In 2002, Savannah’s beloved and nationally acclaimed College of Art and Design (SCAD) expanded into international territory by assuming the Lacoste School of the Arts in Lacoste, France.

Now they’re conquering Asia.  I realize I am probably the last one to tell you about their newest international expansion into Hong Kong, but we couldn’t let it go without giving them props.

From the land of Cantonese culture, cosmopolitan consumerism and martial arts comes a collegiate infusion of digital media production for SCAD.  The college will open its four-year branch campus there in 2010, occupying the historic North Kowloon Magistracy Building, which will be restored at SCAD’s hands (see rendition below).  The Hong Kong satellite will offer majors in animation, interactive design and game development, motion media design, visual effects, advertising design, photography, graphic design and illustration.

The process to acquire the building was a competitive one, with SCAD being selected out of over 100 other applicants.  Said SCAD President Paula Wallace,  “SCAD will be the first U.S. university to establish a degree-granting campus in Hong Kong, and we believe SCAD-Hong Kong will become the preeminent site for the study of digital media in Asia.” (View SCAD’s trailer on their move to Asia.)

If Fred Kent got you thinking about building community through public spaces, then you’ll want to bring your coffee mug, thinking cap and idealist enthusiasm over to the Sentient Bean tonight.  Because the recently-launched World Peace Through Inclusion Tour is coming to town, taking community to an all-inclusive and international level (literally), with your mind, creativity and spirit as conduit for change.

Tonight, the Tour presents “A Night of Inclusion – Civil Rights and Beyond,” beginning at 7pm at the Bean.  The event will feature a lively and interactive story- and music- based evening, complete with shared histories of very different journeys that have taught the same lessons about segregation and discrimination and their effects on children.  The evening’s speakers include Benetta M. Standly, Director of the Northeast Region ACLU Foundation and Judith Snow, Inclusion Activist and Social Inventor.

The tour itself was started by Snow, a lifelong quadriplegic who has been instrumental in the Inclusion movement, building coalitions such as the Inclusion Network, the Marsha Forest Centre, the McGill Summer Institute for Integrated Education, the Toronto Summer Institute for Inclusive Community, and, locally, the Southern Collective for Inclusive Citizenship.  Snow is also a faculty member of the Asset Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University, committed to promoting communities that acknowledge citizen capacity and thrive from the rich exchanges that develop when citizens build their own social and physical environments.

It’s exotic.  It’s tropical.  It’s carbon neutral.  Have I died and gone to heaven?

With the escalating concerns over global climate change, many people are rethinking the way things are done.  Thanks to Savannah based design company, DALU Design Group, there’s one more way you can be an environmentally-conscious consumer.  It’s called STAR Island (STAR standing for Sustainable Terrain & Resources) and it is an off-the-grid luxury vacation destination located near the Bahamian island of Eleuthera.

DALU Design Group is a progressive firm of “eco-tects” (ecotecture anyone?), planners and consultants catering to eco-friendly design and lifestyle. Located in Savannah, DALU is led by David Sklar (designer and visionary) and Luciana Thompson (principal and LEED consultant.)  They also come complete with a highly qualified staff, and seem equipped to handle all factes of green design and construction.

I guess that’s why the New York Times named STAR Island their Eco-destination of the Year.   Whoa.

When you wish upon an Island

STAR Island offers many of the amenities you’d expect from a 5-star accommodation: a full-service spa, restaurants, pools, boat slips, picturesque views of white sand beaches, palm trees and aqua-colored water.  But this luxury vacation community offers more than just a relaxing, good time.  It presents an environmentally responsible approach to resort development for the discerning eco-tourist.

For too long couches have been given a bad name.  Couch potato.  “You’re sleeping on the couch tonight, mister.”  480-Pound Woman Dies After Six Years On Couch.

Can’t a sofa catch a break?

Allow me to reprieve this everyday household item from the abyss of the unappreciated.  Because the average couch is making waves worldwide, having now become an opportunity for economic development here in Savannah and in communities around the globe.

The phenomenon is called “couchsurfing.”  Anyone who went to a large state university like I did is familiar with the concept.  In essence, it is an extended stay by someone (familiar or not) who sleeps on the couch.  At worst it is associated with vagrancy or drunken youth.   At best it is redefining travel and lodging the world over.

From the wreckage of the couchsurfing of old emerged the CouchSurfing Project, a free, Internet-based, international hospitality service that, evidently, is currently the world’s largest hospitality exchange network. Launched in 2004, the site now boasts more than 827,000 members in 229 countries and territories. And it may well rank as the most visited hospitality service on the Internet, averaging more than 30 million daily page views in July 2008.