Images, courtesy of Robynn Butler, are from a co-design initiative with Savannah High School students and SCAD Sustainable Design students, piloting frog's Community Action Toolkit. For more information on the initiative, visit designethos.org

This is the third article in a series examining the potential of resilient design to improve the way the world works. Join designers, brand strategists, architects, futurists, experts and entrepreneurs at Compostmodern13 to delve more deeply into strategies of sustainablity and design.

I recently picked up The Best Dictionary for Students, an elementary school reference that my twin daughters use daily. It seemed perfectly suited to me because, who, after all, isn't a student. This small dictionary has 410 entries that begin with the letter combination 'co,' beginning with coach and ending with cozy. Co-design is not one of those words. But many of the words beginning with these letters are germane to the vibrant conversation around co-design: commitment, compassion, complex, congregate, consequential, to name a few. This is to be expected, considering the Latin origins of the prefix: together. With a multitude of English language concepts fundamentally connected through this prefix, it seems fitting to more deeply explore some of the affiliations inferred by their shared linguistic origin.

Today's designers have benefitted from the development of young fields of practice such as design for inclusivity, and human-centered design. These efforts focus on delivering solutions through immersive (for the designer) and inclusive (for the community) processes, which the designers then sensitively transform into 'solutions,' whether they be products, services, experiences, or tools (visioning, strategic, etc.). Other fields of practice—emerging more from the urban design context, and with an emphasis on community resilience—focus more on designing the potentials for solutions to emerge from the local context itself. As one example, Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) eschews the all too common 'needs-based' approach for the sake of identifying, celebrating and empowering assets that already exist within the community.

The gap between these two approaches has been narrowing, and the emerging bridge is being constructed through an array of creative experimentation. Growing trends in mass customization such as Open Source Ecology, and design-driven community resources such as frog's Community Action Toolkit are examples of this materializing connective tissue. This essay is an invitation to more deeply consider the ideas that have been percolating in some of these spaces. I discuss two words from this 'co' bounty that are associated with the practice of co-design, then introduce a third word—quite literally—which explores a paradox borne of two contradictory root words. Together, the words act as a framing device that can aid in the exploration of the concepts behind this evolving process we call co-design, specifically in the social sector. The three 'co' words do not constitute strategies as much as reflections on the nature of committing to this dynamic arena. I invite more terms to be added to create (co-create) a Designer's Dictionary of 'Co.' Those compelled to consider the origins of co-design can find many sources dedicated to more rigorous investigations, such as Sanders and Stappers' Co-Creation and the New Landscapes of Design, as one of example of many.

Design as Conduit

A conduit is an entity of transition between spaces, states or usages. Accordingly, if the energy on one end of a conduit lacks sufficient order or density, or if there is an inability on the other end to 'carry the charge', then this kind of channel is little more than the means by which energy is transferred from one unproductive space to another, or worse, from a productive space to an unproductive one. Co-design is a conduit. And the energy that co-design aims to transfer exists within the wisdom, passion, creativity, and tacit knowledge of the parties involved.

Yet, there is another dimension here that relates to the nature of connectivity with individuals not in immediate contact with the initial co-design process. The people in these concentric and loosely defined rings represent not only those who may be influenced or changed in some way, but those who would influence still others further from the original process. This focus on connectivity and continuity is an important facet of co-design, and not merely as a cautionary reference to the law of unintended consequences—as important as that is—but as a reminder that ideas which emerge from co-design must be so deeply embedded in the community that members of that community who were not directly involved in the co-design process gravitate toward them intuitively. With IDEO's ">Human-Centered Design approach in mind, the arc of progression for the design process might run through stages that focus on: observations, stories, themes, opportunities, solutions, prototypes and implementation plans. Yet, the means by which designers build capacity within the community to design solutions themselves requires that this process is fully owned—and operated—by the community before the end of this sequence.

We don't often think of undergraduate industrial design students as being able to influence their schools' curricula, but Jack Shepard is not your average student. First off, Shepard was a Sergeant and Anti-Terrorism Officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, and after two tours—that's eight years—he spent a few years in China, studying Chinese medicine.

"I sustained a pretty bad foot injury [in the 'Corps]," Shepard told Core77. "Western doctors told me my foot was 'done,'" i.e. permanently damaged; but while subsequently vacationing in China, Shepard encountered an Eastern doctor who restored his foot in three weeks. Impressed, Shepard moved to Chengdu to study the techniques, as well as the language.

