What is a Virtual Company?



What that means and who works for the company like that?



Virtual to us means more time more work, more focus on productivity and more projects.



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Virtual company services mean utilizing today’s technology to deliver services and communicate with clients by working remotely.



Consultants engaged are considered to be a group of entrepreneurs gathered around one company&#8217;s operations to provide a unified product while partially or fully working remotely. Virtual company uses new technologies to deliver services to clients globally.



In small portions, conservative or standard-type companies have started delivering projects and services away from their main office location. Virtual company professionals are just expanding that concept and offering more services in more places with the comfort of outsourcing and strategizing flexibly.



Virtual business is introducing smart operations with quick process improvement along the way. Heavy reliance on technology keeps them well-informed of new products and trends. Virtual businesses have the potential to know more about their clients’ business and be more in sync with their operations and requirements.



Virtual assistants and therefore virtual businesses are provided to better know their client expectations and provide personalised service.



The benefits of virtual companies are:



low start-up costs,



running lean business operations



no office expenses



advantage of delivering digital products



Work-life balance



Flexible people per project capacity



Expandable or flexible to slow down at times



Customised client relationship



Also mentioned in this podcast <a href="http://www.oculusvr.com/">http://www.oculusvr.com/</a>

Virtual Company

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Love as a design principle. Why do we love some cities? Love maps and mental mapping. Mental mapping of all places we have been to and wanted to forget as well as the creation of love maps for those we hold close to our hearts.



No, this is not going to be a debate on love as a subject and core of our existence but we may touch on that in some later posts, for now, I would like to describe why we carve the memory of special places only if something close to our subconscious mind has entered our universe. Love maps are usually created in a few circumstances. One of them is when you are a teenager and have limited movement so you can only experience your immediate surroundings.



Better still is the one you carve during the falling in love stage in the town where you live and or on your holidays with that special one. We choose beautiful and relaxing places to go on our holidays or first dates, preferably places with history or places rich in environmental and spatial characteristics. No one told me they had a great holiday with the family amongst busy suburban dwellings with no amenities.



When that high level of Oxytocin and Dopamine hits our brain and nostrils, we start to record the path, colours, shapes, rain, or sunshine subconsciously in a very special way. Presumably, all goes to plan, and those memories will carve deep into our minds to feed us and supply good vibes for the rest of our lives. We can share them or hide them, but they are ours to keep.



Role of Urban Design



Believe it or not, Urban Design plays a great role in facilitating those events. You will ask HOW?&nbsp; Well, we shall refer back to the blog on “becoming an Urban Designer” and understanding places, giving the best possible, meaningful, usable, pleasant appearance that will attract and indulge its users to love it and or repeatedly visit it with gusto.



A good Urban Designer is to sensor the best characteristics of the place, to fulfil the needs of its users, makes or find amazing triggers of uniqueness to each place and serve it to others to admire. There are many hidden secrets in the Designer’s toolbox some of them are to recognize excellence.



Attached Love maps are created by Jessica Nichol. She is an upcoming design guru on understanding urban places within its core and collaborating on Urban Design projects to deliver and amaze.



And now the word from the map creator:



“The universe is made of stories, not atoms”.



Muriel Rukeyser, poet



My work explores the idea of personal cities; the way the same physical space holds layers of different meanings and emotional connections for every individual.



Even the most seemingly mundane stretch of pavement or park bench holds specific connotations in someone’s personal story. We are surrounded by such emotional signposts every day and this creates a complex and emotionally charged dimension beyond static architecture.



Four participants ventured out to rediscover their own ‘mental maps’ of Fitzroy, Collingwood, and Carlton. They plotted their discoveries which I have translated into a graphic language floating above the grid. Here are the results. “



Going forward follow our journey in discovering those places that matter. Grand designs happen through the collaboration of many professions.

LOVE AS A DESIGN PRINCIPAL

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We aspire towards quality, integrity, and high intellectual potential.



Our commitment is to our profession and our clients.



We bring land development projects from land opportunities to living and thriving places for people. We innovate existing places to better fit its future potential.



We understand the social, economic and environmental drivers of each development opportunity



In over 100 projects we delivered 50,000 homes, apartments or land parcels fit for future growth.



Our vision is to be the leader in Urban Design&nbsp;globally&nbsp;while engaging associated services in productive collaboration. We will earn our clients’ loyalty through continuous improvement driven by integrity, teamwork, and innovation.



Our mission is to champion our team to grow personally, professionally, and as a group while providing best urban design and engaging latest environmental innovations.&nbsp; Our mission is to continuously study, research and improve applied urban design as a world’s best practice.



We operate through the support of a large team of consultants engaged on project bases under the Mecene company name. Our flexible structure provides:



<ul>
<li>lean business operations.</li>



<li>no office expenses.</li>



<li>advantage of delivering digital products.</li>



<li>Work-life balance.</li>



<li>Flexible people per project capacity.</li>
</ul>



Virtual company services mean utilizing today’s technology to deliver services and communicate with clients by working remotely.



Consultants engaged are considered to be a group of entrepreneurs gathered around one company&#8217;s operations to provide a unified product while partially or fully working remotely. Virtual company uses new technologies to deliver services to clients globally.

Mecene’s World of Urbanism – Aspiring Towards Quality and Integrity

Feng Shui is an ancient art and science that teaches us how to balance energies (also known as Qi). It has a rich history dating from 5,000 years ago in China bringing good fortunes in many ways such as better health, successful careers, fulfilling love life, etc.



