Recently, I saved a major exclusive story from nearly getting killed at the eleventh hour. After developing the communications strategy, writing several versions of a pitch that a broader team of external partners would use over the course of the campaigns phases, and personally intervening when the opportunity was nearly lost after one of the parties involved fumbled, that same party later said to me, Thanks for your help.Help.Twenty years in public relations, including over a decade running a successful consultancy, and my strategic leadership was reduced to helpa word that carries centuries of loaded meaning for Black women in America. Its a word that seems disproportionately reserved for people of color, regardless of their role, impact, or level of experience.But this wasnt an isolated incident. Ive watched a familiar pattern unfold throughout my career: White professionals are dubbed rockstars for meeting basic expectations and praised for their brilliance for sharing a contrarian thought. Meanwhile, when Black and brown professionalsparticularly women of colordemonstrate exceptional results and seemingly do the impossible, were thanked for our help.Mislabeling leadership as help is a reminder that excellence isnt always enough to rewrite bias, especially for Black leaders, says Jenny Vazquez-Newsum, E.d.D., a leadership strategist, facilitator, and author of the book Untapped Leadership: Harnessing the Power of Underrepresented Leaders. It reinforces a long-standing systemic flaw that devalues the intellectual labor and expertise of Black professionals.Lets be clear about what help actually is. Help is being a fresh pair of eyes to review slides before a colleagues presentation. Help is picking up slack on a project when a teammate is out sick. What I and many other diverse professionals do every day isnt help; its leadership that drives business forward and enables teams to succeed.The language we use matters. When companies frame Black leadership as help, they perpetuate a subtle but powerful form of professional diminishment. This framing doesnt just affect individual recognition; it impacts career advancement, team dynamics, and business success. It reinforces an unconscious hierarchy where certain professionals are seen as leaders by default, while others must constantly prove their leadershiponly to have it minimized by being characterized as a supporting role.Language can be a subtle mirror of our biases, says Vazquez-Newsum. When we diminish Black leadership to help, we prescribe a subordinate narrative to extraordinary contributions. It undercuts expertise even if couched in good intentions or under a veil of gratitude.This systemic undervaluation has significant business implications. According to research from Russell Reynolds Associates, only 29% of Black professionals with 10-20 years of experience report satisfaction with their level of recognition, compared to 47% of their non-Black peers. Similarly, a LinkedIn survey of more than 2,000 Black professionals found that lack of recognition was a primary driver of turnover, with 33% citing it as a reason they considered leaving their jobs.The cost is substantial to businesses: Companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic diversity are 66% less likely to outperform their peers financially, per McKinsey data. When organizations fail to acknowledge Black leadership, they risk losing the very talent that could drive successwith Gallup estimating replacement costs reaching up to 200% of annual salary for leadership positions.The solution isnt simply swapping wordsits fundamentally shifting how corporate America recognizes and values leadership. Companies must create systems that properly attribute individual contributions and build cultures where excellence is recognized, regardless of who demonstrates it.Vazquez-Newsum emphasizes the broader business implications. Failing to acknowledge leadership where it exists is a business liability. Bias in language creates an unseen barrier in talent pipelines, costing organizations their most innovative thinkers. What some may dismiss as subtlety, others experience as a powerful deterrent, discouraging the very talent and contributions the companies need to thrive.She says that companies build a communication culture that fully acknowledges the weight of contributions. It should be standard practice to explicitly articulate the scope and significance of a colleagues contribution and align it with recognized leadership behaviors. Simple gratitude is not equivalent to adequate recognition.Theres help, and theres business leadership. Its time for companiesand individualsto recognize the difference.

