Grown in Transit is a tremendous concept from the LifeSigns network, a web based portal for the Future Laboratory's extensive network of professionals working in the creative and branding industries. If you haven't already registered to read the LifeSigns material, now would be a good time to do so.
Each day, the LifeSigns team uploads trend-based stories and reports from a wiiiiiiiide range of events/trade shows/design outlets/solar systems. The material is very on-edge, fresh, and full of original content.
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This week, LifeSigns is continuing its menu of food trends from the Future Laboratory's new Food Futures Report.
Supermarkets and modern food transportation systems have sacrificed freshness and seasonality in favour of warehousing depots, bulk transportation and blemish-free produce. But a new attitude is emerging, with the creation of innovative ways of growing food in transit rather than refrigerating products into suspended animation.
Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Agata Jaworska's project Made in Transit, aims to eliminate the wasted time and trapped inventory in many supply chains by actually growing produce en route to the store. Jaworska's concept aims to move from best before, preservative packaging to ready by, cultivational packaging which consumers would open when the product was ready for consumption. Jaworska's first example would grow mushrooms on the way to the supermarket.
The instant a crop is removed from the ground or separated from its parent plant, a steady process of deterioration begins, says Jaworska. Methods to compensate for the loss of quality, taste and nutrients can only slow the process of deterioration down, but the result will never match what we have at the source of life. The grown-in-transit, concept enables growth along the way, to deliver absolute freshness and allow the consumer to harvest, their own food. The idea would also minimise the excess packaging, such as the plastic film and crates that protect delicate food items in transit. These are rarely re-used.
Award-winning chef Arthur Potts Dawson hopes to bring a community aspect to the trend with his veg barge, concept. He plans to create an aquatic allotment on one of the barges on Regent's Canal, adjacent to his Water House restaurant in Shoreditch, London.
The barge is an extension of the city-grown produce cultivated on the roof and in the front and back yards of Potts Dawson's Acorn House in the busy King's Cross area. It would service the restaurant by travelling up and down the canal as the herbs, fruits and vegetables grow. Potts Dawson is also keen to use the barge to serve the community, travelling into the Hackney borough to promote and sell locally-grown foods.
For more on this or other trends contact Hester Chan for copies of the Food Futures report or a ticket to the Food Futures Forum.
Every now and then a project comes along that makes you say, "How?" The design is breathtaking, the size is extreme and the appearance, near impossible. Well, the future of the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo, Norway is just that kind of project.
The grandiose project was won late last year in a open competition by Danish Architect, Julien De Smedt, and is now commissioned to be built for the 2011 World Ski Championships! What do you think? The new design is simply awe-inspiring.
The International Ski Federation had requested that an iconic structure be built for the competition and as you can see, De Smedt didn't disappoint. Given the rich history of skiing in Oslo --in addition to the 600,000+ tourists that visit the existing jump year after year-- it's easy to see that interest in the location and culture will only grow. The ISF should be quite happy with the future of Nordic sport in Norway.
The jump will be a cantilevered steel structure, eagerly capable of handling the massive weight and power of snow and wind. Near the grounding point of the cantilever, there will a union and restaurant for spectators, tourists and officials. Additionally, there will be a public viewing platform at the crest of the jump, allowing spectators to view the athletes as they launch from into the air. I can only imagine what that view will look like! And with the entire structure lit from within, surrounded in a glass-plate façade, I can imagine the the view from outside the jump will be just as, if not more, breathtaking. To top it off, the peak is cut horizontally to accommodate an additional viewing platform with a 360º panorama view over the Oslo city landscape.
Construction is expected to be completed in 2009.
JDS/Julien De Smedt Architects is a multidisciplinary office, located in Copenhagen, Brussels and Oslo, that focuses on architecture and design, from large scale urban planning to furniture and design.
This was floating around work today from one of staff that frequents Dubai. It's a view from the top of the Burj Dubai, now the world's tallest building. It came with the following:
The attached photograph was taken from one of the tower crane platforms above the Burj Dubai this month. The Burj Dubai is still under construction and this photo shows it at a height of approximately 630 meters (2070 feet). Supposedly, it takes about 27 minutes travel time for a construction crane to hoist material from ground level to the top of present construction level.
