 |
|
|
|||||
A new 3D-printed construction technique turns corn into a novel building material. Corncretl is a biocomposite made from corn waste known as nejayote that’s rich in calcium. It’s dried, pulverized, and mixed with minerals, and the resulting material is applied using a 3D printer. [Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura] This corn-based construction material was made by Manufactura, a Mexican sustainable materials company, and it imagines a second life for waste from the most widely produced grain in the world. The project started as an invitation by chef Jorge Armando, the founder of catering brand Taco Kween Berlin, to find ways he could reintegrate waste generated by his taqueria into architecture. A team led by designer Dinorah Schulte created corncretl during a residency last year in Massa Lombarda, Italy. “The material combines recycled nejayote derivatives with limestone and Carrara marble powder, connecting pre-Hispanic construction knowledge from Mexico with material traditions from northern Italy,” Schulte tells Fast Company. [Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura] Growing momentum for clean cement alternatives Many sustainable materials studios are researching concrete alternatives. And while corncretl is just in the prototyping stage, food waste has been tested as a potential building material more broadly. Researchers at the University of Tokyo made a construction material it said was harder than cement in 2022 out of raw materials like coffee grounds, powered fruit and vegetable waste, and seaweed. Last year, researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology developed a rammed earth material encased in cardboard, which eliminated the need for cement completely, and Manufactura experimented with building materials made from coffee too. Designers have turned to 3D printers to build everything from train shelters to houses, and developing alternative materials to print with could lead to cheaper, more durable, and more sustainable construction methods. [Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura] After Schulte’s team developed corncretl, they then moved to practical application, prototyping three panels for modular construction using a Kuka robotic arm. “The project employs an internal infill structure that allows the 3D-printed wall to be self-supporting, eliminating the need for external scaffolding during fabrication,” Schulte says, and the geometry of the system was inspired by terrazzo patterns found in the Roman Empire, particularly Rimini, Italy, where the team visited. [Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura] “During a visit to the city museum, we were struck by the expressive curved terrazzo motifs, which became a starting point for translating historical geometries into a contemporary, computationally designed 3D-printed wall, culturally rooted yet forward-looking,” she says. [Photo: Dinorah Schulte/Manufactura] Corn, or maize, is native to Mexico, and the country produces 27 million metric tons of it annually, according to the Wilson Center, a think tank. Finding an alternative use for nejayote, then, could then turn a waste stream from a popular food into the basis for building physical structures. If the byproduct from cooking tortillas proves to be one such source, taquerias could one day find themselves in the restaurant and construction businesses.
Category:
E-Commerce
Trump’s latest plans for a White House annex could subtly reshape the path around the South Lawn, and its resulting irregularity says a lot about the Administration’s capacity for design nuance. The latest renderings for a new proposed building on the site of the demolished East Wing were briefly posted to the National Capital Planning Commission website on February 13, and then deleted. The plans call for a ballroom much bigger than the rest of the White House. So big, in fact, that it ruins the shape of the South Lawn driveway. [Image: NCPC] Under the proposal, a new garden would cover the site of the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, which was demolished alongside the East Wing last year, while a roughly 22,000-square-foot ballroom would jut out ever so slightly into the path of the looping driveway that encircles the most famous backyard in the U.S. [Image: NCPC] The elongated oval drive would then have to be pushed in on one side to accommodate the footprint of the enlarged ballroom, like the side view of an spherical exercise ball under pressure. Rather than maintain the intentional harmony of the current drive, the proposed path turns the South Lawn into a deferential design afterthought that makes way for Trump’s dream ballroom. In the grand scheme of Trump’s presidencyand the White House’s overall facadea rerouted driveway is a minor thing. But the effect on this subtle element reflects the lengths his team will go to shoehorn his design ideas into reality, even if it means upsetting core design principles like balance elsewhere. Gold-obsessed, unless it’s the golden ratio Of course, nothing about Trump’s proposed ballroom has ever been symmetrical, nor have any of his other White House design projects been particularly subtle. He started by tearing out the Rose Garden and putting a car lot-sized flag poll on the North Lawn and then got to work tearing down portions of the White House before anyone could okay it or say no. Trump replaced the original architect for the ballroom in December after clashes over its size. A National Park Service report last year found the plans would “disrupt the historical