Design & Architecture

This month's I.D. magazine looks at products and concepts that run the gamut from caring for the very young to the very old, with their usual modern sensibility and design eye. In the middle are a couple of pretty interesting sustainability stories. "A is for Adaptable" (page 52) takes a popular idea at TreeHugger -- that adaptable, multi-function design can do more things and solve more problems than conventional, "static" design -- and expands it to a macro level, using an entire school as an example. At the Kuegeliloo primary school, in Zurich (pictured), for example, a 2001 re-design allowed for continual revision and adaptation of the internal structure; none of the meeting and group-room walls are load-bearing, so the buildings' configuration can change and adapt to the changing needs of its inhabitants. Moving along in age, the cover story (page 72, with a Deborah Milner Ecoture dress setting the scene) covers the growing trend in green weddings; Square One organic vodka (available in the TreeHugger store), French Rabbit organic wine and Portovert's wedding carbon calculator all get a mention, but we think they should have checked out our How to Green Your Wedding guide, too. A discussion of the process of aging wouldn't be complete without talking about reproduction, and there's some TreeHugger to be found there, too; the Pronto condom (page 70) is just one of a new generation of devices that incorporate smart design with safe sex (and there are lots more in TreeHugger's How to Green Your Sex Life guide). All in all, the mag shows that intelligently-designed products and thoughtful ideas are not generation-specific, and that there isn't anyone that good design can't help, and that's an idea that we can get behind. ::I.D. magazine