Andrew Curry writes: The Shard is inescapable from our London office. The city’s soon-to-be tallest building, a piece of concept architecture by Renzo Piano, can be seen from our office windows and most of the approaches to the office.

Obviously, size matters, at least to architects of a certain age and a certain gender. And it also seems to matter at a certain time. As the economist Andrew Lawrence has demonstrated with his Skyscraper Index, announcements of buildings billed as the tallest are an unerring leading indicator of the top of the market, that boom is about to go bust.

Behind the branding of ‘the Shard’, the building’s brochure promotes a “vertical city”, which seems not so much cutting edge as strange sixty-year old Corbuserian throwback. But in a sharp post over at the London Review of Books, Rosemary Hill points out what a modern city The Shard would be – a city with no public space:

A city without a centre, no school of course, or church, or art gallery, town hall or library, just a great glass millefeuille of individuals getting on. … Other, horizontal cities are going the same way: selling off town halls, letting high streets wither in the blast of supermarket competition and closing libraries.

Of course, the privatisation of public space has been one of the recurring themes of the last fifteen years, the darker underside of property-led regeneration. London’s City Hall, for example, eight hundred metres downriver from the Shard, sits on land which seems like public space but which is privately controlled (as protesting photographers pointed out recently). Le Corbusier had an honest ambition to build a city in the sky. For the Shard, it’s just marketing. But in a recession, you have to drum up some excitement about all that empty space.

The picture at the top of this post was taken by The Futures Company designer Gus Newsam. It is published here under a Creative Commons licence.

Claudia Rimington writes: What is the future shape of fashion retailing? We did some internal micro-research on this recently in our London office – exploring the drivers of change which may shape the sector and identifying some of the ways in which fashion brands may change as a result.

We came up with six possibilities:, laid out here in no particular order:

• Caravanserai: An online store which sells the “most beautiful fashion from around the world”.  Maori scarves and cashmere knits from the north Himalayas are typical products. Clothing is rare, fair trade and tagged so you can see the artisan who made it.  A brand for well travelled ABC1s.
• Trunk Show: A pop up store which sell one off garments by emerging talent, such as artschool fashion grads or graphic designers.  At the show you meet the maker, buy unique items and take part in a one off event.  You have to be ‘in the know’ to find out about it and news circulates only a few days before. Locations include construction sites and disused buildings.
• Neetwear: A company founded and ran by ‘NEETS’ – the British government’s slightly dismissive acronym for people ‘Not in Employment, Education or Training’.   By working for NEETWARE, the NEETS get a start with a job and some skills. The clothing they make is high quality basics with twist: functional/crafted duffle coats and jeans.
• Iris: A clothing store which makes tailored clothes using digital technology. Customers are measured up by advanced scanning technology in an in-store booth.  The items they want are customized and sent in the post.  Targeted at the busy female urbanite who wants things ‘just right for her’.
• ‘Tailor’ made: A brand which connects you with talented ‘tailors’ in developing countries.  The tailors sit on an umbrella website, where they sell their eclectic but high quality garments. You get distinctive clothing at a fair price – fair for everybody involved.
• Selica: A brand which sells exceptionally high quality garments with a minimalist aesthetic. Clothes from here are ‘investment pieces’. Each item lasts for years (pieces come with a Five Year guarantee) and can be worn everyday – the straightforward designs guarantee to match all items in the wardrobe.

The thinking behind such sessions is to keep us on our toes in thinking about how innovation spaces might develop in a particular category or sector, and as ever the challenge is imagining how such emerging futures might scale. Of these, ‘Tailor’-Made seemed to have most potential: crafts portal Etsy meets micro loan site Kiva before crashing headlong into the strong trends around the intention economy.

The picture at the top of the post was taken by TheCyberGypsy, and is used here with thanks.

Amy Esser writes:

Prompted by recent work with clients on changing behaviours  in the area of physical activity, I decided to enrol London office employees in a fitness challenge; to collectively climb the height of Mount Everest in four weeks by climbing the stairs at work.

So, doing the sums, Mount Everest is 29,029 feet high, or 8,848 metres, which equates to 58,070 steps or 3,871 flights of stairs. There are 10 flights of stairs leading up to our office, which means in order to complete the climb in four weeks (20 working days) we need to complete a total of 388 climbs – an average of 19.4 times a day. There are around 40 people in the office on a typical day which means that each individual needs to climb the stairs every other day – but will they? …

So far I am feeling positive – by Day 2 we had already reached the height of Ben Nevis, and if we continue like this we will reach the top of Mount Everest in half the time, although I sense enthusiasm may decline as the days go by.

