Design

Kohler Is Manufacturing a Solar-Powered Toilet With The Gates Foundation

Globally, about 2.5 billion people don’t have access to basic sanitation facilities. One of the biggest initiatives to improve this statistic comes from the Gates Foundation, which sponsors an annual challenge to reinvent the toilet. Now big-time bathroom manufacturer Kohler is making one of the winning ideas a reality for rural India. A group of…

This Umbrella’s Unlosable Sleeve Is Always Hiding In Its Handle

An umbrella isn’t any more or less effective if you keep it wrapped in that thin fabric sleeve when not in use, but many of us just prefer it that way. It makes it easier to stash in a bag, and yes, there’s a sense of panic and disorder when it goes missing. Thankfully, Nendo…

This Clever Wardrobe Hides An Entire Apartment

Thanks to the increasing price of real estate in almost every growing city, apartments are growing smaller by the year. But thankfully, architects are getting more crafty with every reduction in size. Previously, I’d have written off an 8 square meter apartment as impossibly tiny for anything but my pet hamster — but after seeing…

The World’s Most Futuristic Cruise Ship Made Me Miss the Past

I woke up in a strange place. The bed felt plush, and when I rolled over onto my side, there was water, an ocean full of it. I felt slightly sick. I’d just spent my first night on the world’s most advanced cruise ship, but a billion dollars worth of technology is no match for…

Paris Is Still Winning Its Battle Against Skyscrapers

Among first-world capital cities, Paris is fairly unique in its rejection of skycrapers: to date, there’s only one, the Tour Montparnasse, in the center of the city. And thanks to a politically tense vote yesterday, things are set to stay that way. The ‘Triangle Tower’ was a proposed Herzog & de Meuron project that would’ve…

How Good Is Your Eye for Pixels? This Game Will Tell You

Anybody who’s done a little bit of graphic design takes pride in being able to spot the dimensions of an image. But how good are you really? Pixactly, “an online tool that tests how well you know your pixels,” will now show you in five easy rounds. The challenge is simple. Pixactly presents a pair…

A Magnifying Glass Spoon Lets You Spot Even Tiny Flies In Your Soup

When you’re eating at a restaurant, you’re putting a tremendous amount of faith in the kitchen and wait staff that your food will be kept as contaminant-free as possible. But if you’re really worried about an establishment’s hygiene, make sure you’re always carrying Object Solutions’ Magnifying Spoon that lets you inspect your meal up close…

5 Camera Features You Think You Want, But Are Actually Bad Ideas

Camera geeks are a needy bunch. They all have their opinions and won’t hesitate to shout at manufacturers to include their pet requests. But that doesn’t mean all those requests are good ideas. Here are five commonly desired camera features that are better left to the trash heap of design. EVFs on tiny cameras If…

Apple’s Superstar Designer Marc Newson Redesigned This Classic Shotgun

The design world hyperventilated when it was announced that Marc Newson would be going to work with his best bud Jony Ive at Apple. But that doesn’t mean all of his work will be done inside the spaceship, and now Newson has revealed another project: Redesigning one of the most iconic firearms in history. Newson’s…

Build Cars and Trucks With These Wooden Blocks, Not Castles

If you’re of the mindset that encouraging a child’s imagination is one of the best ways to further their development, you’re gonna love these gorgeous building block sets from Huzi that has kids building trucks and race cars. And believe it or not, despite a lack of sounds, lights, and battle action, kids will probably…

This Must Be the Dumbest Cycle Helmet Design Ever

This helmet may just be a concept, but it aims to bring technology to the world of cycling headwear. It is also ridiculous. While it may look like it was created as part of an elaborate joke, apparently Toby King’s “Smart Hat” is being taken (vaguely) seriously. The Sydney-based designer is said to have presented…

A Bike Made From Carpet Doesn’t Sound Like It Should Work

Sure, bicycles get made from all sorts of unlikely-sounding materials these days — bamboo bikes are a lot more common than you’d imagine. But making a working bike from recycled carpet definitely sounds like it’s taking things too far. The bike, which is a real, actual thing you can buy for $229, is targeted at…

Schönstaub’s astronomy rugs using Hubble Space Telescope images are back, and this time the company has a new line of astronomy towels, too.

3 Clever Typefaces That Solve Every Day Problems

Humans have been writing for a long, long time—we were making lettermarks for thousands of years. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’ve ever reached a consensus about the perfect way to write or print. And over the past few years, we’ve seen designers take on real, tangible problems using type design. The following three typefaces…

5 Concert Halls Designed For the Most Famous Composer of All Time

It’s been almost 250 years since Beethoven was born in 1770, and as his big two-five-oh birthday rolls around, his birthplace of Bonn is planning a big, big party—including a $90 million concert hall in which to throw it. Slated for completion in 2019—or the year before Beethoven’s 250th birthday—Bonn is planning to build the…

This Tiny Hotel Pod Sits on the Roof of a 60-Year-Old Historic Building

The idea of super-dense cities building new structures on top of old buildings has been kicking around sci-fi novels and architecture circles for decades, but the idea still isn’t ubiquitous. In Austria, the owner of a 1950s-era building is giving it a shot. Hotel Daniel Graz is a boutique hotel in Graz, housed inside a…

This Bizarre High-Security Lock Is Every Drunk Person’s Nightmare

While some people are trying to reinvent the lock by eliminating keys altogether, others solutions, like the XPUZMAG from Taiwan, are going in decidedly different direction—by taking a traditional lock-and-key mechanism and just making it a thousand times more complicated. Warning to the belligerent drunk about town: This lock is not your friend. Not only…

How to Build a Pillow Fort, According to an Architect

Building a pillow fort is one of life’s simple pleasures, young or old. But like anything, it’s more satisfying when done properly—so why not take some advice from an architect? Over at Fatherly, architect Ben Pell—who’s responsible for building thingslike this—shares his advice for building the best pillow fort. A blend of fatherly learning and…

I Rode A Bike On Water, And It Was Incredible

Walking on water? Pssh. I rode a bike on water. And it was glorious. Okay, so this aqua-vehicle didn’t have any wheels. It was engineered and constructed by the Vallejo, California-based brand Schiller for the sole purpose of skimming seas, lakes, and chilled out rivers. The company launched with a splash in August, a quick…

A Tour of ‘San Fransokyo,’ the Hybrid City Disney Built for Big Hero 6

The new movie Big Hero 6 represents the first-ever partnership between Marvel and Disney, two entities known for constructing fantastical universes. So it’s not surprising that bringing the story to film also required building an entire city of the future: a blend of Tokyo and San Francisco named San Fransokyo. When encouraged to develop a…