LIVING BEAUTIFULLY
Living Beautifully by beautiful.business is a regular newsletter to share and inspire a different way of looking at the world. What would our world look like were we all to make it a little more beautiful?
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01. Beautiful Conversations
Danish architect, Dorte Mandrup, reflects upon the nature of transforming existing spaces.
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The Counsel of Trees from the Climate Stories Project: A musical setting by composer Jason Davis of a personal narrative by Minnesota author and playwright Jessica Lind Peterson, who relates how the forests of northern Minnesota are rapidly changing with the warming climate.
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Nigel Coates is a hugely influential architect, designer, artist and educator. He first came to widespread attention as a teacher at the Architectural Association in the early 80s when he co-founded NATO, a radical architecture collective that published a series of magazines with a unique perspective on the city.
Here he is in conversation with Grant Gibson.
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02. Beautifully Made
This is the year of the Water Tiger. At the start of the New Year Tashi Mannox, esteemed Tibetan artist, created this stunning image of a male Water Tiger.
The original artwork is for sale, as are high-quality limited edition prints.
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Jim Denevan is an acclaimed land artist, his massive beach compositions drawn in the sand are amazing. He is also a chef and founder of Outstanding in the Field, a bespoke roving restaurant held in the great outdoors.
Jim's life and art are the subject of this film.
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These vegan sneakers and sandals are handmade in Guimarães, Portugal, the natural rubber soles incorporate about 6 recycled plastic bottles.
Adriana Mano, founder of sustainable young footwear brand Zouri shoes, initiated a volunteer led beach clean-up project to collect plastic waste.
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03. Beautifully Restorative
What It Would Take to See the World Completely Differently – The Atlantic
Marine biologist Rachel Carson saw immense value in helping the public cultivate a sense of wonder.
I agree, it is how we see the world that changes how we are in the world.
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04. Beautifully Built
On June 11, 31 design and decorative arts rooms opened, part of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo’s new 13,000-square-metre, harbourside museum. This forms one of the largest displays dedicated to design in northern Europe.
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The first net zero mass timber building at Homerton College, Cambridge, has been granted planning permission. Alison Brooke's Architects, commissioned for the project, were inspired by the Arts and Crafts legacy of Homerton.
The new, multi-use, entrance building will house the Porter's Lodge and children’s literature resource centre.
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Vinu Daniel is the principal architect and founder of Wallmakers, Kerala, India. Wallmakers have been constructing all their buildings out of sustainable earth materials ever since 2007.
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This is the 500th anniversary year of the The Fuggerei, Augsburg, Germany. Founded by the Bavarian banking family, Fugger, during the 16th Century, it is the oldest social housing project still in use in Europe, if not the world.
What can this model community teach us about today's housing crisis?
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05. Beautiful Reads
Regenesis. Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet – George Monbiot
If there is one book about food you read this year it's this one. “Farming,” says Monbiot, “is the most destructive human activity ever to have blighted the Earth.” It is a deliberately provocative statement. But, as I have learnt reading Monbiot’s work over a decade, he is not a polemicist - his research is comprehensive. So Regenesis provides a far more detailed model, one that promises to both satisfy our food needs and save us from ourselves.
Read more in the Literary Review.
Watch George in conversation, NYT Climate Forward event.
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The Penguin Book of Indian Poets – Jeet Thayil
My curiosity led me to this compilation of Indian poetry in English. This monumental undertaking, two decades in the making, brings together writers from across the world, a wealth of voices–in dialogue, in soliloquy, in rhetoric, and in play–to present an expansive, encompassing idea of what makes an ‘Indian’ poet.
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An Agricultural Testament – Sir Albert Howard
Sir Albert Howard is credited as the pioneer of the organic method of farming.
First published in 1940, his book documents sustainable agriculture, as then practiced in India, promoting the benefits of natural composting, and describing the way nature manages soil fertility.
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Breakfast with the Panthers – Aeon
It wasn’t all young men and guns: the Black Panther Party’s programs fed more hungry kids than the state of California.
I read this article, my reflection that those that hold the narrative, the stories in public life, or in communities, have their hand on the tiller of our futures. I wonder if you agree?
Watch the excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
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06. Beautiful Food
The new crop that feeds soil and people: Kernza—an edible perennial grain developed by the Land Institute—is gaining renewed attention this year amidst increasingly unpredictable and frequent flash droughts across the Midwestern United States, whose usual cash crops of soybeans, wheat, and corn are already threatened by warming temperatures. Unlike most annuals, Kernza's extensive root systems draw water from far below the surface, anchor topsoil, and sequester carbon, making it a promising regenerative agriculture solution that bolsters soil's carbon storage capacity and alleviates damages in drought-affected areas.
