Hitting snooze on your morning alarm (again) is probably the worst thing you can do to start your day. Why? I’ve identified 4 main reasons:
First, by going back to sleep for another 10 minutes, you will actually feel more tired and groggy than when the initial alarm went off.
Second, you start your day with an utter and complete failure. You literally show yourself that you’ve got no self-discipline whatsoever. Not a very motivating and empowering start to the day, is it?
Third, you are already stressed out. It feels like you have to rush through your morning in the search of those lost minutes the snooze button stole from you. Feelings of calm, peace, and confidence are nowhere to be found.
Fourth, you are feeling guilty for hitting the snooze button. You are probably beating yourself up over it and building up a lot of negative energy at the start of the day.
Implementation intentions are plans that take the form of if/then statements. They simply pre-determine how you will act in a future situation. The “IF” stands for the cue and the “THEN” stands for your pre-decided response to that cue.
“If [this happens], then [I will do that].”
You are essentially deciding in advance how you will act in a future situation. In our case, that situation is when the alarm clock goes off – we want to pre-decide that we get out of bed and don’t hit the snooze button.
The implementation intentions look like this:
– “If the alarm clock wakes me up in the morning, then I immediately get out of bed!”
– “If I’m thinking of hitting snooze, then I get out of bed right away anyway!”
We decide beforehand that we’re not going to hit the snooze button.
Now you may be wondering, “What’s the point of this? That certainly isn’t going to change anything, is it?” Well, actually it is going to change everything. It certainly turned me from snooze-button addict to someone who hasn’t hit snooze in over a year.
You see, implementation intentions are surprisingly powerful. They have been PROVEN in almost one hundred scientific studies to have a strong impact on our behaviors. In this case the behavior would be NOT hitting the snooze button.
Here’s one study that will hopefully convince you of using this strategy. Twenty drug addicts committed to writing a résumé before 5pm of the same day. Why a resume? The staff in the hospital encouraged the drug addicts to write out their resumes in order to find work after the end of the treatment.
There were 2 groups:
– Group 1: They drew up implementation intentions for achieving the goal. They pre-determined when and where they would write the résumé.
– Group 2: They made no plans for achieving their goal whatsoever.
The results: At 5pm, none of the people in the 2nd group had written the résumé. Not a single one. What about the guys who created implementation intentions? Get this: 8 of them had written the résumé.
My point is, implementation intentions work. They will work for you, too. So here’s what I suggest you do: Write down the two previously mentioned implementation intentions and read them every night before going to bed. Of course, you can add your own variations as well.
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From the architect. The site is known as Utsikten (“The View”) and is a natural place to stop when driving over the Gaular mountain along the western coast of Norway. For those who have made the trek over the mountain itself, the site affords a sudden and surprising vista overlooking a majestic landscape. Conversely, for those driving up from below, Utsikten constitutes the ever visible apex of the ascent rising up through a series of hairpin bends.
CODE’s project at Utsikten is a large, triangular concrete platform situated right at the side of the road. The platform is 80 cm thick but appears to rest lightly atop the terrain with raised, wing-like corners that protrude outwards and upwards into the air. Similar to how a picnic blanket is neatly arranged in order to create the proper setting for a meal, the concrete platform at Utsikten has been developed to create the proper setting for the entire stopover. The cars drive all the way up to the outlook, and visitors can move around between the corners to experience the spectacular scenery from various angles.
Site Plan
In order to ensure the optimal placement for the finished project and exploit the site’s various qualities, the architects sketched the concept at full scale at the site itself. With the aid of a crane and ropes, the structure was constructed as a wire model over several rounds before finally being transferred into a 3D model, drawings, and the finished product.
The work on the concrete construction proved to be quite challenging because of the mountain’s location, the complex geometry, and the high demands to quality. In order to be as prepared as possible, the various actors involved in the construction project first participated in a trial construction of large sections of the platform in order to make common experiences and quality assure the given choices and approaches.
The finished platform appears as an independent, geometric, and precise object in the landscape. The materials and technology are familiar and robust, while it is the shape itself that is spectacular. Over time the concrete will acquire natural vegetation and its colour will approximate that of the surrounding mountainsides. The rails have been made from thick steel pipes as a visually conspicuous seam along the platform’s edges and reliefs, with outstretched nets that are more or less transparent. The concrete includes surfaces that have been milled, honed, sandblasted or board-sheathed in order to accentuate the platform’s shape and zonal divisions. The raised corners contain holes and reliefs that provide sitting and standing room, access to the restrooms, and egresses to the terrain, or that serve as an outlet for the rainwater amassed at the platform. During rainy weather it is also possible to seek shelter beneath these corners.
