Hasta La Ideas

I’ll be honest, before I even got to the design it was the name of the product that caught me eye – Pluching! Pluching is a mashup of the words pluck + stretching and it was the quickest, most genius way to describe the functionality of this personal device!

Our modern lifestyle involves us being stationary in one position for long hours which is unhealthy and Pluching was created as an organic solution that brings more movement! The time spent sitting in one place has increased so much ever since the pandemic began because all we do is work from home and then watch Netflix at home. This can cause turtle neck syndrome, shoulder pain, back pain, and unhealthy stiffness which you can minimize using stretching equipment like Pluching. The idea was to design exercise equipment that gives the effect of band exercise and stretching but could clip-on on the back of your chair for ease. Pluching uses a powerful neodymium magnet that is embedded in a silicon clip to secure the equipment and give you stability.

It also includes Bluetooth and a heat detection sensor are built into the handle, this allows users to check the exact number of times they stretch by syncing their app to the equipment. Users can also set stretching reminders on the app and they will be notified via vibrations when it is time to take a healthy break. If you’re reading this, straighten your back or better yet, get up and stretch!

Designer: Heesuk Lee

Virgin Galactic has revealed the interior cabin of its SpaceshipTwo craft, designed in collaboration with London studio Seymourpowell to provide “safety without distraction”.

The craft, dubbed the Virgin Spaceship Unity (VSS Unity), will be designed to take six passengers on a sub-orbital flight into space to view the Earth and experience several minutes of weightlessness at $250,000 per seat. Sub-orbital spaceships don’t have the power to achieve and remain in orbit, but instead fly up to a certain height before coming back down.

Designed to prioritise the view of the Earth from space, the VSS Unity cabin concept is lined with 12 large, porthole-style windows, six of which are positioned directly next to the individual passenger seats.

The cabin interior is complimented by icy hues of white, silver and teal, intended to be reflective of space itself and the Earth below.

Virgin Galactic and Seymourpowell aimed to create an interior design that would “drive the excitement and anticipation of what’s in store”, without making the experience overwhelming.

The cabin is lined with a lightweight foam with a honeycomb structure, which optimises both the thermal and acoustic qualities of the interior as well as providing a soft touch while passengers traverse the space during their zero-gravity experience.

Each window is bordered by a soft, circular “halo” which both frames the views and acts as hand and footholds for astronauts when weightlessly moving around.

A large, circular mirror fills the back section of the cabin, also known as the aft bulkhead, to further enhance the zero-gravity experience by allowing passengers to view themselves as they float around.

“While it has been created to integrate seamlessly with every other aspect of the Virgin Galactic astronaut journey – the cabin is also the design centrepiece; providing safety without distraction, quietly absorbing periods of sensory intensity and offering each astronaut a level of intimacy required for personal discovery and transformation,” the design team explained.

Each of the six passenger seats cantilever from the sides of the walls, opening up space in the lower part of the cabin. The interior can also be adapted to accommodate research payloads instead of space tourists.

The seats – which include two additional crew seats in the cockpit– are individually sized to fit each passenger’s body measurements.

Made from aluminium and carbon fibre, with engineered foam and technical fabric finishings, the seat is covered with a 3D-knitted sleeve developed by US sportswear brand Under Armour, which simultaneously offers optimum comfort while indicating a sense of “performance and agility”.

Described by Virgin Galactic design director Jeremy Brown as the craft’s “iconic” feature, these seats are woven with the same frosty hues featured across the rest of the interior.

These colours were chosen to evoke both the “celestial spaces” above and the ocean below, while golden metallic detailing recalls “luminous” desert sands. These shades compliment the astronaut spacesuits, also designed by Under Armour.

The seats are equipped with a pilot-controlled recline mechanism, which places passengers in the best position to manage gravitational forces without detracting from “the thrill of the ride”, as well as freeing up the surrounding cabin space to act as a “float zone” when in zero gravity.

Each space tourist also has their own personal digital display within the seat-backs showing them live flight data including speed, gravity and remaining boost time of the flight.

Virgin Galactic and Seymourpowell also incorporated mood lighting into the interior, which sees multi-colour LEDs hidden within the window “halos” illuminate in colours that reflect each stage of flight: with calming tones used on the journey to release altitude, or more vibrant colours during the rocket-boost phase.

This mood lighting is then turned off completely while in space, bringing focus to the views of Earth.