A green-patinated copper shell topped with solar panels forms this "habitable power station" in Oxford, designed by local studio Adrian James Architects.Named Copper Bottom, the two-storey house is a self-build project created by studio founder Adrian James for his family on a sloping wildflower meadow high on Harcourt Hill.Aiming for a high benchmark of sustainability, Adrian James Architects designed the four-bedroom house with a simple cuboid form and a sculptural copper carapace that protects the structure from the sun and minimises its energy demand.Adrian James Architects has completed his own family house in Oxford"The starting points were a compact form, a roof maximising southerly aspect for solar panels, and an envelope which sheltered the windows from high sun," said James."These primary moves established the basics, then it was a case of sculpting this basic form to create something uplifting and resonant."On the ground floor, a double-height gallery space forms the heart of Copper Bottom. It sits alongside an open-plan living room and kitchen with a mezzanine level designed as a space for home working.The house is defined by its "origami-esque" shellUpstairs the house features four bedrooms, one with an ensuite, and an additional bathroom.Copper Bottom's defining feature is what the studio describes as its "origami-esque" shell. It features an angled roof plane that cantilevers out like a peaked cap to prevent high summer sun from entering the house's big south-facing windows but allowing low winter rays in.The roof blocks out the high summer sunOn the house's east and west flanks, creased bulges create deep reveals for the east- and west-facing windows.Meanwhile, on top of the house, two "ears" form ventilation stacks designed to draw in cool night air and expel hot air accumulated throughout the day during the summer months."There are subtle hints of something zoomorphic and something mechanistic, with paired ears and a prow," added James. "It is really about capturing a sense of dynamism in the form which puts a spring in your step."A green-patinated copper forms the shellOn the house's roof a huge array of 37 photovoltaic panels, angled towards the sun. The energy these generate is more than the house demands."The intention is for the house to be a habitable power station actually something we want all our designs to be," said James.This excess power means Copper Bottom is not only zero-carbon in terms of operation but it is also expected to offset the embodied energy associated with its construction.Read: Surman Weston self-builds "characterful family home" with three gardens in LondonThe house's superstructure has also been designed with a focus on airtightness. It is made of prefabricated timber panels clad with a system of lightweight timber trusses supporting a plywood skin. An air-source heat pump reduces the energy demand for water heating.Copper Bottom was designed to showcase the durability and versatility of recycled copper, a material James praised as durable, readily available and low maintenance.A brick feature wall features insideWhile copper does not continually corrode like other metals, it gradually patinates from its original brown colour to green verdigris when exposed to the air.Yet this process takes time and so to achieve Copper Bottom's green exterior the architect chose to use metal that had been prepatinated in a factory using a chemical wash.The architect chose a lime version of verdigris, rather than the usual turquoise, to harmonise with the house's surrounding greenery, including its mature trees and wildflower meadows.Porcelain tiles lined the ground floorsInside Copper Bottom, the interiors are kept light with white walls and minimal detailing. To create tactility and warmth, the studio has added a large feature wall in the central double-height space made of textured stock brick.This doubles as a wall for a stair leading to a mezzanine home office space, where a wide oak desk looks down over the dining table, through the double-height window to the garden and landscape beyond.The mezzanine has stained oak flooring and joineryLarge format porcelain tiles have been used on the floors downstairs, while upstairs the floors, joinery and doors have been made in stained oak. Large windows offer views over the rolling countryside and spires of central Oxford.The plot of land where Copper Bottom was built, which lies just on the edge of the Oxford Green Belt, was bought by James and his wife for the self-build project and originally formed part of the neighbouring property's garden.Other self-built houses recently featured on Dezeen include a "characterful family home" with three gardens by Surman Weston and Atwater House that the co-founder of the firm Design, Bitches and her architect husband built over two decades.The photography is by Fisher Studios.The post Adrian James Architects wraps Copper Bottom house in origami-like shell appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen's architecture and design working-conditions surveypaints an alarming picture of an industry under strain. Nat Barker reports.Josephine (not her real name) wanted to be an architect from a young age. But upon qualifying in 2010 and entering