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Intelligence Made Visible: Travel + Leisure Design Awards 2011

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, By Design, Architecture & Design

Great design is intelligence made visible, but great travel design must take this idea to the next level -- it can't just look pretty, it has to combine functionality, strength, and ease of use. Those of us who travel do NOT have time for things that don't work, aren't strong, and don't make our lives easier while on the road.

For seven years, the Travel + Leisure Design Awards have rewarded companies, products, hotels, innovators, and innovations of every type with recognition and gratitude in making the travelers lives better and their travel expereience more memorable. In addition, an overall Design Champion is named.

"The 2011 Design Awards underscore and celebrate the significant impact that good design has on travel," said Nancy Novogrod, Editor-In Chief of Travel + Leisure. "Our judges are not T+L Editors. The jurors look for exceptional function, unqiue statement and inventive reinterpretation."

The panel of jurors include:

David Childs, chairman emeritus, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill
Paulette Cole, CEO and creative director, ABC Carpet & Home
Fred Dust, partner, IDEO
Norma Kamali, fashion designer
Danny Meyer, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group
Nadja Swarovski, creative director, Swarovski Crystal
Henry Urbach, curator of architecture and design, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
T+L's Consulting Design Editor Chee Pearlman was the jury moderator.

Winners of these seventh annual awards represent the best new examples of design in a range of categories from hotels and transportation to luggage and travel fashion. They will be honored at the New World Center in Miami on February 23rd.

Below is a list of the Travel + Leisure Design Award winners:

Best Large Hotel: The Yas Hotel (see above) in Abu Dhabi,UAE, is set half on land and half on water, overlooking the Yas Marina & Yacht Club and positioned on the Yas Marina Circuit, which plays host to the annual Formula 1™ Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

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$41,000 Chevy Volt Draws Controversy for Engineering Claims

by David Kiley (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Green

The Chevy Volt extended range electric sedan is critical to the new General Motors that has emerged from bankruptcy last year, and is about to try and sell its initial-public-offering to investors. But as it unveils the car to the media this week, some critics are blasting the automaker for over-stating the car's fuel efficiency and innovation.

GM has long called the Volt an 'extended age electric vehicle." That made it decidedly different from the Toyota Prius and Toyota's and Honda's other full-hybrids. The key difference, GM has said for three years, is that the gas-fed motor in the Volt never directly drives the wheels of the car. The motor in the Volt, GM has said, powers the battery after its charge runs down, eliminating the risk of the driver running out of power before reaching their destination or a recharging station.

But GM executives confirmed this week that the Volt can use the internal combustion motor under its hood to power the wheels. This fact was first reported by MotorTrend.com, which was allowed to test the car for three long drives. The magazine discovered "...when going above 70 mph in 'charge sustaining mode,' and the generator gets coupled to the drive-train, the gas engine participates in the motive force. GM says the engine never drives the wheels all by itself, but will participate in this particular situation in the name of efficiency, which is improved by 10 to 15 percent."

It may not seem like much, but this does fly in the face of what GM officials have been saying for the last three years as it has hyped the Volt as being an industry leading innovation. The fact that the gas-powered motor can directly power the wheels of the Volt makes it much closer to traditional hybrids already on the market.

Gallery: Chevy Volt Launches and Stirs Controversy