continuity of the White House grounds and alter the architectural integrity of the east side of the property.” [Image: NCPC] The latest proposed elevations for the ballroom, which were designed by Shalom Baranes Associates, a Washington, D.C., architectural firm, are more than twice the size of the since-demolished East Wing. The drafted design gives the White House complex the look of a male fiddler crab, which has one claw that’s bigger than the other. The planned ballroom dwarfs the West Wing in sheer footprint, which would make the overall visual balance of the White House grossly asymmetrical upon its completion. Heightwise, however, the building appears in the renderings to rise about as tall as the Executive Mansion itself, and the proposal takes great pains to show that it won’t be visible from various vantage points in Washington, D.C., like from the Jefferson Memorial or from the U.S. Capitol steps facing northwest. The building is designed with a neoclassical facade, Corinthian columns, and a wide staircase entrance, matching the call for classical architecture Trump asked for in an executive order. [Image: NCPC] Fine arts fueled by cash, but not the arts Construction of the ballroom will be paid for by corporate donors, raising thorny ethical questions for a president who once claimed to “drain the swamp.” Two-thirds of known corporate donors to the ballroom have received $279 billion in government contracts over the past five years. Some donors, including Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and T-Mobile are facing federal enforcement actions, according to a review from Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. [Image: NCPC] Earlier this month, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found that many donors failed to disclose their contributions in lobbying disclosure filings. Trump has taken steps to remove friction or opposition to his plans to build the new building. Last October, he fired every member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts board, the agency that would have reviewed his construction plans. Now, his 26-year-old executive assistant Chamberlain Harris, who has no background in the arts, is set to be named to commission Thursday, according to The Washington Post.
Category:
E-Commerce
The pressure to adopt AI is relentless. Boards, investors, and the market tell us that if we dont, well be left behind. The result is a frantic gold rush to implement AI for AIs sake, leading to expensive pilots, frustrated teams, and disappointing ROI. The problem is that were treating AI like a magic wanda one-size-fits-all solution for any problem. But true transformation comes from strategically applying it where it can make the most impact. This is the AI sweet spot, where the real competitive advantage lies. Its not about having the most advanced AI, but about having the right AI, applied to the right problems, with the right people. Here are five ways to find it. 1. Start with Your Biggest Bottleneck, Not Your Biggest Budget Many organizations fall into the trap of allocating their AI budget to the department that shouts the loudest. Its a recipe for wasted resources. Instead of asking, Where can we spend our AI budget? ask, Where is our biggest organizational bottleneck? Identify the most time-consuming, repetitive processes in your company. Is it the hours your marketing team spends on pre-meeting research? The manual data entry bogging down your finance department? These pain points are your starting line. For example, one company I worked with found their sales team was spending over five hours preparing for a single client meeting. By implementing an AI agent to handle the research and data compilation, they reduced that prep time by 87%, saving nearly $300,000 a year in productivity costs. The AI wasnt flashy, but it solved a real, costly problem. Thats a sweet spot. 2. Ask ‘Will This Enhance or Replace?’ The quickest way to kill an AI initiative is to make your employees feel threatened by it. When people hear AI, they often think job replacement. This fear breeds resistance and undermines adoption. As a leader, your job is to reframe the conversation from replacement to augmentation. Before implementing any AI tool, ask a simple question: Will this technology enhance our teams capabilities, or simply replace a human function? The sweet spot is almost always in enhancement. Think of AI not as a new employee, but as a tireless intern or a brilliant colleague for every member of your team. It can handle the grunt work, analyze massive datasets, and surface key insights, freeing up your people to do what they do best: think critically and make strategic decisions. When your team sees AI as a partner that makes their jobs better, they will champion its adoption. 