Redjeu is a private home located in Perm, Russia. Completed in 2016, it was designed by Allarts Design. Redjeu by Allarts Design: “This stylish and bright apartment belongs to a young girl with her daughter. The hostess asked the studio ALLARSTDESIGN after received the keys and it’s the issue of repair. Customer once insisted on the interior – in which everything must be red, slowly and surely, we exclude too..
Success means different things to all of us. Many of us still believe that we have to work really hard to be a success. Others make sure that their children work really hard at school in order to become a success. For some, success is a high paying, high ranking, suit and tie position. What does success mean to you? Is it money, status quo, assets? Fame and fortune? There are many things that make up success and what it stands for.
Before you put yourself in the failure category or the unsuccessful one, let’s have a look at a few things you should remember about success. This should put things in perspective for you and hopefully make you feel a tad more optimistic about your life if for any reason, you don’t feel you are successful.
It’s not about money.
Success really doesn’t have to be all about what’s in your bank account. Having a 5 or 6 figure balance in your savings account doesn’t necessarily mean you are successful it just means you have lots of money saved. If you don’t have a huge savings account that doesn’t mean you aren’t successful either. Money really has very little to do with success for some.
You have nothing to prove to anyone.
If you feel like you aren’t successful and are afraid family or friends will think you are a failure, stop right now. What anyone thinks of you is none of your business and often has nothing to do with you. you aren’t here to prove anything to anyone but yourself. If there is a part of your life where you feel you have succeeded, then that’s good enough.
There are no medals at the end.
So many work so hard to try to achieve super success status only to realize there are no medals, no awards and even if there are, often the novelty wears off after a while anyway, only to discover they worked so hard and missed out on a lot of life. Don’t kill yourself trying to a success story. In the end, it’s not worth it.
State of happiness is success too.
If you are happy with your job, your family, your life and everything in general, you have reached success. You don’t have to be rich or have a famous spouse or anything to that effect. Happiness is success. Somewhere along the way, you reached a point where life is good.
If you lose it, you can have it back.
Let’s just say, by some slim chance, something happened and you lost everything that signified success to you. It’s ok. Any step back is only temporary. As long as you check yourself, see what went wrong, pick up the pieces and start back up again, you are going to be ok. Everything is temporary.
Keep your ego at bay.
So let’s say you are financially successful. Don’t be a mean successful person. There are many. Money and greed have consumed them and they no longer know compassion or what it’s like to be a caring person. Don’t let that happen to you. Stay true to who you are and who you were before you became financially successful.
Lift others up.
Being successful wasn’t handed to you and probably was a lot of hard work. There were probably a handful of people that helped you achieve your success, in whatever method you have it. Don’t forget to help others too. We all start somewhere and we all need a helping hand. Pay it forward.
Be grateful.
Don’t take your success for granted. Remember to always to be grateful for all you have and how you get there. Also don’t forget the hard work it took to get there and the people who helped you get there. No matter what, be in a state of gratitude. Always.
Success is a beautiful thing but so is gratitude and appreciation. Enjoy your success with an open heart, open arms and an open mind.
The European Space Agency's vizualisation of space debris orbiting Earth. Image Courtesy of "Are We Human" / 3. Istanbul Tasarim Bienali
The 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, which will officially open on the 22nd October 2016 and last for four weeks, will ask the question: Are We Human? Encompassing a wide range of ideas related to The Design of the Species, from timeframes of 2 Seconds to 2 Days, 2 Years, 200 Years and 200,000 Years, the international show will revolve around one pressing provocation: that design itself needs to be redesigned. It will do so by exploring the intimate relationship between the concepts of “design” and “humanity.”
Five primary venues—the Galata Greek Primary School, Studio-X Istanbul and Depo in Karaköy, Alt in Bomonti, and the Istanbul Archaeological Museums in Sultanahmet—will house more than 70 projects by designers, architects, artists, historians, archaeologists and scientists from thirteen countries. In order to “rethink design from the very beginning of humanity,” the Biennial will be organised into four overlapping “clouds” of projects: Designing the Body, Designing the Planet, Designing Life, and Designing Time.
According to Deniz Ova, Director of Istanbul Design Biennial, the Biennial will “embrace the city wider than ever. Awaiting us this year is a Biennial that will foster a more intense discussion around its rich content, clustered around a striking theme.” She continues: “We profoundly believe that cultural events have the power to unify and heal; the reason why we are working towards the Biennial with great enthusiasm, together with our participants and our team. With our exhibitions and events we are aiming at creating a space for all our visitors to breathe and think.”
