Today MakerBot has released their new 3D Printing Trends Report, which lists statistics from “over 1,200 responses from professionals across multiple industries, including Aerospace, Industrial Goods, Military & Defense, Medical, and Automotive.” We could cut-and-paste the whole thing here and you’d find it interesting, but then we’d be stealing clicks, so I’ll just mention some of the stats that jumped out at me:
Fused deposition modeling dominates. 77% of respondents use FDM, whereas 27% use SLA.
Half of 3D printing users worldwide are in North America. I figured Europe’s much lower numbers were the result of the population differential, but that does not explain Asia’s relatively small numbers.
Overlapping with people who find Lamborghinis cool, 3D printing users are overwhelmingly male.
Of any given 3D printer user, it’s almost twice as likely that they’re an engineer as opposed to a designer.
The largest percentage of 3D printer users print with it every single day.
Unsurprisingly, plastic is the go-to 3D printing material.
I found this surprising: Of all the criteria for selecting a 3D printer, “Print accuracy/high resolution” garnered the highest share of votes–yet only 60% of respondents rated the quality as “Very important.
Based on the stat above, high precision is apparently not as crucial as I’d have guessed it would be. Backing that up is the stat below, showing that reliability is more important to end users than dimensional accuracy.
The designers for America’s largest automaker, GM Design, are responsible for putting millions of vehicles on the road each year. But while millions will see their finished designs on the road, it’s really tough to get them to agree to share their developmental renderings and sketches online (trust me, I’ve tried). But a few months ago, as the pandemic began to set in, GM’s Design Center quietly launched an Instagram account.
“For the first time, we’re opening our doors to highlight the creative power of the people who shape the look and feel of GM,” wrote GM Design exec Michael Simcoe. “Here, we will share our visions of the future of transportation, creative images, treasure from the archives and some of our personal passions. I hope you find it as inspiring as we do.”
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has made the Open Restaurants Program, which allows restaurants in the city to extend seating onto streets, sidewalks and public spaces, permanent following the coronavirus pandemic.
First temporarily initiated in June to allow restaurants to continue doing business while adhering to social distancing restrictions, the programme will now be a year-round fixture, De Blasio announced on 25 September.
The Open Restaurants Program, which has seen outdoor dining spaces pop up across the city, will boost the capacity of restaurants as they open indoor dining at 50 per cent capacity as New York gradually reopens after the coronavirus lockdown.
Restaurants allowed to heat outdoor spaces and build tents
Under the scheme, eateries are allowed to extend seating onto sidewalks and roadways, or onto adjacent outdoor spaces with their neighbours’ consent. Establishments must follow a list of requirements for an Open Restaurant design, which include a clear path on the pavement, a maximum distance from the curb and a required height of enclosing barriers.
De Blasio’s extension will also introduce guidelines for restaurants to heat outdoor areas during the colder winter months, which will be released by the end of September.
These regulations will allow the installation of electrical heaters on both sidewalks and roadways, and propane and natural gas heaters only on pavements. Propane will require a permit from New York City Fire Department.
Restaurants will also be able to build tents, ranging from partial to full enclosures, in order to keep diners warm.
Outdoor seating enables safe dining amid pandemic
Food establishments will have to apply online for permission to become an Open Restaurant. Three or more restaurants on a street that is closed to traffic can also apply together to expand outdoors in another option known as Open Streets: Restaurants.
Following the city lockdown, more than 10,300 restaurants citywide reopened with activities outdoors over summer, according to the New York Times, allowing them to stay afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A number of architects and designers also came up with creative ways for restaurants to allow safe dining post-Covid-19. In May, ahead of New York’s outdoor dining programme, designer David Rockwell created a kit of parts to turn the city’s streets into outdoor restaurants with socially distanced dining.
His firm, Rockwell Group, later built a pro-bono DineOut NYC project (pictured top) comprising 120 seats for restaurants on Mott Street in Chinatown.
Airo Collective’s Stealth Wallets make claims that are hard to ignore. They’re touted as the slimmest bifold wallets in the world… and they’re stronger than steel.
