I’ve always had an obsession with abandoned buildings. Maybe that’s because they speak to the nature of change in society, and always seems to be bursting with potential. They are often reincarnated as business parks, apartments, galleries, but these transformations are mere shadows of what the buildings were once. Bustling centers of industry, of innovation and commerce, they’ve been left to the winds of time. There are too many places in the U.S. where post-industrial abandonment is a common occurrence. The structures lie barren and overgrown like monuments of a past civilization; reminding us of what we were capable of once and what they can become in the future.

In the sleepy little Connecticut town where I grew up, there is such a structure: a sleeping giant void of care, yet bursting with potential. An abandoned piano factory, called Piano Works, was the main producer of piano keys and ivory products on the East Coast. And so, naturally, the factory came first and the town was rightfully named Ivoryton. Take a drive through this small settlement and you will see the traditional mono-cellular format of a factory town, with the Piano Works at the nucleus. Read more…

There is a hidden world of structure, grace, and functionality in a car. What about simplicity? Designers talk about it. But each new model seems more complex than last year’s. This has frustrated tinkerers for some time now. While we could once replace components ourselves, today’s mechanics connect to the car’s computer and diagnose the problem in cyberspace.

Your days of rolling up your sleeves on weekends to change the oil are numbered, if not over. Technology is limiting our relationship with our automobiles. While many of us may not want to work on our cars, all of us are missing out on larger conversation about automotive technology and sustainability. If local mechanics or owners are unable to repair cars because of their increased complexity, this is a serious problem of job loss, fiscal loss, and wasted resources. As I see it, in the age of environmental and social responsibility, the car of the future should be assembled  from  simple components, and maintained locally.

But what if this future car has been around for over 30 years? The Mercedes w123 belongs to a generation of automobiles that I know intimately and love. I remember the first time I laid eyes on it. There could have been every other exotic car in the world in the same parking lot, and I would still have picked the cream colored land yacht evocative of Saddam Hussein’s motorcade. Read more…

Standing in the lobby of the Microsoft -funded MIT NERD lab this past Saturday felt like a trip into the future.  Opaque glass paneling lined the walls spreading ambient light upon concrete surfaces. A well-spoken man rose from behind a sleek black desk and guided me to my destination.  I arrived in a room with high ceilings and a picturesque view of the Boston skyline. Suddenly, the serene futurism of the concrete and glass was interrupted by a collection of rough silhouettes. They looked like veterans of earthen bounty, and smelled like it too.

I have met many organic farmers in my short time on earth, but never so many in one room, and certainly not discussing design problems. Farmhack is an effort to pair designers, engineers, business people, and others with farmers, in order to increase efficient production and distribution or generate new ideas to help today’s farmers. The morning was set aside for introductions and pitches from both farmers and the public, to be collected later and developed into palatable ideas.  The ideas ranged from innovations in farm irrigation and harvesting machines, to regional grow houses for farmers in the off-season. Read more…

Nearly 80% of all the world’s industrial goods will travel through the commercial shipping industry at some point in their material lives, mostly on cargo ships. A 1,000 ft (305 m) cargo container ship weighs 34,000 tons and on average carries 2,500 containers, traveling 480 miles a day. Such ships will burn 14,400 barrels of diesel fuel in one month. In addition, empty cargo containers, accounting for a third of the shipments made per year, will spend much of their time docked at some port. Could there be a better use for these oversized paperweights?

With these questions in mind, this January I boarded a cargo container ship, anchored at Port Elizabeth, N.J., to do some investigating. A typical American shipping port is essentially a collection of container crates arranged like boxes in the cereal isle of the grocery store. From a design standpoint, I found this agglomeration inspiring. It was amazing to see all this ingenuity, people, and time dedicated to managing a simple steel box.   Read more…

What would the world look like if the foundation for a designer’s education was based in biology? Nature is the best teacher. And since we now know that all useful systems have been shaped by the natural world, it’s important for designers to understand nature’s intricacies. And so, the future of design, as I see it, is interwoven with the fibers of biology, sociology, and an understanding of the human construct.

Designers like to draw inspiration from the natural world in order to create successful products. One frequently used device is biomimicry, the act of emulating natural processes to benefit the human condition with nature-inspired beauty. The designs shown here are extensions of biomimetrics and utilize living, biological systems within design as opposed to emulating them.

Nature has spent thousands of years devising countless mechanisms that we have toiled to translate into industrial products. What designers need now is a basic understanding of science in order to utilize biological systems in making our products. An example of this would be the “Tree Fab Hab”, devised by Terreform1, which enfolds its occupants in a growing tree. Based on a century-old grafting technique, the tree’s exterior will be Computer Numerically Controlled so it will take to the desired shape.

Although the concept is far from fruition, it is a sensible idea. Considering that many buildings are constructed of dead trees, why not use living ones instead? This approach would increase the longevity of the structure, in addition to purifying the air, and contributing to the local ecology.

On a more realistic note, French designer Mathieu Lehanneur utilizes plants that simultaneously create and purify indoor air. Philodendron and gerbera can filter the majority of indoor air pollutants, all with the help of a little water. Read more…