From interlocking 3D printed bricks to SOM's "All Aboard Florida" train station in West Palm Beach Fast Company has named 13 winners for their 2015 "Innovation By Design Awards." Each winner was selected from over 1,500 projects worldwide for being "big ideas" with "meticulously though out details" and a "clear viewpoint about how we live now—and how it could be better."
This year's winners include...
Nothing is more iconic of progress than the skyscraper - but as developers continue to build up, it begs the question: what effect does higher living have on our mental health? Taking opinions from authors, architects, engineers and residences of high-rise apartments, Fast Company reports on the pros and cons of the vertical obsession of the 21st century. Comparing the liberation offered by the Hancock building and the failure of the Pruitt-Igoe project, the article looks at how living at high altitudes may change the way that we socialize and perceive space. Read the full article, “The Psychology of Skyscrapers,” and decide for yourself whether this trend of growing buildings is a good or bad thing.
Thomas Heatherwick and PlanGrid co-founder Tracy Young have been ranked in Fast Company's top 100 Most Creative People in Business list for 2015. Topped by an ASU professor who is fighting ebola with tobacco, the list features some of the world's most powerful creatives, including Google VP Rajan Anandan, who's working to get everyone online, and 3D printing pioneer Jennifer Lewis of Materials Lead.
Coming in at number 24, Heatherwick is being lauded for "collapsing the walls within design," says FastCo. Working on projects of all scales, from the London Olympic cauldron to a proposed $130 million floating park in New York, Heatherwick's practice is often labeled as "multidisciplinary" - a misconception challenged by Heatherwick, who told the magazine his work falls under "one discipline: solving functional problems and trying to make a difference."
Taking input from 2015's most innovative designers, Fast Company Design has complied a fascinating list of 25 ideas that will shape the future of design. From this list, we have extracted the five most relevant points for architects to consider. Read through them after the break, and let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Fast Company has announced who they believe to be the most innovative practices in architecture for 2015. Topping this list is the online remodeling community Houzz, the BIG powerhouse and David Benjamin’s The Living. See the complete list, after the break, and let us know who you believe is the world’s most innovative firms in the comment section below.
Scaring people is an art, a lucrative art if done right; the haunted house industry makes $300 million a year in the US. Fast Company recently interviewed the designers behind some of the nation’s most notorious haunted houses to learn just how to design architecture that truly terrorizes. A hint: Set the stage; reclaim an existing, preferably already “haunted”, historic building, add fog, and always “scare people forward.” With this in mind, what famous building would you choose to transform into a terrifying haunted house? Let us know in the comment section below and read all of FastCo's design tips, here.
Fast Company has released what they consider to be the 10 best designs of the year. Selected from over 1500 international submissions and 53 finalists, the MIT-born Solar System platform Mapdwell and Jonas Dahlberg’s “Memory Wound” were among the winners to receive the 2014 “Innovation by Design Award.”
More about Mapdwell and Memory Wound, after the break.
The USA's tallest building shoulders one of the nation's greatest challenges: paying tribute to lives lost in one of the country's greatest tragedies. One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan has yet to be completed and yet has still recently been condemned by a number of critics, who cite the former "Freedom Tower" as an inspirational failure. Thirteen years after the attacks, the wider site at ground zero also remains plagued by red tape and bureaucratic delays, unfinished and as-yet-unbuilt World Trade Centers, Calatrava's $5B transit hub, and an absence of reverence, according to critics. Read some of the most potent reviews of the new World Trade Center site from the press in our compilation after the break.
2014 seems to be the year of Ma Yansong, as the founder of MAD Architects, who was recently named a Young Global Leader, has now been listed as one of the top 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company. Ranked at 53, the Beijing-based architect was the only architect featured on the list.
Fast Company has announced who they believe to be the most innovative practices in architecture for 2014. Topping this list is New York’s SHoP Architects who has gone from “boutique to big commissions in only a few years.” See who made the list after the break and let us know who you believe is the world’s most innovative firms in the comment section below.
In this article for Fast Company, Boyd Cohen counts down the top 8 smart cities in Latin America. Using publicly available data and his own comprehensive framework to evaluate how smart a city is, he has generated a list which even he admits features a couple of surprises in the top spots. To see the list and discover what each city has achieved to deserve its ranking, you can read the full article here.
Topping the list with American statistician, sabermetrician, psephologist and writer Nate Silver, Principal of FiveThirtyEight, Fast Company’s 2013 compilation of business’s 100 most creative people proves the undeniable value of creativity in business today. This year, a New York landscape architect whose floating islands in Manhattan may one day buffer the city from voracious storms made the list’s top ten, followed by one of the most influential artists of our time as well as an architect and concept designer who are both redefining commercial architecture. Find out who, after the break.
Fast Company has released a list of what they believe to be the world’s top ten most innovative companies in architecture. From applauding Wang Shu’s abstinence from westernization to honoring Mazzanti Arquitectos for transforming impoverished areas of crime into community hubs, this compilation honors some of the world’s most influential practices, regardless of their size.
Review the complete list after the break and share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Fast Company just announced this year’s 100 Most Creative People. The list includes a variety of professions and the selection is proof “that creativity is alive and well in 2010.” While the most creative person was deemed Miss Lady Gaga, followed by Eddy Cue (the VP of Apple Internet Services), we were excited to find not one, but three architects making the cut. The 19th spot was awarded to Jean Nouvel, particularly for his take on the Louvre’s Abu Dhabi and his design for the Philharmonie de Paris. The 64th spot went to BjarkeIngles for his fresh designs. And, our last architect, KazuyoSejima rounded in at 88th, for her contextual and minimalistic approach to creating a holistic environment.