Favorite Design and Urbanism Blog Posts for Week of Feb. 10, 2013

Advanced urbanism. Advocating for transparency. Playful design. Good night at a hotel. Twitter steals some hearts.

Advanced urbanism. Two MIT professors of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture are proposing a new way to approach the urban and suburban fabric of cities here and abroad.

Alexander D’Hooghe and Alan Berger are heading up MIT’s new Center for Advanced Urbanism, focusing on the planning, design, construction and retrofitting of urban environments for the 21st century.  They are also organizing the center’s first conference to be held April 9 and 10 at MIT’s Media Lab.

Via Architects and Artisans

Advocating for transparency. Haley Russell, an interior designer at Perkins+Will in Washington, D.C., explores how to build material health and transparency in the built environment.

Here are six ways to increase engagement with the transparency movement:

1. Involve manufacturers early.
2. Change your thinking.
3. Step up to the challenge.
4. Look at the life cycle.
5. Learn from others.
6. Have patience and be persistent.

Via Ideas+Buildings

Playful design. Denise De Leon of Lake Flato finds inspiration looking at graphics at the Children’s Museum at Pittsburgh.

As a graphic designer, I was instantly drawn to wayfinding graphics (rather hard to miss). Pentagram’s use of scale and simplicity works effectively throughout the museum. Upon entering, I was immediately greeted by a colorful mix of plexiglass panels floating above the admissions desk. As I walked through the building, I felt as though I was in a children’s book- their solutions made sense at every turn I made. – Denise De Leon

Via The Dogrun

Good night at a hotel. Stanis Smith, senior vice president of Stantec, discusses getting a quiet night’s sleep in a hotel room and a list of things that hotel designers don’t address when designing a hotel.

"I want a quiet room, far away from the elevators and ice machines, far away from the hotel nightclub, not facing the street or airport, and preferably at the end of the hall." – Stanis Smith

Via Stantec Blog

Innovative social media campaign

Twitter steals some hearts. Jody Brown of Coffee with an Architect launched a Twitter campaign on Valentine’s Day, encouraging people to tweet about their architectural love on Twitter using #ArchitectValentines. Brown got overwhelming engagement ("If loving you is wrong, then Frank Lloyd Wright" was retweeted 31 times) and posted his favorites on his web site.

Via Treehugger

Related: Coffee with an Architect

Favorite Design and Urbanism Blog Posts for Week of February 4, 2013

Health architects an endangered species. Landscape architecture in China. Values in architecture. Tools at schools. And, social media ideas from the Girl Scouts.

Health architects an endangered species. Bill Brinkman, executive vice president and marketing principal at HDR Architecture, writes on how physicians at HDR’s 5th Translational Health Science (THS) Colloquium in La Jolla, California, believe that the future of healthcare will be medical diagnostics done via wireless technology.

At the colloquium, Dr. Eric Topol said that core diagnostics typically done in a hospital can be done on a modified iPhone, which includes cardiograms and tests for blood, sweat, saliva, and urine. A microchip nanosensor smaller than a grain of sand can be put into your bloodstream and detect a heart attack a week or two before it happens -- and send a signal to your iPhone.

Via Blink Perspectives on Design

Landscape architecture in China. Landscape architecture education has come back into favor in China, and Chinese universities have established or reestablished nearly 200 landscape architecture programs in less than a decade.

Eight academics from the United States and China discuss the cultural exchange taking place between their countries and issues educators face in China as they try to build the profession there.

Via Landscape Architecture Magazine

Values in architecture. James Pfeiffer of BNIM explores themes from “Collaborating with the Public; Advocating for the Social” at Professional Practice Week in Halifax, Canada.

Pfeiffer points out some of the themes that emerged from the dialogue in Halifax:

• Architecture is ultimately about the power of ideas to be transformative and impactful.
• Architecture is a social driver:  its role is sometimes more about designing a social mix (the conditions within which architecture lives) rather than simply being about bricks and mortar.
• We can’t over tailor our buildings anymore. More and more, our structures must embody the notion of “long life, loose fit.”
• Constraints are drivers:  we take constraints, challenge them, and reinvent.
• We design more than just buildings:  we design pieces of the city, community and the public realm.
• Our work should be generous and regenerative.
• Our respective practices require time and space to release moments for speculation.
• Authorship is less important in a current practice:  ideas belong to everyone; the best ones ultimately “win” and are integrated into our projects.

We should strive for work that embodies the idea of doing “twice as much with half as much.”

Via BNIM Blog

Tools at schools. Design studio aruliden and Bernhardt Design launched an initiative to teach eighth graders the value of design as a problem-solving tool at The School at Columbia University.

The project immersed students in the entire design process, from research to ideation to 3D modeling and the launch. What began as a simple effort to get involved in the community grew into a much larger realization that design has a role in the classroom. Check out this video to see concepts and what students gained.

Via Cannon Design Blog

Innovative Social Media

Girl Scouts embrace social media. Girl Scouts celebrated their first National Girl Scout Cookie Day, embracing Twitter, food trucks and new package design. @GirlScouts will tweet the location of its Cookie Day Truck as it makes its way through New York City, staffed with Girl Scouts selling thin mints and other favorite cookies.

Via Diners Journal Blog

Related: Girl Scouts

Favorite Design and Urbanism Blog Posts for Week of January 21, 2012

What is #2013 is to you? Resource for Design World. Perils of dismissive engagement.

Spreading ground.

What is #2013 is to you? Perkins+Will opens up the conversation to find out what the new year means for you.

Perkins+Will envisions a healthier and happier 2013,  ranging from projects such as modular classrooms that are a modern, sustainable and non-toxic solution for students anywhere to designing a women and children’s wellness center in Kenya. Join the global dialogue at #2013is.

