The SuperBlue toothbrush by Dylan Fealtman makes sure that your teeth are clean, your brush is clean and your planet remains clean too!

SuperBlue was designed to fill the gap left behind by regular manual and electric toothbrushes – it was made to decrease waste while making sure it lasts long and most importantly it is able to be sanitized. The ergonomic body was built in a way that it minimized the use of material while silicone bristles were used to maximize hygiene. The user will be able to keep the brushes clean with the UV light enabled case that also doubles up as a carry case for traveling (that time where we just chuck our brushes in a pouch) so you don’t have to compromise on cleanliness.

Designer: Dylan Fealtman

New York firm No Architecture has designed this house in Oregon‘s Willamette Valley wine country around a glazed garden fill with deciduous trees.

A large dark roof covers the aptly named Courtyard House residence with an irregular piercing in the middle marking the courtyard. Inside, it forms a garden wrapped by glass walls with wooden frames.

“Piercing the centre of the home, the fully-glazed courtyard planted with native deciduous trees conceives landscape as partition, shaping the interior through more porous and dynamic boundaries that transform with the seasons,” No Architecture said.

In addition to providing a feature of the interior, the studio said the courtyard also improves the passive heating and cooling. A glass door included in the walls also helps with natural ventilation.

“In wintertime, the courtyard’s position increases passive solar heating, while in summertime, the courtyard stimulates passive cooling and natural ventilation,” it added.

Designed for a couple, the one-storey residence is embedded into a hillside so it is hidden among its natural surrounds from the front.

While the house is disguised at the front, at the rear it opens up to enjoy views down to the wild river and wetlands.

Glazed walls match the enclosure around the courtyard, while the concrete platform cantilevers from the rear to form a viewing platform.

The kitchen, lounge, dining room and bedroom are arranged around the courtyard with views of both the enclosed garden and the house’s natural surroundings on the eastern side.

“Inside, the courtyard liberates the internal circulation into a continuous loop where every living space doubles as a sleeping space at night,” No Architecture explained.

Rather than adding in walls, No Architecture added storage cabinets in L shapes that form create lateral bracing and enclose two bedrooms in opposing corners.

“Departing from the compartmentalised ‘room-and-corridor’ plan found in conventional homes, the interior flows in a continuous loop sculpted by a faceted courtyard and two L-shaped storage cores,” it said.

The volume enclosing the south-east corner is fronted with wooden cabinets for the kitchen on one edge, and a bathroom on the other. The second contains two bathrooms interspersed with closets, storage and space for mechanicals.

“Maximising usable space while minimising poché, the cores condense the fixtures necessary to support daily life, including: the kitchen, bathrooms, closets and mechanicals,” it added.

No Architecture has used a minimal palette throughout the house including exposed concrete floors and walls, white-painted walls and wood-framed windows. Furnishings are sparse and include pale curtains, decorative rugs and wooden furniture.

Other houses designed to make the most of natural surrounds found in US state Oregon include a house built atop a pond and a holiday home built in volcanic landscape.

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Week seven of Virtual Design Festival featured a video interview with Stephen Burks, an exclusive product launch by Tom Dixon and an all-star roundtable discussion with architects Junya Ishigami, Frida Escobedo, Counterspace and more.

Virtual Design Festival, the world’s first online design festival, runs until 30 June. For the full schedule of upcoming events, visit dezeen.com/vdf/schedule.

Tuesday 26 May

VDF x Friedman Benda: as part of the Design in Dialogue series of video interviews with New York gallery Friedman Benda, industrial designer Stephen Burks spoke about the stereotyping he was subjected to as an African American working for big European industrial design firms.

VDF x Mark & Stephenson: the first of three documentaries by filmmaking duo Laura Mark and Jim Stephenson to be screened as part of VDF was Zaha Hadid: Words by Eva Jiřičná. The never-before-seen film features Czech architect Jiřičná paying homage to the life and work of her late friend. 