It's probably one of the most talked about buildings in Dubai so I typically refrain from posting any additional details, but this vantage point was too difficult to resist.
I was watching a little television before bed last night and ran across a new series called Ax Men on the History Channel. It follows four logging crews through a season in the remote forests of northwest Oregon as they work in one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. As I watched, the little hippie inside of me silently shed a patchouli-scented tear as each tree was felled, then hauled up the mountain at breakneck speed (literally). The one-armed, prosthetically enhanced logger had defeated tree-after-old-growth-tree, and another house would soon begin construction.
After getting out of my morning shower the visions of falling timber stick stuck to the back of my head, so I decided to see what the show was doing in terms of sustainable practices. At the end of a long day, it sure looked like the Ax Men were simply clear-cutting the side of the mountain at random, but what did I know? I'm a mid-Western bike commuter with clean fingernails. He had, well, only five fingernails.
I googled and blogsearched, and while numerous interviews and reviews hint that the show is doing what it can to promote environmental stewardship, they don't, however, say how/why/who/when/what they're doing. There isn't any promotion of replanting, any exhibition of responsible forestry, or any environmental stewardship whatsoever.
Actually, the majority of the interviews seem to reiterate this comment made by one of the loggers, "The media has beat us up pretty badly, and I don't think a lot of people are really educated on how the woods are regulated."
We are doing somethingbecause we know environmental degradation is bad.
But what? What exactly are you doing? Who's watching you do it? Who recommended you to do it? Who's following up on how you did it or what affect it had on the environment?
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As of late, questionable green promotions seem to be par for the course for the building, construction, and supply industries. And as far as the logging industry goes, they're acknowledgment of current environmental issues seems to be (in their opinion) adequate enough to ward off any further environmental stewardship. So, if that's how they want to play the game, who or how can we keep tabs on what they're doing? More importantly, how can we keep tabs on what we, as consumers, are buying?
Well, wood suppliers often make claims that their products come from "managed" or "sustainable" forests, but without independent certification, there is no way to really know. Increasingly, such claims are used as a marketing ploy to "greenwash" material that came from destructive forestry practices. That’s why it’s important to buy certified wood, but the fact that a wood product is "certified" does not mean that it comes from an ecologically-well managed forest. There are now various types of forest certification (see below), and most do not have meaningful environmental standards, enforcement mechanisms, or methods of tracking the wood through the supply chain to keep out illegally-logged material and prevent misrepresentation.
The only forest certification system that enjoys the support of environmental groups worldwide is that of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which is independent, non-profit, and has a mechanism for tracking wood from the forest to the consumer – from first cut to your kitchen. The USGBC only recognizes FSC certification as evidence of the sustainability of a wood product. So, if you want verification that the wood you are purchasing came from a truly well-managed forest, demand FSC-certified material, and demand proper documentation. Now here’s the tricky part. The fact that a company has FSC certification does not mean that what you are being sold is FSC-certified (I know, it’s complicated). Why? Well, many companies that have FSC "Chain of Custody" (COC) certification, which gives them the right to buy and sell FSC-certified wood even though they only sell a minute amount of FSC-certified wood. This is particularly the case in the wood flooring industry. So buyer beware: Most FSC-certified wood products have on-product FSC labels, but watch out. If you are purchasing what you believe is FSC-certified wood but there are no FSC logos on the product packaging, it most likely is not certified, no matter what the rest of the information provided by the manufacturer or supplier might indicate. Some companies will even use the FSC logo on product samples, but ship uncertified material to fill your order. To verify the FSC-certified status of a wood product that does not bare the FSC logo, demand not only the supplier's COC certificate, but also an invoice or receipt detailing the FSC-certified status of each product on an individual line-item basis. If the invoice's line-item doesn't say "FSC-certified," the material is not certified. If the supplier gives you the run around, drop him/her like fallen timber.
