Design 21: Social Design Network

Modus Furniture, one of the UK's top design manufacturers, has got together with the Architectural Journal for the second Something to Sit On competition. Modus will produce a prototype of the winning seating design that could become part of its product range.

The Brief:
Gone are the days of being chained to your workstation nine to five. The traditional boundaries between the city and the office are breaking down as today's dynamic workforce logs on in coffee bars and parks alike. Submissions should conceptualise a seating opportunity for informal working on a laptop. It should be designed for a range of public or informal office interior environments. It may be for individual or group use. There are few limits on how the piece is made but it must be predominantly upholstered and should be designed so that it can be developed for production. It should be suitable for use with the existing Modus ranges.

Judges for the competition include:
Jon Powell, Director, Modus
Ed Richardson, Director, Modus
Ben Addy, last year's winner and Director, Moxon Architects 
Ian Stallard, co-founder of Fredrikson Stallard
Patrik Fredrikson, co-founder of Fredrikson Stallard
Ola Rune, Claesson Koivisto Rune
Simon Pengelly, Pengelly Design
Kieran Long, Editor, The Architects' Journal
Will Hunter, Editor, AJ Specification.

See Modus, AJ Mag, Caro Comunications.

SKK lighting will be exhibiting new material, with two new collections on show during this years London Design Festival, both based around sustainable design.

Skski - A collection of pendant and table light shades that use recycled glass as their primary material. This new collection is exclusively designed in-house by SKK and is a great example of how sustainable design can offer stunning results.

Ledtek - this range of LED products has been selected by SKK to offer practical and affordable LED solutions for the home. The range offers products that can be used for many different purposes, from simple edge, or pathfinder lighting to more elaborate DMX colour change systems. As well as these two new collections there also be an arrangement of Shiu-Kay Kan's iconic animal lights.

The two collections will be on display from 15-18 Sept 2007 at Bodhi, 214 Brick Lane, E1. See SKK and London Design Festival information here.

The model of economic development that we are currently pursuing is unsustainable. Our energy consumption per unit of GDP is seven times that of Japan, six times that of America, and even 2.8 times that of India. China’s labour productivity is less than 10 per cent of the world total, and yet our emissions are over 10 times higher than the global average.

by Pan Yue deputy director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). Part of a new generation of outspoken Chinese senior officials, Pan has given rise to a tide of environmental debate, attracting enormous attention and controversy.

Part One and Part Two of his article online.

Advances in wireless communications are now permitting Africans to share news in the form of text or video over their mobile phones. Voices from Africa shares these stories from their 'mobile reporters'.

The Economist covers the topic as well, mobile phones are making far reaching changes in disaster relief, aid distribution and shifting the balance of power between donors and recipients.

I came accross this website the other day, and was intrigued at the concept behind the site.

The concept, quoted from www.blackle.com states:

"Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages."

As environmentally conscious attitudes pervade society more frequently, environmental endeavours, however small, are popping up all over the place.

I passed these on Orchard Road in Singapore and couldn't resist capturing the graphics. What a change from the boring old plain blue or green bins we usually see. Notice how the shape of the hole changes for the one marked paper.

Now if only this blog allowed me to upload all the closeup photos as well.

The Independent reports a recent furor over the humble patio heater in the UK leading to a debate on the ethics of consumption and how the choices we make have long lasting consequences.

Calling for a ban on patio heaters, stating that they emit high amounts of CO2 and that their popularity has risen after the recent ban on smoking indoors the article discusses the government's response - a request to the British public to "Wear a Jumper" instead and implies that shame might be a better approach, making it as socially unacceptable as smoking.

Once it becomes a shame to buy something that potentially harms the environment, are we going down the slippery slope of being ashamed to design it, make it or produce it? Today as these discussions begin on the ethics of product choices we make as consumers, one can hazard a guess that the day will come when we must look at our value systems and their relationship to our choices as producers. It has made me think upon the way things could go and I shall continue this discussion further.

Inhabitat has a brief article about Leonardo DiCaprio's new reality TV show "Eco-Town" which will follow state and local officials around as they attempt to build an environmentally & economically sustainable town in Kansas on the recently devastated town of Greenburg.

Say what you want about reality TV, one of the best tools to teach "how" is through storytelling - by relaying your own experience so someone else can integrate it with their own and form a larger whole. Hopefully Eco-Town will show people not only that this type of project can succeed, but exactly how to succeed too.

Fantastic video of Inhabitat's Jill Fehrenbacher engaging the editors of Metropolis magazine, TreeHugger.com and Core77.com in a conversation on sustainable design.

See Video Here

I'd like to introduce you all to <a href="http://www.urbanrevision.com/">Re:Vision</a>. Are you a visionary thinker? Inspired by the likes of the <a href="http://www.massivechange.com/">Bruce Mau</a> / Buckminster Fuller mindset? Re:Vision may just inspire you too.

Founder Stacey Frost introduces the project: "<a href="http://www.urbanrevision.com/">Re:Vision</a> was born out of the belief that each of us has a unique perspective along with a wealth of ideas, energy and resources. Within us lies boundless potential. These competitions are about inspiring innovation, tapping into existing ideas, and using them in new and amazing ways. We are all creators. I challenge you to ask yourself what urban experience you truly want. BE BOLD. THINK BIG. It’s all there already, waiting to be put into action."

An interesting initiative for anyone looking to voice their BIG ideas.

Posted on Anamorphosis today.