practice work in her native France, she quickly found things difficult."The conditions were really tough," she told Dezeen. "We had to work very long hours in a very stressful environment."More than 450 responses across 64 countriesAfter one too many 3:00am finishes, she decided to switch to architectural lighting design, hoping it would be less intense.Her next job, at a renowned studio in Germany, threw up a different set of issues, with a boss prone to sexually inappropriate behaviour and telling lewd stories.Josephine emigrated again to work for another architectural lighting studio in the UK, where she says she has experienced yet more sexism, stress, pitiful pay, constant overtime and a lack of progression.Now she is fed up, and is planning to move into user-experience design in search of a more fulfilling career."I'm very sad, because I like the field of architecture, and I have a lot of knowledge here, so I feel like I'm putting a cross on everything I did so far, and it's a shame," she said.Read: Shocking personal stories from Dezeen's working-conditions survey"Maybe I'm very unlucky, but at the same time, I have seen maybe five different offices, and so I have the feeling it's the norm."Josephine was a respondent to Dezeen's recent survey asking people to share their experiences of working in architecture and design.We received more than 450 responses in total from people in 64 different countries, from interns just starting out in their careers to CEOs who began in the early 1960s.Most worked for architecture studios, but we also heard from those at landscape architecture firms, engineering firms, design studios, interior design studios, property developers, public-sector bodies and brands.And while Josephine's experience is not the standard, nor is it uncommon. Dozens of people had similar stories.Architecture "operating on a culture of exploitation"The good news is that most people seem reasonably content overall, with 73 per cent of respondents saying they either "definitely" or "mostly" enjoy their job.Being able to work creatively overwhelmingly emerged as the main reason given, alongside the wide variety of tasks and the satisfaction of problem-solving or seeing projects complete.But all that appears to come at a considerable cost. Even among those saying they liked their job overall, numerous problems were identified.More than half (52 per cent) indicated their job does not match up with what they expected before they started.In what many may find unsurprising, low pay and excessive workloads appear to be commonplace.Only 29 per cent of respondents said they feel well paid or paid about right, while 45 per feel somewhat underpaid and another 25 per cent feel severely underpaid.Meanwhile, two-thirds of respondents reported regularly having to do unpaid overtime. Nine per cent said they do so every day, while 15 per cent said they do so most days. Some said they have unpaid overtime written into their contracts."The industry is operating on a culture of exploitation," said an architectural assistant at a large architecture firm in the UK."I have a genuine passion for architectural design and innovation, but this is difficult to hold onto when I can barely afford to live, despite this job taking over my life."A huge 80 per cent said they have experienced unrealistic expectations of work in the past five years."Unrealistic expectations of work is almost a standard in an environment where the clients don't abide by contractual agreements, request unpaid design changes and managers just accept everything in order to preserve a good relationship with the clients," remarked an architect working in China."It was literally like life or death"Troublingly, our survey results also indicated widespread issues with poor workplace culture within architecture and design.For instance, 61 per cent of respondents said they have witnessed or experienced rude, belittling or demeaning behaviour in the last five years.More than half (52 per cent) reported unnecessarily harsh criticism of work, and 30 per cent have witnessed or experienced bullying.A recurring theme in respondents' answers was intense pressure and disrespectful behaviour from clients translating into highly strung senior members of staff acting poorly towards those below them.In one particularly extreme case, a woman who had been a teacher at an inner-London high school and decided to make a career change into interior design lasted only a year at an architecture and interiors studio before she became seriously ill from stress and had to quit."I was used to pressure but this was pressure like nothing else, it was literally like life or death," she told Dezeen. "It would be like, 'the client doesn't like what we've done, this is a nightmare and it's all your fault'."Employed as an assistant designer on a salary of 23,000, she worked until past midnight the night before her wedding on plans that were eventually unused.On another occasion, she found herself hiding in a cupboard to eat cold rice with her hands after sneaking out of a five-hour meeting without breaks."I could say that my bosses were awful people," she reflected. "I don't think they were. I think they were under a lot of pressure and stress. They were