My theory is that we need to change people’s habits so they fit exercise into their daily routine. Our challenge is about getting people to ditch the elevator for the stairs. And it’s tougher than it should be – our office building has been designed to lure you straight into a lift as you enter whilst the stairs have been hidden behind doors and corridors. One of the first questions I was asked about the challenge was, ‘where are the stairs?’! The actual experience of climbing the stairs is poor and uninspiring. The walls are grey, there are no windows, and our building managers prohibit us from putting up any motivational posters in the stairwells.

What we have been able to do is to encourage people and to communicate the benefits of taking part. One stair climb burns 30 calories, climbing the stairs will tone your legs and bum, and increase your confidence. Having a visual representation of the climb also really helps people engage. We have a log sheet where people sign their names after they have finished a climb, and this act of making your mark gives a sense of achievement and a sense of being part of a group activity.

Personally I’ve found this rewarding: I started a small social movement, and people are thanking me for it, so it seems that some people did want to be prodded to act. And I’ll be interested to see what happens once the challenge is over – will people continue to take the stairs instead of the lift?

Compiled by Jo Phillips

• A sobering New York Times graphic of the 2009 death count (Allied military forces only) in Iraq and Afghanistan
• An alarming case of public sector innovation in South Africa
• Some interesting and successful attempts at behaviour change in Schipol Airport,  from Core 77, demonstrating that humour is important even when the subject is serious
• A talking plate that tells you to eat more slowly, via the iftf
• Stella’s app for finding the nearest pint of the stuff to your location – and a taxi to take you home!
• Bruichladdich’s beautiful bottle for the world’s first organic whiskey. It is possible to push the boundaries even in traditionally stuffy categories
• And a video of an uplifting performance by the singer Bobby McFerrin at the world science festival last year demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale.

The image at the top is from the Schipol bheaviour change campaign, designed by the Dutch firm Autobahn.

Jake Goretzki writes:

According to one of the so-called ‘ten commandments‘ of the German industrial designer Dieter Rams, “Good design is as little design as possible”, something that is clear from the retrospective running at the Design Museum in London (until 7th March). Rams has a cult following among design enthusiasts for his enduringly simple, elegant designs for Braun from the 1950s until the mid 1990s. For his fans, that exhibition space full of stereos, toasters and coffee grinders is, well: it’s what Heaven’s branch of Curry’s might look like, surely.

Two thoughts struck me as I left.

Firstly, if plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, is Dieter Rams the most flattered industrial designer alive today? Without his influence, it’s certain that much of modern product design would look very different – including Jonathan Ive’s celebrated work for Apple, up to and including this week’s iPad.

Secondly, how did it come to be that an iconic, widely emulated and now ‘cult’ brand today only really exists as a largely forgettable range of electric toothbrushes and vegetable steamers? In an age where brands hunger for authenticity and ‘cool’ credentials, the brand that ‘did Apple before Apple’ could surely be working harder and making more of its credentials.

As Rams’ fifth commandment says, good design is unobtrusive. But to my mind, Braun’s fate feels like unobtrusiveness to excess.

The picture at the top of the post comes from slamxhype blog, and is used with thanks. Slamxhype’s post on the exhibition has a fantastic collection of pictures of Rams’ work.

(c) James Brittain

Alex Oliver writes:

On Wednesday evening, I had the privilege of presenting the findings from our recent study on the effect of the built environment on young cancer patients to more than a hundred people  from health, media and building sectors, at the Saatchi Gallery in London.  We recently completed this work on behalf of the Teenage Cancer Trust and its sponsors from the building, design and architectural communities.

We found that design plays an integral role in helping young people fight cancer by providing a non-institutionalised medical environment within the National Health Service.  Design works hand in hand with staff, equipment and the culture of the units by providing more comfort and greater control, which in turn contribute to maintaining ‘normality’.  For teenagers this is very important; those who recover are able more quickly to pick up their lives again; those who  don’t can manage their lives for as long as possible.

One quote from the research exemplified the approach for me:

“The first thing you noticed was the mirror and the lights – you wouldn’t get that in a normal ward so it just tells you straight away that it’s a little bit different”.

The findings will be used by the Teenage Cancer Trust and its sponsors to develop  support for these services, and for their overall approach – demonstrating clear value both from the perspectives of the users of the service,  and in terms of improving health outcomes, since more positive patients are more likely to engage with treatment, and comply with it.

