Can designers help solve the planet’s water crisis in just three days? That’s the question WantedDesign Challenge: Water Cycle aims to answer May 17–20 during New York Design Week.
Archive for the ‘Environmental Design’ Category
Art Center Students Compete in WantedDesign’s International Water Challenge
Friday, May 17th, 2013Art Center Takes Manhattan During 25th Annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair
Thursday, May 16th, 2013As design industry professionals converge in New York this week, Art Center College of Design is prominently featured as part of the 25th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), taking place May 18–21. Attracting more than 26,000 professionals from the worlds of interior design, architecture, retail, manufacturing, distribution and development, ICFF is considered North America’s premier showcase for contemporary design.
Leading the College’s presence at this influential summit is David Mocarski, chair of graduate and undergraduate Environmental Design.
Art Center’s Booth 3016 at the show’s main venue, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, features an exhibition of work by eight students in the College’s Environmental Design program, and presents visitors an opportunity to mingle with the design community and learn more about the undergraduate and graduate programs.
Alumnus Brandon Kim and his work, Solace, will be featured in Booth 1073 at ICFF this year.
Additionally, several alumni are represented in the prestigious ICFF Studio, which serves as a platform to match selected designers and their products with potential manufacturers.
It all takes place during NYCxDesign, a city-wide design celebration continuing through May 21 and packed with events and showcases.
Environmental Design Students Take Top Prize in 2013 LAIAC Competition
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013Connie Bakshi and John Clark propose design ideas for a new space in the tunnel beneath historic Union Station in Los Angeles
Art Center Environmental Design students Connie Bakshi and John Clark emerged victorious in the Los Angeles Interior Architecture Committee (LAIAC) 21st Annual 1:2 Student Competition, winning accolades, a $10,000 scholarship and valuable exposure in their field.
The high-intensity, industry-juried, one-day charette provides an opportunity for undergraduate students, in teams of two selected by their instructors, from 12 Southern California design schools to have their design ideas critiqued by leading industry professionals and compete for a total of $23,000 in scholarship prizes.
Art Center students Connie Bakshi and John Clark at the LAIAC 21st Annual 1:2 Student Competition.
This year students were asked to design the “Linear Gateway.” Their assignment: Imagine a new space for the 600-foot long tunnel that passes underneath the rail lines at historic Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Transform the existing plain tunnel into a new space that is functional, informative and forward-looking for the city.
Sustainable solutions: by bike, on a plane or by hand
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Pop quiz:
What do the following design concepts have in common: a streamlined re-design of in-flight meal preparation and service that reduces air-travel waste; a bicycle for tourists that collects environmental data as cyclists explore the city; and a human-powered washing machine and spin dryer for families living on $4 to $10 per day?
a. They were all designed by Art Center students.
b. They reflect the growing awareness of sustainability within art and design.
c. They are the winning concepts of the 2012 Denhart Family Sustainability Scholarship Prize.
d. All of the above
Too easy? The answer (d) shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the cutting-edge role Art Center students are playing in environmentally and socially responsible art and design. This year’s Denhart Prize winners, chosen from a highly competitive pool of undergraduates from Fine Art, Film, Photography, Illustration, and Industrial and Environmental Design, represent some of the year’s top design ideas in sustainability at Art Center.
Sponsored Projects kick off new term, students take up new challenges
Friday, February 1st, 2013
Cloud 9's Enric Ruiz-Geli. Credit: Chuck Spangler
Creative engines were revving as Art Center’s Spring 2013 Educational Partnerships kicked off Jan. 17–24.
Corporate partners are sponsoring five different projects this term, focused on retail packaging, consumer market analysis, architectural design and, from a transportation perspective, the future of car buying and the future of “reward.”
Projects are a win-win for students and sponsors alike. Undergraduate and graduate students gain valuable experience tackling real-world challenges with business and design professionals at the top of their fields; meanwhile sponsors have an opportunity to step out of the corporate environment and take in fresh perspectives.
Cloud 9, an award-winning Barcelona-based firm known for its dynamic, cutting-edge architecture, is collaborating with students from multiple disciplines — Environmental Design, Product Design, Grad Industrial Design and Graphics — led by Environmental Design faculty members James Meraz, Jason Pilarski and Kenneth Cameron.
Survey: Art Center ranks No. 1 for industrial design
Tuesday, November 13th, 2012
Art Center’s industrial design graduate and undergraduate programs have ranked No. 1 by the Design Futures Council in its DesignIntelligence survey of America’s best architecture and design schools.
Additionally, DesignIntelligence named Integrated Studies instructor Randall Wilson among the 30 Most Admired Educators for 2013.