really amazing architects, and it's just a shame that the outside pressures took away some of their humanity."Other respondents told stories of public tellings-off, being shamed for doing less overtime than colleagues, being chastised for going out on the weekend, being asked to skip lunchbreaks and being loudly criticised over the phone within earshot.There were also three claims of senior staff members sleeping with junior female workers who then received preferential treatment, and another three claims of redundancies in retaliation for pushing back on workloads.A handful of people reported suffering lasting psychological damage from their experiences at work.Half of women experience sexism or misogynyEspecially concerning was the reported experience of women who responded to our survey.Out of 217 women, an alarming 107 (49 per cent) said they have witnessed or experienced sexism or misogyny at work in the past five years.Seventeen said they had witnessed or experienced harassment of a sexual nature. Examples given included inappropriate touching by male co-workers.Meanwhile, among 97 respondents who consider themselves to be part of an ethnic minority in the country they work in, 19 (20 per cent) reported witnessing or experiencing racism.One architect, at a firm in the US, discovered that women of colour were consistently getting paid less than their peers.The issue was denied by partners until they were threatened with legal action. At that point she was given a pay rise though the wider issue was not rectified.Read: "Working yourself to the point of exhaustion is no longer a badge of honour"In another case, an interior designer at an architecture firm in the UAE said a director openly joked about not interviewing job candidates who were "too brown".Being able to address issues within the workplace also emerged as a common concern.Among respondents who have complained about working conditions in the past five years, only 12 per cent said it led to action that resolved the issue.Many others decided not to complain for fear of repercussions or in the belief that it would make no difference, with several citing a lack of HR within their workplace or a sense that the problems were normalised."It feels like a lost cause"Plenty of other trends emerged in written answers to the survey.Younger staff often described feeling victimised, while older workers frequently said they are undervalued. There were also multiple claims of classism.Architects were often angry about what they see as waning respect for the profession in the construction industry, with several reporting rudeness from clients juxtaposed with spiralling expectations.Some respondents bemoaned poor running of their companies, with frustration over fruitless work done to enter competitions unsuccessfully and what one person termed "suicidal bids"."The profession is broken on so many levels," summarised one UK architect. "Working in a small practice I felt exploited and undervalued, but running a small practice I found it was very difficult to get the work done and make any money!""It feels like a bit of a lost cause, when at the same time, it feels like the world needs architects to be creatively thinking up solutions to our challenging societal problems," they added.Architects, and those in western countries, are not the only people frequently struggling."This industry is terrible for mental health and personal life," said the owner of an interior-design studio in Singapore.It is important to emphasise that these stories are not representative of everyone's experiences, and to acknowledge that our survey only captures a tiny snapshot of the millions of people who work in architecture and design worldwide.But there are indications in the findings that discontentment about working conditions may lead the architecture and design fields to lose a significant amount of talent in the coming years.Only 26 per cent of respondents were positive that they want to stay working in the industry for a long term.Another 11 per cent expect to leave within the next five years, and a further nine per cent are already actively seeking to change careers.That equates to roughly one in five people working in architecture and design who are expecting to move elsewhere in the foreseeable future.Meanwhile, only 10 per cent of respondents said they would "definitely" recommend a career in architecture or design to someone younger.A much greater proportion (19 per cent) said they definitely would not, while another 23 per cent said they probably would not. Most of the rest (46 per cent) said they would, but with caution.Many of our respondents were clear: regarding client expectations, salaries and working hours, things need to change. Whether that will be possible is less certain.Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to our survey. The illustration is byMarie Mohanna.Dezeen In DepthIf you enjoy reading Dezeen's interviews, opinions and features,subscribe to Dezeen In Depth. Sent on the last Friday of each month, this newsletter provides a single place to read about the design and architecture stories behind the headlines.The post Dezeen survey points to "broken" architecture and design industry appeared first on Dezeen.