After returning from China to his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Shepard started a small apparel company with some friends. Eventually he became interested in industrial design and enrolled at the Art Institute of Portland. From the Marine Corps to China to Industrial Design is not your typical educational trajectory, but "I am a think-outside-the-box type of guy," as Shepard's resume states.

As part of that outside-the-box thinking, Shepard took a hard look at his school's ID program and decided it was missing something. "While the school offered multidisciplinary business courses to better prepare design students," a local-area newspaper reports, "Shepard felt the classes were too detached from industry and real-world problems."

Around the same time, Shepard had attended the Portland edition of Startup Weekend, a traveling entrepreneurial program that visits cities to marshal creative brainpower--developers, designers, marketers, et cetera--and has them go from open-mic pitches to workable startups over the course of a 54-hour weekend. A panel of relevant experts oversees the proceedings, providing crucial real-world expertise and advice.

Inspired by this set-up, Shepard decided his ID program would benefit from a similar process. "At first I figured I'd just start up a club [to mimic the Startup Weekend process] at school," he says. But while discussing it with Molly Deas, the Art Institute's then-chairperson for the ID department, she pointed out that this would be a fantastic for-credit opportunity. Soon they'd hatched plans for it to be a semester-long course, run by Justin Pyle, a designer and adjunct professor Shepard had hit it off with.

The wait is over: The City of New York recently announced the first annual full-fledged New York design celebration from May 10–21, 2013. NYCxDesign (pronounced New York by Design) will be a citywide festival spanning the five boroughs and all disciplines of design (including industrial, furniture, fashion, graphic, film etc). NYCxDesign could very well become the biggest celebration of design in the world.

The NYCxDesign Steering Committee is comprised of a stacked line-up, boasting some of the most notable members of the NYC design community—not only designers and media (including our own Allan Chochinov), but also curators, educators, entrepreneurs, retailers and more. With planning committee spanning so many diverse fields—NYC Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson and MoMA's Paola Antonelli, to name just a few—the inaugaral NYCxDesign has massive support from all corners of the design community.

Every May for the past 24 years, designers, students and design enthusiasts flock to the Javitz Center in NYC for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. While ICFF serves as the must-see mecca for new ideas and conversations about the state of furniture and industrial design, it is high time for NYC to go ahead and brand an all-inclusive design festival. In addition to many of the yearly exhibitors and shows in past NY Design Weeks, a host of new venues and designers will be added to the roster in the 12-day event.

Great citywide support: check. Awesome exhibitions, shows and events from all corners of the globe and design field: check. But how does one go about creating a brand identity for an event that encompasses one of the largest and most diverse design communities in the world? The Steering Committee for the 2013 NYCxDesign looked to Base Design to brand a design tribe that is 40,000+ strong. According to lead Willy Wong:

Speaker Quinn and the NYCxDESIGN Steering Committee understood that the celebration's identity needed to showcase individual designers, firms, schools and institutions, embrace the diversity of their practices across disciplines and throughout the City. Base Design's emphasis on the 'X' nailed the brief beautifully. They created an open system with an inclusive symbol that stands for location, expression, identification, examination, experimentation, intersection, iteration, variation, amplification and excellence.

This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the Student Design Competition at the International Home + Housewares Show, and the winners put forth as strong a showing as ever as the competition enters its third decade of recognizing exceptional work by the next generation of designers. Over the past 20 years, some 160+ judges have reviewed over 4,000 entries, recognizing 125 winners who have launched their careers at the show.

First Place: Heman Au, Arizona State University - Duo Kitchenware

Judges this year hailed from schools such as the University of CIncinnati's DAAP and RIT to major companies such as Whirlpool/Kitchenaid and Belkin.

First Place: Juan Jimenez, University of Houston - Smart Measure

Juan is currently seeking a manufacturer, but he noted that the prototype was 3D printed

As in past years, we had the chance to talk to first place winners Heman Au and Juan Jimenez:

See the rest of the winners after the jump:

[image via Peter Follansbee]

[image via Lost Art Press]

Did you ever wonder how craftspeople used to split thick wood into boards, prior to the invention of bandsaws and sawmills? They performed riving using something called a froe, and good God does it look tedious:

As you can see, the froe had to be banged downwards with a mallet or maul made of wood, for obvious reasons. (Ideally you'd want to make the mallet out of a tougher wood like maple; this guy makes them out of baseball bat blanks that have been deemed too heavy for the sport's regulations.) Using a froe and mallet was used to create things like shingles, panels, chair backs as you just saw in the video, and anytime you had a thick board you needed to divide into multiple thin boards.

