2.27.12 | The work of the resource director in an architecture or design firm is tricky business. It’s best to have a professional in your corner, though most design firms either can’t afford a full-time librarian or find it hard to see their value, often because they previously depended on interns for the position. In 2009, Peter Carey created Streamline Material Resourcing to give design firms a cost effective way to satisfy their needs for product and material research based upon their current client and project needs.
A&D Firms >>, Companies >>, Materials >>, People >>
2.27.12 | Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. founded the GOOD DESIGN program now administered by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The GOOD DESIGN Awards bestow international recognition upon the world's most prominent designers and manufacturers for advancing new, visionary, and innovative product concepts, invention and originality, and for stretching the envelope beyond what is considered ordinary product and consumer design. We present a selection of the 2011 GOOD DESIGN AWARDS.
A&D Firms >>, Competitions and Awards >>, Events >>, Product >>
2.27.12 | The International Interior Design Association, New York chapter’s yearly program is a stunning and energizing array of educational, charitable and fund-raising events driven by the talents, curiosity and charitable-inclinations of the the IIDA-NY community. One of its new events – apparently picking up a previous endeavor of ACT - is the annual Quilt Auction. This year’s event, held at the Haworth showroom, produced some striking quilts and raised over $7,000.00 for Fiver Children’s Foundation.
A&D Firms >>, Events >>
2.27.12 | John Quelch and Katherine Jocz focus on retail environments, but their major points, including the importance of continuing to recognize local cultures as business decisions are made, are applicable to design of other sorts of spaces, from workplaces to public parks to healthcare facilities and residences.
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2.20.12 | Last Thursday, contract furniture manufacturer, Allsteel, officially opened its New York Resource Center, committing extra space to more completely portray its furniture solutions for the complex and unpredictable urban workplace interiors of New York. “We believe that it will help clients make major decisions by being able to better relate our products and product vignettes to their individual design projects,” said Allsteel’s Katie Duffy.
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2.20.12 | Kris Manos is back in the saddle again, literally. She has moved to Temple, TX, about an hour north of Austin, to take the reins of Wilsonart International, a division of Illinois Tool Works (ITW) and the leading manufacturer of residential and commercial laminates and other surfacing products. She is one of the female senior executives that the contract furniture and A&D communities are very fortunate to have
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2.20.12 | Last week, Gensler announced Tina Uznanski is the winner of the 2012 Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship competition. In receiving this announcement, I was encouraged by some of the aspects of this competition that elevate it above some of the other competitions of which I am aware. Ms. Uznanski writes: Suspended in the shifting stacks, the books densely line the labyrinth’s pathways. The hand gently collects a single book by gripping the hardened fabric of the spine . . . . With the shift of tightly gripping fingers, the wheat paste hardened fabric brings the mind into another world.
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2.20.12 | For buildings of any complexity, good architecture requires a reasonably solid grounding in the related interior design principles and practices. Common sense suggests this and experience confirms it. Cornerstone Architectural Group has found that interior lighting, with its functional, aesthetic and energy concerns, illuminates this understanding. There are many ways in which interior design knowledge can be integrated into any building project, for example, when lighting manufacturers such as Finelite provide training and seminars to the A&D community.
A&D Firms >>, Lighting >>, Project >>
2.20.12 | Need to help people find their way through a maze of corridors? M. Hidayetoglu and his colleagues’ recent findings about color in hallways can help you get travelers to their destinations. The researchers describe why they undertook their study: “This study was designed to … help designers create a ‘perceptible environment.’
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2.13.12 | Steelcase and its shining jewel for industry and public relations in New York City, Jeannie Bochette, have followed the example of National Office Furniture and Bob Rigby of Office Furniture Partnership, bringing a badly needed element of civitas back into our daily lives through the recognition of those very few Americans who fight our wars. Last Thursday, Ms. Bochette and Steelcase NYC hosted Interior Designers For Legislation in New York to create Valentines For Our Troops.
Events >>, Prof. Associations >>
2.13.12 | If students can study online, do they need a physical campus? If workers can access information from home, do they need an office? One thing is for sure, if knowledge-building can take place anywhere and at anytime, new opportunities open for how people conceive of and utilize physical space. Under these changed circumstances, the importance of human interaction is becoming a central concern in assessing the need to build campuses and offices.
A&D Firms >>, Events >>
2.13.12 | CO Architects, Los Angeles, and FXFOWLE, New York City, formed a joint venture firm, CO/FXFOWLE, at the end of 2011, the purpose of which is to combine their expertise in particular building types and to expand their geographic coverage. The form of organization is a tip off that this is not the more usual project relationship where firms might cooperate, each bringing their special experience and capabilities. Rather, this joint venture is an effort to create an environment that will encourage a genuine and in-depth collaboration between the firms for all project services.
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2.13.12 | Spurring creativity, in both design solutions and by people in spaces after they’ve been designed, are popular and hotly debated topics.
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2.6.12 | The BIFMA Leadership Conference in Houston on January 25th and 26th was the best yet. An example of the excellent presentations was that of Ken Schmidt, who was instrumental in bring Harley Davidson from the brink of bankruptcy back to its present successful position. His lessons are applicable to contract furniture manufacturers and A&D firms alike.
Events >>, Manufacturing >>, Prof. Associations >>
2.6.12 | In previous decades, only large international architecture firms had the infrastructure and other resources to work and build in non-native countries. Today, that’s starting to change and many A&D firms, regardless of size, recognize that the international scene, even during a global economic downturn, presents attractive business opportunities. One of them is Environetics.
A&D Firms >>, Companies >>
2.6.12 | The IIDA and BMW Group DesignworksUSA, recently announced the winners for the second annual Global Excellence Awards. Best of Competition went to Water Chamber in Suzhou designed by Shanghai Lv Yong Zhong Art & Design Co., Ltd. in Shanghai, China, which was selected from 92 international design firms from 32 countries around the globe.
A&D Firms >>, Competitions and Awards >>, Prof. Associations >>, Project >>
2.6.12 | Jofco is that secret organization we stumble upon each NeoCon and are taken aback by the fine design of its showroom and its manufactured products and its imported Frezza line. Then the company seems to return to southern Indiana to hibernate until the next NeoCon. But things may be changing
Companies >>
2.6.12 | Researchers have found additional links between metaphorical expressions and how we live in our physical world. Angela Leung of Singapore Management University and a team of co-workers investigated associations between a number of metaphors associated with creativity, such as “thinking outside the box” and actual creative thought. As the article-related press release describes, “researchers had students think up solutions to problems while acting out various metaphors about creative thinking and found that the instructions actually worked.”
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