A Chicago native and principal in the architectural and design firm of Tigerman McCurry, Stanley Tigerman (b. 1930) has undertaken nearly 400 projects, resulting in more than 175 built works. Tigerman trained in some of Chicago’s top firms from 1949 until 1959 including the office of Keck & Keck, Milton Schwartz, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Harry Weese. Following his graduation from Yale University, where he received both his BArch (1960) and MArch (1961) under the leadership of Paul Rudolph, Tigerman established his own firm, working with several partners, before founding Tigerman McCurry Architects in 1986 with his wife Margaret McCurry. Tigerman is the author of seven books includingThe Chicago Tribune Tower Competition and Late Entries (1980); Versus: An American Architect’s Alternatives (1982); The California Condition: A Pregnant Architecture (1982); The Architecture of Exile (1988); Stanley Tigerman: Buildings and Projects 1966-1989 (1989); Schlepping through Ambivalence(2011); his autobiography Designing Bridges to Burn (2011), and he has edited numerous others. In addition to being chosen as was one of the architects to represent the United States at the 1976 and 1980 Venice Biennales, the work of Tigerman’s firm has been exhibited in major galleries and art museums around the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. [ tigerman mccurry ] [ chicago reader ] [ hungry for events? > shared practice ]

event: ceci n’est pas une rêverie (this is not a dream)
venue: graham foundation | 4 west burton place | chicago | 312 787 4071
date: 26 jan > 19 may 2012

about phil patton

Kuhn Rikon, however, has just released a beauty-meets-brains kind of grinder. Created by in-house designer, Philipp Beyeler, an avid cook himself, the Ratchet Grinder is playful-looking (it also chirps when you use it) but, made from sturdy ceramic, it gets the job done. Easily adjustable from fine to course, this baby even grinds flax and chia seeds (meaning you can avoid those they-only-have-unmilled-flax-seed moments in the supermarket).

Check out Beyeler’s other kitchen gadgets for Kuhn Rikon. Any designer who got their start making a working “Chocolate Milk Maker” out of LEGOs has a special place in my heart.

about perrin drumm

12. Connected Cities

People can learn about and even experience a place before ever setting foot in it. Our Austin studio recently hired a creative director from Brooklyn who used the fly-through experience in Google maps to get a feel for a neighborhood where he was home shopping. As this mountain of data becomes more accessible, we will find ourselves more connected with information, with each other, and with the city that surrounds us.

11. Taking Computers Out of Computing

Voice recognition technology has finally hit its tipping point of capability, and the stage is being set for a generation of users to start assuming voice control, just as touch control is now assumed for any screen. But the spoken word is only a fragment of any conversation. Computer vision–especially depth-sensing cameras–will be able to pick up nonverbal cues such as gesturing or body language that complete human communication. When voice and gesture comprehension are paired, humans will be able to address technology naturally, without command jargon. The tactical steps being taken in 2012 are to “design the human” as the primary interface device in support of that.

10. The Reductive Social Network: Technology Finally Gets Personal

Our Internet personalities have evolved into amplified personas that aren’t truly us. The current fervor around cloud computing only exacerbates the problem: Now, my 10,000 digital photos are in the ether, but am I any more emotionally connected with them and sharing them with my three closest friends in a meaningful way? This is about culling from the terabytes and sharing with the single digits. In 2012, product companies will deliver new products that begin narrowing the social circle and capturing intimacy and authenticity.

9. Gadget Convergence Will Lead to Specialization

I read countless blog posts proclaiming that dedicated devices, like the camera and the watch, will rapidly shrivel and die. Instead, I think new technologies will provide opportunities for them to get better. When users purchase a dedicated device, they are gravitating towards products with higher quality and better design to elevate their experience. It turns out that the convergent device is killing the commodity digital product while forcing everything else to improve. This is presenting companies and brands with an opportunity to do what designers love: Make things better!