Meet the Stealth Carbon and the Stealth Diamond, two of the thinnest, lightest, and strongest bifolds ever made. Designed to combine cutting-edge aesthetics with cutting-edge functionality, the Stealth wallets do everything your regular wallet does, but just better. They hold your banknotes (using a ballistic bungee), store up to 8 cards, secure your money with RFID-blocking, and look stunningly sleek all along. Besides, they’re made to last longer too, given how incredibly strong the material they’re made from actually is.
The Stealth Carbon wallet is made from a highly resilient TPU-infused 3K carbon fiber weave, while the Stealth Diamond wallet is, get this, made from nano-plated diamond leather – a sustainably sourced, heavy-duty, top-grain performance leather stitched and fused with a thread that is 15x stronger than steel. Both the Stealth Carbon and the Stealth Diamond are designed to be unseemingly thin, measuring mere millimeters in thickness, weighing 12 grams and 14.5 grams respectively.
The bifold remains the most traditional wallet format (my dad’s bifold wallet is more than a decade old), but it’s still plagued by the age-old problem of becoming too fat and bulky over time. Aside from being a visual problem, these bulky wallets cause physiological damage when you sit down, and even stand the risk of tearing the notes inside. Designed as a much-needed upgrade, the Stealth Wallets retain the old, lovable bifold format, but bring innovation by using slimmer, lighter, and stronger materials. The wallets feature anti-abrasive fabrics on the outside that are 15 times stronger than steel, yet remain as flexible as any regular leather. The inside of the wallets are lined with premium Italian leather for that classy touch, and the edges are further secured with Airo’s proprietary Diamond Nano-Armor coating for an increased lifespan. Each wallet is made in the USA, and comes with a 5-year craftsmanship guarantee against any defect or damage.
Stealth Carbon & Stealth Diamond — The Slimmest Luxury Wallets
Last year, Airo Collective launched the world’s thinnest wallet — the Stealth Razor. It uses a material 15x stronger than steel, was as thin as a razor (literally), and after raising over $600,000, they successfully delivered over 12,000 wallets.
Now, they are back with two new, upgraded, luxury, ultra-thin Stealth Wallets boasting the highest quality, strongest materials on Earth — the Stealth Carbon and the Stealth Diamond Wallet.
Stealth Carbon Wallet
Stealth Carbon is extremely lightweight and incredibly durable. The exterior TPU-infused 3K carbon fiber weave uses the highest quality carbon fiber in the world. Carbon fiber has been used before—in supercars and race cars — but never in a design near this slim. The carbon fiber is specially woven to ensure flexibility and durability and can withstand hundreds of thousands of flexes in its lifetime.
Hold up to 8 cards and 6 bills securely and easily without creating a bulge in your pocket. The two card slots hold up to 4 cards each.
A durable ballistic cash bungee is a modern improvement of the money clip. The pull-tab keeps your bills from ever falling out.
The proprietary DNA (Diamond Nano Armor) Edge Coating protects the edges and keeps Stealth Carbon looking clean forever. Made of a special infusion of actual micro-diamonds (the hardest substance on the Earth), the coating is specifically formulated for maximum strength and durability. Stealth Carbon will stay STRONG for ages to come and will never fray at the edges.
The interior layer is made of sustainably sourced premium quality Italian leather fused to fibers that are 15x stronger than steel. This ensures Stealth Carbon will never stretch and will always maintain its shape.
Eliminate back pain caused by bulky wallets. Stealth Carbon is ultra thin, so it won’t bulge out of your pocket or cause stress marks on your pants and jeans.
The carbon fiber in Stealth Carbon intrinsically blocks out unwanted RFID scans. This protects your payment data and prevents any unwanted transmissions from your cards — all without disrupting the speed of use or thickness of the wallet. Plus, it looks pretty darn incredible.
Stealth Diamond Wallet
The Stealth Diamond has the same thinness and features as the Stealth Carbon but utilizing the toughest leather in the world.
Stealth Diamond is made of sustainably sourced, heavy duty, top-grain performance leather stitched and fused with a thread that is 15x stronger than steel.
The special nano-armor plating with a diamond pattern powerfully enhances the leather’s abrasion resistance and makes it exponentially more durable than normal leather — all without compromising flexibility.
