Tag Archives: imagination

Better Blocks – Detroit

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Detroit Design Festival / September 22 + 23 / Southeast of the E Grand and St. Antoine intersection

Better Block is a community effort to re-imagine neighborhoods one block at a time. According to Good:

The Better Block gives neighborhoods a temporary community-focused facelift, and can give struggling areas a glimpse into their futures. The organization provides training to community members interested in revitalizing their blocks by increasing multi-modal transportation and fostering economic development. Post-project, the communities work with The Better Block to see what was successful and take the steps necessary to turn these temporary solutions into permanent fixtures. In some cities, weekend pop-up shops have even turned into lasting storefronts.

The Detroit chapter of the US Green Building Council and Wayne State University are hosting Detroit’s first ever Better Block session. It will take place in a location in the New Center area of Detroit. You can follow along the progress on the official Detroit Better Block tumblr.

Thanks to my colleague Bonnie Bona for passing this along.

 

Seth Godin – How to Get Your Ideas to Spread

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“… people who can spread ideas, regardless of what those ideas are, win.”

After reading Linchpin, I became a huge Seth Godin fan. My coworker Bonnie passed this video along to me late last week. While he mentioned the “purple cow” in Linchpin, I didn’t know exactly what he meant. This video made me seriously consider the services and products that I work to sell in my work, and how I can make them more “remarkable.”

Harvard Business Review agrees with Godin’s prognosis, pronouncing, “Marketing is dead.”

Flex Your Walls

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Is it possible to build a material that can change shape without the need for mechanical components? If you answered no then I highly recommend that you watch what these Swiss architecture students are able to create:

Electro active polymers were used  to make the materials shown in this video. According to the video, there are six components plus a 4 volt power source:

  • Silicon Insulation Layer
  • Conductive Powder
  • 5x Pre-Stretched Acrylic Polymer Film
  • Conductive Powder
  • Silicon Insulation Layer
  • Acrylic Frame

A primary application for Electro active polymers (EAP) is as an artificial muscle tissue. In 2005 an arm wrestling match between Panna Felsen (a high school student) and three EAP powered arms was held in the name of science.  Panna easily beat all three artificial opponents.

EAPs could be used to achieve fascinating and elegant solutions in the design and construction of buildings. I imagine that this material could be used to create walls that could open like gills to bring in fresh air. I can also picture hidden doors that open at the touch of a button and open plan offices that can be divided and re-united in seconds.

Lego Man in Space

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Two Canadian teenagers set out with the goal to capture images of the curvature of the Earth. They rigged up a camera and weather balloon and launched it into the upper atmosphere – with a lego man.

The lego man reached an altitude of 80,000 feet. (As some have pointed out, this is technically near-space. The lego man was never in “orbit” either.) After the balloon popped, the lego man and the camera fell back to Earth. The lego man was discovered in tact.

I love the light hearted approach of this project. After seeing a Lego store in Chicago last week, I vividly remembered the sense of fun Legos brought to me as a kid. If you want to learn more about the project or see some of the other images, I suggest checking out their facebook page.