While it no longer has any commercial application, there are still hardcore dudes rocking this technique, both in the field and in the shop. Be thankful next time you're resawing boards on a bandsaw...

Via Toolmonger

When we last looked in on interaction designer Jinha Lee, he was developing the See-Through 3D Desktop for the Microsoft Applied Sciences Group. Last week Lee, who's pursuing a doctorate at MIT Media Lab's Tangible Media Group, posted a video showing a potential retail application for the set-up: Called WYCIWYW, for "What You Click is What You Wear," the interface would allow the user to virtually try on wristwatches and jewelry.

Winblok is a South African construction innovation by inventor Al Stratford, former president of the South African Institute of Architects. Intended to be used in buildings constructed with masonry, it's essentially a modular, pre-cast concrete window frame that negates the need for sills, reveals and the like; you just brick right up against it (and over it) and you're done. A reveal on one edge is fitted for a window, and the architect specs out which way the Winbloks face, providing options for having the window flush with the inside wall or the outside wall. A variety of different window styles are designed to fit within the system, as well as louvres and burglar bars.

Winbloks are made in different heights for reasons of passive solar management. By cross-referencing the latitude of the building site, the architect can choose the appropriately-sized Winblok to create a "solar cut-off angle," blocking direct sunlight while allowing in the ambient light. This is to lower cooling costs and obviate the need for additional shades and overhangs.

I'm not sure why these haven't gained much traction outside of South Africa; any practicing architects want to chime in? While it's designed for masonry construction and not, say, the dimension lumber platform-frame construction prevalent in much of the U.S., there's plenty of places that use masonry construction in the American Southwest, so I'd imagine I'd have heard of this system before. Because it definitely isn't new—Stratford used it to build his own house shortly after prototyping it, and that was back in 1980. Winblok hit the marketplace in 1985, and today Stratford's company, Wintec Innovation, is still a successful venture.

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It's almost here. The deadline to submit your awe-inspiring, judge-wowing, boast-worthy work to the 2013 Core77 Design Awards is this Friday, March 15th, at 8PM Eastern Time.

For those of you who haven't even started preparing your entry or entries, the next few days are important! Imagine that your favorite, most admired jury member is waiting patiently to review your work and tell you how impressed they are by what you've done. Don't let him or her down.

Get your act together and don't miss this deadline. Everything you need to know about entering and winning is here, so stop reading this and go become part of design history!

» Enter your best work today!

Text and Images by Max Gunawan

Lumio is a lamp that unfolds from a book. Simply open the cover to turn it on, the further you open the cover the brighter it gets. Sounds very simple, yet the design process was nothing but.

The journey started about eight months ago when I joined TechShop SF. I came in with the ambitious idea of creating a modular house with built-in furniture that you can fold flat to fit into your car. It's the same basic concept of a lunchbox: different parts of a meal packaged in a portable container. Except that it's a home-in-a-box that you can carry around and pop open easily.

My vision was to build a modular home for the modern nomad with all of the conveniences we are accustomed to. It didn't quite turn out the way I envisioned it, but through that design exploration, I ended up with a modified version of the same design concept, on a much smaller scale.

What does a foldable house have to do with Lumio? Although they share the same underlying design principles of a folding structure, physically they are nothing alike. Lumio was created out of necessity because I didn't have the resources to build a working prototype for the folding house. I had to adapt my idea and scale it down into something more manageable.

I had these paper models and sketches of the folding house in my Moleskine sketchbook. It dawned on me one day that a book would be a great way to package this idea of a collapsible light fixture: it's compact, it has a visceral connection with the idea of a book as a "source of illumination," and it has that unexpected element of surprise.

We always think that innovation happens when you have all the freedom and tools you need. In my case, it came together out of limitation. I was able to make the best use out of what I have.

Photo of Moleskine study model

I arrived at the concept for Lumio around September 2012. My first prototype was cobbled together out of folded paper inserted into the cover of my hardcover sketchbook. It was rough, but it was a good starting point as a proof-of-concept.

As usual, there was a glut of coffee-related products at this year's International Home + Housewares Show: we were interested to see that Bodum joined Keurig (to name a few) in the "Wired + Well" section this year, presumably because the former is expanding its eBodum line even as they celebrate the 55th Anniversary of the Santos coffeemaker... but more on that later. Here are two other interesting takes on coffee culture, one a symptom of our collective caffeine dependency (and the distinctly American phenomenon of the to-go cup), the other a story of a startup that's turning the corner.