A pre-pandemic live favorite from Belarusian post-punk trio Molchat Doma, “Ne Sheshno” (which loosely translates to “not funny”) now appears as a cryptic music video—complete with unexpected dance numbers and zombie-like characters. Both the track (which is drawn from the band’s forthcoming album, Monument) and the video feel yanked right out of the ’80s. That said, there’s something prescient to their presentation—and it’s danceable, too.
The same way a skyscraper doesn’t fit in amongst brownstones, the classic WiFirouter is an eyesore in any room. Typically, they’re clunky, blockish, and wire-twisted. They always get in the way and seem to epitomize user-unfriendliness, with indistinguishable blinking signals and difficult, hard-to-reach dimensions. Thankfully, designer Lee Haupenn has come up with a solution: his new Piano WiFi 6 router that resembles a chord’s worth of piano keys, designed to appear less obtrusive and more as it belongs.
The fully realized WiFi 6 router is emotive in its appearance and, with its sleek body, allows you to enjoy any room for what it’s meant, without any black, plastic network boxes to distract you. The black ‘keys’ lift up to reveal the router’s antennae and the indented base diminishes some of the visual thickness that’s commonly expected from routers. Certain to improve user-friendliness, the L-shaped indicator light provides comprehensible insight regarding signals and product operation. Familiarity was a vital aspect of the router’s conceptual stages as Lee Haupenn incorporated the image of the piano, emoting a feeling of cohesion to any room. The classic white and black color scheme provides the router with another chameleon-like feature: interior adaptability for all spaces, that of which bulky, wire-heavy routers do not have. That seamless bridging between the world of technology and our intimate home spaces is the true essence of this design.
Red Dot issued 2020’s Best of the Best award to the Shenzhen-based design team for their cleverly tasteful reimagination of the classic router. Offering the latest generation of wireless capabilities, this router is as charming as it is operative, bridging the power of technology with the comfort of home. Collectively, it seems that we’re retreating further and further into the cyber world, which means that the demand for efficient wireless technology and network is high. However, the designers at Lee Haupenn seem to understand that when it comes to routers, as demand increases, creativity in design seems to fall by the wayside. Due to this imbalance, routers look cold, even unapproachable, just the tangles of wires look too complicated. With such a necessary product of the times, Lee Haupenn gave the antiquated router a much-needed fine-tuning. Even though this piano can’t really be played, it is visual poetry for your eyes!
Furniture is generally large, expensive to ship, resource-intensive to produce and difficult to dispose of or recycle. That’s why I think of furniture as a lifetime purchase–and I don’t think furniture should have non-upgradeable technology embedded within it, as technology goes obsolete quickly.
At least 1,123 people disagree with me. That’s the amount of pledgers who’ve backed the Comet Smart Nightstand, a tech-embedded bedside table, rocketing it to $631,502 in funding (at press time) on a $50,000 goal. Take a look at this thing:
The top features an embedded wireless charger, and the table is billed as “The only nightstand you’ll ever need,” which might be true if the current wireless charging standard will never be changed or upgraded.
The demonstrated usage case, where you’re meant to store several dozen single-use plastic water bottles inside to slake your thirst–rather than walking over to your sink and grabbing a glass–illustrates the designers’ regard for proper consumption habits.
In the video, one of these circles is called out as a Bluetooth speaker…
…whereas the campaign page refers to speakers, plural. Nowhere does it say how many speakers the object contains, but if all of those circles are speakers and not bearings that enable the top’s rotation, I count no less than 32 of them (16 visible per side, see below). And the perforations ringing the perimeter suggest there are in fact speakers all around.
The table is circular, which I find an odd choice for a bedside table. It makes sense if you live in a large loft with the bed in the center of the room. It doesn’t make as much sense for those of us with our beds against the wall in average-sized bedrooms.
Also, I think having a top that pivots outwards only makes sense if the object is standing in the middle of a room. In my 10×12 bedroom, the pivoting top would either hit the wall or my bed.