Humans have always been radically reshaped by the designs they produce and the world of design keeps expanding. We live in a time when everything is designed, from our carefully crafted individual looks and online identities, to the surrounding galaxies of personal devices, new materials, interfaces, networks, systems, infrastructures, data, chemicals, organisms, and genetic codes. The average day involves the experience of thousands of layers of design that reach to outer space but also reach deep into our bodies and brains.
Design has become the world and it is what makes the human. It is the basis of social life, from the very first artefacts to the exponential expansion of human capability. But design also engineers inequalities and new forms of neglect. More people than ever in history are forcibly displaced by war, lawlessness, poverty, and climate at the same time that the human genome and the weather are being actively redesigned. We can no longer reassure ourselves with the idea of “good design.” Design needs to be redesigned.
Marshmallow Laser Feast with Analog / Memex. Image Courtesy of "Are We Human" / 3. Istanbul Tasarim Bienali
From the curators. The array of projects presented in the Designing the Body section of the Biennial explores all the different ways in which the human body itself is an artefact that is continually reconstructed, from the unique way our hands work to the latest research on the brain. Designing the Planet presents a series of projects that ask us to rethink the human design of vast territories and ecologies. Designing Life looks at the new forms of mechanical, electronic and biological life that are being crafted. Designing Time presents a new kind of archaeology ranging from the deep time of the very first human tools and ornaments to the ways in which social media allows humans to redesign themselves and their artefacts in as little as 2 seconds.
The Academy Programme
The Biennial will host many exhibitions and projects through the Academy Programme, organised in collaboration with universities from Turkey and abroad. The Academy Programme will include products and ideas created through workshops, competitions and projects by various faculties and departments of the universities in their campuses.
Physician Thomas Klotzkowski cleans Florian Steiner, a doctor for tropical medicine, in Berlin. Image Courtesy of "Are We Human" / 3. Istanbul Tasarim Bienali
Embracing the City with “Creative Districts”
The inhabitants of the city will meet with design not only through the exhibition venues but also with the Creative Districts in the Biennial. The project will bring together the visitors with numerous professionals from small manufacturers and big brands, design and architecture studios in their own working spaces.
Creative Districts is a project in which designers and professionals from related fields in Beyoğlu and its surroundings; Beşiktaş, Şişli, Eminönü, Kuruçeşme and Sarıyer districts will find the opportunity to present their brands in their own neighbourhoods. Design-oriented brands in the city will come to the forefront in their own neighbourhoods with the project that will be experienced as a part of everyday life. Through works that will be presented within the scope of the project, the Biennial will integrate into the whole of the city and create an environment in which the phenomenon of design will be visible. Various events will also take place on the weekends throughout the Biennial as a part of the Creative Districts programme.
Chinese public health poster depicting the body as a machine (1930). Image Courtesy of "Are We Human" / 3. Istanbul Tasarim Bienali
Design Routes
Design Routes will include visits to several design offices, stores, ateliers, manufacturing sites and architectural buildings in different parts of the city, offering a brand new vision of Istanbul. The Design Routes—exploring, for example, Nişantaşı, Karaköy or Sultanahmet area—will create the opportunity for participants to observe and get information on several disciplines and stages of design.
Results of the Open Call for Video Submissions
Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley invited industrial and graphic designers, architects, artists, film producers, associations, and non-governmental organisations from around the world to submit two minute videos that address the theme Are We Human? posed by the Biennial. An international and interdisciplinary jury consisting of curators Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, Director of Istanbul Film Festival Kerem Ayan, Director of the Storefront for Art and Architecture Eva Franch i Gilabert, artist and film producer Amie Siegel and curator Iván López Munuera evaluated more than 200 videos from 68 cities in 36 countries and selected five videos to be highlighted in the Biennial exhibition and catalogue. The other 141 submitted videos fulfilling the requirements of the Open Call will be presented in a dedicated section within the exhibition itself and will be online on the Biennial website.
The selected videos to be highlighted in the Biennial include:
Alper Raif İpek (Ankara, Turkey)
Dimitris Venizelos (New York, USA)
Görkem Özdemir (Istanbul, Tukey)
Jonathan Hadari, Simona Katsman (Tel Aviv, Israel)
The Biennial will inaugurate a special collaboration with e-flux, a publishing platform and archive for artist projects and curatorial platforms. Superhumanity is the first project by e-flux Architecture, initiated by Nikolaus Hirsch and Anton Vidokle (e-flux) in collaboration with the curators.
