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Can you imagine a stage set with just 'hair' as the scenographic backdrop? @constance.guisset creates a multi-media set design with feminine hair as living landscapes. Check out the metaphoric narrative in the ballet la Fresque opening in France tomorrow...

It's extremely rare that we come across built-forms that deliberately yield to the power of the landscape they're set in. Agree? Read about one such modern boathouse, set in a Canadian landscape and leave us your views.

"Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."- John F. KennedyThere's one thing for sure: 2008 isn't anything like politics as usual.The corporate media (with their unerring eye for the obvious point) is fixated on the narrative that, for the first time ever, Americans will likely end this year with either a woman or a black man headed for the White House. Bloggers are telling stories from the front lines of primaries and caucuses that look like something from the early 60s - people lining up before dawn to vote in Manoa, Hawaii yesterday; a thousand black college students in Prairie View, Texas marching 10 miles to cast their early votes in the face of a county that tried to disenfranchise them. In recent months, we've also been gobstopped by the sheer passion of the insurgent campaigns of both Barack Obama and Ron Paul, both of whom brought millions of new voters into the conversation - and with them, a sharp critique of the status quo and a new energy that's agitating toward deep structural change.There's something implacable, earnest, and righteously angry in the air. And it raises all kinds of questions for burned-out Boomers and jaded Gen Xers who've been ground down to the stump by the mostly losing battles of the past 30 years. Can it be - at long last - that Americans have, simply, had enough? Are we, finally, stepping out to take back our government - and with it, control of our own future? Is this simply a shifting political season - the kind we get every 20 to 30 years - or is there something deeper going on here? Do we dare to raise our hopes that this time, we're going to finally win a few? Just how ready is this country for big, serious, forward-looking change?Recently, I came across a pocket of sociological research that suggested a tantalizing answer to these questions - and also that America may be far more ready for far more change than anyone really believes is possible at this moment. In fac

SAOTA dramatizes the form, spatial quality, scale, intimacy and calmness of this plush modern home set against Miami's tropical setting.

Come Mar. 9, 2013, at this year's Typography Day at IIT Guwahati, Adobe's Paul Hunt is all set to promote the new Gurmukhi typeface based on manuscript calligraphy…

While installation art generally tends to intimidate the viewer, artist Sudarshan Shetty's simple and engaging life-size set-up builds nuanced narratives. Check it out here and leave us your views…

Showcasing the myriad qualities of colour and its native existence, IAnD's Colour Special Issue kicks off with "tips & tricks" for colours by renowned Colour Expert and Architect Emmanuelle Moureaux from Japan…

Architecture firm, Archohm in association with The Design Village Foundation have set up a multi-disciplinary design school in Noida to promote holistic design education. Find out more here...

The refurbished Paris-Bercy stadium sets a new benchmark in the cultural scenario of Paris, encouraging a close union between layman and urban design. Check it out and leave us your views...

Why are more and more old buildings being complimented by modern structures in close proximity? When should one design contextually? Are there any set tenets? Read about Ar. Zaha Hadid's new steel structure at the Oxford University building and leave us your views...

Working with natural materials need not mean a compromise with contemporary settings. Check out this upbeat office and give us your views...

In what may feel like a flashback to the porn wars of the '60s, a new study investigates the link between a country's relative gender equality and the degree of female "empowerment" in the X-rated entertainment it consumes. Researchers at the University of Hawaii focused on three countries in particular: Norway, the United States and Japan, which are respectively ranked 1st, 15th and (yikes) 54th on the United Nations' Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). To simplify their analysis, their library of smut was limited to explicit photographs of women "from mainstream pornographic magazines and Internet websites, as well as from the portfolios of the most popular porn stars from each nation." Then they set out to evaluate each image on both a disempowerment and an empowerment scale, using respective measures like whether the woman is "bound and dominated" by "leashes, collars, gags, or handcuffs" or "whether she has a natural looking body." Their hypothesis was that societies with greater gender equity will consume pornography that has more representations of "empowered women" and less of "disempowered women." It turned out the former was true, but, contradictory as it may sound, the latter was not. "While Norwegian pornography offers a wider variety of body types -- conforming less to a societal ideal that is disempowering to the average woman -- there are still many images that do not promote a healthy respect for women," the researchers explain. In other words, Norwegian porn showed more signs of female empowerment, but X-rated images in all three countries equally depicted women in demeaning positions and scenarios. This, the researchers surmise, "suggests that empowerment and disempowerment within pornography are potentially different constructs." So, gender equality is accompanied by sexual interest in a broader range of beauty types but not a decrease in porn's infantilization of females, use of dominating fetish gear on women or any of the other characteristics th

October 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and the beginning of the 2012 federal austerity budget. It is time to light the spark that sets off a true democratic, nonviolent transition to a world in which people are freed to create just and sustainable solutions. Read more.

Monotony and complexity have no room in Italian cuisine and so it is, with the design of this restaurant in New Delhi that serves it. The design team of Sumeet Nath and Aanchal Chaudhary has tastefully carved out a setting for Ristorante Prego that essentially blends variety with simplicity. Check it out here…

Futuristic homes needn't necessarily look as though they've descended from an alien world. They could harbour sci-fi features, despite falling within the realms of a normal 'home', set amidst nature, with pleasing aesthetics. Check out our feature on the W.I.N.D House and leave us your views.

Gurgaon-based studio, designcosmos design a high-end show-flat that exudes luxury without taking away from the warmth of home… Check out the interiors and leave us your views…