I have deep admiration for LastObject, the Danish design firm tackling the problem of single-use items. The respect is not only for their missin, but because they’ve been addressing the unsexiest of items like cotton swabs and disposable tissues, objects few of us think about. Now they’re after the disposable cotton balls that people use to remove makeup and apply skincare products with.

You might think, what’s the problem with cotton? As LastObject points out, there are many:

“Regular cotton rounds are made of non-organic cotton that uses vast amounts of chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers. Chemicals are used to bleach them and turn them into smooth compact cotton rounds.

“According to WWF (World Wildlife Fund), cotton production is the largest user of water among all agricultural commodities. It takes 2640 gallons (10.000 liters) of clean drinking water to produce 1000 (1.1 lbs or 0,5 kg) regular cotton rounds.”

Their solution is LastRound, a package of washable and reusable cotton rounds “made from 100% renewable raw materials…70% Scandinavian wood fibers (FSC), and 30% cotton fibers that are too short for the textile industry to use.”

The project’s on Kickstarter, and at press time they were up to $73,566 in pledges on a $10,117 goal, with 30 days left to pledge.

First studied in 1897, the rare New Guinea “singing dog” exhibits a vocalization pattern like a humpback whale—a long, drawn-out call that’s distinctly different from a dog’s bark or a wolf’s howl. Researchers suspected the singing dog went extinct after going unseen in the wild since the 1970s (there are roughly 200-300 in captivity around the world, however). But new evidence suggests that a pod of “ancestral dogs” found in the Indonesian highlands are the evolution of the lost singing breed. Blood samples determined that this breed and the ancient species do not share an exact genome but researchers believe that they’re so alike that they cannot possibly be separate types of dog, suggesting they did not in fact go extinct but rather wandered to more remote areas. Read more and watch a video of the wild breed at Vice.

Image courtesy of YouTube User Silver Cross Fox

Core77 recently added a free Guides section to help industrial designers seeking resources. We’d say investigate not only the guides, but the listed vendors, as the trend now is for them to release free, helpful information that’s useful whether or not you decide to use their service.

As one example, we’ve got a Guide to the Best 3D Printing Services, and top of the list there is 3D Hubs, which has been following the trend by publishing free 3D printing tips. One example is “How to design living hinges for 3D printing,” written by mechanical engineer and 3D printing expert Ben Redwood, which contains the very useful tip below.

To understand the tip, you’ll first have to know the difference between the terms isotropic and anisotropic:

Isotropic: When properties of a material are identical in all directions. For example, a sheet of aluminum will take the same bend radius in the X- or Y-axis.

Anisotropic: When properties of a material depend on the direction. For example, a wooden board is strong along its grain, and less strong across its grain.

Here’s Redwood’s tip:

Due to the additive, layer-by-layer nature of 3D printing the parts that are produced are typically anisotropic (especially when printing with FDM). To ensure the performance of a living hinge, parts should be orientated so that the width of the hinge rather than the length is built up one layer at a time (the central axis of the hinge should be orientated in the z-direction). This will often mean printing the part in the vertical build direction, as shown in the image below.

“2 containers with living hinge connections; the left one is shown in the correct print orientation resulting in a stronger hinge while the right container is in the incorrect orientation relative to the print bed”

“The living hinge should be printed in a single strand of thermoplastic to improve strength”

Redwood also touches on the difference between designing a living hinge for injection molding, versus 3D printing.

Injection Molded Living Hinge

As a hinge is closed, it is subjected to bending: the outer surface is placed under tension (and stretches), while the inner surface is compressed. To account for this, a good living hinge design should have a long, curved length on the outer surface and a short inner surface. The image below illustrates a standard injection molded living hinge with dimensions in mm.

“Recommended dimensions for a living hinge designed for injection molding”

3D Printed Living Hinge

For 3D printing, more material and a stiffer hinge is generally required to improve the number of cycles before failure. Note though that increasing the thickness of the hinge will also increase the tensile stresses that the outer surface is subjected to. The figure below shows the dimensions of an FDM printed living hinge that achieved 25-30 cycles before failure (all dimensions are in mm).

“Dimensions for successfully printed FDM living hinge. Dimensions will vary by technology (see below for recommended dimensions by technology)”

Lastly, Redwood discusses the applicability of different 3D printing methods and materials to living hinges. We recommend reading the entire article here, and check out our Guides when you have a chance.

Dezeen promotion: BellTower has been revealed as the winner of the 2020 Lexus Design Award for its design project that could help emerging nations provide their citizens with clean water.

Kenyan studio BellTower’s win marks the first time an African designer has ever won the coveted Lexus Design Award in its eight-year history.

Its winning project, named Open Source Communities, is an affordable structure developed for collecting and storing rainwater for safe drinking. It has been designed specifically for use in developing countries with the aim of helping these nations establish more sustainable communities.