Wednesday 27 May

VDF x Therme Art: this live panel discusison featured current and former Serpentine Pavillion designers Frida Escobedo, Junya Ishigami and Counterspace’s Sumayya Vally in conversation with architect Stefano Boeri and artist Torkwase Dyson about how the art and design disciplines converge and complement each other.

Screentime with Kulapat Yantrasat: as part of our live interview series Screentime, sponsored by Enscape, Thai architect Kulapat Yantrasat of studio wHY explored his penchant for working on arts and gallery spaces, including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Met, Christie’s Beverly Hills and a tent for the first Frieze LA.

Thursday 28 May

Scavolini introduces BoxLife: in a Dezeen video produced for Scavolini, Rainlight studio’s Yorgo Lykouria introduced a modular furniture system he designed for the Italian furniture brand. Called BoxLife, it can be adapted to form everything from a kitchen to an office or entertainment space.

Screentime with Shahar Livne: Eindhoven graduate Shahar Livne spoke to Dezeen’s editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs about creating and designing with reclaimed waste materials. In the live interview sponsored by Philips TV & Sound, she touched on the clay imitate she created from discarded plastic and the faux leather she made from waste slaughterhouse byproducts.

Friday 29 May

VDF x Tom Dixon: Tom Dixon used VDF as a platform to launch the Code lighting collection he developed with German brand Prolicht, which features exposed LEDs and circuit boards. He also shared the story behind this latest release in a live interview with Prolicht CEO Walter Norz and Dezeen’s Marcus Fairs.

Screentime with Annabelle Selldorf: architect Annabelle Selldorf took stock of some of her favourite projects from her almost 50-year career, in the last of this week’s Screentime video interviews sponsored by Enscape.

Previous weeks

Did you miss week five? Read our summary of the highlights, including interviews with Standard Architecture and Sauerbruch Hutton and the launch of an exclusive Archigram video series.

Did you miss week four? Read our summary of the highlights, including exclusive interviews with Carlo Ratti and Iris van Herpen, as well as a cocktail masterclass from the owner of Milan’s Bar Basso.

Did you miss week three? Read our summary of the highlights, including a video message from Ben van Berkel and an exclusive screening of Gary Hustwit’s Dieter Rams documentary.

Did you miss week two? Read the summary of the highlights from the second week, including Ron Arad, SO-IL, Kunlé Adeyemi, Nelly Ben Hayoun, Beatie Wolfe and Studio Drift.

Did you miss week one? Read the summary of the first week’s highlights include live interviews with Li Edelkoort and Klein Dytham Architecture plus the now-legendary VDF launch movie.

Virtual Design Festival, the world’s first digital design festival, runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020 and is sponsored by bathroom and kitchen manufacturer Grohe. For more information about VDF or to join the mailing list, email vdf@dezeen.com.

The post This week’s VDF highlights include Tom Dixon, Stefano Boeri, Counterspace and a Zaha Hadid film premiere appeared first on Dezeen.

Unearthed ancient ruins, extended art awards, astronaut urine and more in our look around the internet

Astronaut Urine Will Be a Valuable Resource on the Moon

Since the cost of shipping resources to the moon remains prohibitively high, planning for long stints—or even habitation—requires savvy, as the rugged surface (aka regolith) restricts growth. Earlier this year, researchers found that, when mixed with moon dirt, astronaut urine could be a remarkably useful building material. When urea, “the second-most common compound in human urine after water” is blended with the dirt, the resulting geopolymer (an eco-friendly material, often used instead of traditional concrete) could be employed for various structures and even landing pads. Once filtered, urine can also be consumed or used for growing food. As Ars Technica puts it, pee will be a “hot” commodity. Read more there.

