On the day after the Academy Awards recognized a woman as Best Director for the first time, (and, coincidentally, International Women’s Day), check out this slideshow of another woman breaking ground in an industry dominated by men. Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born architect, was the subject of a recent New Yorker article following the opening of MAXXI, the Italian National Museum of the XXI Century Arts (and Rome’s first major public building designed by a woman). This accompanying slideshow features some stunning shots of the completed building, and offers some startling insights into Zaha’s design. Coming on the heels of Peter’s Design Eye interview last week, I loved seeing Zaha’s initial sketch for the MAXXI: bold strokes on a simple sheet of ruled paper.

Known for the organic curves and geometric angles of her designs, Zaha’s been in the news a lot recently. Her design for the 2012 Olympic Aquatic Centre in London has been turning heads for it’s futuristic lines (Flight of the Navigator, anyone?), while her smaller-scale works—from jewelery to spacially complex pieces of furniture—are going on display in Bahrain next week in the fluidity & design exhibition. But for the uninitiated, a simple google-image search of her name offers a pretty compelling primer on the intersection of space, structure and digital design. Boys, take note.

(photo: Iwan Baan; via The New Yorker)

When the modish Hotel Modera opened up in downtown Portland last year, they welcomed guests into a renewed space, one thoroughly overhauled from what had been the threadbare shell of an old Days Inn. Perhaps the most striking part of the renovation, however, was the repurposing of a barren parking lot into a lush courtyard with a beautiful living wall. It’s that wall that keeps drawing me back to the space: the migration of green from the ground level planters onto the vertical plane breaking the horizon of concrete, a modernist reflection of Forest Park tucked away in the heart of downtown.

The landscape architecture blog Inspiration Wall has a nice photographic walking tour of the new courtyard, as well as a close up look at the G-Sky panels that the designers at Lango Hansen used to create the wall. But if you’re looking to bring a green wall into your home, check out today’s Cool Hunting post on Woolly Pocket Planters. Made of recycled plastic bottles, their “Wally” design makes it easy to grow your own vertical garden, indoors or outside. It’s got me looking at walls in and around my home in a whole new way.

(via Inspiration Wall and Cool Hunting, Modera pics © Lisa Town.)

Today marks the launch of our first annual Grant for Change, a $10,000 grant designed to support those who instigate lasting, positive change in their communities.

It’s a project we’ve been working on for months, trudging feverishly through hours of meetings, debates, and revelations. It’s been a collective effort, with late nights, scattered moments, no blood or tears but definitely some sweat (though that could be from our recent heat wave, too).

And we’re finally ready to share it with you. This is exciting.

We’ll shift the focus of the grant each year, but this year, we’re dedicating it to those who move in the spirit of the Nau Collective, accepting nominations for

ATHLETES who are challenging assumptions about what it means to move through the world.

ARTISTS, designers or other creatives who are moved to design better solutions to the world’s greatest problems.

ACTIVISTS who are seeding positive change in their communities, and moving others to do the same.

You can learn more about the details of the grant – what it’s about, who it’s for, how it works, and why we’re doing it – on our website.

It’s inspiring stuff. There are amazing efforts in positive change happening all over the country. While working on this grant, we’ve met remarkable people with tireless commitment to causes as varied as climate change, transportation, urban agriculture, and clothing design.

The grant is nomination-based, and voter-driven, which means we’ll need your help to get it off the ground. Maybe this means you nominate yourself, or maybe it means you nominate your friends, or maybe it means you just spread the word and vote. When you check out our site to learn more, we hope something in there will trigger you to get involved.

Nominations for the grant are open ‘til August 17th, the voting ‘til August 31st.

And once you’re in, don’t hold back. The more nominees we get, the more stories of change we get to tell.

Nominate. Learn. Vote. This is the Grant for Change. Have at it. We hope you’ll like it as much as we do.

It’s kind of a given that the people working at Nau have a passion for the outdoors: skiers, bikers, surfers, climbers and paddlers abound in our ranks, and when our team clocks out at the end of the day, many run (literally) from town to do something fresh and physical. But it came as a happy surprise to me that so many of the people I work with have separate creative lives outside the office. Among my immediate coworkers I have found authors, illustrators, photographers, painters, filmmakers and dancers.

Six months ago, when Eugenie invited me to a performance she was part of called “Endless Ocean Endless Sky” (playing in Austin, TX this weekend), I didn’t quite know what to expect. Choreographed and produced by Tahni Holt, the website for the Portland production was mysterious and poetic. The story, it seemed, was a collection of vignettes 100 “moments” long. Since only ten audience members are allowed in the performance at a time, I made sure to reserve a spot early. Read More »

Photographers observe, explore, and comment on the world around them with their lenses. The best of this breed of artist create images that are approachable, clever, aesthetically pleasing, refraining from trying to bash you over the head with their work’s meaning. Like the saying goes, “Walk softly but carry a big shtick.”

