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Tech NewsDesign
Buckminster Fuller’s Biosphere Dome Might Get a Twin Made From Plants
Montreal’s Expo 67 was the most successful World’s Fair in history, a vision of the future laced with monorails and space-age architecture. Its stunning centerpiece was the Biosphere, a 250-foot tall geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller, which remained on the site after the fair left town. For the 50th anniversary of the Expo, one … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
The New Tokyo 2020 Olympics Logo Hopefully Isn’t a Rip-Off
Finding a logo for Tokyo’s 2020 Summer Olympics has been a difficult process, fraught with delays, plagiarism and U-turns. But after having to scrap one official logo, the event’s organizer’s have revealed this new one. Hopefully it’s original this time. The new design is called Harmonized Checkered Emblem—catchy, guys, I like it—and its design is … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Sitting in a 737 Jet Engine Chair Turns Anyone Into a Supervillain
Mother Teresa? Gandhi? It doesn’t matter how nice or upstanding a human being you might be, the second you plunk yourself down in a chair made from the remains of a Boeing 737’s massive jet engine, you’ll immediately be mistaken for a comic book-caliber supervillain. Whether or not that’s a bad thing is up to … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
An Illustrated History of American Money Design
It’s not just paper. From the first notes issued by the Continental Congress to the latest star-spangled bills released by the Federal Reserve, the history of money in America is laced with rebellion, propaganda, and—of course—lots and lots of wealth. It’s awkwardly beautiful. The history of paper currency, specifically, serves as a curious lens through … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Adidas’ Low-Profile Vest Backpack Is Better Than Batman’s Utility Belt
When you’re out exploring the city on a warm summer’s day you need something to carry all your stuff, but a heavy backpack hanging off your shoulders isn’t ideal. Adidas’ Yohji Yamamoto-designed Y-3 Sport Backpack wants to fix that by securely wrapping around you like a vest so it feels almost weightless. Fair warning—you’ll have … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Supermaterial Made From Seaweed Could Replace Bubble Wrap
As a civilization we are blanketing our planet with plastic. One of the most frightening illustrations of this fact is a prediction that by 2050, our oceans will contain more plastic than fish. Amazingly, a smart solution for reducing our reliance on plastic, and protecting marine life, could come from those very oceans, as well. … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
I Can’t Believe All the Features Mashed Into This Micro-Apartment
The phrase “micro-unit” conjures up all sorts of lifestyle tradeoffs, like Murphy beds, mini-fridges, and toilets in the shower. This tasteful space has a bed that stays put, a full-sized kitchen, and room for a bathtub (!), all in an area that’s a little over 300 square feet. LAAB Architects designed the “Small Home Smart … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
That Emoji Does Not Mean What You Think It Means
By now you probably know that the emoji you send on an iPhone might not be the emoji that is received on a Nexus. Since emoji are designed differently across platforms, sometimes your text messages might get lost in translation. But how differently might your well-intentioned emoji be displayed? The reality might surprise you. A … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Your Kid Will Not Appreciate This Stylish Designer Rocking Horse
Inspired by the strong steel I-beams used in the construction of towering skyscrapers, Japanese design studio Nendo started with that simple design, but then warped it into one of the most beautiful looking rocking horses you’ve ever seen. The use of clear plastic makes the H-Horse almost invisible, but it’s still strong enough to support … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
12 Perfect New Tenants For Ohio’s Building That Looks Like a Basket
Those planning a road trip to see the Newark, Ohio headquarters of the famous Longaberger company might be disappointed. The company is downsizing and abandoning its famous basket-shaped HQ. Not to worry. We have 12 great ideas for who should move in next. Last week I issued a call to save this basket from certain … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Fisher-Price’s Gorgeous New Wooden Toy Line Will Make You Want to Have Kids
Yesterday Mattel revealed it had named designer Jonathan Adler as the Creative Director for Fisher-Price. It’s part of a continued effort to breathe new life into the baby-focused brand, and if Fisher-Price’s new wooden toy line is any indication, it’s already on the right track. For decades plastic has been the go-to material for making … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Etsy Built a Website-Making Tool For Its Sellers
Making handmade goods might be the easy part when you consider all the work that goes into selling those products online. Now Etsy is giving its sellers a new tool for building a standalone website that easily populates with data from Etsy’s own online marketplace, making launching and maintaining an e-commerce site a whole lot … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
IKEA Wants You to Plan Your Next Kitchen in VR
It can be hard to imagine how your place will look when you’ve remodelled it. But IKEA has a solution, with a new VR system being made available on Steam that will help you plan your kitchen. The new app, which uses the HTC Vive headset, currently allows you to explore three different kitchen set-ups. … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
This Super-Efficient Building High in the Rocky Mountains Has No Central Heat
The quest to build the world’s most energy-efficient buildings largely plays out in temperate regions or in big, heat-generating cities. That’s what makes this new building in Colorado so impressive: It’s located at high elevation in a location that gets about 90 inches of snow per year—yet, amazingly, it uses no central heating at all. … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Photoshop Contest: Who Should Be the New Owners of the Country’s Only Basket-Building?
Life’s a picnic, or at least that’s what Ohio basket manufacturer Longaberger believed when it custom-built this headquarters for the company in the shape of its “Medium Market Basket.” Now the picnic’s over: The business is moving out, and the building is in danger of foreclosure. Completed in 1999, the Longaberger basket is not only … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Zaha Hadid Was One of the Most Polarizing Architects of Our Time
Zaha Hadid has died suddenly at age 65 from a heart attack. As the first woman architect to achieve notable celebrity, Hadid’s prolific and geographically diverse commissions mean that she will likely remain the best-known woman architect on the planet for many years. But her work was also incredibly controversial— not just the design of … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Own a Sizeable Chunk of the Moon With This Lunar Watch (Update: We Got Fooled)
Update 9:06am: Nope. It turns out the annual nightmare that is April Fool’s Day is no longer relegated to just April 1st. This watch is totally fake, and everything on the internet is officially insufferably terrible. Only 12 Americans have ever stepped foot on our moon, and given NASA’s recent budget constraints, there’s little chance … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
I Want to Spend All Day In This Hammock Rocking Chair
Hammocks and rocking chairs are both fundamentally impractical pieces of furniture, but I will nonetheless spend hours at a time gently swaying in either. Combining both ideas into one design won’t help with that problem, but it does look relaxing as hell. A trio of students from the MIT Institute of Design in Pune, India … Continued
By Chris Mills -
Tech NewsDesign
Behold the Best-Designed Cat House Any Cat Will Still Completely Ignore
Every year, FixNation, a Los Angeles animal charity, holds an auction of designer cat houses to raise money. This year’s Fan Favorite is “Cat in the Fishbowl.” It’s very nice, but we’re pretty sure any cat will ignore it in favor of the box it came in. FixNation is a remarkable charity which attempts to … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
New Zealand Will Keep Its Flag After All
The citizens of New Zealand have voted to keep its existing flag. The country has been involved in a ten-month long process to redesign it, but preliminary results from its national referendum show that the majority of voters chose to keep the existing design. According to the BBC, a total of 2,119,953 votes were cast … Continued