The Nintendo Switch kicked off a handheld gaming renaissance that didnt immediately catch on in the PC market, aside from a few lesser-known brands like GPD and AYANEO. It wasnt until Valve, the creator of the biggest PC game distribution platform, launched the Steam Deck that it picked up, well, steam among other PC manufacturers like Lenovo and ASUS. Now we have almost a dozen products in this niche category, but the Steam Deck remains a popular choice.Almost like the Switch itself, the Steam Deck hasnt changed its design or most of its specs since it launched in 2022, only coming out with an OLED model a year later. There are definitely smaller and more portable designs now available, but it isnt exactly a behemoth compared to some that now have 8-inch or even 11-inch screens. Apparently, it was still too big for someones backpack, leading to this rather curious mod that guts the Steam Deck of the things that make it special, effectively turning it into a portable gaming mini PC.Designer: crastinator-proThe appeal of handheld gaming PCs like the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck is that they are pretty much all-in-one computers that you can take with you anywhere and play on the go. You dont need to attach a monitor or peripherals to use them, making them easier to carry, at least in theory. Compared to the Switch, however, the Steam Deck and other handheld PCs are pretty big and thick, not gigantic but bulky enough to be inconvenient to some people.The Steam Brick is a DIY solution that cuts the Steam Deck down to a brick, almost literally. It basically removes the screen and the controllers, cuts the metal frame down to size, and crams all the core components, including the battery, back into a 3D-printed enclosure. It still runs, of course, but now its just a box thats like a mini PC with a built-in battery.Whats the point, you might ask? Its for easier portability, to the point that you can simply throw the Steam Brick into a backpack and not worry about scratching the screen or damaging joysticks and buttons. Youll need a screen and a controller to actually use the computer, of course, but AR glasses like Xreal are quite accessible these days. You can argue that these peripherals actually add even more to what you need to bring and remove the ability to just quickly play a game any time, but the designer said that he almost always uses the glasses with the original Steam Deck anyway.Unlike other Steam Deck mods, this particular project is even more difficult, even for seasoned modders and makers. The one advantage is that the Steam Deck actually has an official repair guide from Valve and iFixit, making it slightly easier to know your way around the internals. Given how some AR glasses need a portable device to connect to, the Steam Brick could actually be the blueprint for a portable AR PC as well.The post Steam Deck mod removes the screen and controls for a different portable experience first appeared on Yanko Design.

The retro horror game is back to terrify us all over again,

Illustration meets the stage in this immersive visual project.

This new Ninja Crispi portable air fryer may be the new best solution to potlucks, office lunch, and maybe tailgating.

The bookseller is applying its sales modelwhere online purchases support indie bookstoresto digital books. It has also released a mobile app for shopping and reading ebooks.

General Motors, the largest producer of cars in Mexico, wont provide details on how it would react if President Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs from the two countries.

MacworldApple on Monday released a flurry of updates for all of its devices that provide several new features and fix a handful of bugs. But as always, the most important reason to upgrade is because they make your devices safer.Among the numerous security updates, the iOS/iPadOS 18.3, macOS Sequoia 15.3, watchOS 11.3, tvOS 18.3, and visionOS 2.3 updates patch a CoreMedia zero-day flaw. Exploitation of CVE-2025-24085 could allow a malicious application to access privileged parts of the system and was fixed with improved memory management.CoreMedia is a framework used for time-based audio-visual assets such as podcast apps and other media players.Apple says it is aware of a report thatthe vulnerability may have been actively exploited using versions of iOS before iOS 17.2, which arrived in December 2023. Interestingly, Apple didnt release iOS 17.7.3 with a fix for phones not running iOS 18, though all phones that were compatible with iOS 17 are also compatible with iOS 18.For older tablets, Apple released iPadOS 17.7.3, though it does not include the CoreMedia fix. The updates for older Macs (macOS Sonoma 14.7.3 and macOS Ventura 13.7.3) also dont include a CoreMedia fix. Among the other security patches in the updates are several AirPlay fixes and a FaceTime fix related to apps accessing user-sensitive data.Apple didnt divulge who discovered the security flaw. Its also unclear how the vulnerability was exploited. You can update your Apple device by going to the Settings app (System Settings on a Mac) and selecting the Software Update tab.