8. Rein in the Clouds!

We’re rapidly moving into a technology space where mobility is becoming less about a set of devices and more about the pervasive mist of data that we all generate with every interaction on the Internet. Managing, securing, and understanding this data will play a huge part in technology over the next few years. Moreover, making that data comprehensible to the consumer is key. The question has never really been, Is this possible? but rather, When will we have an ecosystem of compelling and useful devices and services that will integrate seamlessly into people’s lives? We think that time is finally arriving in 2012.

7. Reputation-Enhanced Lending and Trading Goes Mainstream

While logging in to third-party websites using your Facebook identity is now commonplace, we are beginning to see person-to-person exchanges making use of social networks to broker trust. For example, before you stay at someone’s spare bedroom via Airbnb, you have to sign in with your profile. I recently rented someone’s house in Toronto for a few days, and between our respective social networks, we found enough friends, relatives, and colleagues in common for him to lend me the property with confidence. In 2012, this reputation-enhanced lending and trading will become mainstream. We will lease, barter, and trade with relative strangers, banking on their reputations and connections.

about perrin drumm

ANYTHING (pictured above) is a collaboration between UK designer Michael Sodeau and Japanese company Suikosha. Together they produce colorful, minimal desk accessories.

IDEA International is a Japanese company representing the designers that made the now famous Music Balloon, the Icon Watch and to:ca, the wooden LED clock.

[ preview of upcoming feature ] 2012 brings in a new energy-saving lightbulb [ see background ] standard. In anticipation many light bulbs sold in the U.S. will typically use about 25% to 80% less energy and thereby meet these new standards, including incandescents, CFLs, and LEDs, and are already available for purchase today. The newer bulbs provide a wide range of choices in color and brightness, and many of them will last much longer than traditional light bulbs. The bottom line, all bulbs must be at least 25% more efficient by 2014. The incandescent bulb ( 1879 – 2014 ) is not expected to survive, going the way of the dodo bird.

[ background: energy independence and security act of 2007 ]

In 2007 the U.S. Congress passed legislation to ban the incandescent light bulb via the bipartisan Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007). The phaseout officially begins with the 100-Watt incandescent light bulb on January 2012 and ends with the 40-Watt bulb in 2014. [ note: the Act remains in place but in January congress pulled funding to enforce the law. ] Light bulbs outside of these requirements are exempt from the ban. The bill mandates that all light bulbs must use 30% less energy by 2014 and by 2020, all light bulbs must be 70% more efficient than bulbs used in 2007 and produce a minimum of 45 lumens per Watt.

[ need-to-know terms when buying a bulb ]
LUMENS
The amount of light a bulb produces. This is “brightness” or “light output.” Your reference point: A standard 100-watt incandescent produces about 1,700 lumens.
WATTS
Not a measure of brightness but a measure of how much energy a bulb consumes to reach its claimed brightness.
WATT-EQUIVALENT
Sure to confuse, here’s how the LED’s are going to be presented: If a 100-watt incandescent produces 1,700 lumens, and a 20-watt LED does the same, the LED will be sold as a 100-watt equivalent.
EFFICACY
The number of lumens a bulb produces for each watt it consumes. The higher the number, the more efficient the bulb. A good number for incandescents is around 18, CFLs around 60, and LEDs around 54.
BULB LIFE
LEDs dim over time. They’re considered effectively dead when they produce no more than 70 percent of their original brightness. For LEDs, this lifespan is given in hours or years, the latter an estimate based on three hours of daily use.
ENERGY COST
Based on an assumption of three hours of use per day at 11 cents per kilowatt-hour. For a 60-watt incandescent, it’s just over $7 per year. CFLs and LEDs both come in at about $1.50 per year.
COLOR TEMPERATURE
Expressed in degrees Kelvin, this is how we measure things like soft white or daylight. A pleasant soft white will have a color temperature of 3,000 K. White light ranges from 4,100 to 6,000 K, roughly equal to midday sun. Higher numbers get increasingly blue.

[ coming: bulbs to choose from, and more ] [ philips $10 million L prize bulb ]