Architecture and aging. It seems like the only connection between the two would be some vague master's thesis. But a multidisciplinary field involving sociologists, urban planners, and psychologists has sprung up to answer questions of whether architecture can aid the elderly, one of the fastest growing demographics in the developed world.
Understanding Shakespeare sounds like the perfect antidote to the un-bookish ways of an entire generation raised on LCD screens and Leo DiCaprio’s Romeo. Billed as a “new form of reading,” it’s a data visualization project that turns Shakespeare’s prose into language Web addicts are supposed to be able to comprehend: algorithms, data maps, and the like. The problem: We can’t grasp one damn lick of it.
![The Future of Information: Touchscreens EVERYWHERE! [Video]](/multisite_files/codesign/imagecache/642x368/Picture%208.jpg "The Future of Information: Touchscreens EVERYWHERE! [Video]")
Digital interfaces are going big -- so big pretty soon we might not be able to distinguish between what's real and what's fake, whether we're talking about ads on the street or the reflection in the mirror.
That's 'cause designers are starting to experiment with screens that penetrate all aspects of the physical world, from the pavement to the bathroom to the air we breathe. Below, we've got a roundup of the coolest -- and, yeah, occasionally disturbing -- design concepts.
If you read this site regularly, you know from our tireless paeans to CNC-milled tables and 3-D printed iPad cases that craft and tech wedded happily long ago, a sort of Wiccan handfasting of design techniques. A new exhibit opening at London Design Festival later this month proves that the eternal love has only deepened.
Yesterday, Frog Design and its parent company, Aricent, a software consulting firm, announced that they're starting a new business unit, blending personnel from each enterprise, to be called Idea-to-Market. In all, the new business unit will draw 600 strategists and designers from Frog, and about 900 software developers and testers from Aricent, thus creating a 1500-person business with staff spread across the U.S., India, China, and Europe.
This is the next piece in our PATTERNS series, written by IDEO. Read more from the series here.
Countries, from the U.S. to Japan, regularly accuse China of copying designs. Indeed, multinational companies in these countries spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to prevent their products from being copied. But Shanzhai -- "copycat" design --represents a vast business opportunity.
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