LAist points us to a commendable urban redevelopment project now underway in Hollywood. The intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gordon Street is home to a drab parking lot and an unused half acre grassy field. A coalition of neighborhood residents have come together to reclaim this wasted detritus and transform it into a park. They want to breathe life back to the area and create a vital hub for the community to gather. Drivers have not been forgotten either. The existing parking lot is to be relocated underground, and the park will sit on top.

[via LAist]

Since the coining of the term masstige, a combination of the words mass and prestige, we have seen luxury for the masses range from Louis Vuitton handbags to a Starbucks Frappuccino. In this fast-changing aspirational society, the definition of luxury is constantly evolving and taking new forms. To get a peep inside the future of high-end, we spoke with Marco Bevolo, a Director at Philips Design, who was a pioneer in the creation of CultureScan, an ongoing trend forecasting research project investigating cultures, aesthetics and design at the regional and global level. He serves on a number of extra-curricular advisory boards in art foundations and non-profits, and is also a co-author of the upcoming book “Platinum by Design” (provisional title) which provides an insightful look into the future of High End and is set for publishing by Wharton School Publishing this year.

The book focuses on the intersection of social trends, designer visions and an in-depth understanding of human behaviors. Its unique future insights are validated by over seventy interviews with key opinion leaders and experts including: Markus Langes Swarovski, Member of the Board, Swarovski (Wattens, Austria); Scott Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Morgans Hotel Group; Nick Compton, Features Editor, Wallpaper Magazine; Roland Heiler, Director of Design, Porsche Design (Austria), among others. We are very grateful to Marco Bevolo for shedding light on five luxury related questions.

1) What do you consider to be the future of high-end and how do you see its evolution?

There are several directions, and they will all overlap more or less, depending on the particular region or even country. Two key directions are sustainability and limited editions. Sustainability, sustainability, sustainability: as Lexus has been teaching to the world, here lies the greatest opportunity to do well by doing good.

Limited editions, special editions, items for collections: from Muji to vintage couture, the world of art sampling and collecting will be a reference, as the artifact will become a centre of emotional focus.

2) Which categories will be most impacted by the evolution of high end?

High End will be pervasive, some of the most relevant categories will be: wellness, well being and physical balance, down to preventive healthcare solutions; urban development and city design: think of the re-qualification of advanced economy countries and of BRIC new cities; interior design, even more than it is nowadays - you can bet 2009 Salone del Mobile in Milan will beat the 2008 visitors’ record.

3) How will this impact global capitals and other cities?

We see cities as crucial to the High End and its evolution in the near future, as they will be the engine and the core engine of future lifestyles. In the particular area of urban futures, our book leveraged precious sources, from Hakuhodo’s Global Habit survey on more than 30 cities worldwide, and the consumption dynamics there, to the Philips Design future research project, featuring contributors like Richard Rogers, Richard Meier, Robert Venturi, and more. Key cities in the adoption of High End solutions will be the leading metropoleis in the world, from Tokyo to Sao Paulo, from Shanghai to the New European capitals. Also very important to the definition of future High End, new “cultural capitals”, like Miami, Basel or Turin. Here, the new will emerge from the combination of strong regional traditions with new stimuli: just think of Turin and its Slow Food movement, or Miami/Basel and its consolidated role in the whole DesignArt movement.

4) What are some product examples that illustrate the direction of high end?

I would suggest two examples. The first is the “Active Crystals” line by Philips Swarovski, with its heart-shaped USB key: a true re-discovery of the more anthropological meaning of the word: “memory”. Secondly, the “mother of all High End”, the FIAT 500 - the Italian maker’s come back, and a serious challenge to the Mini’s of this segment.

Both products are the expression of authentic emotions, highly curated aesthetics and new ways to apply technology for people. And all of them combine mass appeal with beauty, and high margins with great distribution.

5) What have you personally found most inspiring about this research?

The opportunity to meet and engage in deep conversations with the likes of Markus Langes-Swarovski, Concetta Lanciaux, Mark Dunhill and the more than seventy experts who contributed to the project proved a unique chance to discover the world of luxury and High End, first hand. Secondly, the opportunity to work with our research partners and co-authors, to create new synergies between journalistic interviewing and statistic analysis, in one continuum. To elaborate, the qualitative incorporated a journalistic tone of discussion, though the questionnaires were unified and calibrated as for every Deplhi future study. In continuity, future projections were extracted with the statistic methodology of RDE (Rule Developing Experimentation), with more than 500 qualified respondents. We believe we built a methodological system for future studies that offers the highest degree of dialog between qualitative and quantitative research, but I must let the results speak to that. All in all, a huge project that was indeed worth the high effort required.

