Historically, famous architects design buildings for the wealthy. Shigeru Ban is one exception to this tradition. He maintains a hand in each of the projects of his company, Shigeru Ban Architects, whose three offices (Tokyo, New York, and Paris) focus on a few projects rather than mega-structures. And his overarching desire is to bring architecture to all classes.

Mr. Ban is known for using recyclable materials such as paper tubes — waterproof and fire-resistant — to provide temporary shelter for victims of Kobe’s earthquake in 1995. He has also built schools in Sichuan, China, and a music hall in L’Aquila, Italy, after these regions experienced devastating quakes.

When interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about his hope for the profession to become more socially responsible, Ban shared that architects are an important piece to the success of recovery efforts in disaster areas. “We are responsible for disasters. After an earthquake, when a building collapses…it is not because of the earthquake itself but because of the structure of the building. That is the responsibility of the architect.”

For more on Ban, tune into the WSJ interview.

Clichés are plentiful, but how can we use them effectively in our communication? Seth Godin helps writers and speakers become more adept. Here is his post, “How to use clichés.”

Football star Joe Montana once said, “Confidence is a very fragile thing.” The Toyota Corporation is knee-deep in crisis. After over 75 years since its founding, Toyota struggles to maintain the “Toyota Way 2001,” the management credo that stakes company values on two principles — Respect for People and Continuous Improvement.

Six million drivers in the U.S. alone have had their automobiles recalled for safety issues. Mr. Toyoda, President of Toyota, made steps to repair the broken relationship between the corporation and its customers by starting with an apology.

“At his news conference…Mr. Toyoda lamented that an overzealous pursuit of growth had led Toyota to lose sight of its commitment to quality. ‘We so aggressively pursued numbers that we were unable to keep up with training staff to oversee quality. We were also somewhat slow in collecting, analyzing and acting on complaints we received from our drivers.’” (New York Times, “Toyota Takes New Steps to Restore Confidence,” February 17, 2010)

The difficulties of the world’s biggest automaker reminds us that profit is always one goal of business but never the single driver.

Last week, Google launched Google Buzz, a social networking service to compete with Twitter and Facebook. The service is based on the 176 million users of Gmail. If you have a gmail account, Buzz will automatically create a “built-in circle of friends” for your networking and chatting conversations.

Amid the excitement of the launch, the talk around Google Buzz is not all positive. Critics say that Buzz invades privacy by assuming the right to create a potential friend list without asking for the user’s permission. Todd Jackson, product manager for Gmail and Google Buzz, responded that the company will make necessary changes in the weeks ahead.

In a business world where products are often introduced and then improved using real-time customer feedback, some wonder if Google launched their social networking rocket too soon.

“It was a terrible mistake,” said Danny Sullivan, a specialist on Google and editor of SearchEngineLand, an industry blog. “I don’t think people expected that Google would show the world who you are connected with. And if there was a way to opt out, it was really easy to miss.” Time will tell if Google can alter course before the market runs out of patience.

Photo from New York Daily News

Recent controversy in Italy highlights the clash between culture and change. Last month, the McDonald’s Corporation launched the McItaly, an all-Italian hamburger served not on a sesame seed bun but on ciabatta-like bread. According to New York Daily News (”McItaly burger sparks controversy for McDonald’s in Italy), Italy’s Agriculture Minister Luca Zai heartily sponsors the McItaly (made with Italian beef, Asiago cheese, and artichoke spread), purporting that farmers will get a much needed financial boost, or roughly an additional 4.8 million per month. McDonald’s flagship restaurant opened in 1986 in Rome’s historic center, the place that also birthed the Slow Food movement, which champions home cooking with locally grown, organic products over the consumption of fast food.

The McItaly takes fast food to another level that some Italians (not just those in the Slow Food movement) believe is antithetical to their country’s long-standing culinary identity. It’s a familiar conflict that all people in business face. Do the ends (economic growth) justify the means?

What are the world’s forward-thinking and creative minds up to? Some of them are at the TED 2010 Conference, which begins today in Long Beach, CA. TED is a private nonprofit foundation that began in 1984 to be a platform for Ideas Worth Spreading. Click on TED’s Program Guide to view the range of topics and speakers — scientists, business leaders, artists, comedians, dancers, and chefs, like this year’s recipient of the TED prize ($100,000 plus “One Wish to Change the World”).

Jamie Oliver, British chef/activist on a mission to empower people through food and cooking, will reveal to what end he will invest the prize money.

TED also features a person of interest from the tech world, John Underkoffler. Remember Minority Report and the interface between actors and data screens? The creator of this point-and-touch technology will offer his perspective on g-speak’s potential impact on the way we manipulate data.

Learning happens online and everywhere, and TED is a valuable, free resource, providing some of the most thought-provoking and inspiring lectures around. In the coming weeks, conference lectures will be posted on www.ted.com.

The perception of time seems relative to one’s age. What causes the feeling that “time flies”? It seems that life has played out in fast-forward mode, much like it has for Homer Simpson in “Every Day.”

Homer Every Day from Noah K. on Vimeo.

NPR’s “Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?” (Robert Krulwich) puts that very question to neuroscientist David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine. He proposes that when we are young, we are establishing many “first” memories — the first day of school, the first friend, the first kiss — and these experiences seem long and rich.

“The list of encoded memories is so dense, reading them back gives you a feeling that they must have taken forever. “But that’s an illusion,’ says Eagleman. ‘It’s a construction of the brain. The more memory you have of something, you think, Wow, that really took a long time!’”

According to Eagleman’s findings, brains use more energy to imprint a memory when the experience is original. Children are not the only ones who create first memories. As adults, we may try to slow the pace of time by creating new “firsts.”

science boy

NPR’s Dustin Dwyer spotlights a nonprofit in the Midwest with interesting beginnings. The article “Geek’s Dream Lab Could Create Jobs In Michigan” introduces us to Chris Boden, who couldn’t afford to enroll in college but followed his passion for learning anyway. He created The Geek Group, “a consortium of people devoted to good old-fashioned scientific and technical experimentation.”

The Geek Group, boasting a world-wide membership, is headquartered in an old machine shop north of Kalamazoo, MI. What started out as a place for making and running experiments has evolved into a nonprofit that serves as a research-and-development facility for firms that cannot afford to run their own labs.

Boden wants to expand The Geek Group by building a 40-acre campus used for “open source” research and development. What Boden needs is investors. And, according to Dwyer, Michigan is “a place that could use some real geeks.”