November 17th, 2009
Sleepbox is a resting cabin for urban ambients, like train stations, airports and shopping malls. When you acquire the key to your cabin, the “guest” can choose among stays that can vary from 15 minutes to several hours.
The cabin comes eqquiped with an alarm clock, LCD television, wireless internet, electrical sockets for connecting notebook, a cellphone charger, a top ventilation system and as a special treat, a bed that automatically changes the bed sheets each time there is a new guest.
Created by the russian architects collective Arch Group, the idea reminds us of Japan’s capsule hotels and a project by the Atelier Van Lieshout.
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November 13th, 2009
The Cloud is the project of an immense digital cloud, created by the architects of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the London Olympic Park. The idea is that the structure will have, besides being aesthetically beautiful, several kinds of useful functions. Using its own solar powered energy generator, it projects information and images in a constant flow, working as a digital wall. Another interesting ideia is to use it as a high place to observe the city. The Cloud was chosen among the finalists of a project to build a tourist atraction in London’s olympic park. The project creators say they tried to create something that would be light as air and a revolution in architectural design.
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November 10th, 2009
The Organic Factory is a new project by designer Gilles Belley, who works researching new possibilities of use of agromaterials. Made from agricultural leftovers, they are biodegradable when put in contact with water. Gilles explains that he toys with the similarities between natural and artificial, with objects where form and function are manufactured by nature.
The Organic Factory includes aromatic diffusers and little decorative gardens which mimic the natural processes of decomposition and blossoming, among others. The project, that has won the Bourse Agora design award 2009, started as a project developed with the art center La Cuisine and the Laboratory of of Agroindustrial Chemistry of Toulouse. 
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November 6th, 2009
Martijn Dijkhuizen is a student at the Design Academy Eindhoven, where annually the university promotes an exhibition to present the best projects designed inside their classrooms. Martin’s masters thesis was presented in this year’s event, along with other brilliant projects like the Minimal Dress. Called Human Power, it is a teddy bear made of metal, which absorbs and stores the energy we produce while we sleep.
To understand the process of harvesting the energy, you have to imagine the human body as an energy plant: while we sleep, the heat produced is transfered to the bed sheets. The metal teddy bear, which is cold, when put in contact with the bed, has a small thermic shock. That shock is what produces the electricity, in a precise representation of the Seebeck Effect, where electricity comes from the clashing of temperatures. After that, the energy is stored in the metal bear, and can be used to power the electrical outlet situated on its belly.
To use the human body as a mean to produce energy is a clean and sustainable way to do it.
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November 3rd, 2009
Swedish retailer H&M has done a partnership with the UXUS collective to create an interaction plataform for the H&M Home line. Known for the online store, the line has most of its profit from the online sales, because of that, the idea is to recreate the site offline, in a fun, entertaining way, in real life.
The 32 meters installation is called “Interaction” and it sits in the brands headquarters, full of house decorative objects organized with tags. When one pulls one of these tags, the machine moves, bringing all the products that are tagged with one particular word closer to the person. Illustrating the idea of connection using ropes allows for anyone to “navigate” the installation like we would browse a website, link by link.
Besides that, they also build a mirrors and furniture installation called “Home Reflection”, where cushions, cloths and table cloths get mixed together and appear to float, in a very eclectic and surreal tone.
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November 3rd, 2009
A while ago, Medellín, in Colombia, was easily described as a synonym for the violence and drugs combo. Things are changing fast partly because of a revolutionary project that has brought together social participation, art, education, safety, amongst others. One of the highlights is the design project, which has just received the Curry Stone Design Prize 2009.
Taking a different approach, the city’s rennovation plans were not restricted to a couple of regions and the most beautiful architectural projects were destined to the poorest neighborhoods. Former mayor Sergio Fajardo explains: “People that say that a good looking building does not improve education don’t understand something critical. The first step to a higher quality education is a space that has quality. When the poorest children of Medellin get into the best classroom in town, this works as a powerful message of social inclusion”.
