Rows of metal sun louvres slotted between structural concrete fins help to shade the glazed facade of this university building near Tel Aviv by local architects David S Robins and Dan Price. Read more
In 2017, British news magazine The Economist will move to a new home, leaving behind its iconic home of 52 years, Economist Plaza.
The project represents the first major commission by British duo Alison and Peter Smithson, who would go on to have esteemed careers as champions of the Brutalist style. Located at 22 Ryder Street, not far from Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace, Economist Plaza marked a significant breakthrough in tall building design, replacing the traditional streetfront of a podium and tower design with stairs and a ramp leading to an elevated plaza from which 3 buildings would rise.
Watch the video above to learn the story behind the project, and read more about the legacy the Economist will leave behind, here.
News via the Economist.
Spotlight: Alison and Peter Smithson
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You’re reading 5 Ways to Be Happier in 2017, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
It is my suggestion that there are five thieves that rob us of our happiness. A thief is someone who takes away something that is already yours. In the case of happiness, the thieves are thought patterns and internal filters through which we see the world in a distorted way. They cloud our view of what is true and natural.
In my new book, The Five Thieves of Happiness I name these thieves: control, conceit, coveting, consumption, and comfort.
Control
The first thief is control, the desire to control the outcomes of our life and for things to be different. Happiness is knowing what we can control and accepting what we cannot control. All suffering is resistance to whatever is at any moment.
How to stop the thief:
In each moment surrender to whatever is happening. Control and influence what you can while choosing to accept whatever is at that moment. Accept the hard truths about life.
Remember that it is the craving for things to be different, not the circumstance that robs you of happiness.
Conceit
Conceit is perhaps the single greatest barrier to true contentment and even societal well-being. Conceit if a focus on your small self, on trying to find happiness separate from all other people and things as opposed to in the experience of being one.
How to stop the thief:
Whenever you find yourself obsessing about the story of your life, remind yourself that you are already a part of a larger story. The thief wants you sitting around, staring at your reflection, but there is no happiness to be found there. Building an equitable world that works for all is part of this, if not for moral reasons than for practical ones. Only when all prosper can we all be truly safe and happy.
Coveting
Coveting is the third thief and comes disguised as something harmless or even ambitious in some productive way. Coveting also keeps us from celebrating for others because life becomes a comparison.
How to stop the thief:
Whenever you find yourself asking the mirror on the wall of your subconscious how you compare with others, remember that it is the thief speaking to you. It is lying when it tells that you that life is a contest rather than a journey. Ask instead: Am I being my best self? Also, practice gratitude through daily journaling or simply taking a few minutes to identify three things that you are grateful in that day and one in your life. Each day choose another person and write down three things you want to celebrate for them.
Consumption
Consumption tells us that there is something outside ourselves that we need to achieve happiness, and it tries to hide from us the truth that we can choose it at any moment. Intuitively, of course, we all know
that happiness cannot come from consumption of something because we all know people who appear to “have it all” but are consistently discontent, as well as people who have “next to nothing” and appear to be quite happy.
How to stop the thief:
Whenever you find yourself saying, I will be happy when…or I will be happy if…, stop these thoughts and come back into the inner house where happiness is found. Focus on the choice to be happy now. Challenge the consumer in yourself. Whenever you are tempted to buy something, ask yourself if it will bring any real happiness. The thing itself is not a problem; the belief that it will bring happiness is the issue.
Comfort
The final thief—comfort—is an insidious one. In fact, at first glance it may even appear as a source of happiness rather than a barrier to it. This thief is like a lethargic person on the sofa, TV remote in hand. It wants us to stay on the same channel, in the same comfortable position, stuck in a routine that is not life giving. It does not care about the consequences of this routine, even if the channel we are on is no longer of interest to us or serving our higher needs.
How to stop the thief:
Make a commitment to try one or two new things every week. Vary your routines, from taking a new route on your daily walk to a different dating experience with your partner on a Friday night. Try new areas of learning—it is good for both your mental and physical health. Notice the core comfort patterns of your life. What have you carried from your past that is no longer adaptive to your life today? Identify an important pattern, and take two months to work on noticing how it shows up, then choose to ride in another direction.