As both a photographer and appreciator of this art form, I’m constantly amazed by people’s brilliance and insight, especially when their work deals with environmental issues in subtle and clever ways.

Below are a few of the artists that have influenced my own personal work; the last two images, a landscape by my boyfriend Kevin Malella and another by yours truly, are our own variations on this theme, presenting both the sublime and the surreal in respect to our changing environment. The interpretation is up to you…

Photographs (L-R):
1. Dionisio Gonzales – Heliopolis 1
2. Alan Cohen – Construction No. 108-03
3. Edward Burtynsky – Nickel Tailings No. 31 (Sudbury, Ontario 1996)
4. David Maisel – Mining Project 3
5. Edward Burtynsky – Uranium Tailings No. 12
6. David Maisel – Lake Project 20
7. Kevin Malella – Mutated Towers
8. Simone Bogode – River Project No. 3

So asks Faith Popcorn, who has created quite a reputation for what she calls “applied futurism.” By that she means weaving the future into the everyday texture of companies and brands. Faith and her gang have come up with a list of predictions for 2008. One in particular caught my attention. It’s titled “Reactions to Cashing Out”:

Lagom: From the Swedish, most commonly translated as “just enough.” It’s an approach to both design and consumption that explains the essence of brands like Ikea and Volvo. We see notions of “minimalism” and “sustainability” taking on significant currency, as even Americans reject hyper-consumption as not just excessive, but actually damaging to themselves, others and to the planet.

KarmaCapitalism: As “Cashing Out” rises to this level of prominence, we’ll see a basic shift in the identity/mentality of people, as they make the transition from “consumer” to “citizen” ” recognizing that every act of consumption has cost and consequence beyond the transaction, and that every transaction is a “vote” in favor of the offering entity, and against the options not chosen. To compete, companies are going to have to weave “goodness” as a fundamental intent into their corporate culture. Bringing on a dash of “corporate responsibility”; whether the mere monetary commitment to a cause, or some more symbolic gesture, will not suffice to curry favor with the citizen. In a world of transparency, where every corporate practice is knowable, they will be watching and exercising that all-important vote of the purse.

Hmmm. As we like to say: that was then, this is Nau.

Based out of the UK, Drift Magazine strives to recapture the lost soul of surfing, similar to the way the esteemed Surfer’s Journal and Surfer’s Path highlight non-commercialized, environmentally-minded content in their publications. One look at the magazine’s design and photography clues you into the fact that something different is going on at Drift. Artful, thoughtful imagery and insightful stories grace the pages of their first three online issues, which are available for download HERE. Now the magazine is venturing into the printed realm, and I wish them the best of luck. Being a surf-blogger in my other life, I’ve always appreciated the respect they show for everyday surfers by highlighting blogs in their newsletters and soliciting content from “non-professionals” who have stories to tell about their experiences in the ocean.

Take a bit of entrepreneurial flare, mix in a bit of eco consciousness along with a dash of digitally enabled community participation in the form of “crowdsourcing” and “crowdfunding” and what do you get? How about Nvohk (pronounced “invoke”) ” an eco-friendly, surf inspired clothing manufacturer that appears to be decidedly democratic in its management approach. The concept: You sign up for free and when membership hits 20,000 everyone invests $50 a year. In return, you get a say in the management of the company, including — according to its founders — major business decisions like logo design, product design, athlete selection and advertising direction. You’ll also have a voice in choosing what charities receive 10% of net profits and 35% of net profits will be directed back to members via award points. As of March 21st, over 2106 future members had signed up. This experiment is one to watch, if not participate in. It will certainly test the power of crowds and our capacity for collective decision-making.

Intelligent Debate. Passionate Media. How rare is that? If you found it, would you engage with it? I ask because I recently discovered Scribemedia.org. That’s exactly what they promise and that’s definitely what they deliver. The folks at Scribemedia travel extensively to capture and deliver speeches, roundtables and interviews of thought leaders across an incredibly diverse range of disciplines from technology, fashion, business, design, media and the arts. My samplings included a talk by Chris Jordan at the recent Greener Gadgets Conference where he artfully illustrates our staggering quantities of mass consumption and a speech by Lord John Browne of Madingley (former Managing Director of the colossus oil company British Petroleum) about the future of world energy markets.

Scribemedia serves up intelligent dialogue, versus the usual sound-bite approach that has become all too prevalent in our national dialogue. As they say, they “deliver content where and how people want to receive it.”

Saw this bus on a walk yesterday.
Had to run over and look in the window.
Of course, it had the perfect sticker on it…

Why doesn’t a car manufacturer make a cool bus again? An AWD, hydrogen-powered six-seater with a fold-down bed in back (or above). Sink, toilet, and card table would all come standard.

This Westy concept car by Verdier is what I’m talking about… Hello, VW?