Co.Design

The TWA hotel at JFK is open, and it looks amazing

Data viz is the new branding. Just ask Pentagram’s latest hire

Giorgia Lupi, who specializes in data visualization, joins Pentagram’s New York office as its first partner in seven years. Here’s what she plans to do.

MIT just cracked open an historic time capsule–here’s what was inside

Buried in 1999, the capsule contained the 1992 proposal for the World Wide Web developed by Tim Berners-Lee–and Microsoft’s first product.

I applied for a design job at Google–and turned my interview task into a startup

I didn’t get the job, but the infamous interview task led to much more.

Walmart’s new headquarters ditches cubicles for running trails

It’s enough to convince you to pack up and move to Bentonville, Arkansas.

Learning from late architect I. M. Pei: “Architecture is not fashion”

Pei, who died this week at the age of 102, reshaped cities all over the world, practicing a brand of humane modernism that influenced what many people thought of 20th-century architecture.

How glass skyscrapers took over the world–and why we need to stop building them

Glass architecture is remarkably wasteful. So why is there so much of it?

Social media is an assault on our senses. Now it’s a literal gun, too

This gatling gun fires emoticons at your face, just like Facebook!

What’s an algorithm? Let an avocado explain

Imagine you’re trying to decide which avocado to buy: The mental calculations you’re running about price and ripeness are just like an algorithm.

What the Iron Throne reveals about the hidden history of user-friendly design

The set design of “Game of Thrones” embodies the changing role of design as an expression of privilege, comfort, and authority in the real world, from the middle ages to contemporary life.

Try not to be creeped out by these eerily human portraits of robots

Welcome to the Uncanny Valley.

Nike is launching a guide to sustainability for brands–get it here

“Given the existential threat, no one brand is going to solve it on their own.”

Every American should visit the new Statue of Liberty Museum

It’s 26,000 square feet dedicated to the universal symbol of democracy itself.

Apple and Google should steal these ingenious smartphone concepts

Simple physical gestures could give users more control over the way their smartphones work.

NYC’s brilliant plan to capitalize on land no one else wants

The city–like many others in America–faces a housing crisis and a climate crisis. To figure out how to create 300,000 affordable units over the next decade, it’s turning to architects for help.

Decay by design: These 3D-printed organic plastics naturally decompose

A group at MIT created polymers derived from organic matter, printed by a robot, and shaped by water.

Away, now worth $1.4 billion, may soon be a fashion brand

The fascinating design behind Björk’s otherworldly reverb chamber, on tour now

Fans with tickets to the star’s Cornucopia tour will see her perform inside a cathedral-like chamber, carefully designed to replicate her memories of childhood.

The perfect little black dress now comes in 99 different sizes

Fashion label Laws of Motion overhauls traditional apparel sizing, offering 99 micro-sizes to better fit each body. It debuts with a single sheath dress.