Take The Five Thieves of Happiness quiz to find out what thief is robbing your happiness.
Dr John Izzo is a corporate advisor, a frequent speaker and the bestselling author of seven books including the international bestsellers Awakening Corporate Soul, Values Shift, The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die, and Stepping Up. His latest book is The Five Thieves of Happiness.
Over the last twenty years he has spoken to over one million people, taught at two major universities, advised over 500 organizations and is frequently featured in the media by the likes of Fast Company, PBS, CBC, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and INC Magazine.
Twitter: @drjohnizzo
LinkedIn: Dr. John Izzo
You’ve read 5 Ways to Be Happier in 2017, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
From the architect. The project involved the rehabilitation of a former boarding school built in the late nineteenth century, in the area of Cerro Alegre in Valparaíso. In a slope and with access to two pedestrian streets, the building is located above the Dimalow promenade overlooking it with its main facade while releasing a backyard towards the Caracoles passage. The property built in masonry and wood, was originally a compact building of two floors, facing north and south while being attached to other buildings on both sides to the east and west.
The condition of the building was good except for some specific places (facade to the south) that were affected by moisture and termites. The entire house had suffered numerous interventions due to its successive uses (housing, boarding school, home for women). The intentions of the project were to accommodate the building for its new purpose while recovering its original character, to improve the living conditions of the property and to improve the relationship of the building with the environment by strengthening the public space. All interventions and changes such as non-original interior subdivisions of the house were removed, leaving only the original structure of floors and walls. A courtyard was opened in the center of the original volume providing light and ventilation to all areas. A new underground level was built accommodating the warehouses, cold storage rooms, technical facilities and rooms for the staff so the rest of the building can be used completely for its main purpose.
In order to form a continuous facade, an urban characteristic of patrimonial neighborhood, the service yard was transformed into a new facade. Dimalow and Caracoles passages are now connected through an axis linking both entrances. The program considered the implementation of a bar-restaurant, exhibition hall, game room, meeting room, conference room, radio and local design store.
It’s after midnight, your friends are donning their scarves and coats, and you’ve had a good time—and maybe a few glasses of boozy eggnog, hard cider, or mulled wine. You search your pockets and find your car keys just where you left them. What’s your next move?
Put the keys away, of course. Last December alone, more than 800 people lost their lives due to drinking and driving accidents, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). During the month of December, nearly one-third of all traffic fatalities involved drinking and driving. And men are more than four times more likely than women to be the alcohol-impaired driver in a fatal car crash.
That’s not to mention: getting pulled over for buzzed driving can cost you around $10,000 in fines, legal fees, and increased insurance rates. So even if you don’t end up physically hurt, drinking and driving can take a serious toll on your financial health.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways to avoid buzzed driving. Plan in advance how you’ll get home safely if you go out to drink this holiday season. Start with a few of these five simple tips.
There are lots of great options now for ride-sharing apps, through both national and local companies, so it’s easy to find something that works for your location and budget. If you’re worried about surge pricing around the holidays, consider a ride-share app specific to your city – these can often be cheaper. Or you can always go with the local cabs – just remember to add them to your contacts in advance, and to carry some cash in case they don’t take cards.
Note that some local transit systems have adjusted or limited holiday hours, so check bus and train schedules before you leave home.
Its simple design is perfect for when you’ve been drinking: when you open the app, three red buttons appear with the options “CALL FRIEND,” “CALL TAXI,” and “WHERE AM I?” A GPS calculates your location, uses Yelp to dial a nearby cab company, and accesses your contacts so someone you trust can come fetch you. As SaferRide’s tagline says, “too drunk to drive means too drunk for complicated apps.”
This is the cheapest and most enjoyable way to stay safe – that is, as long as you decide in advance who will be the designated sober driver. And many local watering holes offer free non-alcoholic drinks for designated drivers, so check for specials before you head out.
If you get in your car after drinking and catch yourself rolling down the windows for fresh air to stay alert, you should get out of the driver’s seat entirely. Or if you tell yourself you’re “okay to drive” but start making plans to take back roads to avoid cops, that’s a sure sign you shouldn’t be on the road. Why take the risk at all? Don’t sacrifice your safety or your money this holiday season.