3. Build Trust Before You Build the Tech We dont use tools we dont trust. If your team doesnt understand how an AI system works or why it makes certain recommendations, they will find workarounds to avoid using it. Trust isnt a feature you can add later; it has to be the foundation of your implementation strategy. This starts with creating a culture of psychological safety, where employees feel safe to ask questions and even challenge the AI. Be transparent. Explain what the AI does, what data it uses, and where its limitations are. Appoint human oversights for critical processes, ensuring that a person is always in the loop for high-stakes decisions. In my work, I use the framework 13 Behaviors of Trust, and it applies as much to AI as it does to people. An AI system earns trust when it is competent (delivers results) and has character (operates with integrity). Without that trust, even the most powerful AI is just expensive code. 4. Tie Every AI Initiative to a Business Goal Exploring AI capabilities is not a business strategy. Too many AI projects exist in a vacuum, disconnected from the companys core objectives. If you cant draw a straight line from your AI initiative to a specific goallike increasing customer retention or reducing operational costsyou shouldnt be doing it. Before you approve any AI project, map it directly to your companys OKRs or strategic pillars. How will this tool help us achieve our vision? How does it support our mission? This forces a level of discipline that prevents you from chasing shiny objects. It ensures that your AI strategy is not an isolated IT function, but an integral part of your overall business strategy. AI that doesnt align with your core purpose will always be a cost center. AI that does becomes a powerful engine for value creation. 5. Create Space for Learning, Not Just Execution Leaders often expect an immediate, seamless return on their AI investment. But there is no magic switch. Successful adoption requires moving your team from a zone of comfort, through the uncertainty of fear, and into zones of learning and growth. This takes time and patience. Dont just budget for the technology; budget for the learning curve. Create sandboxes where teams can experiment with new AI tools without fear of failure. Celebrate the small wins and the lessons learned from missteps. The organizations that are truly winning with AI arent the ones that got it perfect on day one. They are the ones that fostered a culture of continuous learning, empowering their employees to adapt and grow. The long-term ROI from an empowered, AI-fluent workforce will far exceed any short-term gains from a rushed implementation. Finding your AI sweet spot is less about technology and more about psychology, strategy, and culture. Its about shifting your focus from what AI can do to what it should do for your organization and your people. Stop chasing the AI hype and start solving your real-world business problems. Thats where youll find the lasting advantage.
Category:
E-Commerce
The 2026 Milan-Cortino Winter Olympics is set to debut a new sport: ski mountaineering, also known as skimo. Over the course of two days at the Stelvio Ski Centre located in Bormio, Italy, 36 athletes will compete in three main events: mens sprints, womens sprints, and mixed relay. The race is part endurance and speed, as typical skimo competitions feature athletes racing against each other as they ascend uphill with support of climbing skins before skiing downhill. The Winter Olympics version, however, differs in format. This version compresses the competition into a roughly three-minute race. Each leg of a skimo race requires its own specialized equipment. And that equipment matters. Who wins and loses in skimo is often a matter of milliseconds, determined during the transitions between the three distinct moments of the race: ascent, boot-packing (mountaineering), and descent. Thats where a 76 year-old German company comes in. Dynafit created the DNA Sprint Collection, a six-product line engineered specifically for the Olympic stage that 11 out of 36 athletes will use during the competition. The remaining athletes will use similar equipment provided by different brands in line with the International Ski Mountaineering Federations (ISMF) requirements. [Photo: Owen Crandall/courtesy Dynafit] Dynafits Design Philosophy A typical skimo competition features rough, high alpine terrain and harsh, snowy conditions that are physically demanding on athletes. To maneuver this challenging terrain, athletes rely on gear such as skis, boots, poles, gloves, backpacks (to hold equipment while transitioning from one part of the race to the other), crampons (a spike attachment for athletes boots to grip onto ice while on foot), and avalanche gear. All of this gear is specifically designed to be lightweight to assist athletes in navigating the challenging, mountainous terrain. Historically, Dynafit is known for pioneering the boots and tech binding (a mechanism that lets athletes lift their heel while climbing uphill and lock into place to descend downhill) critical for performing the sport. Now, as the dominant brand in the $1.24 billion skimo equipment market, the company produces a range of products, including helmets, race suits, boots, skis, and skins, for the casual and elite skier. [Photo: Dynafit] The biggest challenge in our development [is] to find the balance between weight and safety, says Manuel Aumann, Dynafits Operations and R&D Director Bindings. Aumann explains that the company has an abundance of testing experience to ensure their products durability and safety. We have to save every gram . . . but also [deliver] high safety products, explains Aumann. [For] every 100 grams you save on your boot or the ski, or on the binding, you could carry seven times more weight on the backpack. For our customers and for the athletes, [that] pushes them to the next level. [Photo: Owen Crandall/courtesy Dynafit] Re-Thinking Skimo Designs This will not be the first time that skimo qualifies as a Winter Olympic sport. Between 1924 and 1936, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) included skimo in the Winter Games but later discontinued it in part due to its dangerous nature. Then in July 2021, the IOC unanimously approved skimos inclusion in the 2026 Winter Olympics. For the occasion, Dynafit developed a unique