Alejandro Echeverri was the architect responsible for the urban planning.
The numbers give credit to what the pair believes: the number of deaths have dropped from 381 dead in each 100.000 inhabitants in 1991 to 28 in 2004. That is lower than cities like Rio de Janeiro, Washington, Cali, Caracas, San Salvador, and others.
To learn more about the rennovation process of Medellin, access the website Laboratorio Medellin.
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October 26th, 2009
Sweatshoppe is the work of two masked artists, Bruno Levy and Blake Shawn, that develop technological alternatives, like softwares, to create specific performances. Their latest invention is a way to interfere with buildings and walls, working with graffiti aesthetics, using only LED, lights and video, without any use of paint or any material that will be affect the surface permanently.
This way of painting with video works like this: a painting roll with green indication LEDs is traced in X and Y coordinates with a video camera. Then the camera sends the values and information to a projector, which then draws the shapes on the surfaces. This shapes have patterns, colors and textures definied eletronically, and the art dissapears as soon as the machines are turned off.
The collective, which has been filming the interventions and the actions, has been leaving their mark in the virtual world, mainly uploading videos on the internet, and gives up the idea of an intervention leaving permanent marks like when someone uses traditional paint. Art is momentary and only lasts for the duration of the performance, the only way to see it afterwards is accessing the web, where the artists maintain their presence using vimeo and myspace.
From light sprays to a plataform that uses Wii and Flash technologies, the new ways that have been flourishing in graffitti art are usually free from pollutant paints, reach high levels of luminosity and allows to interact with surfaces that are much bigger than we were used to, and in different situations would be way too big to be worked on.
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October 23rd, 2009
Digna Kosse, a dutch conceptual designer, has just presented her graduation project at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Aptly named Minimal Dress, the project is a reflection about the seasonal qualities of clothes.
Kosse has used as little material as possible in her dresses, only lines, to approach the excessive use of material in fashion collections, which become obsolete in a very short time. For her, the idea of changing looks should not be literally so material.
The photos are by Lisa Klappe.
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October 21st, 2009
Famous for their aesthetical looks allied with technological innovation, Dyson surprises the world with their innovative ways to build which used to be ordinary objects. Their latest and very celebrated project was the Dyson Air Multiplier Fan, a round fan that has no blades and sucks the air that goes through its interior and accelerates in 15 times. Because it has no blades, the fan creates an constant air flow, different from normal fans.
The company maintains the idea to recreate objects, exchanging classic construction by technological solutions. Like their paperless hand dryers or, their cyclone vaccuum, which didn’t have a traditional bag or filter system, and was presented by James Dyson, the founder of the company, during the 80’s.
Besides that, the James Dyson Foundation promotes the James Dyson Award, which we have already mentioned here.
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October 16th, 2009
Busk is a research tool full of particularities. The first one is the design of the site itself, which surprises people that are used to the boring layouts of search engines.
The site is not only good looking but also has innovative functions build into it, one of them is the search which is based in a feeder style, where the user can read several news without leaving the same Busk page, just opening new tabs, with photo, text and a link to the original post.
Besides that, the news are presented in a cronological order and the search can be filtered by language, categories and date. It is not necessary to register, but registered users can use it as a feeder with the additional advantage that you can save personalized URLS, and then share them with your friends.
Busk helps us to see the positive side, which sometimes is forgotten, about the enormous quantities of content one can find online. Brings to mind the theory of the psycologist Barry Schwartz which, in his book The Paradox of choice, affirms the critical role of making choices to express our autonomy and our freedom. According to Barry, the problem is the filter: having to choose among too many options makes us miserable and constantly feeling like we are missing something or that we have made the wrong choice.
Because it is an excellent mixture between search engine, feeder and a social network, is extremely practical and tailored to anyone who loves to keep updated with the best news.
Read more about another great Busk feature after the jump.
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