Robert L. Peters

10 December 2011

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (animated version)

New York, USA

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”

Remarkably, less than 5% of the world’s population even knows that the Declaration exists. Do you know your human rights?

To celebrate the milestone 60th anniversary (10 December 2008), designer Seth Brau created an engaging type-based video. Enjoy it, here, and please do what you can to help disseminate the Declaration, an important and timeless treatise for all humankind. You can find over 337 different language versions of the Declaration here.


7 December 2011

New Refuge Gervasutti

Courmayeur, Italy

Climbers in the Alps can now spend their nights sleeping in a tube that cantilevers over the edge of a mountain. New Refuge Gervasutti provides an optimal combination of comfort, safety, and respect for the environment. Installed in mid October on the Freboudze glacier (in front of the spectacular East face of the Grandes Jorasses of the Mont Blanc Range) this alpine refuge is now ready for use by mountaineers and climbers.

This innovative survival unit was designed by Italian architects LEAPfactory, who specialise in modular accommodation for extreme environments. The tube was prefabricated off-site and airlifted to the site by helicopters. The living area is lit in the daytime by a big panoramic window facing towards the valley and contains a kitchen, a table, and seating. The sleeping area is equipped with bunk beds and spaces for the storage of gear.

The comfortable wooden interior finish recalls a traditional mountain hut and is intended to make a stay in the module a pleasing and relaxing experience. A red pattern (inspired by the shaved straight stitch of mountain pullovers, to evoke warmth and comfort) decorates the structure’s exterior and aids visibility to climbers and mountaineers approaching from a distance.

Owner: Italian Alpine Club CAI Turin

30 square metres of usable space

6 contact points with the ground

2500 kg. total weight

12 bed spaces

2.5 Kwh of solar energy produced

2 days to install unit

For a full description of New Refuge Gervasutti, including drawings, interior images, links, and full creative credits, visit dezeen.com (Thanks to designer friend Oliver Oike for putting this lovely shelter on my radar).

 


6 December 2011

The soul never thinks without an image.

—Aristotle


5 December 2011

Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design

Santa Fe, New Mexico

(The following is my review of Maggie Macnab’s wonderful new book).

“My father taught me that nature was beautiful, powerful, and mysterious—and always to be respected,” writes author Maggie Macnab. “Nature was the source of all that is and an infinitely creative and patient mentor.” A longtime designer and teacher herself, she delivers the theme of her latest book with eager sincerity: “Nature is the one touchstone all human beings relate and respond to… conscious observation is all it takes… the most reliable, available, and truthful mentor is right outside your door. Nature has an answer for any question you ask if you just relearn how to hear its answer.”

The title of this remarkably captivating design theory book clearly states its purpose, and the book’s structure builds on the author’s premise that “You already know nature in your heart because you are nature… most people simply have a case of modern-day amnesia caused by out-of-sync human systems that we are brought up in.”

Three sections (“Memory: Remembering What We Know; Matter: Understand and Create; and, Motion: The Experience Enhanced”) are broken into nine chapters, each of which clearly lays out key concepts, learning objectives, definitions, and exercises to help put learning into practice (this serves to position the book ideally as an educational primer). Beyond the content of the information-rich 300 pages (a visual feast, with hundreds of intriguing entry-points) innumerable additional resources and external links are provided to further empower the reader.

Maggie writes with a bold confidence born of experience, a deep understanding of her subject matter, and a passion for sharing the “why” behind nature-inspired form. As in her previous book, Decoding Design, she draws from a remarkably wide and unexpectedly varied array of sources—from biomimicry to Jungian analysis, Gestalt psychology, Euclidian geometry, ancient petroglyphs, tessellations, Fibonacci sequences, Wabi-sabi, the grunge movement, and street art—to name but a sampling. Case studies and graphic examples include contributions by the likes of Andy Goldsworthy, Banksy, Erik Spiekerman, Kenya Hara, Milton Glaser, Marian Bantjes, and many, many more. Through it all, she weaves together a persuasive narrative to support the premise that “The appreciation of beauty is universal” and that in almost all instances, human design ingenuity can be traced to “natural” roots.

In her Foreword to the book, Debbie Millman writes “‘Design by Nature’ is a revelation. It is both a book and a bible of sorts: It investigates and illuminates the symbiotic relationships in nature, art, science, economics, philosophy, technology, and design.” It would be difficult for me to improve on this summary—in my view, this book will appeal to anyone interested in understanding our species’ deep connections to nature, and specifically the relationships between nature and designed form-giving of every kind. A must-buy for design students, clearly even the most senior and established of design practitioners (of every ilk) will advance their knowledge by reading it.

My advice: buy this book today at your local bookseller or visit www.designbynaturebook.com


4 December 2011

Love is our steady guide on this road full of hardships…

Rumi


3 December 2011

Bhopal… not forgotten.

Bhopal, India

Twenty-seven years ago, on the night of Dec. 3rd 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 27 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. None of the six safety systems designed to contain such a leak were operational, allowing the gas to spread throughout the city of Bhopal. Half a million people were exposed to the gas and 20,000 have died to date as a result of their exposure. More than 120,000 people still suffer from ailments caused by the accident and the subsequent pollution at the plant site. These ailments include blindness, extreme difficulty in breathing, and gynecological disorders. The site has never been properly cleaned up and it continues to poison the residents of Bhopal.

In 1999, local groundwater and wellwater testing near the site of the accident revealed mercury at levels between 20,000 and 6 million times those expected. Cancer and brain-damage- and birth-defect-causing chemicals were found in the water; trichloroethene, a chemical that has been shown to impair fetal development, was found at levels 50 times higher than EPA safety limits. Testing published in a 2002 report revealed poisons such as 1,3,5 trichlorobenzene, dichloromethane, chloroform, lead and mercury in the breast milk of nursing women.

In 2001, the Michigan-based multinational chemical corporation Dow Chemical purchased Union Carbide, thereby acquiring its assets and liabilities. However, Dow Chemical has steadfastly refused to clean up the Bhopal disaster site, provide safe drinking water, compensate the victims, or disclose the composition of the gas leak, information that doctors could use to properly treat the victims.

+ + +

Now, more than a quarter century after the disaster, the Bhopal site has still not been properly cleaned up. (Dow’s reported profits for 2007 were over $3.7 billion… so the lack of restorative action on this horrific issue is clearly not because the firm cannot afford to make things right). Children of victims continue to suffer, but have no health coverage. Hundreds of children are still being born with birth defects as a result of what is considered to be the world’s worst industrial disaster to date… Read more here.

Photo: ‘Burial of an unknown child’ by Raghu Rai, 1984.


2 December 2011

Haikus for safer streets!

 

 

New York, New York

Two days ago, the DOT (Department of Transport) unveiled the first of 216 safety signs featuring colorful artwork and haikus. The signs will be installed at a dozen high-crash locations near cultural institutions and schools citywide, using state money collected from DWI (driving while intoxicated) fines.

The DOT hopes that the “Curbside Haiku” initiative will draw attention to “the critical importance of shared responsibility among all street users to help keep New York City’s streets as safe as they can be.”

The series features 12 designs with accompanying haikus by poet John Morse, each one expressing a different safety message by focusing on one transportation mode. Half of the signs will be hung in pairs, with the image and haiku text appearing; the others feature an image with a QR code on the sign that lets New Yorkers “discover the safety message via their smart phones.” They’ll be displayed from now until next fall at a dozen hubs across the five boroughs…

See more haikus and read more here.

Thanks to my friend JuanMa Sepulveda for the link.


1 December 2011

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

François de La Rochefoucauld


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