Art Center’s undergraduate industrial design programs — which include Product Design, Environmental Design, Transportation Design and Entertainment Design — were praised for teaching students communication, computer applications and design.
Deans and department heads surveyed said they most admired Art Center’s Graduate Industrial Design program, “For its forward-looking focus on the role of design in business and research.”
Art Center’s industrial design undergraduate program has ranked No. 1 in the survey since 2006, while the graduate program has ranked in the top three during the same time.
Goodwill and Art Center embrace the upcycle lifestyle
Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
Art Center students, faculty and representatives from Goodwill of Orange County. Photo: Chuck Spangler
Last term, more than a dozen Art Center students in Goodwill: Upcycle Lifestyle—a transdisciplinary Designmatters studio led by the Environmental Design department—spent their summer redesigning the spatial experience for Goodwill of Orange County’s retail stores, with an eye towards social responsibility, environmental awareness and making a positive impact on the community.
The students’ challenge was two-fold:
First, they were assigned to use recycled materials—wood, computer parts, textiles and more, all of which were found in Goodwill’s stores, recycling, salvage and processing areas—to create a visual and tactile experience for shoppers that reflects Goodwill’s reuse and repurpose model. Hence, the name of the course: Upcycle Lifestyle.
Second, the students were tasked with leveraging Goodwill’s community-strengthening programs. Beyond offering guilt-free shopping opportunities (and bargains!) to consumers, the non-profit organization’s stores and donation sites also serve as training grounds to provide supportive work experience and on-the-job training.
Throughout the three-month project, the students gained experience in re-branding, upcycling, budgeting, repurposing, practical design applications and a deeper appreciation of Goodwill’s mission services.
Following multiple visits to Orange County Goodwill stores, the students split into five separate teams, developed concept drawings and materials studies, which culminated in a final in which they presented design boards, models, mock-ups and full-scale constructs to representatives from Goodwill.
How did they do? Visit the project’s page on the Designmatters website to find out.
Related:
Designmatters’ Safe Agua Peru wins Tech Award
WATCH: Art Center President Lorne Buchman talks conscious design
Designmatters Students Create Furniture for India’s Low Income Housing Residents
Bringing It All Back Home: Designmatters Students Create Furniture for India’s Low-Income Housing Residents
Tuesday, September 18th, 2012
"Living Home: India" Designmatters students, faculty and staff in Bangalore, India last summer.
Last term, students in Living Home: India—a transdisciplinary Designmatters studio led by the Environmental Design department—spent their summer investigating the living needs of low-income housing dwellers in India, and then building furniture prototypes for use in the type of high quality, low-cost housing championed by Ashoka, a social entrepreneurship nonprofit and partner for the studio.
Due to the reduced scale and high occupancy rate of the housing units, the students were tasked with creating reduced scale and transformable prototypes. They also needed to make sure the furniture they designed was environmentally responsible and could be developed in collaboration with community stakeholders and local craftspeople in India.
Innovative design in India topic at Live Talks
Thursday, September 13th, 2012
President Lorne Buchman, left, and Trustee and Idealab CEO Bill Gross at Live Talks
Art Center College of Design President Lorne Buchman and Idealab CEO and Art Center Trustee Bill Gross bonded over socially conscious design in India Thursday morning at Live Talks Business Forums, a one-hour conversation focused on innovation and design held in downtown Los Angeles.
Through WorldHaus, longtime entrepreneur Gross has ventured into creating eco-friendly, modular housing in more rural parts of India starting at $2,000. Buchman highlighted furniture created by a Designmatters student that features creative seating with storage for low-income city-dwellers in Bangalore.
“We have to go make a deal with that student and start that right away!” said Gross.
WorldHaus has the goal of adding 200 homes in India this year and increasing that number to 1 million houses by decade’s end. The for-profit company manufactures the structures for $1,800 and owners pay $200 down and $10 a month.
Meet Environmental Design alumna Zorine Pooladian
Wednesday, September 5th, 2012
Designer Zorine Pooladian ENVL '12.
Sometimes finding your true calling can feel like flipping on a light switch. Just ask designer Zorine Pooladian ENVL ’12.
The Environmental Design alum was first turned on to the world of lighting design in an Art Center at Night (ACN) course; these days she’s working on a lighting project she plans to unveil at New York Design Week next year.
We sat down recently with Pooladian to ask her about her ACN experience, and here’s what she told us:
“I have always loved art and architecture. I grew up in a 300-year-old house in Iran that had high ceilings and walls covered in paintings. As a child, I remember being amazed that somebody could leave something behind that would last for centuries.” (more…)
