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“Wendy does not play the typical architecture game of ecological apology,” say the architects of their boundary-pushing pavilion, shown here in a rendering.

Who’s tripping down the streets of the city, smilin’ at everybody she sees? Who’s reachin’ out to neutralize an airborne pollutant? Everyone knows it’s Wendy! That’s right, fans of emerging architectural talent, the spiky and proactive creation of New York-based HWKN (Hollwich Kushner) has been declared the winner of this year’s MOMA PS1 Young Architects Program, besting finalists Ammar Eloueini of AEDS Ammar Eloueini Digit-all Studio (Paris and New Orleans), Martin Felsen and Sarah Dunn of UrbanLab (Chicago), and the solid Cantabrigian (Massachusetts) contingent: Mariana Ibañez and Simon Kim of I|K Studio and Cameron Wu.

Now in its thirteenth year, the Young Architects Program program challenges each year’s winners to develop creative designs for a temporary, outdoor installation at MoMA PS1 that provides shade, seating, and water. HWKN’s “Wendy,” which will debut in Long Island City in late June, is composed of nylon fabric treated with a nifty titania nanoparticle spray to neutralize airborne pollutants. This summer, Wendy will clean the air to an equivalent of taking 260 cars off the road. “Wendy crafts an environment—not just a space,” note the architects of their 5,000-square-foot creation. “Spikey arms reach out with micro-programs like blasts of cool air, music, water canons, and mists to create social zones throughout the courtyard.” And speaking of summery social zones, HWKN also was recently tapped to design a new entertainment complex to replace the Fire Island dance club, Pavilion, that burned down last year. The firm is collaborating with Diller Scofidio + Renfro on the project.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

With Dallas awash in Shepard Fairey murals, it’s time to get ready for the next stop on your Southern U.S. street art tour! Atlanta’s High Museum of Art is now putting the finishing touches on its major KAWS exhibition. Opening next Saturday, February 18, “KAWS: Down Time” will be the beloved Brooklyn artist (né Brian Donnelly)’s largest show of new work to date and offers visitors the opportunity to watch him paint a 22-foot-high, site-specific mural in the lobby. A jazzy 24-foot-long triptych will invigorate the museum’s atrium. Meanwhile, curator Michael Rooks has marshaled an impressive gallery installation highlighted by a grid of 27 tondo paintings, like the 2011 Sponge Bob-meets-a giant flower pillow canvas that in November set a new world auction record of $188,500 for the artist at Takashi Murakami‘s “New Day: Artists for Japan” charity sale at Christie’s. The auction took place just days before the High installed KAWS’s monumental 2010 sculpture “Companion” (pictured) on its piazza. “KAWS has created a new order of American Pop,” says Rooks, who joined the High in 2010 from New York’s Haunch of Venison gallery. “His work is uncannily familiar but foreign at the same time, like in a dream, and it unites the often distant worlds of fine art and youth culture.”

Shepard Fairey does Dallas! The street artist is making his mark on The Big D with a series of murals that will be unveiled tomorrow. The citywide project is sponsored by Dallas Contemporary, which is celebrating with an “over-the-top, neon-inspired” Saturday night dance party (fingers crossed for glowsticks!). Fairey will balance DJing duties with signing merch from the on-site OBEY pop-up shop. Meanwhile, the Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas are organizing an art bus tour for next Saturday, February 11. Stops include the current Rob Pruitt, David Jablonowski, and Failure exhibitions at Dallas Contemporary, several of the Fairey murals, and a studio visit with Dallas-based graffiti crew Sour Grapes. Don’t miss the bus: tickets are going fast here.

Lately we’ve been sleeping with a copy of Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee’s wondrous Alexander Girard mega-monograph under our pillow, and next Tuesday, February 14, Pratt Institute welcomes the delightful Oldham for a lecture on all things Girard, from his iconic textile designs for Herman Miller and branding and environmental design for Braniff International Airways to his celebrated retail store Textiles and Objects and folk art-stuffed Girard Foundation. The 6 p.m. lecture is free and open to the public, but Pratt students get first dibs on seats.

As part of its burgeoning “Fashion at FIAF” programming, our friends at the French Institute Alliance Francaise here in New York have invited agnès b. (née Agnès Andrée Marguerite Troublé) to curate a month-long series of films that have most influenced her life and career as a designer, photographer, and more recently as a film producer and director. Among her picks are Godard‘s Vivre Sa Vie and Pierrot le Fou, while Valentine’s Day revelers can be transported to St. Tropez at one of three V-Day screenings of …And God Created Woman, starring Brigitte Bardot. The fashionable French fun kicks off on Tuesday, when agnès b. will appear in person to present the first film in the series, The Crime of Monsieur Lange, directed by Jean “Yes, he’s my dad” Renoir. Buy your tickets here.

