Ironically, classrooms often receive the least design attention in institutions of higher education. As Peter Hall pointed out in our June 2010 issue, funds from donors go towards building more glamorous spaces like galleries, high-tech research labs, even libraries. Yet the space where students spend most of their time is the old, regimented, sleep-inducing common classroom.

In working to redesign college classrooms around the country, the furniture manufacturer Steelcase had to first understand that classrooms had to change because students have changed. In the age of the online social network, students are more inclined to collaborative learning. They are taking charge in the classroom, driving the education process through discussion and teamwork, rather than being passive listeners. One of the things holding them back is the outmoded space that encourages outmoded classroom practices.

Steelcase’s experiences at the Stanford d.school take me back to my own design school days, where every semester was a struggle with studio furniture. Read more…

Last September, Steelcase hosted a symposium on the 100-year anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Meyer May House, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. At the event, Metropolis’s Susan Szenasy asked leaders in the architecture and design community—including Jeffrey Bernett, Shashi Caan, Toshiko Mori, and Michael Van Valkenburgh—to consider both what makes Wright’s architecture uniquely successful and what his designs can teach us today.

If you missed the event, you’re in luck: Steelcase has just posted video clips of pretty much the entire conversation on its Meyer May anniversary site (including the above sample, in which several of the speakers talk about principles in design). Moreover, a live version of the symposium may be coming soon to a city near you; Steelcase is currently firming up plans to host similar events in major U.S. cities throughout this year. The first one will take place in New York on April 6, with Szenasy reprising her role as moderator. We’ll keep you posted as the list of speakers in finalized, and you can always find the latest information on the Meyer May events page.

Previously: “Wright at 100”; (or read all our Frank Lloyd Wright–related blog posts)

Meyer May photos: courtesy Steelcase

Last week I was fortunate to be in the audience at the Meyer May house anniversary symposium, a wide-ranging discussion of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas and principles as embodied in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, house he built for the clothier Meyer May in 1909. In 1987, the local furniture behemoth Steelcase finished a meticulous two-year restoration of the house—which, among other problems, had a seriously leaky roof—and opened it up for public tours. It’s now considered perhaps the most complete distillation of Wright’s vision, and this year it turned 100 years old.

But the symposium didn’t dwell on the past. Read more…

This year’s Metropolis Conference, at the 2009 ICFF, focused on innovation—how designers, architects, businesses, and schools are reinventing themselves to fit 21st-century models. Now, videos from the day-long conference are available over on our Multimedia site. You can get a taste of the presentations from the one-minute trailer above. (Having trouble viewing it? Try this YouTube link.) Here’s the full program: Read more…

Jean-Marie Massaud’s Holy Day Lounge for Viccarbe is now being manufactured in North Carolina.

This Labor Day weekend, San Francisco will host the first annual Slow Food Nation, a massive coming-out party for the American branch of the international Slow Food movement, which promotes a sustainable food system (and such delicacies as Bosnian Sack Cheese).

Last Monday, I visited the Chicago showroom of Coalesse, a new brand of the office-furniture behemoth Steelcase, which is experimenting with the idea of “slow furniture”—essentially, furniture that has been manufactured near to where it will be distributed. Read more…