One feature I do like is that there’s a sensor that detects your feet and turns a light on in the base, for when you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. But I’d rather spend $20 on a ConnectLight than the $1,000 (for the 28″ x 14″ size) to $1,300 (for the 36″ x 18″ size) that the Comet tables will retail for.
Perhaps the early-bird pricing on the Comets helped propel sales: They’re being offered at $500 and $650 on the campaign page.
Typically, The Bushcamp Company‘s charitable initiative, called Begins At Home, remains financed thanks to a daily fee for safari attendees. As expected, the number of tourists, and thus the amount of money raised, is exceedingly low this year so they are hosting a two month-long fundraiser, with $50 donations adding up to 10 entries in a competition to win a week-long safari stay for two—with accommodation, activities, meals and drinks all included. We stayed at the Bushcamp Company’s lodge in the South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, in 2012 and couldn’t bear to see Begins At Home arm—which supports education, wildlife, land conservation, infrastructure and health programs—go unfunded. Read more and enter the competition at their site.
Carbon fiber reinforced plastic, or CFRP, is a wondrous material. It offers the strength of steel at a fraction of the weight, and unlike metal parts, the fibers can be laid in such a way as to provide directional strength, maximizing its rigidity along the axes most likely to encounter stress.
CFRP consists of a matrix (typically a polymer resin) and a reinforcement (carbon fiber). The carbon fibers are formed into unidirectional sheets, which are then layered onto one another, with the directions of the fibers variably oriented as per the stress requirements; think of plywood sheets where the veneers are laid with the wood grain at 90 degrees to the succeeding layer.
These sheets are rolled out and cut into rough approximations of the part size. Then the sheets are laid into a mold of the final part.
The mold is then filled with liquid resin. A vacuum is used to pull the resin throughout the entirety of the mold, and the whole thing is then left to cure.
Why CFRP is Typically Expensive
This typical CFRP manufacturing process is not instantaneous; the vacuum needs time to do its thing. In manufacturing, time is money, and thus CFRP parts are expensive. Though de rigueur for Formula One cars with immense budgets, on passenger cars CFRP parts are used sparingly due to cost; pricey road rockets like Nissan’s Skyline GT-R only feature CFRP elements in the hood and roof, for instance.
Nissan’s New CFRP Manufacturing Trick
In order to reduce CFRP production time, Nissan’s engineers needed a faster way to get the resin to permeate the mold. Thus they’ve jettisoned the vacuum altogether and have developed a technique called compression resin transfer molding, or Compression RTM.
The Compression RTM process starts with CAE (computer aided engineering) software, where the mold is designed. Grooves are modeled into the mold, and simulation software predicts how injected resin would flow through these grooves. The engineers tweak the size, location, number, and orientation of these grooves to maximize resin flow. Once they’ve optimized it, the mold is cut.
When the carbon fiber sheets are laid into this mold, the mold’s two halves are then closed–but not all the way. By leaving the two dies just shy of sealing, then injecting the resin, Nissan’s engineers discovered that the resin would more swiftly spread through the grooves and completely permeate the mold.
This has drastically reduced the cycle time. A part that used to take ten minutes to mold now takes just two minutes. And while this does not change the cost of the raw materials, the reduced time/manufacturing cost means that CFRP parts can more affordably be integrated into production models.
Plastics News reports that using Compression RTM “will help Nissan trim about 176 pounds, on average, from future vehicle weights.” This will be a boon to both gas-powered cars needing to hit more stringent fuel economy requirements, and electric cars too; less weight in the vehicle means less energy required to move it, and thus improved range.
Nissan is still tweaking the Compression RTM process, but expects CFRP will show up in unsexy parts like B-pillars as early as their 2024 model year.
Video of the Compression RTM process is below. (Note that you’ll need to hit the “CC” button for English subtitles.)
Dezeen promotion: a cluster of luxurious tents in the Namibian desert and a hotel set amongst verdant gardens in Marrakech are some of the projects shortlisted in the Middle East and Africa heats of this year’s AHEAD awards.
The AHEAD MEA awards give praise to outstanding hospitality projects that have launched, opened or reopened across the Middle East and Africa between January 2019 and February of this year.
