Jerry van Eyck co-founded !melk, a landscape architecture and urban design practice dedicated to large-scale urban and landscape interventions as well as public spaces and gardens, with deliberate references to local context, history, urban setting and surrounding ecology. !melk’s projects merge realism and fantasy to make spaces of wonder that sustain themselves and engage their communities.

Trained as a landscape architect and industrial designer, Jerry van Eyck is interested in how open and public space fit into the larger context of a city’s fabric and the urban experience, with the micro – materiality, ornamentation, and pattern as expressed through custom furniture, lighting, paving, and other details that provide each project its own singular identity. Jerry van Eyck will give three lectures in Alaska on April 2-4.

The rendering above is part of !melk’s Great Lakes-inspired vision for the new Pierscape design of the iconic and popular Navy Pier in Chicago.

Marko Peljhan is an internationally-active artist who deals with questions of art, science and technology. He has introduced his work in museum displays, exhibitions and festivals around the world. Peljhan established the art and technology organization “Zavod Projekt Atol” in 1995 in his native Slovenia, and set up “PACT Systems”, a global network for developing technologies on a base of open-source and strategic media.

A professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, Peljhan is also currently a coordinator for the Arctic Perspective Initiative art/science/tactical media project, which is focused on the global significance of the Arctic geopolitical, natural and cultural spheres. Marko Peljhan will give three lectures in Alaska on March 5-7.

Recent articles on Dezeen.com and Phaidon.com look at his practice’s newly-completed restaurant and service centre at the foot of the Trollveggen (Troll Wall), one of Norway’s most popular nature attractions.

An article on design-milk.com describes The Burnette Studio/Residence:

The house is an extension of the desert garden conceived as an architecture that is in and of the greater landscape. Its rooms edit the surrounding context in such a way that connections are explicitly made to the sensory experiences of our natural world. An unapologetic from extends an existing ubiquitous road scar as a man-made canyon, touching only the site that was previously disturbed. The entry space extends beyond the visual, it is a series of moments and experiences that slow down time.

Brendan Dawes will give two lectures in Alaska on December 5-6. These lectures are presented by the Alaska Design Forum, and are open to the public.

A recent creation by Dawes is the Accidental News Explorer, a new type of news app that celebrates serendipity and chance encounters. Start by searching for a subject. Once you’ve browsed the suggested articles taken from hundreds of news sources, tap the “related topics” button to discover connected topics, which in turn lead to more articles. Each article leads to new things; the more curious you are, the longer your journey will be. What will you discover?

Here’s a video on Semiconductor’s Volcano Observatory installation in Liverpool, UK.

We’ll share more about our project is it develops. But in the meantime, how can we best use design thinking as a tool for social change? How can designers effectively work for under-served communities?