I first spotted Mark A. Beckey nonchalantly sporting his Javahook on his way to his booth on Friday morning, making final preparations in anticipation of opening day. A Starbucks cup (the only option at McCormick, besides the free coffee scattered throughout the exhibition halls) rested against his iPad, suspended as if by magic... or, as it turned out, a concealed hook. Although the product itself didn't require much in the way of explanation, so Beckey delivered a quick escalator pitch anyway (I happened to be right behind him on the way up to the show floor): the Javahook had won Best New Product at Seattle's CoffeeFest and he was in the running for an IHA Innovation Award as well.

In fact, he might have been better off walking the floor with the device to generate interest, as his booth was in the far end of the North Building, corralled in the so-called Inventors' Corner (as was the previously-seen Brolly umbrella). I made my way over there on Saturday, where Beckey shared more information about his company: They're based in San Antonio, Texas, and the product is made in the USA.

Of all the design lectures we've sat through, either as part of our schools' curricula or in postgraduate events, the most interesting ones are where you can't quite decide if the speaker is crazy or not. It is those lecturers right on the edge whose bizarre-yet-articulate, incendiary-yet-well-reasoned statements often inculcate long-lived, resounding thoughts. I will sometimes look at an object or space and still hear then-professor Karim Rashid's words echoing in my head.

One professor whose lectures I wish I'd been exposed to in school is Peter Schjeldahl, senior art critic for The New Yorker and former art critic for The Village Voice. I've just come across this snippet of an older lecture of his, delivered at Boston University's College of Fine Arts, on why "Good Artists Tend to Be Bad Students." The clip below is choppily-edited and too short to work up any kind of conclusive momentum—the end of the clip leaves us none the wiser as to why the title might be true—but I do miss hearing crusty, quotable thoughts like this:

I don't believe in the existence of beautiful things. I believe in experiences of beauty. I think it's a regular occurrence in the mental economy of anyone who is not clinically depressed.

The entire lecture is available for viewing here. It's 80 minutes long so you'll have to carve out some time to watch it in full.

Well, now we know where some of the motors being made in Dyson's new factory will be going: into sink taps! Dyson has designed a sink faucet that integrates their Airblade technology, blowing 28 liters of air per second out of two wings on either side. The Dyson Airblade Tap allows the user to wash their hands and immediately dry them at the same spot, rather than traipsing over to the wall-mounted dispenser/blower (inevitably leaving a trail of droplets on the way). There are no controls; sensors detect when your hands are in a washing vs. drying position, and the tap dispenses water or air accordingly.

My first thought was, won't washing and drying in the same spot hold up lines at crowded bathrooms? Dyson's angle is that the Airblade Tap is faster than a regular dryer, getting the job done in 14 seconds versus what they say "can take up to 43 seconds" with a conventional air dryer.

The HEPA filter in the Airblade Tap's motor is another selling point:

Most other hand dryers are unhygienic. They don't filter bacteria from the restroom air. They suck in dirty air then blow it back onto hands. The Dyson Airblade Tap hand dryer uses a HEPA filter removing 99.97% of bacteria at 0.3 microns from the air used to dry hands. So hands are dried using cleaner air, not dirty air.

Perhaps the strongest pro-Airblade-Tap argument is the long-term cost. They're claiming a 69% cost savings in electricity over a regular hand dryer, to the tune of just $48 per year. (Disposable paper towels look like the real cost loser here, costing a projected $1,460 annually.) And to reassure buyers that they'll use the product long enough to see the savings, they're offering a five-year warranty.

See also: Dyson Airblade Tap on Discussion Boards

The advent of the robot age has been a long time coming, but the machines are slowly but surely starting to infiltrate our homes in the guise of mobile household appliances (JK...?). Although both of the cleaning robots that we captured in action two weekends ago in Chicago had originally launched at CES back in January, we were interested to see and document them in the rather less tech-centric context of the Housewares Show.

The iRobot Looj looks like a cross between two toys—a submersible and a construction vehicle—but in fact it has a very specific purpose. The tread-driven robot features a front-facing augur that is designed to expel leaves and debris from gutters, as demonstrated in the video below (alongside the Ecovacs Winbot, pictured at top and below).

The previously-seenWinbot, on the other hand, is perhaps more like a pool-cleaning 'bot than its carpet-bound brethren (Winbot manufacturer Ecovacs also produces the latter). The remote-controlled unit is about the size of a dictionary and attaches to a glass surface of any thickness with special suction cups. As is standard for cleaning robots, it automatically detects the size of the target area, plots the most efficient route and dutifully proceeds to clean it.

