Freiburg, Germany has become a stunning model of sustainability, thanks in part to Wulf Daseking, the city’s Head of Urban Planning since 1984.

For Professor Wulf Daseking, the City of Freiburg’s Head of Urban Planning, longevity and continuity aren’t just buzzwords on a whiteboard but themes to live and plan by. After 26 years at the helm of Germany’s Environmental Capital, Daseking embodies the notion of sustainability in a city that has seen only four planning directors since World War II.

However, the secret ingredient that earned Freiburg the Academy of Urbanism’s European City of the Year Award in 2010 is Daseking’s flair for bold and unconventional thinking. From Seepark, a former gravel pit turned recreational eco-park, to Wiehrebahnhof, an old train station cooperatively rebuilt into a thriving cultural arts center, the Professor’s fingerprints are all over the projects in the “you can’t do that” category.

Read the intervew

The New Bus for London is inspired by the much-loved Routemaster and will use the latest green technology when it launches in 2012.

The Mayor unveiled the design for the New Bus for London in May 2010.

The New Bus for London will meet London Buses’ requirements for vehicles in public service in London, including high standards of accessibility, safety and emissions abatement. In addition, it will be more durable, more fuel efficient and better ventilated. The bus will incorporate a double-deck and a platform at the rear near-side corner, so passengers will be able to get on and off easily.

The Highway Aircraft Corporation’s “Tomorrow’s Car Today” definitely catches the eye.  Rolled out in the late ’60s, the Fascination’s streamlined shape rang out echoes all the way back to the Dymaxion car (Small wonder. It started life in the 1930s as the “Airomobile”), but what really makes it really interesting isn’t the all-aluminium engine it originally had, but what was claimed would be in the newer models: the Nobel Gas Plasma Engine.

What’s that?  Apparently, this:

This engine is a closed two-cycle reciprocating engine that has no intake, uses no air, emitting no exhaust at all! The fuel is self-contained and hermetically sealed in the cylinders which are initially charged at the time of manufacturing, carrying their own power supply that will last approximately 60 to 75 thousand miles with no fall of efficiency.

Needless to say, only five were built very little was heard of the Fascination or the Nobel Gas Plasma Engine again.

Info via Future Car

I can’t draw, hate focus groups, love prototypes

Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design Jonathan Ive partially lifted the veil on the secretive machinations of the Apple design process at a special “Innovation Night” event held at London’s Royal College of Arts (RCA).

Ive is due to receive an honorary doctorate from the RCA tomorrow. Ive was interviewed on stage by outgoing RCA rector Professor Sir Christopher Frayling.

“I can’t imagine designing without making [physical products],” Ive told the assembled horde of 700 UK design gurus.

“I love making prototypes. We go right from idea to prototypes. I just love making objects.

“Prototypes create this dramatic shift in the conversation – suddenly it becomes tangible and the silence goes away.”

Ive explained why Apple limits its product range: “When you do everything to make the very best product, it also means your very focused on just a few products.”

Ive admitted that his drawing skills are “terrible”: “And I’m a lousy presenter. So I focus on designing instead,” he joked.

Read the rest on Macworld

Anyway, here’s what the pass will look like:

Bah! Same crappy design, but with more flare and shine. Has the photographer ever heard of white balance and exposure metering? I am not even going to bother this time.

But wait! There is hope! An interesting excerpt from the article:

Later this year the TTC will outline a plan to use art on its passes. Currently, the TTC uses a combination of art and photography when designing passes. The new art will be part of the overall pass design. The TTC will be issuing a request for expressions of interest in August. TTC customers can expect to see new art on Metropasses starting in April 2010.

Adam Giambrone, have you been reading my rants about the Metropass design? Hmmm? Please don’t screw this up – there are a lot of talented designers in the city who would love an opportunity to redesign this abdomination. Give me a shout, Adam.

Over the past several months, I’ve been fortunate to meet and talk to a number of people — among them Jan Chipchase of Nokia, Peter Whybrow of UCLA, and Caroline Hummels of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands — about the role of the designer in behavior change. Our conversations echoed the pent-up ambitions I’ve often heard from the young designers I teach and work with. They also reinforced my belief that we’re experiencing a sea change in the way designers engage with the world. Instead of aspiring to influence user behavior from a distance, we increasingly want the products we design to have more immediate impact through direct social engagement. Institutions that drive the global social innovation agenda, such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have shown an interest in this new approach, but many designers hesitate to pursue it. Committing to direct behavior design would mean stepping outside the traditional frame of user-centered design (UCD), which provides the basis of most professional design today.

Read the rest at design mind

P.S. Eric Gill was actually quite a character.
P.S.S. Love the ½ ligature in the issue number.

http://massivechange.ca

Granted, hybrids have comparably lower emissions, but they are not emission-free. Metropolitan air pollution significantly raises the risk of dying from lung cancer, and is just as dangerous as living with a smoker, a study of a half-million people found. If you are running a campaign that revolves around lung cancer, smoking and air quality, and you need a high value prize, do not give away a car. That’s like giving away a wine cooler in a Quit Drinking contest.

I do not, ever, want to see lungs to be compared to a car engine. Together, lungs contain approximately 1500 miles (2,400 km) of airways and 300 to 500 million alveoli, having a total surface area of about 70 m² (Wiki). Compared to a questionable “cleanliness” of a Hybrid engine? Don’t think so.

Way to encourage a healthy, clean lifestyle, CCC. How about bicycles, eco-trips to the mountains, gift certificates or just money?

http://www.driventoquit.ca