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07. Beautiful Experiences
Beauty out of destruction: filled with room-sized set-piece sculptures and installations, and with artworks so seemingly ephemeral, incidental and accidental – soiled handkerchiefs, piles of rust, a dented teapot – we would barely know what we were looking at unless Cornelia Parker told us. A survey of her 40-year career is full of delights and bomb damage, delicacy and violences, wry political comments and commemorations.
This show blew my mind and is the must-see of the summer.
Cornelia Parker, Tate Britain, London, 19 May - 16 October 2022.
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The Milk of Dreams takes it's title taken from a book by the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, which evokes "a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination", Curator Cecilia Alemani says in a statement.
Biennale Arte 2022 The Milk of Dreams, 59th International Art Exhibition, Venice, Italy – 23 April - 27 November 2022.
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Back in 2017 Maria Popova joined forces with the Academy of American Poets and astrophysicist Janna Levin to host The Universe in Verse at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.
What has become an annual event, is an evening of poetry celebrating science and the scientists who have taken us to where we are today, and a protest against the silencing of science and the defunding of the arts. Ticketing proceeds are donated to the Academy of American Poets and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
My recommendation: Watch / Listen in to Astrophysicist Natalie Batalha reading “ Research” by Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. It's a beautiful thing. |
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08. Beautiful Insights
Researchers are using digital technologies to introduce anyone with an internet connection to some of the planet’s most mysterious, and threatened, locations. Grist.
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Innovation should only be applauded of it makes people’s lives better — Paul Volcker, former Charirman of the Federal Reserve.
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Beyond organic: Brands that use traceable cotton and support regenerative cotton farmers. EcoCult.
As the fashion designer Stella McCartney says, “If you are using regenerative cotton, you should get a tax break. And, if you’re using chemical cotton you should get a tax bill”.
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How Fashion Giants Recast Plastic as Good for the Planet. An influential system overseen by retailers and clothing makers ranks petroleum-based synthetics like “vegan leather” as more environmentally sound than natural fibers. New York Times.
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Inside Charm Industrial’s big bet on corn stalks for carbon removal. The startup used plant matter and bio-oil to sequester thousands of tons of carbon. The question now is how reliable, scalable, and economical this approach will prove. MIT Technology Review.
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Several Green and independent candidates advocating for significant reductions in carbon emissions secured Parliamentary seats in Australia's national election recently, signaling a major shift in the country's climate policy following a decade of conservative government. Al Jezeera.
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Climeworks newest Icelandic facility 'Mammoth' has started.
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I was never convinced by the gig economy, or was it the sharing economy? Neither sharing, nor generous, this was in economic terms negative reciprocity, more a term to describe maximum extraction of human labour.
Looks like that gig economy may be collapsing. A combination of high inflation, reticence to invest, low unemployment and improved worker protection is backing companies like Uber into a corner.
What about the regenerative economy? From my book Do Build. How to make and lead a business the world needs.
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Longish, thoughtful essay by the philosopher Justin E.H. Smith, triggered by the controversy over the question of whether Google’s LaMDA conversational system is sentient.
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09. Beautiful Leadership
I have mentioned World Central Kitchen @WCK numerous times, even in the previous edition of this newsletter highlighting their incredible work in the Ukraine.
Now there is a film about WCK. Made by Ron Howard, WE FEED PEOPLE, spotlights renowned chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen’s incredible mission and evolution over 12 years, from being a scrappy group of grassroots volunteers to becoming one of the most highly regarded humanitarian aid organizations in the disaster relief sector.
Culture decides what gets done.
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“What I’ve learnt in my life ‘is the journey’, towards achieving your dream is as important as the dream itself. Everything begins with a dream.”
The young and talented boxer Ramla Ali shares with us her vision of change as an opportunity of growth and a chance to find a greater purpose. Process: hand, heart, mind.
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10. Beautiful News
We are embarking on an exciting programme of work with the folks at the Eden Project. If you are working / researching in the area of Regeneration: design, culture, farming, materials, architecture, economics, ecology, I would love to hear from you.
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Join the movement – at Beautiful Business we are creating the world’s largest design firm. Design is the means by which we deliver the change we need, enabling us to make the businesses that our world needs.
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Do get in touch, send us a beautiful hello.
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Just in its 7th reprint, the first of my Do books, Do Design. Why beauty is key to everything. Also available in Spanish, German and French.
I like to believe this success is based on the belief that beauty is our homecoming, and that design is the means to create and make a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
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