Paralyzed five years ago, the renowned architect and designer talks about his favorite medical devices, having a wheelchair flat at LAX, and designing his own line of medical equipment.

Source: Interview with Michael Graves.

Not exactly urban planning but design should be everywhere and Michael Graves gets it.

A really cool and innovative design to combine a wheelchair access ramp and the stairs. This way, all people share access and the disabled aren’t relegated to a distant hidden access way.

Source: Reddit.

For the residents of Portland, Ore., taking a whiz in a public toilet is not just a matter of necessity. It’s an act of civic pride.

That’s because the city is home to the Portland Loo, a unique, patented outdoor bathroom that inspires such worship in its fanbase you’d think that Steve Jobs himself had designed it. This adoration comes despite the fact that the 24-hour loo was built to be as inhospitable as possible. This toilet does not want to be loved, but in Portland, it is No. 1 (and, presumably, sometimes No. 2 as well).

[Source: The Atlantic Cities]

The design definitely solves most problems that plague the public toilet.

Gives a new reason to work from home in your own “corner office” [via 2Modern Blog]

[Source: John Maniscalco Architecture Architects - Sugarbowl]

Exhausted by another episode of soft-parenting, the glass wall broke free from the framing.

If you haven’t already, don’t miss your daily dose of Unhappy Hipsters. They may be unhappy but they sure keep you smiling.

For a forthcoming exhibition called Contemplating the Void, New York’s Guggenheim Museum “invited more than two hundred artists, architects, and designers to imagine their dream interventions in the space.

In this exhibition of ideal projects, certain themes emerge, including the return to nature in its primordial state, the desire to climb the building, the interplay of light and space, the interest in diaphanous effects as a counterpoint to the concrete structure, and the impact of sound on the environment.

[Source: Spiral Icon - BLDGBlog]

Model cities aren’t just for show; they can have real utility. In 1957 the US Army Corps of Engineers created the Bay Model, a replica of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta meant to simulate the impact of public works projects and disasters—natural and man-made—on currents and tides.

Terence Russell at Wired Magazine tells us how scale models of cities are increasingly used for urban planning and design applications.

A review of global studies into the impact of modern office design found the switch to open-plan spaces had been overwhelmingly negative, with 90 percent reporting adverse health and psychological effects.

Open-plan offices not so good? Contrary to the popular opinion in business circles, Australian researchers have found open-plan offices counter productive and in fact, harmful to the health of the employees. Now let me get back to my cubicle and get some work done. Hopefully.