the offspring, I guess it makes sense to blog about some good and bad baby-product design. Let's start with a nice idea, although I don't have the privilege to have any of these "eco-toys":

• Fact: there are 900 million batteries used each year in the UK alone and many are in toys.
• Fact: Only 2% of batteries are currently recycled - the rest end up in landfill sites and are poisoning our planet!
• Fact: Kids love electronic toys!
• The problem: How do we give children what they desire but without poisoning our planet?
• The solution: - ecotronic toys - batteryless electronic toys! The face of the toy world is about to change forever!

The designs are too "retro" style for my taste, but the idea of electronic toys that can be charged with a dynamo by shaking, twisting or squeezing is brilliant!

ciao

Dr. Strangelove

Regardless of more than 10 million unique visitors on it's last month of life, Dr. Evil's new partner "mini-me" decided to just kill geocities. I had my Geocities property before those Yahoos took control. Some of my former students may remember the pages with their drawings. I must admit that I stopped updating those pages about 4 or 5 years ago, but they were still getting at least 30 visitors each month. It's now over.

Quite interesting questions:

"MySpace isn't exactly at the peak of its popularity, but there are still tons of people who use it. What if they just pulled everything? What if Google bought Facebook and decided to kill it? What if your Tweets vanished? Sure these things seem unlikely now because these services are still fresh. Well, GeoCities was once the "it" thing too."

Wetpaint's bailout plan (via) to "save" some of the lost properties seems like a good option... if only they were not partners with the Evil Empire too.

It's all in their "terms of service"... all those free e-mail, social networks, webhosting, blogs, picture hosting, services have a clause that they can simply just "terminate" the service. It's just that nobody takes that seriously. However, it's even worse to think that the new doomsday "big red button on a briefcase" is not to launch nuclear weapons... but a new executive order from the US president, which allows him to just shut down the internet in case of "emergency". Better start looking for some webhosting, e-mail and other internet services that are based in Switzerland or something.

ciao

Impaaaactooo !

The Architecture Student Association of Monterrey Tec (SAARQ) must have been quite busy. They sure did a great job getting all those guest speakers for their XIV Congreso Internacional de Arquitectura "Arquitectura de Impacto" which will be held on October 28- 30 at Campus Monterrey. More info at 1:100.

Daniel Bonilla
Colombia
http://www.daniel-bonilla.com/

BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)
Denmark
http://www.big.dk/

OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture)
Holand
http://www.oma.nl/

Toshiko Mori
USA
http://www.tmarch.com/

Sean Godsell
Australia
http://www.seangodsell.com/

BAK Arquitectos (besonias almeida kruk)
Argentina
http://www.bakarquitectos.com.ar/

Pezo von Ellrichshausen
Chile
http://www.pezo.cl/

Tezuka Architects
Japan
http://www.tezuka-arch.com/

Dominique Perrault
France
http://www.perraultarchitecte.com/

Isaac Broid
México
http://www.isaacbroid.com/


ciao

Another reason to visit Guadalajara in October

I just received information about this International Congress on Urbanism: "Reinventar la Metropoli" (Reinventing the Metropolis) organized by Colegio de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mexico Oct 14-16. Entry is free (yes again! free as in free-beer). You just have to register before it is all booked... and bring your own beer, because that one is not actually free.

Some of the speakers are:

Dra. Judith Rysen (UK), Fundacion Metropoli

Dr. Jordi Borja (Esp), Universida de Oberta de Cataluña

Dr. Thomas K. Wright (USA) Regional Plan Association

Dr. David Amborski (Can) Ryerson University, Toronto

Dr. Alejandro Echeverri (Col) Medellin

Dr. Alfonso Vegara (Esp) Fundacion Metropoli


ciao

Choutaim

This a great opportunity to showcase your designs for free (Yes, for free!) at the largest design event in Mexico: designfest 09 ... which is like Oktoberfest, I mean, because it will be held next 15-17th October... not because of the beer. Or, you can have the beer or maybe a tequila, while you walk through Expo-Guadalajara. It's up to you.

Anyway, you can send images of your work to: israel@design-fest.com . The organizing committee will decide which projects will be displayed for free (Yes, for free!) on any of the 3 pavilions: furniture, fashion and eco-design. Be quick!

ciao

Cocoon wins Electrolux Design Lab09

Meat and fish maker Cocoon wins Electrolux Design Lab09

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Die Wettbewerbsteilnahmebedingungen

Originally the title for this post was: "Die Welthabitat-tanz-lessen-ausdrücken-kunst-musik-produktinnovation-entwicklung-wettbewerbteilnahmenbedingungen" but it messed up the CSS formatting... Well, that's not a true German word... it's not even grammatically correct, but sure it got your attention or you wouldn't be reading this. This time I have several announcements to share, let's start in the same order as the title. First, a photo competition:

In support of the University of Auckland’s new partnership with UN-HABITAT (www.unhabitat.org), the University will be celebrating World Habitat Day on Monday 5^th of October. World Habitat Day provides us with an opportunity to think about the state of urban settlements at home and around the world. The day aims to increase collective awareness of the human habitat and encourage greater responsibility for its sustainable future. This year’s theme highlights the forces which currently influence the development of the world’s urban settlements, in both developed and developing countries. As the world’s population living in urban areas steadily increases, issues of climate change, poverty, resource depletion, social exclusion, food insecurity and economic instability become more pressing and have the potential to significantly impact on our urban settlements well into the future.In an effort to encourage public participation on this day, the University, with the support of Engineers Without Borders and Architecture for Humanity, is launching a photo competition around this year’s theme, ‘Planning Our Urban Future’. Participants of this competition will generate a creative photographic response to the following question:

‘What are the challenges to creating a sustainable Auckland?’

Contestants are invited to submit a photo with a relevant caption or title highlighting the challenges to creating a sustainable Auckland and suggesting a potential solution to make the city and/or region sustainable for our future generations. Some examples might include, but are not limited to, challenges such as – sustainability, waste, poverty, housing shortage, overcrowding, public transport, accessibility, ecology, renewable energy… and so on. Info and submittions : worldhabitatday@auckland.ac.nz . (download guidelines)

Then, more or less on the same style, there's a logo competition for an UNESCO initiative called DREAM Centers. (DREAM stands for Dance, Read, Express, Art, Music.)

This competition calls for a logo that represents the DREAM Center program of the UNESCO/Tribute 21 Fund. The logo is intended to be used on the program's stationery, brochures, and collateral materials including possibly in video clips, on signage and on the web. UNESCO/Tribute 21 DREAM Centers is an arts education program for children – DREAM stands for Dance, Read, Express, Art, Music. The project was inaugurated in 2003 with the goal of providing underprivileged children, especially in post-conflict regions, the opportunities and tools to express themselves creatively. Submissions until Nov. 17 via the Design 21-Social Design Network only.

Then, last but not least, there's a PDMA workshop at TEC milenio on new products development, innovation, competitiveness, etc... October 8th, Monterrey, N.L. contact: 01 (81) 10520001, 03, 04 y 05 educacioncontinua@tecmilenio.edu.mx Lic. Concepción Olivo; Email: colivo@tecmilenio.edu.mx

ciao