another example of how design can effect people... and their beliefs.

I went to church with my family this morning for the Easter service. We usually go to the service in the chapel when we go to church, but today we sat in the large church.
Video of the Church of Incarnation

I grew up going to a traditional Episcapalian service 5-6 days a week. I was very surprised when my mother mentioned that the church had started a new service called 'Uptown' to try and reach a younger group of non-believer by having a contemporary service. Your probably asking yourself what this has to do with design. A traditional Episcopalian service is very similar to a Catholic service. We sit, stand and kneel and have a 'dialogue' we repeat each week before and after the sermon. The Contemporary service has a televisions, and a live band and generally held in a large auditorium like room, not the church.

This brings me to the question of whiether the design of the church effect how people interact and believe??

The answer is yes.

According to the Church of the Incarnation's website: Many people today don’t connect with church. They’re still looking for a place to call home. They have a hard time connecting how this ancient faith impacts their present reality. The Uptown community at Church of the Incarnation seeks to reach out to people where they are by engaging in a community where.

Lazzara Yachts

Lazzara Yachts

“God only gives you so many days, but the ones you spend at sea don’t count against you.”

I was very impressed by the Lazzara operation. Lazzara is a boat manufactoring company that desgins, creates and outfits their boats from start to finish in 10 months. The company started when the Lazzara's realized their was a whole in the yachting industry. They started creating smaller yachts that had the luxury and feel of bigger luxury yachts.

“ When the other components are ready, the interior module is lifted up and lowered into the hull.  It is precisely fitted and mounted atop Lazzara’s patented isolation system, which is series of rubber pads used to eliminate vibration.” This system of putting in the interior is truely unique to the Lazzara company/boats.

 

Lazzara boats have won numerous awards and are considered to be at the forefront of yacht design. 

Hallway

 

 

I am truly impressed with not only the interior design but also the technology and innovation used to produce each interior. I have yet to see an interior I wasn’t awed by. Each one has a certain level of class and charm.  Lazzara is famous for putting a stylish interior into a smaller yacht, thus creating a whole new yachting market.

RVs and 5th Wheels- Designers Needed

Two of my favorite relatives were in town this past weekend. They spend four months each year camping in Arizona. The rest of the year they spend in Michigan.

While in Arizona they live in an RV with a horse trailor attached to the back end. I'm not gonna lie, the whole rig is huge. We could barely find a spot to park it this past weekend at Devils Den with out having to trim some trees. They just bought there second RV. Linda (one of my relatives) and I started talking one night and she made the comment that the people who design RVs sometimes don't think about how someone uses the space when all the slides are in. Slides are what makes the RV larger when parked.

One example she gave was the fact that the kitchen counter has a rounder edge to it that runs parrellel to the refrigerator. When all the slides are closed there is no room to open the firdge completely. By illiminating the 4 inches of counter space, this problem could be solved. In anothor one of my relatives rigs, a 5th wheel, the refrigorator doors can't even be opened unless the slides are out..

Many rigs come with a full kitchen, washer and dryer, bathroom/shower, dining room table and chairs, at least two beds if not more a kitchen island...  One I stayed in even had a TV and boom box attached to the outside so they could watch football games. The ammonites are endless now.



I have camped in a few different RVs and 5th wheels. Not going to lie- Its awesome. I grew up old school camping. The kind where you pitch a tent and start a fire. I love camping both ways. The RVs do add an extra bit of flexibility the old school version does not.