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July 20, 2015

Pepsodent, Camel, and Yashica: The Ads and Architecture of Old Times Square

Everyone has an opinion on the ways Times Square has changed over the decades, but the basic look has been a different variation on the same theme since the late 19th century: Classic architecture covered in gigantic advertisements. Take a trip back in time with us through some pictures ahead—you might be surprised by what kinds of things used to be displayed in this Midtown hub.
See the ads of Old Times Square this way

July 19, 2015

GROWTH Is an Origami-Based Pot That Expands with the Plant

We've taken a look at geometric planters and vases with a bit of origami flair to them before, and while they're quite lovely, they're missing one key element of the GROWTH pot–they don't expand as the plant grows. Created by London- and Istanbul-based Studio Ayaskan, GROWTH transforms in a folding pattern to accommodate the life cycle of a plant. Not only is this fun to watch, but it's sustainable, as it reduces the need for multiple pots.
Learn more about GROWTH

July 14, 2015

Pierre-Emmanuel Vandeputte’s Cork Helmet Blocks Noise Pollution

Do you love living in the city but find the roaring traffic, cars horns, ambulance sirens, drilling, and barking dogs impossible to deal with? Stop suffering from all that stress–block the noise and restore your sanity with a Cork Helmet. As silly as it might look, Brussels-based Pierre-Emmanuel Vandeputte's design will help you deal with NYC's excessive 70-decibel sound level while you use your precious quiet time to daydream about calmer pastures.
Learn more about this crazy cork headpiece

July 13, 2015

Tetra-Shed: A Portable Wooden Home Office with a Rubber Skin

As more and more people choose to work from home, there's an increased demand for rooms within a room. Some accomplish this configuration with multi-functional storage spaces, catch-all pods, and even meditation spaces. And some, like Innovation Imperative´s Tetra Shed take on the guise of a giant black rock. Its faceted, minimalistic, geometric aesthetic opts for the scant over the ostentatious; it fits an entire small office inside; it can be completely closed up, so you can relax and forget about work; and, let's be honest, it's quite the conversation piece.
Learn more about this small wooden space

July 10, 2015

Would You Eat from Plates Printed with Bacteria?

Brazilian artist Vik Muniz and U.S. bioengineer Tal Danino recently joined forces to make the invisible stunningly visible. They created a hauntingly beautiful set of tableware with colorful abstract patterns for French porcelain maker Bernardaud. Fittingly named Petri Dishes, like the shallow glass dishes biologists use to culture cells, the unique plates feature exploded photographs of bacteria like paenibacillus and salmonella.
Learn more about this bizarre and beautiful tableware

July 1, 2015

Wave Cabinet by Sebastian Errazuriz Opens and Closes in One Fluid Motion

Sebastian Errazuriz is one of the most diverse designers around. Not only does he create quirky, functional furniture like this spiky-skinned chest, but he also comes up with unique public art works such as last year's giant golden cow piñata and the more recent yawning video installation in Times Square. His most recent thought-provoker is the Wave Cabinet, a furniture piece that opens and closes in one fluid motion. Made from lacquered baltic birch, steel, and glass, the "functional sculpture" can open in various movements thanks to 100 linked slats, each of which pulls on the following one like a paper fan.
Watch a video of the cabinet in action

June 26, 2015

Moooi Makes Stunning Photorealistic Carpets Using iPhone Photos

Dutch design is famous for its daring, playful, and smart solutions, and these photorealistic carpets by Moooi completely exemplify that esthetic. The furniture and lighting brand recently launched Moooi Carpets, a sister company with an advanced print-on-demand technology that allows people to design their own rug -- or choose one from its Signature Collection by the likes of Ross Lovegrove or Christian Lacroix. Featuring extreme high definition and available in immense dimensions that could cover floors, walls, and ceilings, these stunning carpets might be setting a new trend for interior decoration.
Learn more about these customizable carpets

June 24, 2015

‘Sofa So Good’ Is Finnish Designer Janne Kyttanen’s Latest 3D Printed Piece

Finnish designer and conceptual artist Janne Kyttanen first fell in love with 3D printing while studying at Amsterdam's Gerrit Rietveld Academy. After graduating, he soon started imagining a future where products would be scaled down into digital files and people could just download any design they liked. His "Sofa So Good" piece is one of his latest and most intricate 3D printed designs, which joins a wide collection of objects he's created that includes lamps, tables and packaging as well as ping-pong paddles and futuristic shoes.
Learn more about sofa so good

New Hues and Fab Collabs Update a Pair of Classic Mid-Century Lamps

The Anglepoise Giant 1227 (l); Poul Henningnsen classics from Louis Poulsen (r).