Concrete 3D-Printed House Built in 48 Hours

Working in collaboration with developer Buřinka (aka Stavebni Sporitelna Ceske Sporitelny), sculptor Michal Trpák has designed a 43-square-meter concrete house called Prvok—a structure that can be 3D-printed in just 48 hours and will float on water. The first of its kind in the Czech Republic, the house’s building process not only cuts construction costs, reduces CO2 emissions by 20% and minimizes waste, but the resulting structure also has various eco-friendly elements built in. There’s a green roof, reservoirs to collect water, a recirculating shower and more. While small in size (with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom), it’s a big step toward alternative housing solutions—and fast ones, considering this can be produced seven times faster than traditional housing. Read more at designboom.

The Museum of Youth Culture Seeks Submissions

The UK’s Museum of Youth Culture (an exclusively digital operation until they move into their physical space in 2023) has asked the public to peruse old photo albums and smartphone libraries for documentation of awkward teen moments, significant events, fleeting trends, and everything from childhood—shameful haircuts included. Called “Grown Up in Britain,” the project deviates from the museum’s original process for souring images,  prompting professional photographers to submit their images. In an effort to supplement the collection and to spotlight the more intimate moments of young adulthood, they’ve offered a helpful brief to conjure memories. “We wanted the story we’re telling to be as representative as possible,” Lisa der Weduwe (who is part of the museum’s Cultural Projects team) tells Atlas Obscura. Read more there.

Ancient Roman Mosaic Discovered Under Italian Vineyard

In Negrar di Valpolicella (located near Verona in northern Italy), archeologists have discovered an ornate, ancient mosaic floor buried beneath the soil of a vineyard. The tiles belong to what’s known as the Roman Villa—a site discovered over a century ago—and have been sitting just a few meters underground since the third century AD. The land-owners, researchers and municipality are working together to find a way to make the valuable find “enjoyable,” as Negrar di Valpolicella Mayor Roberto Grison says, “We believe a cultural site of this value deserves attention and should be enhanced.” Find out more at Smithsonian Magazine.

Mystery of Glass Frogs’ Translucent Skin Solved

Found in tropical Central and South America, the glass frog (of the Centrolenidae family) was the center of a recent study which reveals the creature’s translucent skin to be a camouflage device. While the frog’s back is typically “vivid green with their intestines and heart visible through their underbelly,” their legs are more see-through—making them much harder to detect. Dr James Barnett (postdoctoral researcher and co-author of the study) says, because of extra-translucent limbs, “the frog’s edge is transformed into a softer, less contrasting gradient from the leaf to the legs, and again from the legs to the body.” Scientists found that the frogs’ bodies don’t change too much—whether placed on a leafy, grassy or other background—but legs do, and it’s due to brightness rather than hue. Professor Devi Stuart-Fox says the finding is just another fact that makes the natural world so fascinating, “The sheer diversity of camouflage strategies in nature is truly remarkable.” Read more at The Guardian.

2020 Turner Prize Broadens its Impact

The Turner Prize typically shortlists four artists, with the winner receiving £25,000 and three runners-up receiving £5,000 in prize money. While this year’s Turner Prize has been “cancelled,” 10 winners will be chosen—and each will be awarded £10,000 in an effort to support more artists. The highly regarded award (named for J.M.W. Turner) is one of many that has altered its rules and the scope of its mission to be more inclusive and supportive in the midst of the global pandemic. “Gallery closures and social distancing measures are vitally important, but they are also causing huge disruption to the lives and livelihoods of artists. The practicalities of organizing a Turner Prize exhibition are impossible in the current circumstances, so we have decided to help support even more artists during this exceptionally difficult time,” Alex Farquharson, director of the Tate Britain and a member of the Turner Prize jury, tells It’s Nice That. Read more there.

Crayola’s All-New “Colors of the World” Line Broadens Their Skin-Tone Representation

Working with renowned makeup chemist Victor Casale—who has spent three decades striving to formulate diverse foundation colors—iconic crayon-maker Crayola broadens their skin tone range with the all-new Colors of the World line. It includes 24 specially formulated crayons “designed to mirror and represent over 40 global skin tones across the world,” as well as four hair and four eye colors (in the 32-count box). It’s their first attempt at a more representative and realistic gradient. Colors of the World is available for pre-order and will release in July. Read about the history of the brand’s “flesh” color and their push for diversity at Fast Company.