Sixteen cabin cameras, plus several in the cockpit and mounted externally, are also embedded to capture the experience in high definition, ridding space tourists of the need to bring their own cameras and recording devices.

Based in London, Seymourpowell is an industrial design studio founded by Richard Seymour and Dick Powell in 1984.

The SpaceshipTwo cabin was unveiled during a YouTube live-stream on 28 July. An augmented reality mobile app was also launched after the event, which enables people to view the cabin in 360 degrees through their device.

Virgin Galactic completed the first successful supersonic, rocket-powered flight of its SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity prototype in April 2018.

Last year the company also revealed the desert-inspired interiors of its Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space building in New Mexico, USA, which which can be used by Virgin Galactic staff and tourists travelling beyond the earth’s atmosphere.

The post Seymourpowell designs Virgin Galactic spaceship cabin to maximise views of Earth appeared first on Dezeen.

As the Design Museum opens its new show Electronic, we speak to curator Gemma Curtin and The Chemical Brothers collaborators Smith & Lyall about the genre’s wider impact on creativity and culture, and how the music industry could look post-pandemic

The post The evolution of electronic music appeared first on Creative Review.

Software company Autodesk has said it will address the concerns of its customers after 17 of the UK’s largest architecture practices wrote a letter criticising the cost and lack of development of Revit.

The American software company vowed to listen to the feedback within the open letter to its president Andrew Anagnost, which describes architects dissatisfaction with Building Information Modelling (BIM) software Revit.

“Engaging, listening to and addressing the concerns of our customers is a top priority for Autodesk, and we appreciate the feedback we received in the open letter,” said a representative of Autodesk.

Signed by 17 of the UK’s largest architecture practices including Zaha Hadid Architects, Grimshaw and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the letter states that costs of the application have risen rapidly in the past five years, but the product hasn’t been developed at a similar rate.

“Concerns relate to the increasing cost of ownership and the operation of Autodesk’s Revit software and fundamentally its lack of development,” said the architects’ letter.

“A need to prioritise resources”

Autodesk acknowledged that some of the concerns raised by the architecture studios were valid and deserve its attention.

“While there are points it raised that we disagree with, there are also issues raised that we must take to heart, which highlight areas where we’ve fallen short,” said the representative.

In response to the letter’s claim that Revit is not been developed quickly enough to meet the needs of architects, the software company explained that it had been focusing on developing the application for engineering and construction companies.

“Over the past several years, we increased our product development to serve engineering and construction customers, because we believe having a multi-disciplinary BIM model connected to construction enables better collaboration among all project team members,” said the representative.

“As with any business, there is a need to prioritise resources. We do recognise the need to balance and have recently increased our development on the architectural capabilities of Revit.”

“Expect to see progress in the future”

Autodesk assured architects that it has a plan in place to develop Revit, which is available to read on its website, and that it understood architects concerns over its shifting pricing models.

“Expect to see progress here in the future,” said the representative.

“We also empathise with customers that have gone through different license models in the last few years as we’ve transformed Autodesk to become a subscription-based company that can serve our customers better,” the representative continued.

“We’ve done our best to balance these changes with a more valuable experience and trade-in offers that give long-time customers a path to experience these benefits at a cost consistent with what they pay today.”

Autodesk is an American software company that is best-known for creating computer-aided design (CAD) software AutoCAD.

Image is by Coolcaesar.

The post Listening to concerns “top priority” says Autodesk following architects’ criticism of BIM software appeared first on Dezeen.

Furniture design has flourished during this pandemic as we all need something multifunctional, flexible, and space-saving – and it applies to pet furniture too. The latest piece to catch our eye has been the Kyali cat climber by MADE for its almost human furniture-like design because usually, a cat climber would stick out but this one just blends in like a cozy stool!

The climber has a warm inviting vibe because of the woody tones and the soft fabric cushioning that will instantly draw your cats in for a nap. It is a blend of a bed and a dynamic game for your pets. Featuring three shelves or levels, Kyali’s goal was to provide plenty of fun for your feline friends without taking up too much room. It has a modular structure that lets you adjust the shape to create more space for cats to explore or to make it more compact to store.

It keeps the space clutter-free while giving the cats enough surfaces to scratch and hole-some entertainment. The walnut and navy aesthetics give it an evergreen look that works for any interior style. Your cats would be happy and comfy with Kyali while letting you work from home in peace!

Designer: MADE

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