Philips Design

For more insights and revelations, visit Peep Insights.

This is the kind of city where you can pave over a freeway’s carpool lanes with toll roads, and few will complain. You can propose a 40-story skyrise in the center of Hollywood, and hardly anyone two miles to the west will take notice. You can squander public money, close down the ports and flatten landmarks, and many residents of this sprawling metropolis will simply yawn and move on.

But this is also a food obsessed city with rich Hispanic cultural traditions, and tacos have crossed the miles of road and class divides.

“Taco trucks are iconic here,” said Aaron Sonderleiter, a teacher from the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and one of the petition founders. “You go to one and you see black, people, white people, old people, young people. They really capture a microcosm of L.A.”

Nearly 5,000 people have signed an online petition opposing the new law at saveourtacotrucks.org

NYT: Hungry Angelenos Rally Around the Taco

The subjects of Chaubin’s photographs, scattered throughout Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, were all constructed during the last two decades of the Soviet era. Very few of their designers achieved anything more than local recognition, and until now these buildings have never been collectively documented or exhibited. The authors of many works remain unknown, and some have been destroyed since Chaubin’s photographs were taken. Concieved and executed during a moment of historical transition, they constitute one of the most surprising and least known legacies of the former USSR.

As well as presenting the architecture itself, CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed traces the intellectual and political undercurrents that act as a backdrop, and at times inspiration, for the work of these Soviet architects. The exhibition, a compendium of film stills, drawings, magazine articles and historical timelines, maps out the complex genealogy of this overlooked but compelling chapter in the history of 20th century design.

Frédéric Chaubin in Paris, France. He is editor in chief of the French lifestyle magazine Citizen K.

Conference June 5-6 - Step into the pages of Dwell. The editors are bringing over 50 cutting-edge architects, planners and designers together to explore what’s going on in the modern world. This is a dual-track conference which allows you to mix and match sessions to create your own program. Sessions cover subjects related to Architecture, Planning, Interiors, Landscapes and Products. On Friday the 6th, the exhibition floor is open in the afternoon to all conference attendees for no extra charge.

Exhibition June 7-8 - Experience a unique, hands-on marketplace where attendees can explore modern products and lifestyle exhibits through demonstrations of top products and services inspired by modern design. Stroll through a neighborhood of prefab homes completely landscaped and dressed by Dwell Outdoor. See new products, furnishings and resources available from over 200 exhibitors. Learn how to green your home and work with architects and designers.

Home Tours June 7-8 - Experience Dwell-like homes in LA. Saturday’s tours are of Westside Single Family Homes and on Sunday get an inside view of Downtown urban living.

He was first exposed to graffiti in 1971 in New York, but didn’t start making his own until ten years later in Paris. Inspired by a stenciled portrait he saw of Mussolini amongst some WWII ruins during a trip to Italy, he created a stencil of a life size silhouette of a rat running along the streets. He stenciled the rat for two years and quickly became recognized around Paris. This change marked a monumental break from the dominance of New York’s graffiti style. His method of creating street art changed the face of graffiti and still continues to greatly influence artists around the world; from Shepard Fairey and Banksy, to JayBadbc and Oseas Duarte to the young artist wheat pasting work around town.

His work has since evolved beyond the rat icon and taken on a more serious context. He now uses his art to serve a social cause, to evoke reaction and inspire change. Most recently, he pasted hundreds of posters around Paris of Florence Aubenas, a French journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq, hoping to provoke a reaction from politicians and journalists and aid in her release. This project gained Blek incredible public support, and has encouraged him to continue to use his Street Art as a voice for the less fortunate.

Fella received his MFA in Design from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1987 and since then has devoted his time to teaching and producing his own unique work, which has appeared in many design publications and anthologies. In 1997 he received the Chrysler Design Award and in 1999 an honorary doctorate from CCS in Detroit. His work is in the collections of the National Design Museum, New York and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Fella is the recipient of the 2007 AIGA Medal. He is currently on faculty at CalArts where he has been teaching since 1987.

Originally from Canada, McFetridge received his MFA in Graphic Design at CalArts. His thesis project, Chinatown, won a distinctive merit award from ID magazine. While working as art director for Grand Royal Magazine (1995-1997), McFetridge founded his own design studio, Champion Graphics. He has had solo shows at galleries around the world including Parco Gallery, Tokyo; MU, Eindhoven; and Colette, Paris. His work is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

This exhibition is conceived and organized by Michael Worthington, an award-winning graphic designer, faculty member of CalArts’ School of Art, and alumnus of the CalArts Program in Graphic Design. The exhibition is accompanied by a 240-page color catalogue designed by Worthington with texts by Worthington, Jamer Hunt and an interview with the artists.