My Dezeen e-mail newsletter has served me well in the past few weeks as I’ve spotted story after story about various projects with urban biodiversity at the forefront. It feels a bit like the first time I discovered the font Helvetica, only to find I’m already drowning in it. Maybe I’m not the first one to think that cities are depressingly grey?
The General Practitioner – A type of design company that “feel comfortable being challenged by all scale of projects… and collaborate with engineers, technicians, fabricators, manufacturers and builders to follow ideas through to production.”
My last post looking into the world of ‘great design’ left me questioning more than ever what I believe to be worthy of such a title. After discovering the unfortunate impact that New York’s High Line park had on the surrounding community, I was keen to find some more successful examples of social design.
When a class begins with your visitor for the day circling the class, delivering a running high-five to each student, you know that the next hour and a half is going to be interesting.
“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – The words of playwright, novelist and poet Samuel Beckett formed the basis of this weeks Design & Technology talk, delivered by our own GSA tutor Matt Marais.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve heard talks from two Indian designers: Suchitra Balasubrahmanyan (professor at Ambedkar University Delhi) and Mohammed Naim Shaikh (tutor at the Indian National Institute of Design).
Stretching for 1.5 miles, from 14th to 34th Street, New York’s ‘High Line Park’ is the cities most visited attraction – luring nearly 8 million visitors last year.
