i escape

If I move to Tokyo, I’m definitely getting one of these little sets, even though I doubt I’ll be having guests and I’ll probably eat every day at ramen stands. Moving on from my sad fantasy, the Offi Paket is a nicely-designed little modular system that folds and unfolds to accommodate up to four people at a little dining table, yet takes up no more space than… a little dining table. The chairs (stools with duck-butts, really) fold up and go right under there. Tiny genius!

Unfortunately, they know it’s awesome, so they’re charging $500 for the table and $250 per pair of chairs. I think I’ll wait for the Ikea knockoff.

[crunchgear]

David Keith and his team have designed the Carbon Dioxide Scrubber that captures CO2 straight from the air and purify it. Dubbed as the eCO2, this personal scrubber unit relies on kinetic energy to power it, pulling in air via intake vents to collect CO2 and expelling clean air through its exhaust vents. The eCO2 also displays the current time

[techfresh]

So, we’ve seen our share of headphones. Headphones have been neat for decades, and personal usage of them, day-to-day street wear-wise, has seen a resurgence in recent years due in no small part to the personal MP3 player. It should come as no surprise then that after their first minimalistic, Apple phase, they flower into a new age of aesthetic excess. Presenting the Flower Vase MP3 player, with earbuds in several different beautiful flora for you to stick in your ears.

Won-Ho Son and Joong-Ho Choi from Sky Designers Community connect again the plant world and the world of beats:

The design uses the image of a flower inside a vase as a motif. Rather than the earphones dangling out when the MP3 is not in use, you can place it in the vase tidily so that it can act as a different object when placed on the floor. The Flower Vase series is not robust in functions, but the mobility and fashionable aspect of it makes it a suitable low price MP3 player for teenagers and young adults.

How pretty!

[yankodesign]

Back by popular demand, more stunning Dubai photography from David Hobcote. This batch includes several photos of the main city, along with some of the progress on The World Islands. Just stunning -- really makes me want to take a helicopter up and see what my town looks like from above.




[geekologie]

The Penta lamp is probably one of the more striking designs I’ve seen. In a time when most modern lamps follow the molded poly road, this one uses structure to dynamically change its shape and ambient lighting. Its shape suggest rotary motion but the seemingly complex design is actually quite simple. Flat packed and made of recycled components, the Penta was designed by Luca Casarotto.

Designer: Coscadesign

BIOS Design Collective is a working group of academic and professional designers “exploring the application of biological patterns to architecture.” The latest project to pull natural science into the built environment is the PhotoBioReactor Sculpture by Charles Lee. Part sculpture, part renewable fuel factory and part bio-remediation plant, the design brings artistic, yet functional, forms into the landscape to inspire the imagination.

photobioreactor is a closed or semi-closed system in which light and nutrients are supplied to the system in an attempt to maximize algal biomass. Nutrients can be in the form of pollutants, so the sculpture can faciliate bio-remediation. It can also use CO2, reducing greenhouse gases.The algae can than be used to generate biodiesel. In this proposal the biodiesel could be used to run the machinery and vehicles that maintain the park.

These photobioreactors are designed in a sculptural manner to add an eye catching feature to the park setting. It consists of an aluminum carriage which has a continuous spiraling tube that cascades from top to bottom. The work could be lighted at night to create a beautiful evening experience powered by a solar array and batteries. The bioreactor towers are attached to a harvesting machine which would extract the algae biomass.

Read more...

[inhabitat]

Creative Rubik’s Cube advertisement for your enjoyment.



Advertising Agency: Neogama/BBH, São Paulo, Brazil
Creative Directors: Alexandre Gama, Márcio Ribas, Wilson Mateos
Art Director: Daniel Prado
Copywriter: Patricia Leme
Illustrator: Marcelo Baltazar

Designed by UNStudio, the Dubai Museum "will be a celebration of the region's artists and art." The official opening date has not been announced.

UN Studio, based in The Netherlands, has been selected to design the Museum and will certainly be the most international aspect of this rather intriguing looking museum.

[source]

Bringing 3D models to life is now easier than ever. Users can just swipe a special pen in the air or let the ZPrinter handle your 3D CAD concepts.

The $40,000 Contex ZPrinter 450 brings your 3D CAD concepts to life with zero liquid waste and active dust-control. It boasts a quick load binder cartridge and an integrated fine-powder removal chamber, or in other words, it's compatible with office-safe build materials.

[techblog]

It is said that this washbasin is inspired from a unique fossil of cephalopods which was in the spiral shape. In order to make it more vivid, this washbasin is made from concrete to form a old effect.

[source]

Solar energy for household use is a pretty genius idea and one that we think will become more and more commonplace in the next few years. These curtains are semi-transparent and flexible, turning sunlight into electricity whenever you're blocking out light to keep the home cool. These, along with having solar panels on the roof that power your air conditioning when it's a hot day, are an easy way to use renewable energy without having to think about it. Because we're lazy

Solar Curtains Turn Unwanted Sunlight Into Energy [gizmodo]

The idea, put forward by Sang-Hoon Lee, is that a couple of tiny balls in the handles will spin, thus "generating" whatever weight the user wants... effectively making the dumbbell heavier. A neat trick, considering the small fact that it's physically impossible. Instead of a plausible and ingenious concept that just needs some funding to become a reality, what we have here are a couple of anti-gravity wands that run on magic.

Weightless dumbbells defy physics with gyroscope junk science [boingboing]

Rucksack House is a great new way to expand your living space.

Now you can ad an entire room to your apartment. The box is a welded steel cage covered with plywood which is suspended from steel cables anchored to the roof or the facade of the building.

Sections of the walls unfold, with the help of hidden magnets, into a desk, shelves, and a platform for reading or sleeping.

It’s an easy and simple way to get more space for your flat. But there are bound to be some issues with the neighbors. Like say the box might be blocking the sunlight of the people living right beneath you.

But all neighbor issues aside I’m sure Rucksack House is a great way to improve our apartment living conditions.

Rucksack House [gadgetgearz]