This summer semester I’m taking a global sustainability class and I was just reading about Farming the Cities.
Urban farming is generally pretty awesome, I can’t wait for it. In a way, it might render the areas outside of major cities mostly useless. Well that’s harsh, I shouldn’t say useless; But [...]
Archive for the 'Sustainable Living' Category
Today, Swapnil, Matt and I visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park.
I’ve already seen the museum before (I’m not a huge fan to tell you the truth), but we went specifically this week with the intent to see the Green + Wired home exhibit.
Michelle Kaufmann, a well known prefab/modular [...]
I couldn’t be more excited about my topic for design analysis this semester. Our group is collectively taking apart the “Alternative Dwellings” market. That means we’re doing research on contemporary prefab, modernist, modular, temporary post-emergency housing, automated houses (that one’s for you, Will), and mobile homes (RVs).
In our initial research, we learned about [...]
Surveys for the Developing world
19Nov07In Keeley’s Design Planning class, we’re trying to nail the plan for a platform solution that aggregates data, uses some sort of human or computer powered inference engine, and visualizes the data in a meaningful way that is actionable by urban planners, city officials, or business leaders.
The work is part of a project titled 19-20-21 [...]
vegetable Napoleon with tomato coulis
flickr credit: Amelia PS
I use a variety of excuses when people ask me why I am vegetarian. Actually, I mostly got asked why I was a vegetarian this past summer when I was in the PRC. One excuse that I used was that it doesn’t [...]
Last week, Bill Clinton spoke at the Inc 500 conference about entrepreneurship and challenged small business owners of the fastest growing small companies to tackle large systemic problems by using their creativity: the health care crisis and poverty.
In my large scale systems planning workshop class on Tuesdays and Fridays, that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re [...]
Aha! I knew it.
13Jul07See, I told you Beijing is ridiculously polluted and it makes me miserable. I have proof now.
Kevin sent me this article today: “For Athletes, an Invisible Traffic Hazard”
I feel really awful for those Olympic runners. I wonder why they would ever decide to have the games held there, of all places.
CasePlace.org, which provides teaching modules and case studies for various relevant industry topics has just released a teaching module called “Bottom of the Pyramid”.
It contains three case studies that might be relevant if you’re an educator or just someone who is particularly interested in this space:
Expanding the Playing Field: Nike’s World Shoe Project
Hindustan Lever Re-invents [...]
Bask in this glory: A friend and colleague of mine at ID just sent me the NY Times’s most popular article for today, May 29, 2007, aptly titled:
“Design that Solves Problems for the World’s Poor“
Nice!
It references the Cooper Hewitt (which I visited earlier this year), Martin Fischer’s Kickstart, and has a small gallery that shows [...]
How does “Fair & Lovely” fare?
21Mar07Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Unilever or associated brands. These are just my thoughts on a heated debate.
Sometimes, it’s hard to get people to talk about selling to the Base of the Pyramid and looking to the emerging markets as a source of revenue. I think the latest BoP [...]
Consumer responsibility
16Mar07I’m interested in corporate social responsiblity and the evolution of enterprise (I am brewing a post on this subject that will be up here soon). Tangentially related to corporate responsibility is the notion of consumer responsibility. How does one, as a product designer, inventor, or entrepreneur create platforms that create infectious positive social [...]
Wealth & Politics Panel:
Gregg EasterbrookHazel Henderson
* Milton Friedman (who just passed away recently) was the first to hold the notion that standard measurements of economics only tell half the story.* Hazel Henderson grew up in patriarchal society (Britain) and realized that her mother was producing the basic fabric of wealth– but was not contributing to [...]
Information Panel:
Jimmy Wales, wikipediaAmy Czerwinski, Microsoft
* Amy referenced attention economy (buzzword alert * Microsoft is doing research about user interruption– When is the best time to interrupt someone to alert them about something? (an email, an impending task, etc)* Don Norman: recognized that interruption during a task is worse than an interruption later.* Countertrend-> [...]
Energy Discussion:Gunther Pauli & Reginald Modlin
* The first person to write about “healthy cities” was Leonardo Da Vinci* Da Vinci talked a lot about “flow”. He saw the importance of flow in cities, the flows of people, and even the flow of joy in the body. Leonardo was also known for the integration of sciences [...]
Massive Change Global Visionaries Symposium Originally uploaded by quami77.
This weekend, I skipped the Michigan-Ohio State football game to go to the Global Visionaries Symposium put together by the MCA and Bruce Mau’s Massive Change campaign/exhibit. It was well [...]