Jonathan Saunders, with models wearing looks from his spring 2012 collection, before his presentation to the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund judges in December.

Print- and color-loving Jonathan Saunders has sewn up the 2012 British Fashion Council/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund, the across-the-pond version of Anna Wintour and co.’s wildly successful initiative to boost young design talent. Now in its third year, the BFC/Vogue award provides the winner with £200,000 (at current exchange, just a few dollars over the stateside $300,000 purse) and access to industry mentors. Also shortlisted for the award were Marios Schwab, Mary Katrantzou, Meadham Kirchhoff (designed by Edward Meadham and Benjamin Kirchhoff), Nicholas Kirkwood, Peter Pilotto, Richard Nicoll, Roksanda Ilincic, and Zoe Jordan.

Saunders, who also made the 2011 shortlist, was selected as the winner based on the strength of his critically acclaimed catwalk and pre-collections over the past few seasons, his business plan, and a presentation to a judging committee chaired by Vogue UK editor-in-chief Alexandra Shulman. So what’s next for Saunders’ burgeoning label? “We have four womenswear and two menswear collections a year—so we’ll be expanding these collections and launching accessories,” says the Glasgow-born designer, who counts Rei Kawakubo, Miuccia Prada, Le Corbusier, and Charlotte Perriand among his design heroes. Meanwhile, his fall 2012 collection hits the runway on Sunday, February 19, during London Fashion Week.

Sure to boost compliance in double-blinded clinical trials the world over are these streamlined pill keepers from Sabi, a new company that is looking “to transform life’s small tasks into moments of joy” through lifestyle and wellness products designed by Yves Behar and his Fuseproject team. “We designed the Sabi brand, products, and packaging to express smarter ergonomic functionality, and instill pride of use rather than the stigma of being singled out by daily physical challenges,” says Behar. “I believe Sabi will make sense to an older generation in need of solutions, but also to a younger set of users that simply expect good design everywhere.” Named for the Japanese aesthetic construct (think “wabi-sabi”), the Palo Alto-based company was founded by entrepreneur Assaf Wand, who points to Method, Bang & Olufsen, OXO, and Dyson as brands that inspire him. His idea for Sabi came as he watched his then-pregnant wife struggle to find an easy-to-use and visually appealing prenatal vitamin case. Pill organizers and related accessories (vitamin pulverizers, sleek carafes) comprise the company’s first line of products, Vitality. In the works are Agility, products designed to alleviate the pain and inconvenience of lifting, reaching, and carrying everyday items around the house, as well as Mobility, a line of travel accessories and gadgets that assist in transporting health and wellness essentials. Grab a Sabi Holster ($8.99) and take a chill pill, as the second two lines—including, at long last, a shower caddy that you won’t be ashamed to show houseguests—will debut later this year.

Which states have the most LEED-certified building square footage per capita? The U.S. Green Building Council has crunched the numbers, and the results are in, with the District of Columbia leading the country in LEED-certified commercial and institutional green buildings (per capita, based on 2010 Census data). In 2011, our nation’s capital boasted more than 31 square feet of LEED-certified space per person, including the Treasury Building (how green can you get?), which happens to be the oldest LEED-certified project in the world. Of course, it helps that the District has a low residential population and all those government buildings: nearly a third of all LEED projects are government-owned or occupied LEED buildings, and the federal government alone owns and operates some 500,000 buildings. “But, hey! D.C. isn’t a state!” You say, with a disenfranchised gleam in your eye. Quite right. The top state is Colorado (2.74 square feet per capita and home to the LEED Platinum Casey Middle School in Boulder), followed closely by Illinois (2.69), Virginia (2.42), and Washington (2.18, did you know that Seattle’s Hard Rock Café is LEED Silver?). The Empire State cracks the top ten at 1.89, barely bested by California’s 1.92. According to the USGBC, there are roughly 44,000 commercial projects participating in LEED, comprising more than 8 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 120 countries. Admire photos of LEED-certified buildings such as the undulating, Douglas Cardinal-designed National Museum of the American Indian, Discovery Channel HQ, and Denver’s Gold Museum of Contemporary Art on Flickr here.

From left, spring looks from Eighteenth, James Long, Wes Gordon, and Mary Katrantzou.

