Nov 22, 09
Community Post Stations, Robot Sailboats, and the Future of Product Delivery
Today's delivery system is sub par, at best. Each link in the system uses more energy and resources than it should and results in a oversupply of cheap goods that, in the end, only benefits a few. Products are shipped, flown, trucked, picked up and driven home, requiring seemingly endless amounts of fossil fuel. But innovators everywhere are working to create a more efficient and effective delivery model, and are succeeding in changing the system at lots of points along the supply chain. ...
Interview With Jay Yan
I am born chinese, raised american, and now because chinese art is so hot, chinese once more. That's the bio, the very concise bio of Jay Yan. iwanttogoutwithyou.com, 2007 A couple of years ago, Jiacong "jay" Yan completed his degree at the cradle of young talents that is UCLA Design|Media Arts Department. He lives in Los Angeles where he works as a media artist and designer. Fresh from UCLA, Jay started exhibiting his installations and videos in galleries in the U.S., in Asia and in...
Building Smarter Homes
This article was written by Alex Steffen in April 2007. We're republishing it here as part of our month-long editorial retrospective. There is a direct link between the growing "intelligence" of our homes -- their increasing ability to use electronics to sense, monitor and adapt -- and their sustainability. Many of the coolest aspects of green building involve the building itself responding to the conditions around it, working with, rather than against, the sun, wind and weather. Such...
Seeing the Opportunity in Efficiency
This article was written by John Thackara in January 2007. We're republishing it here as part of our month-long editorial retrospective. John Thackara is the Director of Designs of the Time and Doors of Perception, the author of In the Bubble, and a valued Worldchanging ally. Some of you may know Oliver Sacks' book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. It's about people afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations - and in particular a man who looks at something...
2007's Best: Sustainable Design
John Thackara is one of my heroes. The Man Who Mistook a Concrete Pillar for a Global Threat might show you why Some of you may know Oliver Sacks' book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. It's about people afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations - and in particular a man who looks at something familiar (his wife) but perceives something completely different. Well, I’ve become one of those people! It happened to me most recently at Madrid’s new airport. One...
1:1 Digital House and the Future of Green Building
There is a direct link between the growing "intelligence" of our homes -- their increasing ability to use electronics to sense, monitor and adapt -- and their sustainability. Many of the coolest aspects of green building involve the building itself responding to the conditions around it, working with, rather than against, the sun, wind and weather. Such adaptive, responsive buildings are at least as important a goal as radical new material breakthroughs. We don't even need robotic edge...
Ecosystem Goods and Services Series: Valuation 101
(A collaborative series by Hassan Masum, David Zaks, and Chad Monfreda.) How much is a pristine lake worth? A clean atmosphere? An oil field? Answering these questions takes us from the heart of economic philosophy to the frontiers of analytical science. It turns out to be very difficult to give objective monetary values, even in principle. But as our analytical capabilities and understanding of ecosystem services increases, we're developing useful valuation methods...
The Future in a Tiny Sphere: A Conversation with Yoshinobu Tsujikawa
Sphelar® (Photo: Kyosemi Corporation) Japan leads the world in solar power technology. Japan not only produces half the total solar cells made in the world, it also exports 30% of these cells, with expected demand for 20% increases per year. The Japanese government pushes renewable energy policies that have resulted in the installation of more than 100,000 residential solar power systems by 2004, as well as a projection of 5 GW of solar generation capacity by 2010. Japan even plans to...
The Man Who Mistook a Concrete Pillar for a Global Threat
John Thackara is the Director of Designs of the Time and Doors of Perception, the author of In the Bubble, and a valued Worldchanging ally. Some of you may know Oliver Sacks' book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. It's about people afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations - and in particular a man who looks at something familiar (his wife) but perceives something completely different. Well, I’ve become one of those people! It happened to me most recently at...
WC Retro: The Rise of Bright Green Computers
You love your computer for all the ways it makes your life and the world better--the wealth of knowledge and democratizing force of the internet, the instantaneous communication, the sophisticated tools that help us work and create. But does your computer love you back? The modern world's greatest tool is among our most disposable and resource-heavy. Performance-wise, computer design has progressed staggeringly well and astonishingly fast. But looking at it from a green perspective, the...
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