Zannier Hotels Sonop, a group of guest tents in Namibia, is on the shortlist
Entries were initially organised into 15 categories, which acknowledge everything from a project’s guest suites to its landscaping and outdoor spaces.
A shortlist was then composed by a judging panel of leading experts from the hotel industry. This year it includes figures such as Leila Abdul Rahim, design director of Hilton Worldwide, and Pallavi Dean, founder of studio Roar.
Another project on the AHEAD MEA awards shortlist this year is Dubai’s Opus hotel
Among the projects on the shortlist is Zannier Hotels Sonop, a group of 10 tents that perch over huge granite boulders in the Namibian desert.
Decadently designed to evoke old-world safari charm, inside the tents have been decorated with vintage maps, binoculars and telescopes.
Also on the shortlist is The Oberoi Marrakech, which is surrounded by lush gardens
Also on the shortlist is The Farmstead at Royal Malewane, an intimate lodge that looks out over the tree canopies of a national park in South Africa, and The Oberoi Marrakech, which is nestled amongst 28 acres of Mediterranean gardens and citrus trees.
Additionally on the AHEAD MEA 2020 shortlist is The Farmstead at Royal Malewane
This year – due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – the final stages of judging will take place over a series of video calls between 30 September to 1 October, where those on the panel will review projects one last time before deciding on their favourites from each category.
Winners will then be announced on 9 November at the awards’ inaugural “hybrid” event, which will involve a digital screening for overseas audience members and a localised on-the-ground ceremony for people part of the AHEAD MEA community.
See the full shortlist below:
Bar, Club or Lounge
Archer Bar & Eatery at Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, South Africa Twenty Three Rooftop Bar at Grand Plaza Mövenpick Media City, Dubai, UAE Siddharta Lounge by Buddha Bar at W Muscat, Oman St. Trop at Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre, UAE
Guestrooms
Four Seasons Hotel Doha, Qatar Lekkerwater Beach Lodge, De Hoop Nature Reserve, South Africa The Farmstead at Royal Malewane, Hoedspruit, South Africa The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi, UAE
Hotel Newbuild
Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, South Africa ME Dubai at Opus, UAE The Museum Hotel Antakya, Turkey The Social House Nairobi, Kenya
Landscaping & Outdoor Spaces
Anantara Sahara Tozeur Resort & Villas, Tunisia Le Palais Ronsard, Marrakech, Morocco The Farmstead at Royal Malewane, Hoedspruit, South Africa The Oberoi Marrakech, Morocco
Lobby & Public Spaces
Le Palais Ronsard, Marrakech, Morocco Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, South Africa ME Dubai at Opus, UAE Vida Hotel Emirates Hills, Dubai, UAE
Lodges, Cabins & Tented Camps
Abelana River Lodge, Phalaborwa, South Africa andBeyond Ngala Treehouse, Timbavati Private Game Reserve, South Africa Habitas Namibia King’s Pool, Linyanti Wildlife Reserve, Botswana Lepogo Lodges’ Noka Camp, South Africa Puku Ridge, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia Zannier Hotels Sonop, Namibia
Renovation, Restoration & Conversion
andBeyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge, Namibrand Nature Reserve, Namibia Four Seasons Hotel Doha, Qatar Le Palais Ronsard, Marrakech, Morocco Long Lee Manor, Shamwari Private Game Reserve, South Africa
Resort
Al Wathba, a Luxury Collection Desert Resort & Spa, Abu Dhabi, UAE Anantara Sahara Tozeur Resort & Villas, Tunisia The Oberoi Marrakech, Morocco W Muscat, Oman
Restaurant
Bull & Bear at Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre, UAE Keystone at Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, South Africa Mina’s Kitchen at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi, UAE Nammos Restaurant at Four Seasons Resort Dubai, UAE
Restaurant
Bull & Bear at Waldorf Astoria Dubai International Financial Centre, UAE Keystone at Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, South Africa Mina’s Kitchen at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi, UAE Nammos Restaurant at Four Seasons Resort Dubai, UAE
Suite
Anantara Sahara Tozeur Resort & Villas, Tunisia Four Seasons Hotel Doha, Qatar Le Palais Ronsard, Marrakech, Morocco Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, South Africa
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