In the quest to protect pedestrians from those mainstays of morning radio, Traffic and Weather, urban planners worldwide use a host of design solutions.

Tokyo likes elevated walkways at crossings, since pedestrians twenty feet off the ground cannot get hit by cars (assuming the Japanese government maintains their General Lee ban).

Minneapolis has an elevated Skyway system of footbridges, allowing building-to-building jaunts that avoid the brutal cold.

Snowy Montreal does the same with their "underground city" network of tunnels.

In the quest to protect pedestrians from those mainstays of morning radio, Traffic and Weather, urban planners worldwide use a host of design solutions.

Tokyo likes elevated walkways at crossings, since pedestrians twenty feet off the ground cannot get hit by cars (assuming the Japanese government maintains their General Lee ban).

Minneapolis has an elevated Skyway system of footbridges, allowing building-to-building jaunts that avoid the brutal cold.

Snowy Montreal does the same with their "underground city" network of tunnels.

A newer design technology in the Wintec Innovation fold (see our post on their Winbloks) is their Stratflex system. It's essentially flatpack furniture with a twist, or rather, a bend: Plywood is scored through several of its layers at specific junctures, allowing the forms to ship flat, but flex during assembly. The gaps are permanently filled with a flexible polymer that can withstand the slight deformation.

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We've all done it—putting something off with the best intentions until that gentle, non-confrontational deadline you were ignoring is suddenly in your face, tapping your shoulder and demanding, "What are you gonna do about it? Huh? HUH?"

It's not often that life hands you a second chance, so relish this one. The March 15th, 8PM Eastern deadline to submit your work for consideration in the 2013 Core77 Design Awards has been extended to March 26th, 8PM Eastern. (Of course, we still encourage you to aim to enter by this Friday as entries we receive after the regular deadline will incur a 20% late fee.)

Why are we doing this? We want you to try harder. We don't want anyone to miss out on this wonderful opportunity. Besides, we've all been there.

Yes, everyone is busy, but now is the time to get your stuff together and tell this extended deadline, "I'm no slacker and I will not be pushed around!"

» Enter your best work today!

With additional editorial support from Nathan Jones, Keith Lampi, Gaylon White, Jos de Wit

Natural disasters can happen anywhere with little or no warning. When they do, they threaten community water sources and jeopardize public health by destroying vital pipelines or existing sanitation systems allowing the introduction of contaminants into the drinking water supply. One of the most immediate concerns post-disaster is providing a supply of clean, safe hydration to survivors to help prevent the occurrence and spread of waterborne diseases.

"Water is one of the first things that a victim of a natural disaster has to have to survive," says Nathan Jones, vice president of government and institutional sales at HTI. "Many of the deaths that occur from natural disasters don't happen because of the disaster itself, but what happens later—the waterborne disease that sweeps through the population."

Every few years, villages in Mudimbia, Kenya are destroyed from floodwaters.

Humans can only live for a few days without hydration. In fact, waterborne illness can be the leading cause of death in the aftermath of a disaster. According to UNICEF, 1.5 million children die of waterborne illnesses every year. One in five children worldwide die from diarrhea—that's more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. On any given day, over 50% of the world's hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from water borne disease.

Today, more than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water and the United Nations predicts that by 2025, 2/3 of the world's population will face periodic and severe water shortage.

Starting in a Corvallis, Oregon, garage in 1987, Keith Lampi, now executive vice president and chief operating officer for Hydration Technology Innovations (HTI), Robert Salter and some college friends began focusing on how forward osmosis could be used in various humanitarian and industrial applications. In 1988, Lampi and Salter founded HTI in Albany, Oregon, with the purpose of utilizing their engineering and chemistry expertise to pioneer innovative membrane technology research using forward osmosis as a foundation.

When a fire destroyed HTI's Albany facility in 2007, the disruption ironically allowed Lampi and his team a bit of space to work on some of the world's wicked water problems. From those efforts, the HydroPack was born—an emergency hydration solution created specifically for use during the critical first days after a natural disaster.

Victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti received HydroPacks

"Our earliest forward osmosis pouch was a two-liter bag that we had developed for the military. But it required radio frequency welding and was fairly expensive to make," says Dr. Jack Herron, director of product development at HTI. "Our desire was to create a relatively inexpensive pouch for disaster relief. The picture I had in mind was a 10-year-old child in a flood in India. What would he be attracted to and want to drink? What could he use properly without training? I knew from my days as a soccer dad that kids love juice pouches, so that was sort of the model. We also wanted to utilize a heat-seal process to keep the cost down. The HyrdroPack was the result."