There’s more information in the flyer which was produced for the launch – click on the link here for a pdf: TeenageCancerTrust_twopager

The picture of the Teenage Cancer Trust’s ‘Skylab’ unit in Cardiff is by the specialist design photographer James Brittain, and it is used with thanks. It comes from Architeria. Building Design’s bdonline service had a brief news story about the launch of the research.

Andrew Curry writes:

It’s always a pleasure to see good design, especially in unexpected places. This was the ticket I got when I played a round of crazy golf at Puckpool Park on the Isle of Wight last weekend. Less paper, less hassle, less waste. And quite a good size for a bookmark afterwards.

Anouk van den Eijnde writes:

The majority of the world’s 6.5 billion residents now live in cities – cities that are often overpopulated, congested and hostile to pedestrians and cyclists. Take Mexico City, for example, with a population of more than 20 million people: it suffers from pollution, traffic, water shortage and a high crime rate. The once attractive public spaces are now deemed by local residents to be too dangerous to spend time in. The mayor is slowly tackling these issues by revitalizing its historic centre, improving public transport and dealing with its acute water shortage. But what do residents really want from their cities?

Caracas-based architects Brillembourg and Klumpner, founders of the Urban Think Tank, are consulting local residents and community groups in an attempt to find sustainable solutions to the city’s ever-exploding population. Their focus is on the growing ‘informal cities’ where four out of its six million inhabitants are squatting the hillsides in self-built constructions. One of their initiatives is a cable car system connecting the valley to Caracas’ public transport system. Their site has an engaging video about their work.

Taking a leaf out of the ‘livable streets’ initiative - which encourages people to re-imagine how their cities would be if they were healthier and more sustainable – the American magazine GOOD asked people to do just that, and redesign their streets to make them more ‘livable’. The task was to take a photo of a street or intersection you know and hate, then use Photoshop or other image software to make the changes you wanted to see. Green spaces, bike lanes, street art, playgrounds, exercise machines – it could be anything. The winners, though mostly North American, demonstrate the value of visions in making change, and there’s also a whole gallery of entries.

Another example of involving people in urban design is Fix My Street, a UK website from the team at mySociety that allows people to report local problems like vandalism, broken lights and litter. You can simply type in the postcode online (or on your i-phone), find the location on the map and type in the problem. Comments are then sent directly to the local council on the users’ behalf. Who better to influence the design and maintenance of neighbourhoods than its local residents?

Andrew Curry writes:

I knew about the Russian Constructivist artist Rodchenko’s work as a photographer and a designer, but until I visited the Tate Modern’s current exhibition (in London until 17 May) I hadn’t realised that he’d also run an advertising agency. His partner was the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who wrote the copy, and the company was called ‘Advertising-Constructors-Mayakovsky-Rodchenko‘.

They designed adverts for the Moscow department store GUM, for the state airline, and also some posters which would these days fall under the heading of ‘social marketing’, for trade unions (“The Trade Union is a Defender of Female Labour”).

The two men were able to set up the business after Lenin encouraged some small-scale private enterprise in the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921. Mayakovsky dismissed criticism of those who thought that this wasn’t revolutionary work by saying ‘it is necessary to employ all the weapons used by our enemies’. He clearly learnt the lesson well – one of their posters was for a union opposing the NEP. Rodchenko later did the famous posters for Eisenstein’s film Battleship Potemkin. Their advertising and design work was revolutionary, in both senses (British and American ads from the same period look fussy and cluttered in comparison), and decades ahead of its time.

The poster at the top of this post, for the state airline, is courtesy of the Tate Modern.

Compiled by Tom Ding

The first of an occasional column: Passed around the office lately were:

• A brilliant presentation on the “past and future” of city magic by Matt Jones of Doppir
• A map of the internet (or at least the 333 most important bits) modelled on the map of the Tokyo metro – not the first time, by the way, that we’ve blogged about maps based on tube networks.
• Another less subterranean map of parliamentary expenses (thanks, Digital Urban) – MapTube, the mapping mash-up site which published this also has a map showing all of the London tube stations in their geographically correct positions.
• A complete visual history of Lego’s ‘mini-figures’ from which the picture at the top of the post is taken. And news of a rather larger Lego figure, a sculpture of Jesus made from 30,000 bricks, unveiled at a church in Sweden just in time for Easter.

Enjoy!