line specific for the Olympics, including skis, bindings, poles, gloves, and backpacks. Creating a line of products to help elevate athletes performance involved a two-step process. First, in 2022, Dynafit hosted an international summit with 25 of its sponsored athletes to curate their feedback on equipment constraints. That input served as the foundation for the company’s four-year process from the redesign to market availability of its specialty product line. [Photo: Dynafit] Aumann and his team dissected the Olympic format to inform their design process. The Olympic race focuses on sprint races. Athletes will be required to complete an uphill ascent on skis, transition into a short bootpacking section, then transition again for a downhill descent. This race format requires fast transitions between each phase. The two minutes 30, you can split [in] time slots, says Aumann. The rough estimation [is] two minutes for the uphill and 30 seconds for the downhill. We got into the analysis of where we an have the most benefit if we change something. The team determined that the first half of the race, involving the ascent with skis and the transition where athletes remove their skis and place them into their backpacks just before continuing onto bootpacking (a foot race on skis with the assistance of poles), would yield the most benefit. The Dynafit team learned that while most of the new product line required minimal adjustments, their skis and bindings would require significant design alterations. [Photo: Dynafit] The handling operations, they’re quite important on this high level, explains Aumann. It’s really about the second[s] they can save during [these] transitions. The rough alpine terrain of a standard skimo competition requires skis to have increased skiability, meaning they are carved and built for those conditions in order for athletes to make safe turns. Since the Olympics course will have smoother slopes with fewer steep curves and banked turns to help athletes, it allows skis to have less skiability. In other words, the skis do not need to be optimized for tough terrains, allowing Aumann and his team to focus on narrowing the ski-waist from 64 mm to 61 mm. With this [slimmer] ski, we could save weight, says Aumann. While a traditional race touring ski weighs 690 grams, the altered ski weighs only 650 grams. Another benefit of this slimmer version of the ski, particularly its narrower tail, is that it allows athletes to better handle transitions. For instance, when athletes move from skiing uphill to bootpacking, they must quickly loop their skis onto their backpack for the foot race and then later unhook them for the descent downhill. Ultimately, this design change is intended to help athletes shave off incremental seconds, which is critical in a sprint where every tenth of a second counts. [Photo: Dynafit] Further, during the uphill transition from skis to bootpacking (the foot race), athletes will need to release themselves from their ski bindings, where steel pins meet the boot inserts to secure the boots within the binding. Then on the descent portion of the course, athletes need to step back into their ski bindings. The act of stepping in and out of skis presented additional time-saving opportunities and speed optimization. Aumann and his team made three key design changes to their fully aluminum, binding product. [Photo: Dynafit] What we did is to really make [the grip zone], where the athlete can grab, wider,” explains Aumann. [The athletes] don’t have to look down, but can grab it in a very easy way without looking. The team widened the grip zone for the heel piece as well as the locking lever of the binding. Providing athletes with a larger grip zone surface allows athletes to use one hand to release their boots from the binding, saving at least a few tenths of a second. Lastly, the team redesigned its ski race stoppers, a safety feature required by the ISMF. Generally, standard ski touring stoppers deploy a small metal arm, or wire, into the snow to slow the ski if an athlete loses it or releases from the binding. According to Aumann, each stopper includes a plastic cap at the end to help it grip and fix into the snow. While a traditional alpine ski touring stopper features sharp contours and edges that can easily snag on a loop in an athletes backpack, Dynafits re-designed stopper lacks these features. [Photo: Dynafit] Rather, the team modified the transition point where the plastic cap meets a metal wire by creating a smooth, rounded curve surface. By rounding out the curve, the updated design reduces the risk of catching onto other surfaces while improving overall reliability, all without adding weight. The modified race stopper alone weighs just 30 grams, compared to the 70 to 100 grams typical of standard touring models. Another important aspect of the redesign is that the stopper automatically retracts when athletes switch to the descend/downhill model, eliminating an additional step for manual adjustment. Aumann acknowledges that this design process helped accelerate a trend already happening across the industry. As the sport has grown in the past couple of years, manufacturers have increasingly considered tradeoffs rather than focusing solely on making lighter products. Within the last two years that [has] changed, says Aumann. Perfect handling of the products [is] a very high priority. So, it is [acceptable] to have a product with a few [more] grams if the handling is better and can save time. Dynafit has already begun incorporating these design tweaks into its commercial products.