Examples of questionable certification systems include:
SFI - Sustainable Forestry Initiative - Sustainable Flooring • Funded and dominated by the timber industry • Weak environmental protections • Allows conversion of natural forests (including old-growth) into tree farms • No credible Chain of Custody to keep out illegal wood
CSA - Canadian Standards Association • Allows large-scale clearing of old-growth • Fails to protect First Nations
PEFC - Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification • Weak environmental standards • No credible Chain of Custody • Mutually recognizes virtually all forest certification systems, including SFI and CSA • PEFC wood could come from almost any source
ISO - International Standards Organization • Standards address manufacturing practices, not forest management
IBAMA - Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources • Program of the Brazilian government • Low environmental standards, poorly enforced • No Chain of Custody
None of the above forest certification systems enjoy the support of the environmental community. The FSC, on the other hand, is supported by major international conservation groups such as Greenpeace, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, and many others.
So next time you're out and about or even spec-ing a new building, look for the FSC stamp and feel a little better about your purchase. You inner hippie need not cry, well, as much.
Hans Tan Studio wants to tell you what time it is in as many words as possible on a sign that displays the time, offering a visual interpretation of a clock in paragraph form...all of which, at quarter till three (you'd think writing a repetitive, redundant, run-on, redundant sentence would be fairly easy, but you'd be surprised).
This work, Idea of a Clock II, is a literal conversation piece, playful in both form and function. I love how it drags out the normal function of a time-piece, forcing the viewer to read the time instead of telling the time. We could all use a little slowdown nowadays.
Although I don't normally post about installations like this, I found it too hard to resist. It's neat in an I'd-never-need-to-purchase-that kind of way.
In essence, the design is the sentence itself, where language is used to convey a clock as an idea, reducing a timepiece as an object to the immateriality of an "idea piece". The idea behind a designed object finally loses its pretense with matter and stands in front.
The Classic Design: The Trio Bike 2.0 - Copenhagen While the bike itself isn't necessarily a classic, the design certainly is. Commuters have long been searching for a bicycle that will help them multi-task trips to the grocery, library, bakery and onward. Sometimes, a saddlebagged velocipede just won't suffice. The style is classic and the design is, trends be damned, everlasting. Expect to see a new line of SUB's coming to a bike shop near you. Don't believe me? Check out a bike happy city like Amsterdam. Here's 82 pictures taken in 73 minutes. The Trio Bike has been touted as, "the world's first family carrier bike with 3 independent functions: a bike, 2-seat buggy and multi award winning carrier bike. Simple interchangeable design requires no tools to switch between functions. Capable of carrying 80kg payload equivalent to 2 children aged up to 9 years."
Simple, adaptable, user-centered design from the Danes? Who knew?
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The Future/The Now of the Modern Commute: Storage! As gas prices continue to fuel an unintentional, global environmental movement and more and more people continue to push their cars aside, bicycle storage --in addition to offering valuable LEED credits for a building-- will become commonplace. And as cities continue to trend towards an urbanized environment, the more wonderfully stylish ways in which to store those bicycles will begin to hit the streets!
Cyclepods The entire award-winning Cyclepod line is made either from 90% recycled (and recyclable) aluminium, or fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP), which is 20% recycled and 60% recyclable. The pods also offer a solar-powered security light for ambient night light. I'd like to see the base put on a rotational wheel, so you could embed the entire system in a wall like a lazy Susan, making your own little bicycle closet!
Bike Tree Think of it as an urban storage attic. And while their storage unit design is wonderfully modern, their website is horrifically dated and difficult to navigate. So please hold on tight as try to explain...
The trunk of the "tree," while somewhat larger in appearance, realistically takes up no more space than its live brethren. The bicycles are pulled up in to the canopy of the cover by battery-stored solar power, where they sit guarded by automatically activated security cameras until their owners requests them downward. It really is an amazing system, but the company could really use a makeover, especially if they're looking to compete in the tech sector.
