I’ll be reviewing one of Kovacs-designed lamps soon. So some background on him before I do:

One of the most recognizable names in the lighting industry, George Kovacs wore many hats throughout his forty-plus year career. Part lighting designer, part lighting manufacturer, part lighting importer – Kovacs’ design aesthetic stood out above the rest and helped to define modern lighting as we know it today.

Born in Vienna, Kovacs moved to the United States after the Second World War, finding work at a lamp store in Manhattan. It was most likely here that Kovacs was bitten by the lighting bug, soon after which he started his own business selling Kalmar lamps. The perfect blend of both form and function, his vast collection included everything from table and floor lamps to hanging pendants and wall sconces. His creativity and skill attracted other prominent modern designers including the likes of Karim Rashid and Ingo Maurer, amongst others.

As much an innovator as he was a creative genius, Kovacs introduced the first American-made halogen torchiere to market in the early 1970s. Popular in Europe since the 1960s, Halogen lamps were far longer-lasting and able to illuminate an entire room with one bulb. Soon after Kovacs started manufacturing Halogen lamps, other manufactures began to follow suit.

For many years, Kovacs designed and manufactured his products from his own Brooklyn-based facility but in 2000 he sold his studio, designs and naming rights to lighting manufacturer the Minka Group. Kovacs passed away in 2007 at the age of 80. A true design visionary, Kovacs left a lasting impression on the lighting industry and the design community as a whole.

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.

If you want to book a hotel or make a restaurant reservation you can switch on the Transit Layer and look for the public transport line nearest to the location. If you want to travel from A to B you can quickly familiarize yourself with the public transport network and find out which lines to use and where to change.

Google Maps has added a public transit layer for more than 50 cities around the world to help citizens and tourists obtain information on getting around quicker. I see more European cities than U.S ones. It doesn’t take a genius to tell you what that means.

His talk as part of a series on technology, people, place, and space covers documenting the sense of place in today’s cities. I’m sure Google’s StreetView layers has added rich information not just with use of technology but also by harnessing its reach as a primary information provider of real-time mapping solutions. I was particularly impressed with use of innovative visualization techniques to depict spatial relationships in our activities (e.g.cell phone usage). This graphic of population concentrations in America in Time Magazine is one such example.

An extremely useful tool especially in today’s sliding housing market where some homeowners are experiencing negative equity. But as with any online tool, don’t replace it with the experience of a human. Trust but verify.

Couple of colleagues in a Sustainable Urbanism class had proposed floating homes as a potential solution for homes in New Orleans. This floating villa designed by Swedish architect, Staffan Strindberg, currently situated in the town of Kalmar on the east coast of Sweden may be a tad fancy for residents of New Orleans especially for those whose houses got washed away. But definitely a technology worth exploring, right?

In fact, bright lights that we see light up deserted areas only provide a false illusion and crime in fact would be more effectively controlled if ‘smart lighting’ i.e. controlled by infrared motion sensors.

If you hear sirens in your neighborhood, you should know why. Crimespotting makes this possible with interactive maps, e-mail updates, and RSS feeds of crimes in areas that you care about.

I love Stamen Design’s work and remain impressed with their other design experiments like Trulia and Cabspotting.

You still need a doctor’s prescription to get it officially, you say? Well, fret not. NORML has compiled a list of area’s most weed-friendly physicians. Did I hear you say, ssssshhhh! [via]

WIRED and LivingHomes—a pioneer in green, prefabricated development— will open the doors to the first ever WIRED Home, a showcase of the best in sustainability, technology and design.

Redfin has a great online real estate website which we quickly found is one of the easier ones to use, with nice virtual walk thrus of each home, and good comparison data for the neighborhood. (The site is a joy to navigate, and we’d use it even if we did not get a rebate.) Then you, in the role of buyer and self-agent, do all the footwork of finding, visiting the various homes, checking out the disclosures, etc., and finally choosing which property you want. You are your own real estate agent up to this point. When you are ready to make on offer on a home, you do so online via Redfin, completing the necessary forms on the web. Then a human Redfin employee will take you through the final paperwork and signatures, and eventually visit the house with you. At the close of the deal they will rebate 2/3rds of their buyer agent commission paid by the seller, or 2% of the sale price, which in some areas of the country will mean at least ten thousand dollars.

I have not bought a home here in the United States (yet) but I’m sure many of you have or are close to buying one soon. Let me know if you try out this tool and if it helps you save money. Unfortunately, it seems that the service is available only in few select cities. But expect it to spread to more as it gets more popular.

Related: Moving the Search from Renters to Landlords.

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