Superhumanity will introduce contributions from different fields that respond to the Biennial’s theme by exploring and challenging our understanding of the relationship between concepts of “self” and “design.” It aims to probe the radical implications of the idea that we are and always have been continuously reshaped by the artefacts we shape. These contributions will initially appear online as a series of dispatches circulated by e-flux as well as an installation in the Biennial exhibition, and subsequently as a book. The list of authors includes over fifty writers, scientists, artists, architects, designers, philosophers, historians, archaeologists and anthropologists. Contributions will be published every other day starting mid-September.
Turkey Design Chronology: Two Centuries of Design in Turkey Under Spotlight
Parallel to the theoretical framework of the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, a major chronological inventory is being assembled. It is an attempt to bring together fields such as packaging, graphic design, communication and advertisement, housing, furniture, landscape, industrial buildings, and others which have not been addressed from the perspective of design yet, like lighting, toys, music, ceramics, health or non-governmental organisations, within a time frame starting from the Ottoman Tanzimat reform era (beginning around 1839) until today.
It is an effort to list thresholds, indicate a beginning point in our design history, in the social, spatial, urban or historical sense, so that a platform can be achieved to create fruitful discussions in history writing. Topics are being prepared in the coordination of Pelin Derviş, with the contribution of many people who are experts in their fields. Within this framework, another component of the project entitled Archive of the Ephemeral seeks to become a visual source on objects and spaces, through a collection of family photos and found photographs. This huge group that calls itself Curious Assembly seeks to spark debate and reach others who may partake in these dialogues by highlighting an interconnected selection. To this end, part of Studio-X Istanbul will be turned into a research laboratory during the biennial, and topics highlighted in the chronology will be the focus of a series of events and panels. The events will be organised around provocative “curiosity desks” (mini exhibitions) prepared by the Curious Assembly. Additionally, in parallel to this project, Studio-X Istanbul is establishing a research library of design in Turkey, which will serve as an open source for designers during and after the Biennial.
Fritz Kahn: Man Machine (Edited, 2009). Image Courtesy of "Are We Human" / 3. Istanbul Tasarim Bienali
Sustainability in Fashion Design workshop, with H&M
A workshop entitled Sustainability in Fashion Design was held within the scope of the Biennial, under the sponsorship of H&M, and in collaboration with the Consulate General of Sweden and Swedish Institute. Twenty young designers and students of textile and fashion design attended the workshop held by Hülya Sevindik Özyiğit, H&M’s Global Material Team Business Development Manager, Swedish designer Johanna Törnqwist and Mehtap Elaidi, fashion designer and the President of Turkish Fashion Designers Association. Based on the possibility of fashion to be sustainable and eco-friendly, the workshop encouraged the participants to work in recycled materials only. Designs of the participants will be displayed as an installation curated by Demirden Design, at the Adahan Istanbul Hotel from 12th October through 20th November 2016.
The publications of the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial include a book of reflections on the Biennial’s theme, written by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley and entitled Are We Human?: Notes on the Archeology of Design. It will also serve as a guide for the visitors, including details on the exhibitions and the associated events and a catalogue with texts on all the exhibited projects by the contributors themselves, presentations of the Open Call, Superhumanity and Turkey Design Chronology projects and presentations of the exhibition design, graphic design and social media experiments made in the Biennial.
The exhibitions of the Biennial have been designed by Andres Jacque and his Office of Political Innovation, based in in Madrid. Graphic design has been undertaken by Pemra Ataç, Yetkin Başarır, Özge Güven, Okay Karadayılar, and Sarp Sözdinler. Evangelos Kotsioris is the assistant curator of the project, and the online dimensions have being directed by Iván López Munuera.
Our client asked us to reform an old dovecote in the backyard of his home. We decided to propose a play house for the children and a balneary to serve the pool on the ground floor. The whole family loved the idea.
We look for a way that seemed the main volume is levitating as a tree house but simultaneously it had to be balanced and pure. The idea was that the interior was absent of superfluous elements and were gradually decorated by the works and toys of these children as a reflection of consumer society we are experiencing.
Mirrored panels reflect views of the surrounding gardens around the lower half of this star-shaped office designed by Josep and Gerhard Haumer for a plant nursery near Vienna (+ slideshow). (more…)
Garden Void House is a private home located in Toronto, Canada. Completed in 2016, it was designed by Alva Roy Architects. Garden Void House by Alva Roy Architects: “Garden Void is a single family two story house, including five bedrooms, basement home office, living/dining and kitchen/family room and an enclosed garage space of approximately 4000 sf in total. Meet the Garden Void House From the outside in, is crafted with..
Sig Nordal 