The Tokyo Bike Lift I have no other website information for this system, other than the fact that just about every tech website has published this video in the last week, thus making it valid in interest alone. I love the concept, but the application is entirely overdone.
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The Future/The Now of the Modern Commute: Sharing I'm beginning to wonder just how trustworthy us Americans can be, considering bike-share programs seem to be taking off all over the world...except the United States. The system itself, however, is in reality just beginning to take shape.
According to some experts, the bike share concept --though 40+ years old-- is only in version 3.0. As far as current successes go, your choices are limited: Bicing in Barcelona, the Vélo'v in Lyon, and Vélib' [above photo] in France - all of which have shined to some extent. So why should the future excel, compared to the failures and minimal successes of the past? Integration.
New bike share concepts are now including modern mass transit. This "fourth generation" of bike share, like the one taking shape in the cities surrounding Washington DC, are planning on integrating their programs with bus and light rail, offering complete packages for maximized mass transit.
The Future of Bicycle Design: TheftProof Bike - Core 77 One Hour Challenge Seats get stolen, wheels get ripped off, and anything not bolted down soon disappears. So the question is, how do you add to a bike to protect it from additional thieving?
This concept from RBAid in the Core 77 One Hour Challenge won top prize for its inherent usability. After locking up, most users will already remove their bicycle seat, so why not integrate it into the security system? I think it's only a matter of time before we see this go in to production on novice/commuter bicycles.
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The Future of Bicycle Design/The Modern Commute: The HE: Human Electric Hybrid Vehicle Like its predecessor the Twike (which only gets 550 mpg) the HE is the Toyota Prius of bicycles, only you are powering the gasoline.
The HE has powered stored in its battery cells to provide uphill and forward assistance, but recharges during downhill descents and during moments of de-acceleration from regenerative braking. Still not enough juice? The HE also utilizes photovoltaics placed on top of the vehicle.
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The Future of Bicycle Design: The Cube Urban Concept Bike What looks more like a triathlon time trial bike is actually a foldable, collapsible concept of sexy.
My German is a little rusty, but if my translations are correct, here's what I can tell...
The wheels are made out of light-weight carbon, but collapse to next to nothing in just two steps. It was designed as something for "sporty" people to use strictly for commuting, instead of using their weekend sport bikes/mountain bikes (think of it as TheftProof Bike 2.0). Cranks and pedals are removable and the frame collapses on adjustable fulcrums, while the seat adjusts both horizontally and vertically.
I have long-believed that the folding bike would go the way of the flying car - always a want but never a possibility. This concept, however, brings feasible design to the table. I would NOT kick this design out of my morning commute.
But if it's not UrbanAdventure-enough for you, here's a much "harder" model from Folding Bike Innovations, called the Onyerbike (flash saturated site). ***
The Future of the Bicycle Friendly City/The Modern Commute: I've seen the future, and it's got some big-aaaasssssss sidewalks. Nothing gets my commuter wheels spinnin' faster than the idea of physically separated bicycle lanes, 20ft wide sidewalks and independent streets for mass transit vehicles. Outside Online has a great article explaining these concepts (and more) after the picture.
Pedestrian Plan 1. I'M WALKIN' HERE!: Even, level sidewalks should be at least 20 feet wide to allow ample room for pedestrians and enough space for people to stop and chat or look in shop windows without causing a pileup.
2. BIKER ALLEY: Creating a safe, welcoming environment for city cyclists begins with bike lanes painted a noticeable color (green in the Manhattan and Brooklyn pilot projects) and separated from traffic by parked cars or flexible bollards where possible.
3. NO PARKING: Free and cheap parking will have to be severely cut back. "You can essentially store your property in this public space that could be used so much more productively," says White. Selective removal of on-street parking will discourage car use and recapture space for wider sidewalks, bike lanes, bike parking, plantings, sitting areas, and even taxi stands.
4. EXTRA PROTECTION: Extending the medians through the crosswalks, in effect creating a protective bracket on the side of the crosswalk exposed to traffic, keeps pedestrians safe, gives them a mid-crossing refuge, and keeps traffic from cutting too close to the medians. Bollards serve as both a visible marker and physical barrier.
