Happy 50th Anniversary for LEGO! Hearing or reading the name LEGO always brings up good memories and puts a smile on my face! During my childhood LEGO was my favourite toy! I could literally play all day with it! Yesterday was the official 50th anniversary of LEGO.
From a business perspective LEGO is a text-book example of a company that successfully transformed itself for the 21st century. Late 90s LEGO seemed to have had its best time. However it managed to blend in and fully adapt internet in its business model. Resulting in the fact that you now can first build your very own artwork online and have it delivered at your house in the famous interlocking bricks!
Furthermore, if you do a really good work in making your own LEGO artwork it can even be put in mass production by LEGO and put up in stores worldwide. LEGO gives you royalties of 5%, which in turn can make you a good living. Building and ordering LEGO bricks online now accounts for 10% of sales. So still loads of potential especially if you take in account the long tail. Building and ordering your very own LEGO artwork online is basically an unlimited supply of LEGO artwork variety.
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Asian cities are in the race to build the boldest and biggest skyscrapers in the world. The region’s economic dynamism ensures the resources needed to make their mark in the 21st century architecture.
Case in point, Asia is already accommodating eleven out of the fifteen largest skyscrapers in the world. European and American architects have targeted Asia as their new playing field for architectural innovation and “wonders”. This movement is not likely to stop and will continue into the next decade since technological advances in construction materials, glass, and building bracings.
The build-up of various monster towers also highlights the rise of Asia’s new economic powerhouses at the capitalistic forefront. China is already putting up five skyscrapers in the current top ten largest buildings in the world.
So the question remains! Is there a casual relationship between the number and height of skyscrapers in a country and its stage of economic development? Are emerging economies using skyscrapers to put themselves on the map of capitalistic countries or as promotion tool in order to gain recognition from the West? All-in-all, I think, at least skyscrapers are providing a country and city more esteem and standing. Conventional wisdom regards stunning skylines as an impression of capitalism and a whirlpool of excitement.
What I know for sure! I love skyscrapers, fabulous skylines, architectural wonders, and Asian cities!
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BusinessWeek’s section “Innovation” features a report on architectural wonders around the world. You now may wonder what Design has to do with business? Well, increasingly “design thinking” (user-centred approach) is becoming the centre of stage to evolve the customer experience. Even during the last World Economic Forum designers were invited to emphasise on the connection between business and design.
Here a short overview of the architectural wonders as highlighted by BusinessWeek:
The prospect of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games have created an explosion of new buildings and dynamic renovations in The City of London.
From times immemorial, Italy is know from its innovative structures, built during ancient times, whose design still inspires plenty of architects. Currently, many high-profile architects are turning their sight on Italy which results in new contemporary architectures across Italy.
As oil reserves are shrinking, Dubai is shifting its focus from an Oil power to a hot spot for tourism. To become a highly attractive tourist destination Dubai is building new breathtakingly architectural tour the forces. Including many world’s first seen architecture as well, such as an underwater luxury resort.
As China climbs up the economic ladder and the Being 2008 Olympics and the 2010 World Expo are in foresight it is steadily working on its appearance before the global audience tunes in during these two events.
More information on business in relation to design is written in the article “The Power of Design” by the FastCompany and “The Creative Corporation” by BusinessWeek. A podcast on this topic can be found here. For now, keep in mind that “design” goes far beyond letterhead.
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In the year 2003 I was visiting Chicago for my first time. Besides the wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and meeting up with all my friends I was dazzled by the city itself. It had a similar magnitude as New York City and moreover Chicago is less chaotic, tons of entertainment, more structured and Chicagoans are really friendly, welcome in the Mid-West. 
Besides that, Chicago emphasised that skyscrapers can be architectonic. Despite others, however, people might say something different on my comparison between NYC and Chicago. Nowadays, Chicago has a new attraction, Millennium Park, and it might be the drop to return to Chicago within a short timeframe.
First planned in 1998 as a way to create new parkland in Grant Park and transform unsightly railroad tracks and parking lots, Millennium Park has evolved into the most significant millennium project in the world.
Located in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe Streets, the 24.5-acre park is an unprecedented centre for world-class art, music, architecture and landscape design, where you can experience everything from interactive public art and ice skating to al fresco dining and free classical music presentations by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. Among the park’s prominent features are the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States; the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; the contemporary Lurie Garden designed by the team of Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel; and Anish Kapoor’s hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture.
Alright, even better, a good friend is living right around the corner of the Millennium Park!
Millennium Park Brochure
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As I will visit Shanghai this summer I was reading upon an article which reflects the China’s current architecture evolvement.
Shanghai, China’s commercial capital is starting to take on the chic of Paris, the sophistication of New York and the futuristic vibes of Tokyo. It already boasts the world’s fastest train (the Maglev that takes eight minutes to run the 30 km from Pudong airport into the city), the longest underwater pedestrian tunnel (under the Huangpu river) and the world’s tallest hotel-the 88-storey Grand Hyatt, complete with the world’s highest swimming pool and longest laundry chute.
Most interesting, it has Xintiandi, a two-hectare (nine-acre) complex of hip restaurants, bars and shops in an open, elegant, low-rise style that cost $170m to develop and is one of the first examples of China preserving its own architecture. Xintiandi’s houses are traditional shikumen (literally “stone gate”) built along narrow alleys that middle-class professionals flocked to for a sense of community and safety, and which made up 60% of the city’s residential housing between the 1880s and the 1940s.
Chinese architecture has rarely been this confident. In the old days, it was strictly governed by the emperor, who imposed restrictions on height, colour and design. Now China has the money and the talent-foreign architects who are now begging to work there, returning Chinese and home-grown graduates-to be different.
It is a huge opportunity. The current political system can still command huge resources; for those with government backing, there are few planning restrictions; and given the scale of internal migration-one-third of all Chinese will move into a new home over the next decade-China will be building whole new cities in the coming years. As long as it makes commercial sense, Mr Lo hazards that the mainland may well tear down a lot of the ugly buildings it has thrown up during the past 20 years and start again-which is exactly what happened in Hong Kong. And as their new model, China’s architects could proudly take Shanghai.
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