Via Ideas + Building Blog

Resource for design world. The AIA and National Institute of Building Science (NIBS) have launched the Building Research Knowledgebase (BRIK), a site that allows design professionals both the ability to access and contribute their knowledge to a single online resource.

The Building Research Knowledgebase is available as a free tool and contains peer-reviewed research papers and case studies covering design from pre-design to post occupancy.

Via Cannon Design Blog

Perils of dismissive engagement. PlaceMakers blogs about how in the course of the public design process, practitioners are setting the stage for unfulfilled expectations by asking the question “what would you like to see here?”

Our participation is devalued when we don’t solicit the information that breeds meaningful discourse. “We need to do better. We need to more effectively play the role of psychoanalyst, drilling down to information that’s actually useful: What kinds of things would residents like to be able to do? What problems would they like mitigated? What potential byproducts of change are they afraid of? How can your city better serve you?

Via PlaceMakers

Spreading ground. Geoff Manaugh writes about Richard Mabey's "defense" of weeds, in particular the Oxford ragwort, a species native to the volcanic slopes of Sicily's Mount Etna.

Manaugh examines ragworts territorial expansion in forensic close-up which can be tracked on Google Maps.

“Within a few years the ragwort had escaped from the garden (which is sited opposite Magdalen College) and begun its westward progress along Oxford's ancient walls. Its downy seeds seemed to find an analogue of the volcanic rocks of its original home in the cracked stonework. It leap-frogged from Merton College to Corpus Christi and the august parapets of Christ Church, then wound its way through the narrow alleys of St. Aldate's.” – Richard Mabey

Via BLDGBLOG

Favorite Design and Urbanism Blog Posts for Week of January 14, 2012

Who rules the earth? Peripheral vision. A new type of architectural school. Why design matters. Endowment for rural communities.  

Who rules the earth. Steve Prince, managing principal of HMC Architects, explores the idea of who rules the earth, stemming from interest of Paul Steinberg’s book, “Who Rules the Earth? How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives,” to be published by Oxford University Press in 2014. The book is part of The Social Rules Project, an environmental sustainability advocacy.

Prince, who connected with the project because of its environmental sustainability initiative, awarded a $5,000 grant to support the Social Rules Project, which seeks to create new and innovative ways to bridge academia and real world challenges, and to empower students to make a positive impact on the planet.

Via HMC Architects blog

On the periphery. Linnaea Tillett, an environmental psychologist, lighting designer and principal of Tillett Lighting, writes about how lighting can affect the way people feel in a room where they’ll be performing different kinds of tasks.

Tillett says this affect comes from the periphery of your vision—the “fringe of your focus”—and it determines how you feel in a particular space. People absorb much of the affect without being acutely aware that they are doing it through what we variously call the co-conscious, unconscious, or just the “noise around us”.

Via Metropolis Magazine POV

A new type of architecture school. Robert Kwolek blogs on how he would like to create his own private school of architecture, offering a complete alternative to existing programs in which the worlds of architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, and carpentry would be melded.

Kwolek says that despite having graduated from an architecture program, he still doesn’t feel significantly more capable of constructing his own building. He says that most contemporary architecture programs “are very insular, with little regard for preparing students for the real world.”

Via Sustainable Cities Collective

Why Design Matters. Tom Ito, a principal in Gensler’s Los Angeles office, blogs about how staying at the hotel Oberoi Amarvilas in Agra, India, made him reflect on the power of design.

“Everything about my journey into the hotel (and approaching nirvana) was designed. It was “guest experience” planned and supported by the landscape, the architecture and the interiors for the purpose of giving me a lasting memory of this hotel and—bigger picture—the brand. It worked.” – Tom Ito

Via GenslerOn Lifestyle blog

Endowment for rural communities. The new Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD), a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Project for Public Spaces, and other organizations, is looking for proposals from rural communities who need design help. Winners will receive a $7,000 grant and technical assistance valued at $35,000.

CIRD helps rural communities with fewer than 50,000 people. Through facilitated design workshops, CIRD aims to “enhance the quality of life and economic vitality” of these places.

Via The Dirt

Favorite Design and Urbanism Blog Posts from Week of January 7, 2012

Architecture and mountain climbing. Designing Emergency Departments. You want to be an architect? Philly's Divine Lorraine.

Climbing mountains. Roger Stewart, director of global development at HDR Architecture, blogs about mountain climbing, comparing it with tackling the obstacles in life.

Metaphorically speaking, we all have mountains to climb. It could be delivering a very tough project, raising our design reputation, or winning a critical project. All of these great accomplishments are earned as a result of persistence, discipline, teamwork, being personally accountable, and daring to imagine possibilities.  – Roger Stewart

Via Blink Perspectives

Emergency department design. Thomas Hammer, a senior project manager at Luckett & Farley, blogs about the importance of emergency department design of a hospital amid the growing needs of the baby boomer generation and healthcare reform.

Hammer says that healthcare architecture that incorporates evidenced based design will create safe and therapeutic environments for patients and enhance family participation.

Via Luckett-Farley blog

You want to be an architect? Bob Borson provides insightful information on what architecture students and interns can expect if they want to be an architect.

Borson discusses topics such as college, design studios, what makes you a designer, drawing like an architect, salary, tools and internships.

Via Life of an Architect

A look at Philly landmarks. Amy Magida, landscape architect at OLIN Studio, examines the history and future of two iconic structures in Philadelphia.

Magida explores Divine Lorraine, which was originally designed in the 1890s to house Philadelphia’s affluent members of high society, and the Metropolitan Opera House, built by Oscar Hammerstein in 1908 which was the largest in the world at the time.

Via OLIN Studio blog