5. A WIDE SWATH: "We need to have extended, exclusive pedestrian crossing time," says White, "so people aren't molested by turning vehicles." Crosswalks should be clearly and uniformly marked, with signals recalibrated to a walking rate of 2.5 feet per second to give enough time to the elderly, young, and disabled.
6. LOOKOUT: The installation of both red-light and speed cameras, particularly in high-traffic areas, will keep motorists to slow, pedestrian-safe speeds.
7. LOUNGE AREAS: Encouraging cycling will require more bike racks and bike parking; making the streets safer for pedestrians will require more bollards and better lighting for sidewalks; and benches, tables, and other places to watch the world go by will foster community in public spaces.
8. STRIP GARDENS: Raised and widened medians with plantings serve as refuge, help "calm" traffic, and give the street a boulevard-like feel.
9. CURB ENTHUSIASM: "Bumping out" intersections with curb extensions and bollards (rigid three-foot posts) means safer streets, narrowing crossing distances, making pedestrians and cars more visible to each other, and keeping traffic in line. They should feature on the corners of high-traffic streets.
As Bike-to-work month continues to creep up on your back wheel, I thought it might be interesting to see how efficiently we could map our bike routes, breaking down everything from kilometers and calories, to routes and roads.
[Photo: Bicycle parking at a library in the Netherlands. The foldable plates on the top of the stands can be lowered over the seats if it begins to rain.]
Speaking of efficiency, I'm lazy! It appears as though Bike Hacks has already beaten me to the pedal. They've compiled a list of both global and location-specific mapping tools to help you organize your commute.
The list is quite impressive, not just in terms of interweb tools, but in terms of interest. It's great to see that there so many different regions picking up their bikes, and putting down those congestion-inducing car keys.
Crickey, there are a lot of ways to map your bike route! This list focuses on freely available versions. I’ve caught a lot of them, but I’m sure there are more. If you notice that I missed your favorite free bike route mapping tool, drop it in the comments!
There are plenty of places that’ll sell you a bike map, but I’m mainly interested in maps that are offered for free. And, amazingly, these aren’t all variations on (the excellent) Google Maps. This list is broken into two sections, with only the vaguest notions of organization. The first section are resources that are more global in nature. The second section are more location-specific maps.
ByCycle Good planner, might be dying. Could use help.
This site is not affiliated with my work and/or its clients and/or its vendors. The views expressed in this blog are solely the opinions of me, myself and I.
1) Everything is meant in good fun. 2) At this time, there is just too much cool stuff on the interwebs and this is my way of keeping track of it all. 3) My intent is to better familiarize myself with an industry I am only beginning to understand.
Well, where to begin? I graduated from Eckerd College in 2000 [St. Petersburg, FL] with a BA in International Law with a Concentration in Human Rights and Genocide Studies. After college I joined the Peace Corps, serving in the Republic of Kiribati in the South Pacific [2001-2003]. I am currently a Buyer for a design in OH.********As the world continues to accelerate and evolve, I am growing more and more fascinated with technology and design. Since I am not formally trained in either of those fields, this blog aims to showcase products/ideas/tech/people I like. Take it for what you will.********Lili Cheng once wrote, "A beautiful side effect of making things is you start to look around and wonder, 'how did they do that?'; you learn to see, analyze, and appreciate different approaches, well-made things, and clever solutions." Surrounded by creativity and cleverness, I can't help but find myself intrigued.
I have a wonderful wife and a healthy-boweled 1 year-old son.
The instant a crop is removed from the ground or separated from its parent plant, a steady process of deterioration begins, says Jaworska. Methods to compensate for the loss of quality, taste and nutrients can only slow the process of deterioration down, but the result will never match what we have at the source of life. The grown-in-transit, concept enables growth along the way, to deliver absolute freshness and allow the consumer to harvest, their own food. The idea would also minimise the excess packaging, such as the plastic film and crates that protect delicate food items in transit. These are rarely re-used.