June 16, 2015

New Hues and Fab Collabs Update a Pair of Classic Mid-Century Lamps

Though the worlds of furniture and interior design, like architecture, are often focused on innovation—the future, the new, the next—the best designs rise to the top year after year. This was more evident than ever as we beheld the countless cool and innovative design offerings at last month's ICFF, many of which we’re sure we’ll be seeing everywhere soon. Among the most memorable were a pair of classics that are far from new but no less brilliant.
See more of these cool and colorful classics

June 15, 2015

Transfixing Spirulina Furniture Produces Free Heat, Light and Food

Jacob Douenias and Ethan Frier have been busy brewing up the next trend in green interior decor: spirulina-producing furniture. The cyanobacteria, commonly used for adding protein and nutrients to smoothies and other food, has made its way into the landscape of objects for the home, and here can be seen as the central feature in a spectacular series designed specifically for cultivating the living greens for practical purposes.
Learn more about this brilliant spirulina design

June 12, 2015

Laser-Engraved Rolling Pins Leave Fun Prints on Your Baked Goods

Why waste your time with sprinkles and icing when you can fancy up your cookies with nothing more than a rolling pin? These laser-engraved models from Valek are embossed with fun patterns like moustaches, deer, and swirly leaf motifs. There's even miniature versions for the kids that feature dinosaurs or robots. With just a roll of the pin, your dough instantly becomes a piece of art.
More here

June 11, 2015

Kodama Zomes: Hanging Geodesic Homes for Lazing the Summer Away

Are you ready for a relaxing summer? We've found a great piece of furniture floating around the Internet that we wouldn't mind having in our home. Meet the new Kodama Zomes, a unique hanging lounger shaped like a geodesic dome that offers the perfect space for relaxation, reading, meditating, or just snoozing your afternoons away. Designed by structural engineer Richie Duncan, the sturdy cocoon will help you unplug as it softly sways you with the summer breeze.
Learn more about these floating sofas

June 10, 2015

Camera-Equipped Intelligent Oven Knows Exactly How to Cook Your Meal

Although it may look like a run-of-the-mill toaster oven, don't let its modest appearance deceive you. This little appliance will quickly turn a poor soul who can't fry an egg into a master chef—or something close to one. Invented by Ammunition Group, a team credited with bringing the iPhone, the FitBit, the GoPro, and Lyft to market, the June Intelligent Oven is a revolutionary kitchen appliance that harnesses the power of everything we digital age junkies love: computers, a HD camera, and a Google-like image search system that can determine what we're cooking and how it should be cooked.
READ MORE

June 8, 2015

Livin Studio Designs Innovative Fungi Cutlery for Eating Their Futuristic Sustainable Food

After their successful Fungi Mutarium (aka FU), a novel fungi food product grown on plastic waste, Austrian designers Livin Studio just had to come up with a specific Fungi Cutlery as new types of foods demand new ways of eating. Developed in close collaboration with Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Katharina Unger and Julia Kaisinger created a set of four silver cutlery pieces they call Drip Dropper, Round Chops, Hollknife, and Moon Spoon. These beautiful utensils can be used for drizzling sauce, slicing, slurping, and reaching even the tiniest bit of fungi, ensuring nothing goes to waste.
Learn more about this precious cutlery of the future

June 2, 2015

Wake Up to the Smell of a Hot Croissant or Cut Grass with This Olfactory Alarm Clock

Caffeine fiends were pretty excited when we featured the Bariseur, a hybrid coffee brewer-alarm clock that wakes you up with a fresh cup of Joe. But what if you're not a coffee drinker or if some mornings you'd prefer to rise with the aroma of the seaside rather than espresso? Don't worry, we've got you covered. SensorWake is a scent-based alarm clock that wakes you up with the aroma of chocolate instead of the sound of a blaring horn. It uses interchangeable scent cartridges that include the aforementioned seaside and chocolate, coffee, of course, hot croissants, peaches, rose, peppermint, and, curiously, dollars, among others. Each cartridge is good for about 60 wake-up calls, and the company claims it will have your eyes open in two minutes. If you're still snoozing in three minutes, a traditional sound-based alarm will go off.
Watch the product video and learn more here

Fantasy Floorplans Bring to Life Your Favorite TV Show Homes from ‘Friends’ to ‘Mad Men’

Monica and Rachel’s apartment from “Friends” © Brandi Roberts/Fantasy Floorplans

May 29, 2015

Fantasy Floorplans Bring to Life Your Favorite TV Show Homes from ‘Friends’ to ‘Mad Men’

Do you get distracted watching your favorite television shows because you're too busy trying to figure out Don Draper's address or how the heck Monica and Rachel afford that massive Greenwich Village apartment? If so, we've got the perfect piece of wall art for you. Fantasy Floorplans (h/t Bezar) are hand-drawn blueprints of the apartments and homes in your favorite TV shows. From "Friends" to "Mad Men" to "Sex and the City" to "The Jeffersons," tons of popular NYC-based television shows are included. And for our friends outside the big apple, the floorplans cover locations throughout the country from shows that aired as far back as the 1950s.
Find out more ahead

