<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!-- generator="WordPress/2.9.2" -->
<rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>Design, Thunk</title>
	<link>http://gracecheow.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 30 May 2010 22:21:18 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	
	<item>
		<title>Sustainable hygiene</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ 
On the occasions that I have eaten at self-service eateries, I have noticed that people tend to draw a whole stack of napkins from the common dispenser on their way to the dining table. Oddly, anticipating our future needs (for napkins, among other things) seems to be a hazy affair. We think we’ll end up sloppy, messy eaters, and therefore pull an inordinate amount of napkins just in case we make a sorry mess of ourselves. We tend to lapse on the side of overestimation. 
The common case is, ...]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/sustainable-hygiene/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Taking you home</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
As a foreigner living in a, erm, foreign land, one of the holy grails of getting an intimate glimpse into local culture is receiving an invitation to someone’s home. Most cities feel impenetrable unless you know a local. Sometimes, they open their doors to you (The Italians offer their mothers, aunts and grandmothers and their regional Home Food to hungry visitors); sometimes they bring their domestic lives out onto the street to you (In Mumbai, the porch of a motor workshop doubles up as an airy platform for a toddler’s ...]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/taking-you-home/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Friday Stories #4</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Hello good people of the Internet, sorry that Friday Stories is running a little late this week due to a birthday. Mine! So, to commemorate the once-a-year event, this week we ask what triggers your sense of your age. Does the smell of rain bring back memories of playing in the afternoon rain as a child? Or when the feeling that you could go on forever mid-marathon inject you with a sense of youthfulness? Or that the weight of familial responsibilities reminds you of your station in the life cycle? ...]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/friday-stories-4/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Friday Stories #3</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
High school graduation. Entering the final year at college. Getting your first paycheck. Breaking up with your fifth girlfriend. For some events in life, we can anticipate that our lives are never going to be the same again. Some are social milestones; goal posts painted for us when we were mere children.
What about the other stuff that don&#8217;t follow a timeline? Perhaps a realization that a close friend wasn&#8217;t who you thought she was, or an epiphany about your own life.
How did you know that things were never going to ...]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/friday-stories-3/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Friday Stories #2</title>
		<description><![CDATA[


The Stories

that the chinese are making a hell lot more money then i will ever get. But at least i shave my armpits.

Thank God I&#8217;m alive, with a healthy, happy family and friends I can count on.

I ask myself the same question everyday at the start of the day.
&#8220;What do i have to clear today?&#8221;

That I am so happy to be studying what I am studying.

Since I alternate between feeling highly suspicious of mantras and periods of excessive preoccupation with self-help books, I rarely have a mantra that I repeat ...]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/friday-stories-2/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>What is a door?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
As I’m finishing up Verganti’s Design-Driven Innovation, a door wins Architectural Review’s Emerging Architecture Award. I’m completely enamored with the idea and the aesthetics of this door: the meaning of a door as a static object that interrupts a space has been totally upended.
Could a focus group have given an architect enough insight to lead to such a door? If you’ve also been thinking about the issues of democratic design vs. monarchical design, I highly recommend Verganti’s book. His work is a result of soaking himself in the Italian design ...]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/what-is-a-door/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Friday Stories: The Experiment</title>
		<description><![CDATA[


]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/friday-stories-the-experiment/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Friday Stories #1</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

The stories

I put personalities in my toys, complete with voiceovers.
All my stuffed toys are somebody, I have my own &#8220;Sesame Street&#8221; in my bedroom!
I&#8217;m a bedroom animator.


It will have to be fitness coaching which has absoutely no relevance to my current professional career. During National Service some 10 years ago, I went for a couple of coaching certification. At that point, it was a natural progression from the instructor course I took when in Army. I must say, it has changed me to become more open to different people.
What struck ...]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/friday-stories-1/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Review: Singapore Souvenirs</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Some ten years ago, the impending demolition of a red-bricked building in Singapore stirred a passionate public debate about the importance of social memory, heritage conservation and cultural identity among Singaporeans. On the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s plan, the 40 year-old National Library at Stamford Road was slated to make way for a tunnel and a new university campus. Architects, academics, and newspaper editors sought to convince government authorities that the iconic building embodied the experiences that most Singaporeans had as school-going children, and that these common memories contributed to the ...]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/review-singapore-souvenirs/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Friday Stories: The Idea</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
How do we know the (designerly) things we know?
Design Research has been called many names and projected onto many different platforms. From observing like a fly on the wall to role-playing as a participant; from collecting personal stories through an eclectic collage of images to utilizing focus groups as dipsticks to approximate product success rates; these methods have been useful in gathering (social and cultural) knowledge that design needs to know in order to do designerly things.
But questions of utility lead us to designing for task accomplishments; are there human ...]]></description>
		<link>http://gracecheow.com/friday-stories-the-idea/</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>
