DESIGN DISPATCH

Norma Kamali Launches a Home Collection, and Other News

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Norma Kamali debuts NORMALIFE HOME, a bold collection of design objects for the home. 

At long last, Norma Kamali is branching out into home design and interiors. Debuting on June 15, the fashion designer’s first-ever home collection, called NORMALIFE HOME, will officially roll out at the end of the year, with equal parts functional furnishings and sleek accessories: a pillow, a rug, a chair, a cube, and more that will be available in five patterns.  

Adjaye Associates designs a London memorial dedicated to Black women shot by police.

The British-Ghanian architect David Adjaye has designed a memorial in London for Cherry Groce, a Black woman shot by the city’s public police in her home in 1985. Construction will soon begin on Memorial Day in Windrush Square in South London. Including a planted roof, the triangular-shaped plinth will have seating at different heights carved into all three sides. 

Facing mounting financial losses, Lyft sells its autonomous vehicles division to Toyota.

Lyft has sold its autonomous vehicle division to Toyota for $550 million. The company expects to stop bleeding nearly $100 million annually as a result of the divestiture. This is all a result of self-driving technology’s staid reputation: it’s extremely expensive to develop. Revealed last year, rival Uber tried its own autonomous vehicle division, selling it to startup Aurora.

Bjarke Ingels Group unveils an ultra-sustainable technology building in Hangzhou.

Bjarke Ingels Group has designed the new headquarters for the consumer electronics company, Oppo, also known as China’s largest smartphone manufacturer. Situated in the center of the Yuhang district in Hangzhou, the structure combines user-centric design with technology that will be environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. The hub for innovation, entitled “O-Tower,” is located between an urban center, a lake, and a 108,000-square-foot park, serving as the new gateway to a future sci-tech city. 

Snøhetta reveals renderings of Ford Motor Company’s new innovation hub in Michigan.  

Snøhetta has revealed new renderings of the Ford Motor Company’s 700-acre Research & Engineering campus in Dearborn, Michigan. The Commons, comprising a two-million-square-foot building, will house 6,400 Ford employees from across a range of disciplines (primarily designers and product development teams). The campus will be one of numerous publicly accessible landscapes surrounding the new central building at the auto giant’s transformed facilities. 

Today’s attractive distractions:

A robot’s own self-portrait painting sells for nearly $700,000 as an NFT.

To study time, these people lived 40 days in a cave without any clocks.

Synthetic sex dolls are gaining new leverage as Instagram influencers

Snarkitecture adorns Kith’s latest outpost with a chandelier of sneakers.

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