Feng means wind and Shui means water. In Chinese culture these two are associated with good health, thus we have good Feng Shui (good fortune) and bad Feng Shui (bad luck or misfortune).



How does Feng Shui Works



There are five main Feng Shui considerations that we need to keep in mind in creating a harmonious space. These are qi energy, alignment, earth magnetism, eight compass directions, and the five elements. We need to know the source and nature of the energy, how it would affect us, and how do we prevent it from entering our space. There are 3 simple approaches to managing negative energies; Block, Shield, and Avoidance.



Qi/Chi Energy



Chi energy or Universal energy is the energy that permeates around us; it could be inside or outside our body, houses or buildings. In designing our space we should consider the placement of Feng Shui elements for us to gather positive energies and to channel out negative energies so that we could have harmony in our environment.



Here are some common sources of negative energy around your house:



Bowing or blade-shaped curves



Bending roads or highways is considered bad Feng Shui that would cause bad luck in your health or create a high possibility of bloodshed or surgery. Placing broadleaf plants such as photos, canes and bamboos will help shield your home from negative energy.



Street lights



Looking straight at a lamppost near your house or apartment is also bad Feng Shui. The bright light it produces will affect your sleep quality which would cause health issues. The best way is to keep your curtains down to block the bright light from shining on your home and the negative energy that it would bring.



Pointy objects



Another bad Feng Shui is those pointy objects such as antennas or building corners that are directed at your house. It introduces Sha Chi, a sense of killing negative energy that could bring bad luck to health, relationships, and possible bloodshed. The simplest way is to avoid or block the energy by using curtains and mirrors.



Stairs



A staircase facing the main door or the main door facing another door is bad Feng Shui. The main door is also known as “The Mouth of Chi” and is responsible for absorbing the energies needed by your house. If this kind of situation occurs, the energy nourishment will go directly towards the staircase leaving the main floor without nourishment.



Alignment



Now that we have a basic idea of what Chi is, the next thing to consider is how Chi moves. The natural and most efficient way to move for a healthy Chi is to meander. Its course of action is like a raindrop streaming down a windowpane moving from side to side. In a straight line, alignments can direct the flow of energy from Sheng chi into Sha chi.



Speeding up on the straight stretch



In contrast to our natural way of thinking that moving a straight line would be beneficial, in Feng Shui, this would be a bad thing because it would create a fast-flowing chi that is called Sha Chi. The energy’s unhindered speed along the straight line will give a destructive sense at the end of the alignment. In homes or buildings, long corridors should be broken down by strategically placing plants or wind chimes.



Streets and railways



One classic example of this is the “T” junction. If you are offered a house in this situation, you shouldn&#8217;t buy it. In any case, one can minimize but not eliminate the downside by putting up hedges, high fences, and fountains.



Poison Arrows



“Poison arrows” is a name given to a long alignment, which enables the energy flow to speed up to a point of impact upon a person or building. It is also called “secret arrows” as it can’t be seen but could be blocked using walls, trees or embankments.



Spiked shape features



Excellent examples of this are church spires and very large buildings that overpower your own home. The former produces poison arrows that are very aggressive facing towards heaven. On the other hand, the latter will give destructive energy flowing along the walls of large buildings toward its neighbours.



Magnetism



The third important core concept is magnetism. The Earth is a huge magnet, and its magnetic field affects everything around us unknowingly. In Feng Shui, the eight cardinal directions namely North, South, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest were derived from earth’s magnetism. When you open the door of your house, energies will enter and will be drawn by a magnetic field depending on how they react to the eight cardinal directions. Once they enter in various areas they will be trapped there by the walls and ceilings of the house.



The Compass



The invention of the compass is attributed to the Chinese and Feng Shui. In a normal compass, you will find 4 primary and 4 secondary directions for a total of 8 directions. However, the Feng Shui compass has a total of 24 directions. Each direction of a normal compass is subdivided into 3 parts. You will need the help of the compass to easily measure the earth’s magnetic field for us to allocate the space of our house in tune with the flow of energy to the eight cardinal directions. Feng Shui is tied to these directions. For instance, the North benefits your career and business opportunities while the East is for health and family relationships.



Five Elements



One of the key principles in understanding and practising Feng Shui is the five elements (Water, Fire, Earth, Wood and Metal). These elements interact themselves in certain ways that could be used to enhance your life at home or at work.



The five elements are associated with different aspects of life and have different colour symbolism, with the help of Feng Shui, you can bring the specific energy essential to your life. For example, wood means growth and renewal. It is symbolized by the colour green or columnar shape, so having living plants in your space will give a feeling of a beautiful season of new beginnings.



Productive and Destructive Cycles



As we learned about the five elements of Feng Shui, it is also essential that we should know the Cycle of Elements. These elements are interrelated in two ways, these are the productive and destructive cycle.



An example of the productive cycle is when we create a fire by burning the wood. The wood element produces the fire element, then fire, in turn, produces ash which symbolises the earth element and so on. On the other hand, the destructive cycle can be visualized by melting metal by fire or extinguishing fire by water.



Now, using these methods you will have a basic understanding of how to easily enhance the space in your inside or outside your house. Proper placing of furniture, aquariums, walls and metal objects will ensure the productive cycle of elements that could fill your home with positive energy bringing harmony, peace, prosperity, and good luck.

Australasia’s research and educational body on the subject of Urbanism

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