How Urban Farms Support the Healthy Living Movement
A full 90 percent of the U.S. labor force worked on a farm in 1790.1 By 1860, that figure shrank to 58 percent. In 1940, it dropped to 18 percent. And in 1990, less than three percent of workers helped produce our nation’s food. As our number of farmers decreased, we witnessed an increase in the consumption […]
Eyes on Mars: Humanity’s Venture in Conquering Space
Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin has already said it: humans should be on Mars. It could be a stone shot in empty space—a far-flung daydream. Or it could be a vision of the future, one that will give earth-dwellers an alternative before the planet succumbs to a crippling disease brought about by climate change. What was […]
Tapping the collective power of positivity
One can escape the bad weather, a bad menu, a bad styling, but certainly not bad news. They’re everywhere, peering through the unexpected folds of a Facebook timeline, a Twitter trend list, a sentimental Instagram post, or a column in a newspaper picked up for a play at the crossword. They’re carried through word of […]
A Decade of Breakthroughs with Bamboo
It’s a renowned landscaping favorite: tall, slender poles shoot up in the sky with a cluster of thin, blade-like leaves that sway in the wind. As an indoor plant, bamboo requires little upkeep, with no to minimal fertilizer and water. In fact, this perennial plant can flourish on its own, independently sowing its culms that […]
Design for the departed: An interview with Parting Stone’s Justin Crowe
For a long time, cremation has been considered as a taboo for the religious, a choice not many would take. In the 1980s, the cremation rate was just below 10%, but over the last few years, the US has seen it slowly taking over traditional burial. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, cremations account for 50.2% […]
On Spotlight: Gus* x LUUM, and Modernizing Memphis
Design has always been a dialogue. One would find it in the maker’s choice of materials, the symmetry of its lines, the beauty of its aesthetics, and the way it functions for its end-users. This may not necessarily be traditional. At some point, a good design is meant to break out from the norm, to […]
S.A.R.E – Self Assembling Robotic Environments
By Michael Jantzen S.A.R.E is a conceptual design that explores ways in which artificial intelligence and robotics can be used to create new kinds of physical spaces. This particular design consists of one eight by eight by eight-foot box, and one eight by eight by twelve-foot tall box. Each of the boxes has been divided […]
Lesson Plans For Bringing Tower Garden to the Classroom
Fall is finally here, and the school year is in full swing! Teachers — we know you’re well-aware that with a new school year comes new opportunities and inevitable challenges. Whether it’s finding a new, refreshing way to engage the class, or making a daunting subject matter approachable, you may be looking for a creative […]
Concrete Architecture
Modern architecture is mainly characterized by simple forms, the absence of decoration, and the creation of beautiful shapes by the structural elements themselves. The term implies multiple architectural movements and styles, some of which are related while others are distinct. In the 20th century, architecture advanced with the use of new materials (steel, reinforced concrete, […]
The tragedy and remedy of paper
One of man’s most important inventions is a flimsy sheet of wood pulp that became the heart of human’s first long-distance communication, among its many other uses. Of course, there have been various writing surfaces used beforehand—tortoise shells, wood, parchments, anything where the ink drips and stays like a warning sign for others to read. […]
Fit to eat: the case of edible foodware
Single-use plastic cutlery has changed the way consumers eat outside their homes. Convenient, yes. But for the better of the environment? No. Plastic Pollution Coalition reports that America alone uses 100 million pieces of these plastic utensils per year—a large percentage that contributes to about 270,000 tons of plastic waste produced globally. Six million tons […]
The World’s First 3D-Printed Village by Yves Béhar
Re-posted from Dwell, by Lucy Wang, May 9, 2019 The World’s first 3D-Printed village coming to Latin America in the summer of 2019 is a project by Yves Béhar. The walls of each home can be printed in just 24 hours with nearly zero waste. Acclaimed designer Yves Béhar of fuseproject, Austin–based construction technologies company ICON, and […]
NASA’s idea for making food from thin air just became a reality — it could feed billions
Here’s why you might eat greenhouse gases in the future. By ROBBY BERMAN 19 July, 2019. Re-posted from Big Think The company’s protein powder, “Solein,” is similar in form and taste to wheat flour. Based on a concept developed by NASA, the product has wide potential as a carbon-neutral source of protein. The man-made “meat” […]
Transcending Boundaries
As an artist who uses photography as an art form, I am interested in states of reality. How is reality experienced; how is it revealed? As I become more aware of the many scientific theories about multi-universes, space/time conundrums and the like, I find reality difficult to define and a challenge to depict. I am […]
The Wave Formed Footbridge
The Wave Formed Footbridge merges sculpture and architecture in a way that offers a completely new experience to those who walk across and through it. The design was inspired by visualizing the idea of people walking across the bridge and in doing so, form a kind of wave of energy that could conceptually deform the […]
The Redemption of the Recycled
Making miracles out of milk jugs: Loll Designs There is a regular need for milk—a staple source of calcium—but for milk jugs, not so much. When the contents are exhausted, these plastic containers lie around, stacked together like bulky bricks, often a constant source for comical mishaps. Not everyone can DIY their way into discarding […]
Smaller is Smarter: The Rise of Micro Hotels
In 2017, the interior design team at Scott Carver launched Fifteen, a 15sqm micro hotel concept decked out with a bed, a view, a glass-encased bath and a closet. What it lacked in floor space, it made up for brilliance: a desk conveniently folds back into the wall when unused, allowing the user to sit […]
LIFE IN FLUX – To Challenge Apathy in the 21st Century
“My sole aim is to leave everything in suspension, in flux, in order to avoid our community solidifying into a conventional academy. Our initial resources may be few, but our spirits are high, receptive, and excited, and that seems to me to be the most important thing right now”. Walter Gropius, architect, founder of the […]
