Design

Make Stars Fall With These Five-Pointed Dominoes

Vegas is going wild this week in an all-out consumer electronics bacchanal, but sometimes it’s nice to tool around with an old-timey, offline distraction. Like these Japanese dominoes, which are are about as no-tech as toys come. The set contains 100 beech wood pieces in eight different colors, all wrapped up in a pretty gold…

This Interactive Chandelier Shines With Data From All Over the World

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recently opened the doors of a brand new HQ in Washington DC. But it might be tough for visitors to tear themselves away from the foyer, which is home to the Global Data Chandelier—a pixelated fixture composed of 425 LED pendants arranged in the shape of a…

The NYTimes.com Is Relaunching By Putting Your Face on the Front Page

The New York Times already gave usa preview of its brighter, cleaner, and all around more beautiful website earlier this year. But starting tomorrow, the redesign will be here to stay. And to celebrate, the New York Times is showing off just how customizable (and GIF-able) it’s new homepage will be. Conference attendees can take…

Audi’s Quattro Laserlight Concept Car Is a Gorgeous Powerhouse

Audi just showed the future it aspires to. Meet the Quattro Laserlight. This thing is freaking insane. I’m speechless. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know a lot about cars, but you’d have to be a moron not to see that this car concept is ridiculous. You should have heard the audience…

A Visit to Local Motors, Badass Innovators of Future Vehicle Design

Gizmodo had the pleasure today of stopping by the future Las Vegas factory, autoshop, office, and cafe space for Local Motors, easily one of the most innovative vehicle-design outfits in the country. The company justifiably prides itself on its “co-creative” approach and its “microfactory” network of smaller shops and independent designers, all pooling ideas for…

This Surprisingly Strong Bentwood Chair Looks Like It Would Snap In Two

Tadao Ando is like the concrete-whisperer: the Japanese architect has an unmatched talent for manipulating the everyday material to do pretty magical things. Dream Chair is one of his latest projects—a collaboration with Danish manufacturer Carl Hansen & Son—that switches up his usual scale and medium. The result is a seat that seems too precarious…

How London Was Redesigned To Survive Wartime Blackouts

One of the more interesting aspects of urban life during the bombing raids of World War II was the clever and strategic re-designing of the London streetscape so that residents could live in a state of blackout. By turning off the lights at night, residents could hide the city from aerial view and thus leave…

A Knife Holder That Looks More Dangerous Than the Blades

Are you bored by the conventional ho-hum design of a traditional wooden knife block? If you like everything on your kitchen counter to be a conversation piece, you can’t go wrong with this Spicy Magnum Knife Set, featuring six entwined knife holders that look like they’re all holding each other up. The $122 set comes…

Weird Bowls Made Using Balloons Filled With Rice, Marbles, and Pasta

If you’re ranking fun things to put in a balloon, helium probably tops the list, followed probably by water and then plain old human huffin’ and puffin’. But a fascinating thing happens when dry rice is poured into a balloon and all the air is sucked out: welcome to your new favorite filler. Che-Wei Wang…

Anyone can take a tour of this waste treatment plant in Valencia, Spain, to check out its automatized trash-sorting systems. The Israeli architects who designed the 759,600-square-foot systemdescribe itas a public observatory, a place to “contemplate” contemporary life. After all, some archaeologists claim that sorting garbage is “the ultimate zen experience of our society.” [Architizer]

5 Radical Ideas To Protect Coastal Cities From the Next Big Storm

A bridge that deploys huge inflatable buoys to slow storm surges. A barrier reef grown from minerals harvested by electrical currents. An artificial island protecting the most surge-prone neighborhoods. Most of us are bracing for a blizzard this week, but the winners of a recent design competition, Stormproof, are imagining how to protect cities for…

This Animatronic Wall Of Books Moves In Time With Library Visitors

One of the great joys offered by an old library is stepping through the doors and being greeted by an overwhelming sense of stillness. Endless stories exist between the covers resting on the shelves but, until you crack open a title and start to read, it’s blissfully oh so quiet. England’s Bristol Central Library is…

Watch a Nickel Transformed Into a Tiny, Intricate Sculpture

Imagine an alternate world where our coins are graced not by unsmiling presidents but Frankenstein, ET, skulls, pirates—hell, even a butt. That’s the funny, fanciful world of Italian artist Paolo Curcio. Curcio has created some truly remarkable hobo nickels, an art form originally popular, as their name would suggest, among hobos during the Great Depression.…

Track The Exact Location Where These Wood Fixtures Were Felled

Ninebyfour is a limited edition of 79 light fixtures, each made from a single piece of Stadshout, or “city wood”: timber felled around Amsterdam’s public spaces and destined for the chipper, but saved here to be transformed into something new. The Waarmakers design duo crafted every one by hand, then outfitted them with a sleek…

The 38 Most Interesting Designs of 2013

Welcome to the end of another year, people! We made it, and not without a ton of brand new stuff to carry us into 2014 and beyond. We saw lots of beautiful, interesting, and just plain weird things, but here we’ve rounded up the items that stuck with us; not just because of what they…

This Is London’s Floating Bike Road Dream

A team of architects has updated and fleshed out its SkyCycle plan—a bizarre concept that would use the empty channels above some train lines to build floating, bike-only cycle superhighways. The idea, should it ever be allowed, approved, funded and built, is to create a 136-mile network of elevated cycle routes spanning the city of…

Supertunnels and Supertalls: The Superlative Building Stories of 2013

The tallest skyscraper. The deepest tunnel. The largest building. 2013 was a year of extremes for the construction industry, with new buildings, bridges, tunnels, and even the odd steel sarcophagus reaching completion all over the world. Below, you’ll find some of our favorite building stories of year—ranging from architecture to infrastructure—listed in no particular order.…

This Minimalist Outdoor Grill Rolls Open Like a Sleeping Bag

There’s nothing quite like roasting a meal you just caught while you’re braving the great outdoors. It’s an experience made all the better with a campfire grill that doesn’t feel like a sack of bricks in your backpack. And while designer Roee Magdassi’s Stakes grill doesn’t exist just yet, we’re hoping at least one manufacturer…

7 Smart New Affordable Housing Projects Making Cities Stronger

The looming affordable housing crisis will likely be the biggest issue facing our cities in 2014. A convergence of cataclysmic real estate prices, a development slowdown, and a weak job market are squeezing low-income residents out of urban areas. But all is not dire: I found seven new projects that are bright spots in the…

A Wall Made of 300 Chairs Takes Repurposing a Step Further

Screens and curtains are alright, but sometimes you want a real wall. Solid, substantial and offering some privacy. And if bricks and cement blocks are too boring, you can always turn to repurposed household items. Right? Artist Fumiko Kobayashi used about 300 chairs to create “1000 Legs, Cultivating Fruits,” a huge wall built entirely out…