Link About It is our filtered look at the web, shared daily in Link and on social media, and rounded up every Saturday morning.

An editorial project by London’s V&A Museum reflects on objects that have been ascribed new meanings and functions during the coronavirus pandemic. Curator Brendan Cormier selects his highlights.

Pandemic Objects is an online editorial project that was launched at the beginning of May, composed of a series of articles posted on the V&A Blog written by curators and directors alike from the museum.

The project shows how items already in the museum’s collection that can now be seen in a new way. Its editors have also selected a series of everyday objects, such as flour and yeast or nitrile gloves, that have now been placed in the spotlight under the new context of Covid-19

“During times of pandemic, a host of everyday often-overlooked ‘objects’ (in the widest possible sense of the term) are suddenly charged with new urgency,” reads the V&A Blog.

Toilet paper, for example, has become “a symbol of public panic”, while parks have become “contested public commodities”.

In collating these objects and considering the changes in their purposes, the V&A’s Pandemic Objects project aims to “paint a unique picture of the pandemic” and the importance of the objects associated with it.

Here, Cormier explains the reasoning behind five of the object choices:

Splat Chair designed by Sam Morgan and Deisa Centazzo, manufactured by Spinifex Eco-Design (2009)

“One of the things the pandemic has made us think a lot more about – and which is often hidden to us in our daily lives – is the network of supply chains that keep our economy functioning.

“Zofia Trafas White writes in one of our posts about the ubiquitous cardboard box, used to ship countless parcels and packages to our homes when we don’t have the luxury of going to the high street.

“Cardboard has become an essential material for logistics, and one that might be in short supply in the near future because of a breakdown in manufacturing and recycling. Thinking more critically about cardboard will be important in the future.

“Trafas White references this chair in our collection, Splat, which was designed consciously as an object not meant to last – as all children eventually grow up – and as such made from cardboard so that it can be recycled after use.”

Don’t Talk Down to Me by Jenny Holzer (1982)

“In a piece I wrote about the vast proliferation of homemade signs over the course of the lock-down, I was struck by the power of individual voices finding expression out on the street in the form of simple paper messages.

“It recalled, in part, the early work the American artist Jenny Holzer’s where she would bill-post acerbic and poetic statements through offset lithography in public spaces around New York City.

“As well, it’s a reminder that the street is a perfectly effective forum for expression, one that has been slightly forgotten as we have all moved our socialising habits online.”

New Family sewing machine by Singer Manufacturing Company (1888)

“Although a lot of our focus has been on how new technologies will rise to the challenges brought on by the pandemic, one object that went into production more than 150 years ago, has proven especially effective: the sewing machine.”

“In a post by Becky Knott [on the V&A Blog], she explores how different support networks have emerged like For the Love of Scrubs and Scrub Hub, in which people are encouraged to dust off their sewing machine to produce essential apparel and protective personal equipment (PPE) for hospital workers.”

Gas Mask Bag with Gas Mask (1940-42)

“To manage the crisis, we’ve seen governments and industry have to tackle the major logistical challenge of suddenly having to supply lots of urgent equipment, whether that be PPE or ventilators, in a very short period of time.

“Livia Turnbull, who wrote a piece for us on home-made masks, makes the useful comparison to a moment in Britain during thee second world war, when the government declared that every man, woman and child were to have a gas mask in order to protect against possible chemical attacks. Then, as now, industry was forced to rapidly retool in order to supply the millions of masks needed.”

Air Routes of the World (Night) by Langlands and Bell (2001)

“In a piece by Ella Kilgallon, she explores the alternatives to travelling when we are all stuck at home. While referencing Google Street View as an unexpected new form of escapism, she also usefully points out to a longer history of travelogues and the depiction of voyages in literature and visual culture.

“This print is a vivid portrayal of what has been dramatically halted – air travel. The print redraws the world through the lens of travel routes that have become increasingly strained over the past decades.”

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