See Also: Binge Drinking and Big Horsepower: Reasons Why Alcohol And Fast Cars Are A Deadly Combo
For more inspiration, watch this clever new PSA from our campaign with the Ad Council.
Also, check out NHTSA’s new virtual experience, Last Call 360, through which visitors are able to interact with virtual bar patrons, play games, watch videos, and discover the consequences of drinking and driving. And finally, share this holiday graphic on your social media pages and help keep your friends safe.
You can find more holiday graphics on HERE.
Remember: Family. Friends. Presents. Pie. Those are all great reasons to drive sober this holiday season.
The post 5 Seriously Easy Ways to Get Home Safe from Your Holiday Party appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
The key to engineering wood strong enough to support skyscrapers may lie in the interaction between molecules 10,000 times narrower than the width of a human hair.
A new study by researchers at the Universities of Warwick and Cambridge has solved a long-held mystery of how key polymers in plant cells bind to form strong, indigestible materials such as wood and straw. By recreating this ‘glue’ in a lab, engineers may be able to produce new wood-based materials that surpass current strength capabilities.
The discovery lies in the bond between the Earth’s two most common polymers, cellulose and xylan, both of which are found in the cell walls of wood. For some time, scientists have pondered how xylan, a long, winding polymer coated in ‘decorations’ of sugar and other molecules, could adhere to the thicker, rod-like cellulose molecules.
“We knew the answer must be elegant and simple,” explained research lead Professor Paul Dupree from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. “And in fact, it was. What we found was that cellulose induces xylan to untwist itself and straighten out, allowing it to attach itself to the cellulose molecule. It then acts as a kind of ‘glue’ that can protect cellulose or bind the molecules together, making very strong structures.”
The scientists believe this understand may have a dramatic effect on wood-related industries such as paper and biofuel production by greatly reducing the amount of energy required for their processes to occur, as well as allow for innovation that could create stronger engineered-wood materials.
With timber-framed skyscrapers already appearing around the world, these new materials could potentially solidify wood as the standard for tall building construction for years to come.
Learn more about the discovery, here.
News via Phys.org.
Timelapse: The Construction of the World’s Tallest Timber Tower
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SOM’s Timber Tower System Successfully Passes Strength Testing
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The Compact Wooden City: A Life-Cycle Analysis of How Timber Could Help Combat Climate Change
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The Schmiedhof Alm Restaurant lies in the exclusive Zell am See Ski region of Austria, 1,720 meters above sea level. In the course of a single generation, the new owners of the Schmiedhof Alm have managed to create one of the finest restaurants in the area. In an effort to make the restaurant truly world class, a complete renovation of the old building was required. The Architecture was an integral part of the new, innovative gastronomic concept. Providing an atmosphere that invites the Skiers and diners to linger and enjoy their time. A stark contrast to the mass production facilities commonly found in Ski resorts.
The appearance of the new building combines traditional style with a strong contemporary architectural influence. The concept is based around the careful addition of volumes in a range of forms: a classically styled timber ski hut with a pitched roof was placed on top of the existing basement. The additional monolithic concrete element, binds the building to the surrounding mountains.
The perforation or openings of the building followed two basic principles: The windows of the concrete basement level and the monolith were pressed inwards to intensify the immense sense of mass of these elements. In contrast, the panoramic windows of the timber construction are pushed outwards, as if parts of the inside are trying to peer out. The resulting booths offer a unique view of the ‘Grossglockner’ mountain.
The food and drink service takes place in the elongated timber structure as well as in the outdoor terraced area, each supporting up to 200 skiers at once. With the innovative service of the introduced Ski-Drive-In quality dining is also made available for price conscious customers. For customers, the column-free guest area provides and open feel, with easy access to all areas. Window seats and careful partitions enhance the homely feeling, encouraging guests to take their time and enjoy the views. The use of exposed timber beams, interspersed with a sound absorbing lattice, further adds to this feeling despite the restaurant being able to accommodate many guests at once.
Snow coats the Grand Canyon in this gorgeous winter photo from a few years ago. For spectacular views of this geologic wonder, take Desert View Drive – a scenic 25-mile route on the South Rim of Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park. Photo from Pipe Creek Vista by Jeremy Evans (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
Sig Nordal 