Category:
E-Commerce
Most leaders understand their message needs to define exactly who their work is for. Fewer realize that it should also define who it’s not for. Fewer still realize that their message is unintentionally excluding some of the very people they want to attract. Effective messaging repels on purpose. Careless messaging excludes by accident. And for leaders, knowing the difference can make or break your organizations credibility. REPEL TO ATTRACT The idea of intentionally turning away potential customers can make leaders uncomfortable. It seems counterintuitive, even reckless, to deliberately shrink your total addressable market when youre trying to grow. But trying to message to everyone can come at a high cost, resulting in: Misaligned employees. People who dont share your organizations values may become unhappy and disengaged, ultimately eroding your culture and reputation. Wrong-fit customers. Theyll never be satisfied with what wasnt designed for them, leading to negative reviews, returns, and reputation damage. Wasted resources. Messaging too broadly can result in additional expenses, from advertising to (and trying to convert) a larger pool of prospects, all the way through to customer service. The costs of attracting the wrong audience compound over time, while organizations with the deepest loyalty are often the ones explicitly saying this wasnt created for you. Two particularly effective ways to do this are through values-based declarations and explicit audience definition. Values-based repelling involves taking a strong public stance on the ideas that matter most to your brand, effectively filtering out those who dont share those values. When Patagonia launched their edgy Dont Buy This Jacket campaign with a full-page ad in the New York Times on Black Friday, they werent just making a statement about overconsumption; they were signaling to impulse buyers and fast-fashion hunters that Patagonia isnt for them. It was a bold expression of this is what we stand for, and this is what we dont. Meanwhile, explicit audience definition expresses who an organization stands for. Basecamp takes this approach by saying: We are for this group. We are not for that group. This builds community and loyalty by creating a small business Us (We stand with the underdogs. Freelancer? Underfunded non-profit? Small team feeling stuck in a large enterprise? Start-up battling established competitors? Youre our people.) versus a big business Them (Theyre slow. Theyre conservative. They talk too much. Theyve stopped taking risks. Theyre resting on their laurels, gliding on their reputation.) dynamic that makes their ideal customers feel seen and understood. So when does repelling cross over from good to badand is it possible to repel too much? In many cases, it’s not a matter of degree (turning the repelling dial up or down), but of intentionality. Often, the smallest details create unexpected barriers. Seemingly minor messaging decisions, invisible to internal teams who know what they meant to say, can alienate the very people youd like to attract. BARRIERS YOU DIDNT MEAN TO BUILD Every message draws a line: inviting some in, leaving others out. The risk is when that line is invisible to you but glaringly obvious to your audience. Strategic narrowing is, by definition, intentional. You decide whoand only whoyoure speaking to and why, shaping your message around what will resonate most. Careless narrowing happens when you filter people out by default through assumptions, jargon, stereotypes, unconscious bias, or unclear values. This type of exclusion isnt deliberate. Its built into the words we use, the assumptions we make, and the systems we design. It often feels harmless in the moment; after all, you didnt mean to exclude anyone. But messaging missteps stack up, often in ways we dont see until its too late.And when a message ends up alienating the very people youre trying to reach, it can undermine everything youre building: your team, your customers, and your reputation. Unintentional exclusion carries real costs: 1. Talent loss Talented candidates self-select out because they dont see themselves reflected in your language, imagery, or values, leaving roles harder to fill. Current employees who feel overlooked or alienated disengage, and that disengagement can wreak havoc on your culture. This shows up in a number of quiet ways, for example: A company says it values a diverse workforce but schedules events on days that are major holidays for some employees. A strong candidate doesnt apply because the job description uses jargon or must-haves that dont actually matter. Company headquarters are accessible by public transport but the company offsite is not. Leadership talks a big game when it comes to its global perspective, but every quarter the big all-hands meeting is only live in US time zones. 