When a blighted city needs transformation, it’s usually a bulldozer rather than a brush that does the work. Few years ago, Edi Rama, Tirana’s mayor at the time, started in a creative way to paint the sad facades of the…
Who is ruling our travels?
August, vacation time for antonomasia, inspired me for a series of considerations about Travel and Tourism. I love to travel, most of the people do! This makes us consumers of one of the world’s biggest industries: Tourism. For many…
Indego Africa: entrepreneurship and independence
INDEGO AFRICA is an innovative non-profit social enterprise, the name stands for “independence, development, and governance”—three life-changing attributes that Indego Africa is helping instill in 250 Rwandan women in order to lift them and their families out of poverty. The…
Fog Catching
The human body contains from 55% to 78% water. To function properly, the body requires between one and seven litres of water per day to avoid dehydration. Globally, one every five person doesn’t have access to clean drinking water.…
Design for the other 90%
Design for the other 90%, the name is useful to explain the global situation: while the richest 10 percent of the world’s population enjoys the vast majority of consumer goods and services, 5.8 billion people (or 90%) struggle to gain…
Participle, a Pioneer of Social Design
According to Alice Rawsthorn, the design critic of the International Herald Tribune, the global edition of the New York Times, “Social Design” is on one of the most dynamic areas of contemporary design. It addresses the big social issues of…
World’s most livable cities 2011
The “world’s most livable cities” is an informal name given to any list of cities as they rank on a reputable annual survey of living conditions. The three most prestigious are, the Mercer’s Quality of Living Survey, The Economist‘s World’s Most Livable Cities (using…
The Urban Physic Garden
The Union Street Urban Orchard is created by The Architecture Foundation, Bankside Open Spaces Trust, ProjectARKs and the Wayward Plant Registry. This summer they will transform a derelict site, 100 Union Street-Southwark-London, into the Urban Physic Garden, a pop-up community built…
IOU PROJECT: Fun, Profit and Social Good.
Internet is the way to get people to see their clothes and listen to their messages. The recently launched web site IOU project is not the latest clothes brand but it is a bridge between Indian artisans and consumers. The head…
Thailand’s Slow Hand Design at Milan Design Week 2011
One of the interesting things I saw in Zona Tortona during Milan Design Week 2011 was the exhibition Slow Hand Design: The heart value of Thai products. Thailand is considered one of the most experienced countries in the export industry…
REcreating the extraordinary from the ordinary
REcycle REdecorate REdesign is the slogan of Katie Thompson, an interior designer from South Africa. It’s quite interesting how Katie recreates unique furniture, lighting and interior accessories from pieces of discarded junk. Each piece is infused with its own previous character…