Paris couture week wrapped up on Wednesday evening at Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, where Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli sent out a breathtaking collection inspired by Enlightenment philosophes (Rousseau lovely!). Now it’s full speed ahead to the New York shows, which kick off on February 8, followed by fashionfests in London, Milan, and then back to Paris. The latest crop of awards provides a handy cheat sheet of emerging—and in some cases, downright emerged—designers to watch this season:

Fashion Group International took over the uptown NYC outpost of Cipriani yesterday for its annual Rising Star awards luncheon. Designers Isabel and Ruben Toledo offered keynote remarks, while presenters including Ralph Rucci and Thom Browne announced the winners: Wes Gordon and Nonoo’s Misha Nonoo (who tied for the top honor in the women’s ready-to-wear category), Simon Spurr (menswear), Blythe Harris of Stella & Dot (accessories), our Twitter pal Wendy Brandes (fine jewelry), Joe Manus of Shiner International (home/interior design), David and Kavi Moltz of D.S. & Durga (beauty/fragrance entrepreneur ), IFF’s Celine Barel (beauty/fragrance corporate), and Vasken Demirjian‘s Vasken Salon (retail). Check out the full list of finalists here.

Earlier this month, winemaker Ecco Domani announced the seven winners of the 2012 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation awards (read: $25,000 grants), and the list is full of superfresh faces. The womenswear honorees are twin sisters Daphne and Vera Correll‘s twice-as-nice label Correll Correll, breezy Eighteenth by Alexa Galler, Julie Haus and Jason Alkire‘s Haus Alkire, and Sunhee by Seoul-born designer (and Geoffrey Beene alum) Sunhee. Rounding out the list are Tim Coppens for menswear, Dezso by Sara Beltran for accessories, and Titania Inglis in the sustainable design category.

And across the pond, the British Fashion Council (BFC) recently announced the four designers that will receive Fashion Forward sponsorships (read: satchels of cash) to show their collections in London for the next two seasons: womenswear designers Henry Holland, Louise Gray, and Mary Katrantzou, and menswear maestro James Long, who is the first menswear designer to receive support through this scheme. The awards program, established six years ago to help emerging British designers show and develop their businesses in London, also includes access to business support provided by the BFC.

The design whizzes over at C&G Partners have many talents, but among the most mind-blowing is their ability to transform grayish-yellowish mountains of historical documents and artifacts into visually stunning, user-friendly exhibits and displays. Feast your eyes (and your web browser) on their latest archival triumph: a website for The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. A C&G team led by partner Maya Kopytman (working in collaboration with Chicago-based web development firm Palantir) created a site that builds on the graphic identity established for a related traveling exhibition that the firm completed last year. At the core of the site, which launched yesterday, is a new digital archive for The King Center Imaging Project, a JPMorgan Chase & Co.-backed initiative to “bring the works and papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. to a digital generation.” Browse the archive to pore over King’s handwritten notecards and telegrams or zoom in on a Flip Schulke photo of MLK enjoying lunch with his family in 1964, under the watchful gaze of Ghandi, whose image hangs on a wall above them. Next up: more meticulously scanned and eminently searchable letters, speeches, drafts, notes, and photos. The King Center Imaging Project digital archive will eventually contain about a million documents.

Last July, after the freshly launched design flash sale site Fab.com had landed its first round of venture funding (a cool $8 million, led by Menlo Ventures), founder Jason Goldberg touted the site’s diverse mix of merch, from chairs and stationery to bikes and biscotti. There was just one category he said that the company would steer clear of: fashion. “We don’t have any ambition in the fashion category,” Goldberg told Venturebeat, in what sounded like an attempt to differentiate his site from the flash-sale fray (read: Gilt Groupe). “That’s more about liquidation; our model is more about opening a new channel for suppliers.” Five months and $40 million in Series B funding later, Fab.com has flip-flopped on fashion and acquired FashionStake, which launched in the fall of 2010 as a kind of Kickstarter-style fundraising platform for independent fashion designers and evolved into an Etsy-like marketplace for their wares. “We’re going to do the exact same thing we’ve done with design products to fashion,” wrote Goldberg today in a blog post announcing the deal. “Make no mistake, we’re keenly aware that there are plenty of sites that sell high-end fashion for a discount. That’s not Fab. We’re doing fashion the Fab way; designed to make you smile.” Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but FashionStake founders Vivian Weng and Daniel Gulati will be joining Fab.com. According to Weng and Gulati, FashionStake will relaunch on Fab.com in mid-February.

Foundation Rwanda’s latest fundraising initiative, “Color Rwanda with Hope,” comes with a typographic twist. The nonprofit organization, founded in 2008 by photojournalist Jonathan Torgovnik and former creative director Jules Shell, tapped members of creative agency LBi Syrup to design an original typeface for the multi-media campaign. Rather than whip up something in the studio, where they work on projects for artistically inclined brands such as Bottega Veneta and Puma, the LBi Syrup group traveled to Rwanda and used the artwork and writing of the children they met there as inspirational font fodder. The resulting typeface, “Color Rwanda,” appears on various campaign materials, including the limited-edition coloring books that are at the heart of the fundraiser. LBi Syrup also created a short film (below) for the campaign. All proceeds from the Color Rwanda with Hope effort will help to fund Foundation Rwanda’s work to provide secondary education for the 20,000 ostracized children born of rape during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
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