2. Missed growth Customers who dont see themselves in your story wont buy in. People who could have been strong advocates never consider your product because the way you described it suggested it wasnt for them. This shows up in many ways: Product positioning that assumes sameness. Parenting apps marketed for busy moms can unintentionally exclude dads, grandparents, or other caregivers who share the same challenges. Language that creates barriers. A landing page filled with jargon can leave first-time buyers feeling shut out rather than invited in. Product design with hidden friction. An app that assumes constant high-speed internet excludes rural users. Low-contrast color palettes exclude those with low vision. Visuals that signal who belongs. When websites or ads feature only one demographic, they subtly suggest others arent welcome, even if they are part of the intended audience. Peloton learned this the hard way. An early campaign centered on ultra-fit people in luxury apartments projected an elite, upper-class image that excluded people who werent wealthy and who represented a wider range of body types. The campaign also came under fire for portraying a sexist dynamic. While the intent was to be inspirational and aspirational, it didnt take into account where many of its potential customers were starting out, and it wasnt aligned with Pelotons founding goal of democratizing fitness. The brand smartly course-corrected in 2023 with new messaging and ethos, emphasizing fitness offerings for all ages, levels, and walks of life. 3. Damaged credibility Beyond costing you poential customers and engaged employees, accidental exclusion damages how the broader market perceives your brand. When your companys behavior contradicts your stated mission or core values, stakeholders notice the gap between what you claim to stand for and what your words and actions actually signal. The resulting erosion of trust can be imperceptible until it turns into a full-blown reputation crisis. Once trust is lost, its difficult to win it back. The difference between strategic and careless narrowing is intention and awareness: one sharpens your message, the other shrinks your reach. The result is always the same: qualified candidates opt out, customers conclude “not for me,” and stakeholders lose trust. You didnt choose a nicheyou just made yours significantly smaller. HOW TO REPEL, NOT EXCLUDE People are highly attuned to language. They notice whos acknowledged and whos overlooked, especially when its them. In a crowded market, intentional communication determines whether you expand opportunity or reinforce barriers. Inclusive messaging doesnt mean trying to be everything to everyone. It means being deliberate about the language you use and the lines you draw so the right people feel welcomed in, not left out. To avoid missteps, regularly pause to ask: Who might this message unintentionally exclude? Are we relying on assumptions that not everyone shares? Does our language and imagery draw people in or push them away? Build guardrails into your processes throughout your organization: Choose words and imagery carefully. Intentionally repel those who are not ideal customers or employees, but incorporate safeguards and checks to make sure youre not using language or visuals that unintentionally exclude. When creating a customer avatar, consider relying less on demographics and more on psychographics. What are their attitudes, values, and interests? Consider how your message might land differently based on someone’s lived experience, perspective, and motivations. Run language and formatting through an inclusivity check, test job posts with employees from different backgrounds, and test brand copy with focus groups who have different points of view and lived experience. When diverse perspectives are considered, accidental exclusion decreases. The business case is clear: employees are attracted and retained, brand messages land with the right audience, and teams better identify products and services for a broader customer base. According to a BCG study, companies with more diverse leadership boast 19% higher innovation revenue. And McKinsey finds that companies with diverse leadership teams are 39% more likely to outperform their peers financially. Make checking for accidental exclusion and unintended barriers a regular practice. Invite perspectives from people who don’t look, think, or work like you. Brands that do this consistently don’t just avoid costly mistakesthey build stronger cultures, retain better talent, attract the right customers, and gain credibility that lasts.
Category:
E-Commerce
Sites : [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] next »