December 19, 2018
Joris de Groot teamed up with Low & Bonar, a manufacturer of performance materials, for the in4nite II project, which examined various techniques applied in the manufacturing of car interiors and translated them into a collection of shoes. Designboom.com reports that Studio de Groot has molded Low & Bonar Colback car upholstery material around shoe lasts. The …
December 17, 2018
Joris de Groot teamed up with Low & Bonar, a manufacturer of performance materials, for the in4nite II project, which examined various techniques applied in the manufacturing of car interiors and translated them into a collection of shoes. Designboom.com reports that Studio de Groot has molded Low & Bonar Colback car upholstery material around shoe …
December 10, 2018
London-based designer Nir Meiri selects materials for his creations that most would not consider. Recently, the Nir Meiri Design Studio presented Mycelium Lights at the London Design Festival 2018. According to designboom.com, this is its latest project—the result of ongoing material research in mycelium, the vegetative part of the fungus, which has led to the …
November 26, 2018
A group of six students from Guangzhou, China, has designed a concept called NET GUARD that’s a combination of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and cloth net for rescuing people from fires in high-rise buildings. When the drone and net combination receives a distress signal, it uses GPS to pinpoint the location of the fire. …
October 22, 2018
Scientists at Yale University have developed a robotic skin that can be applied to inanimate objects seemingly bringing them to life. The elastic “skin” sheets are embedded with a variety of sensors and actuators capable of animating the legs of a stuffed animal or causing a foam tube to flex. This type of robotic technology …
October 18, 2018
Russian design studio Aotta presents a new sound-absorbing and lightweight panel made of hemp husks. A completely organic material, the husks are routinely disposed of as useless waste. That means the material is a cheap resource. Aotta’s hemp husk panels are a naturally porous membrane for absorbing sound reflections, and it can regulate the humidity …
October 8, 2018
Biomimicry has revealed ways that nature can be copied to create new products and improve existing ones. Recently, a team of researchers from the University of New Hampshire in the U.S. has shown how the seed coats of certain plants could help in the development of flexible materials that are strong and resilient. An article …
August 20, 2018
Researchers in Switzerland have fabricated a lightweight 80-square-meter concrete slab ceiling that uses 3D sand printing for its formwork. The ceiling consists of 11 segments of Smart Slab, which is 20 millimeters at its thinnest point and is reported to be less than half the weight of a conventional concrete ceiling, although even at half …
August 6, 2018
Moscow-based designer Alex Shtanuk will be contributing a piece of space travel nostalgia to the 2018 Burning Man gathering later this summer in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, while giving festival attendees a place to escape the desert heat. A giant “space blanket” will provide a casual place for festival goers to find a …
July 23, 2018
Artist Julie Helles Ericksen has created a jacket with QR codes woven into it that can access digital information as the wearer shares it. According to Ericksen, “We communicate to others through what we wear, what we post on social media and what we choose to hide. We curate ourselves to present different versions.” Ericksen …