SUSTAINABILITY: YVES BEHAR

Check out this interview with designer extraordinaire Yves Behar. 

He has redesigned the packaging for Puma. In a 2010 speech, Behar said "If it's not ethical, it cannot be beautiful. But if it cannot be beautiful, it probably should not be at all." We think that is brilliant.

Other designs by Behar include: 

Y Water Bottle

Y Water Bottle as toys.

Sayl Chair, Herman Miller

Sayl Chair, Herman Miller

Also check out his 2008 TED speech below for good insight on how good design is inherently sustainable.

CONSTRUCTION: Community awareness.

We came across this video this week, and it got us thinking.

In researching more about this story, we found this article from Builder magazine. It turns out that the local neighborhood was home to many artists. The community, when faced with a long-term construction project, came together with the city and the builders to make the containers more at home with the streetscape. We think it is rather clever!

And it turns out that it is quite the artistic movement. Check out these items from around the web:

Re:Construction - Public Art Program in Manhattan featured in this New York Times article.

"The Art of Construction" creators wrote this article. And we have one more link for you, a TED video.

DESIGN: Branding in the workplace.

Whole Food's IT space was featured last month in Interior Design magazine. Their downtown Chicago location was transformed by Gensler, whose challenge it was to keep the employees linked to the essence of their brand - the retail stores themselves.

Reception Area. Photograph: Eric Laignel

The reception area contains a product display wall, which features items that are actually sold at Whole Foods. 

Reception Wall Detail. Photograph: Eric Laignel

Reception Desk. Photograph: Eric Laignel

The wood from the front of the reception desk is reclaimed from a grain silo.

Retail Wall. Photograph: Eric Laignel

The retail wall is a great, flexible way for the IT employees to maintain a daily connection to the stores they service.

Meeting Rooms. Photograph: Eric Laignel

The core values covering the glass-partitioned fronts of these meeting rooms are great for branding, but they also distort the view into the meeting room, affording some privacy.

Another prominent feature of their new space is the lunch table in the kitchen. In keeping with the nature of their business, their monthly meetings take the form of a pot-luck. And now they have designated space for this ritual. 

Lunch Table. Photograph: Eric Laignel

Note: For more insight into Whole Foods, check out this great feature from the New Yorker from a few years ago. 

HISTORY: Uncovering 221B Baker Street.

With Emmy nominations only a few weeks old, this article in the Smithsonian immediately was linked in our brains with the immensely popular and nominated Sherlock. This contemporary interpretation of Sir Arthur Connan Doyle's detective stories, finds that the Victorian excess of previous productions has been swapped for a smattering of antiques and mid-century modern furniture. Witty embellishments, such as the earphone wearing bison and the kitchen which doubles as a laboratory, nod to Sherlock's idiosyncrasies. Check out this tour of the set with the production designer:

It is interesting to note how television and film influence design and how design influences television and film. Season 3 of Sherlock will air on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery some time in 2013.

Note: If you are also a fan of Masterpiece's Downton Abbey, check out this article from Architectural Digest.

SUSTAINABILITY: Responding to the super-sized era.

An article in the New York Times a few months ago, triggered a train of thought which began with American consumerism. Why do we consume so much and is it necessary? First, let's look at the tiny house movement that has cropped up in recent years. Check out this clever video:

How much space do we actually need? Tumbleweed Tiny House Company has been around and in the news for awhile now. There is a great introductory video from Yahoo here. 

B-53 Cottage, Tumbleweed Tiny House Company

B-53 Cottage Plans, Tumbleweed Tiny House Company 

While living in only a few hundred square feet may not be practical for most, it is worth noting the adage that less is more. Good design isn't frivolous. The brand Apple is a great example of that. From the minute you purchase a product, you get a lesson in the elegance of simplicity. First the minimal packaging: everything has a place and a function. Then the device itself is sleek. And its usability has sealed the deal to make Apple one of the most recognized brands in the world. If you have seen the 2009 documentary "Objectified" you will have heard this better communicated.

Yes, less is much, much more.

Weebee, Tumbleweed Tiny House Company

HISTORY: A fascinating history of the home by Lucy Worsley.

Earlier this year, British historian Lucy Worsley was featured on NPR's Fresh Air. Worsley is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces in the UK and is keen to attract wider audiences for both the estates in her care (including The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace) and more generally, history discourse. Her book, "If Walls Could Talk," has been released in the US and offers a fascinating glimpse into the rooms we take for granted in our homes. 

Historian, Dr. Lucy Worsley

A scene from the BBC production.

The book is a companion to Worsley's BBC series by the same name. Through interviews, tours and a bit of dress-up, she reveals to her audience the fascinating journey of humanity's essential tool for survival - shelter. For those of us in America, the series has been uploaded on YouTube.

The brilliance of Dr. Worsley (apart from her encyclopedic knowledge) is her passion for history and it is contagious!

ARCHITECTURE: Not just your average shipping container.

Lately we have come across several articles showcasing the next generation of shipping container architecture. When this building material first became trendy more than a decade ago, it was a visual billboard for what a sustainability-minded designer wanted. One didn't have to tout all the individual recycled or otherwise sustainable elements, one merely had to look and see that whole portions of the structure were born-again. Shipping containers opened a larger dialogue regarding alternative sources for constructing our built environment, encouraging out-of-the-box designs (sorry, we couldn't resist).

The latest iteration is the pop-up restaurant and retail store. This article from the Smithsonian features Starbucks and other coffee retailers who have used the containers, which the coffee was originally exported with, to create portable, accessible and well-designed locations. These images are taken from the Smithsonian article linked above.

Starbucks in Tukwila, WA (Image: Starbucks)

Illy at the 2007 Venice Biennale

La Boite in Austin, TX (Image: Jeff Kauffman)

And why stop at one retailer? Boxpark Shoreditch is a London shopping mall made completely out of shipping containers. We first heard about it on Inhabitat, but here is a video from Boxpark's website:

Shipping container architecture may or may not be coming to a location near you. But we love and embrace the innovation behind the structures featured here.