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Thursday, September 27, 2007
mkd - michelle kaufmann designs
Michelle Kaufmann discusses her perception and philosophy of Prefab Green in this video.
People are finally taking to this notion of prefabrication here in the U.S. This has been marketed as a new innovation which couldn't be further from the truth. The unfortunate truth is that until recently prefab has had a negative connotation associated with it, specifically connected with the mobile home industry. I personally advocate everyone to investigate and research the history of the mobile home. It's a remarkable design when you think of how much is designed into a minimal amount of square footage. It's one of many manufactured inspirations out there.
Airstream has been one of the most well recognized fabricators for their industrial and minimalist aesthetic.
Enjoy!
Cohousing Partners [main website]Design leader Kathryn McCamant talks about her revelation while in Denmark . Cohousing [video] redefines the idea of the suburbs. This design philosophy encourages interaction, community, sustainability and public spaces. This is an infrastructure to a way of life, the people will make the cohousing environments all their own. A mix of the urban in the suburban, enjoy!
Rugmark [Video] is a label that ensures quality made rubs and carpeting. This means no child labor in production and profits go to the education of children instead of slavery.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Multidisciplinary Personalities
Many of you might agree - some of you might not have thought about this yet. I talk about this thing called, "Multidisciplinary Personalities" and what it is essentially, is surrounding yourself with people of all disciplines in life. Humanity astonishes me and our diversity is a complete marvel of amazement and devastation.
Knowing your own limits and what you are personally capable of is a rare quality. Society tends to try and do more then we are capable of and we often think we know more then we really do. People know a lot of things don't get me wrong and generally speaking they "love" sharing them. If we surround ourselves with these intelligent and dynamic individuals we subconsciously or consciously take something from that experience. More often it gives you a connection into a world you might not have any experience in.
- I urge you to find different types of people
- Hone in your listening skills
- Make use of your spare time
- Expand beyond your comfort zones
- Explore new opportunities
- Take risks
- Share your networks
We are creatures of habit. If we confront that internal nature we can expand beyond our own expectations. People in history that have done remarkable things [both good and bad] did them with the help of others.
I'm as guilty as the next for preaching and not doing, but if YOU have something YOU can share with me [everyone], we're listening! I'm exploring this avenue to see if I get any feedback. For those of you that I keep in close contact with and tap into, thank you for your conversations and knowledge.
People I would love to talk with [but not limited to] geologist, chemist and sociologist (basically anyone that has an "ist" in your title).
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
How many of you have a strong opinion about the whole "Green" thing and what are those? If you feel as though you have some strong factual based information either for or against this topic it would be great to start some communication.
In many cases doing what we think is green and better isn't always the case. One topic Mr. William McDonough discusses in his book Cradle to Cradle is downcycling. Despite our efforts to recycle it's not always a benefit and it has its drawbacks. For instance, the metals that we take from automobiles are typically high grade materials and once you mix them with low grade alloys (metal, aluminum, steel) they have lost all their properties.
We are still struggling to find the most efficient and effective ways of reducing waste and waste management. Recycling takes a lot of energy and requires an extensive amount of labor. It has it's benefits, but we need to also look at it's faults. With this mindset and the ability to question relative issues we can redesign the infrastructure completely.
The green movement has become an attractive advertisement and a trend in society. Society can't be fooled by these easy and temporary gimmicks. We need to still think critically about the purpose and function of the products that are "better". For example; Say I want to buy a new car and I have a choice between a SUV or Hybrid. The choice seems obvious. But shouldn't we consider keeping our current means of transportation and using it less or even better not buying at all and changing our "lifestyle" to another means of transportation completely?
What I want to propose in this entry is for us all to question the media, change our way of thinking and be proactive in our research.