May 29, 2015

Living Cube: An All-in-One Storage Solution with a Bed and Hidden Room

Attention apartment dwellers! If you're looking for a practical and elegant way to store all of your belongings, and to stealthily add additional sleeping quarters to your home, look no further than the Living Cube. Envisioned by German designer Till Konneker, this multifunctional design comes complete with a top platform for chilling out or fitting an extra bed, as well as a hidden storage room inside.
Learn more about this hyper-functional design

May 28, 2015

Amarith Fuses a Dining Table and a Pool Table in a Classy Way

If you've wanted a pool table at home but know there's no way one will ever fit in your apartment, here's a playful and innovative table concept designed just for you. Meet the Amarith Fusion pool table, a modern, sleek design combo that lets you enjoy a game of pool after dinner with friends—and doesn't take up any more space than a traditional dining table.
Learn more about this dining/pool table

May 22, 2015

Space Saving Mobile Home Office Takes Inspiration from Mid-Century Aircraft

If you like the idea of a workspace that can be placed out of sight when it's time to shut down for the day, take a look at this design inspired by the planes of the 1950s. The Blackhawk Secretary is an aviation-themed working station wrapped in a patchwork of aluminum panels and accented with exposed steel screws. On sale at the upscale Restoration Hardware, this office-furniture piece not only shuts down so you forget about work, but you can even move it totally out of sight and into another room.
Learn more about this aviator-inspired working station

May 20, 2015

NASA-Inspired Green Wheel Lets You Grow Your Own Food Indoors

Growing your own food is the first step on the self-sufficiency journey, and it can never hurt learn having fresh food close at hand. But as we New Yorkers know, it's not always easy to create a lush garden on the fire escape. To tackle this subject, Italian studio DesignLibero created The Green Wheel, a rotary, hydroponic garden that provides a constant supply of micro-herbs and salad. Its futuristic aesthetics are sleek and modern; in fact, it takes direct inspiration from a 1980s NASA idea.
Learn more about this wheeled vegetable patch

May 12, 2015

Travelbox Is a Compact Hotel That Weighs Only 132 Pounds

Want to get away this summer, but don't have the bucks to throw down for a hotel? Consider Travelbox. The compact, lightweight (at 132 pounds it weighs less than the average person) structure has everything you need to comfortably travel on a budget. Designed by the architects of Austrian firm Juust, Travelbox contains a bike, bed, table, chair, and storage, all of which fit into its contemporary wood and aluminum-clad frame that measures just 6.8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 1.3 feet wide.
More on Travelbox here

The Whitney Bag: Renzo Piano Designs a Purse to Go with His New Museum

The Whitney Bag via Max Mara (L); The new Whitney Museum via 6sqft (R)

May 11, 2015

The Whitney Bag: Renzo Piano Designs a Purse to Go with His New Museum

The architecture world has been pretty "meh" on Renzo Piano's new $422 million Whitney Museum, neither loving nor hating the patchwork of shapes and angles. But if the starchitect is hoping for a more glowing design review, he still has a chance with the fashion world. Piano has designed the Whitney bag, "directly inspired by the pure design and sophisticated materials of the new Whitney Museum of American Art," for Italian fashion house Max Mara.
Find out more about this architecturally inspired collaboration

May 8, 2015

Stephan Siepermann Redesigns the Classic Locker Using Oak Wood

Sometimes there's no need to re-invent the wheel when you're working with a classic. But if you just can't help adding your signature touch, you can always keep a tried-and-true form and change the material, just like Stephan Siepermann did with Locky. The German creator crafted a version of the classic steel locker entirely from wood, translating all the little details like hooks, vents, and slots into the warmer material, creating a new design that's more stylish, but just as functional as the traditional metal model.
Learn more about this classic with a wooden twist

May 4, 2015

Will the Bronx Be the Next Branded Borough? This Hot Sauce Says Yes

Just about everything from artisanal mayonnaise to scented candles has branded itself as “Brooklyn,” so much so that we recently wrote an entire feature on the made-in-Brooklyn trend. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that another borough is now looking to get in on the action. The Bronx Hot Sauce is a locally made product that gives back and […]

April 28, 2015

Danish Product Designer Jonas Edvard Uses Fungiculture to Make Lamps from Mushrooms

By blending plant fibers and mushroom-mycelium into wonderful lights, Danish product designer Jonas Edvard proves that oyster mushrooms are much more than a tasty delicacy. He doesn't use factory produce, but rather grows these glorious luminaries over two or three weeks into a flexible, soft-light-emitting shade. Compostable and organic, this brilliant creation is called MYX and is one of the designer's brightest ideas.
Learn more about this design

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