Why? Another billion people, mostly in the developing world, will acquire access to cell phones in the next three years, unleashing a revolution in communications. The Next Billion Network partners students and local organizations to create mobile technologies for this population, expanding opportunities for self-reliance. For example, Mobile Care enables cell phones to become medical...
Why? Buildings in the United States produce the largest share of the worlds carbon-dioxide emissions. All aspects of the recently completed California Academy of Sciences, a natural-history museum, were designed for maximum environmental performance. The indigenous plantcovered, contoured roof design is a key component of the buildings overall ecological system, making it one of todays...
Time-lapse Why? The first purpose-built home of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet is both a bridge and anchor for the Oslo community. As part of the first phase of an extensive transformation of the waterfront, the Opera is a monumental gateway to the harbor. Its most distinctive feature is a white marble roof that serves...
Why? After Hurricane Katrina, the Mary Queen of Viet Nam Church and the local Vietnamese community in New Orleans formed a community-development corporation, working with a design and engineering team to create a model for low-tech, sustainable site development. The Viet Village utilizes composting, crop rotation, and cover cropping as well as bio-filtration of water...
Design for the Other 90% opened in Washington, DC on April 28, 2010 at the National Geographic Museum’s 17th Street galleries, through September 6, 2010. Admission is free. Photo: Megan Seldon, National Geographic Society, 2010 Alan Parente (left) and Rich McWalters of the National Geographic Museum install the Solar Home Lighting System, one of the...
Ted Muehling Expounds Ted hosted a group of Cooper-Hewitt members at his studio and store in SoHo this week, as you can see from the Monday at Muehling’s post, giving them a peek at his wonderfully creative environment full of glass, emotive sculpture and creatures from the natural world. He is also the guest curator...
Ted Muehling, curator of Ted Muehling Selects: Lobmeyr Glass from the Permanent Collection invited Cooper-Hewitt’s Design Watch Members to his SoHo showroom for a private behind-the-scenes visit. On this rainy Monday, Members passed the noisy construction on Howard Street, left their umbrellas by the door, and retreated into a haven of design. As Members sipped...
Why? The first purpose-built home of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet is both a bridge and anchor for the Oslo community. As part of the first phase of an extensive transformation of the waterfront, the Opera is a monumental gateway to the harbor. Its most distinctive feature is a white marble roof that serves as...
Why? Loblolly House is comprised entirely of readymade components and elements fabricated off-site, reducing assembly time while increasing energy efficiency. The house comprises four key architectural elements: scaffold, cartridge, block, and equipment. The aluminum scaffold system provides the structural frame as well as the means to join the other three elements, using only a wrench....
Why? Learning Landscape is a universal, adaptable approach to elementary math education. This simple grid of half-submerged tires can be built anywhere in the world from cast-off materials. Using chalk to mark numbers on the tires, teachers and students play games that mobilize the natural excitement of group competition and physical movement. The concept comes...
Why? Masdar is a self-contained, sustainable city currently being built on the desert outskirts of Abu Dhabi. Its design pushes new approaches to alternative energy applied to architecture and engineering on an urban scale. A vast experiment, it aims to be the worlds first car-free, carbon-neutral, zero-waste city powered by renewable energy sources.
Why? Most people have no sense of their energy usage until they receive their monthly utility bill. The Power Aware cord is a poetic gesture that indicates energy is flowing to an appliance through glowing pulses and intensity of light. For instance, changing the volume on stereo equipment becomes immediately visible, as does the silent...
Why? SunShade is an outdoor solar floor lamp. With solar cells embedded in the canopy and acting as sensors, the umbrella opens and closes automatically like a real flower in relation to the shifting sun. During the day, the SunShade opens to provide shade and harness sunlight, and as the sun goes down, the parasol...
Why? This device reduces the load and stress on the lower body, reducing fatigue and injuries and enabling a broader range of activities among the elderly as well as workers who spend extended periods of time on their feet, climbing or descending stairs, or maintaining semi-crouched positions. Weighing less than fifteen pounds, the device supports...
Why? The Eco-Machine is a carbon-neutral and environmentally safe wastewater-treatment system at the OCSL. In a 10,000-gallon anaerobic tank, microbes digest the sludge, and the wastewater travels to four constructed wetlands, where plants, microbes, fungi, and algae scrub the water. After passing through a final filter, the water is ready for non-potable use.