BellTower was founded in Kenya in 2014 by designers John Brian Kamau, Joyce Wairimu Gachiri, Ian Githegi Kamau, Esther Wanjiku Kamau and Arvin Booker Kamau.

The team was selected ahead of five other finalists shortlisted for the prize, including US studio Sutherlin Santo, UK-based duo Théophile Peju and Salvatore Cicero, Chinese designer Yaokun Wu, Russian creative Irina Samoilova and Pakistani industrial designer Aqsa Ajmal.

The decision was made after all six finalists presented their work to this year’s panel of judges, which included Paola Antonelli, Jeanne Gang, John Maeda, and Simon Humphries.

This process took place in a virtual venue due to the cancellation of Milan Design Week.

The judging criteria was based on the finalists’ efforts to “anticipate, innovate and captivate in the quest for a better tomorrow”.

Reflecting on the winning project, Gang said: “The Grand Prix winner expands our definition of design to include systems of finance for community projects and engages the critical role clean drinking water plays in citizens’ ability to thrive.”

“By addressing the way that the project will come into being and be sustained economically, the designers broaden our thinking about what design is and could be,” she added.

“While the project is an apparatus to collect and store rainwater for safe drinking, it is also a financial game plan for empowering a community.”

The Lexus Design Award’s Grand Prix is a leading international design award that was initiated by luxury vehicles company Lexus in 2013. Its aim is to help nurture the next generation of designers by funding and showcasing their work, and equipping them with the skills to address the challenges of today.

This year the award received over 2000 submissions from 79 different countries. The finalists were announced in January 2020.

Prior to the judging, the six shortlisted designers were flown to New York to participate in a two-day workshop with Lexus at its creative culture space, INTERSECT BY LEXUS – NYC.

Here, they developed their designs through hands-on sessions with well-known designers including Joe Doucet, Bethan Gray, Philippe Malouin, and Shohei Shigematsu, who acted as mentors to help create prototypes of their designs.

After the mentoring session, each finalist received ongoing access to a mentor via one-on-one online sessions as they continued to develop their
prototypes.

“During the workshops at INTERSECT BY LEXUS – NYC, the mentors helped us think about how to break down our problem and provide a prototype solution, all while building design and leadership principles throughout the process,” said BellTower’s John Kamau.

“Our Lexus Design Award experience has taught us invaluable lifelong lessons. All our future designs will be aligned with the key principles as part of the Lexus family.”

For mentor and New York designer Doucet, the decision to award BellTower the 2020 prize was no surprise.

He said that it was “telling that the winner the judges chose had the largest transformation in terms of clarifying and solidifying their idea throughout the course of the mentorship program.”

“The Open Source team took to heart the comments, questions and concerns of the group of mentors and reacted decisively in turn. The judges, of course, were unaware of this but the result was reflected in the final proposal,” he concluded.

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Elon Musk‘s neuroscience startup Neuralink has revealed the “dramatically simplified” design for an implant that aims to create brain-to-machine interfaces, alongside the robot that inserts it and several pigs that have the device installed.

Musk shared updates of the implant, which Neuralink is developing to connect human brains with computer interfaces via artificial intelligence, in an online presentation last week.

In the presentation, the entrepreneur and Tesla founder unveiled the new design of the chip, as well as the full-scale surgical robot and a group of pig test subjects.

Musk explained that over the past year the company has “dramatically simplified” the wearable device. The previous design consisted of a bean-shaped device that would sit behind the ear.

“It was complex, and you still wouldn’t look totally normal; you would have a thing behind your ear,” he said about the old design. “So we’ve simplified this to something that is about the size of a large coin, and it goes in your skull.”

The in-brain device could enable humans with neurological conditions to control technology, such as phones or computers, with their thoughts.

Musk also claims to be able to solve neurological disorders from memory, hearing loss and blindness to paralysis, depression and brain damage.

The current prototype – referred to as version 0.9 – measures at 23 millimetres by eight millimetres, and has 1024 electrode “threads” attached to it that are implanted into the brain.

It is designed to replace a coin-sized portion of skull and sit flush so it would be physically unnoticeable. It would be inductively charged, the same way you would wirelessly charge a smartwatch or a phone.

“It’s kind of like a FitBit in your skull, with tiny wires,” said Musk.

Designed by US tech company Woke Studios, the surgical robot is programmed to insert the neural threads safely into the brain.

The robot would be able to insert the link in under an hour without general anaesthesia, with the patient able to leave hospital on the same day.

“We ultimately want this robot to do essentially the entire surgery – so everything from incision, removing the skull, inserting electrodes, placing the device and then closing things up,” said Musk during the live event. “We want to have a fully automated system.”

The robot has been used to insert the implant into a number of pigs that are being used to test the device.

As Woke Studios explained, the team wanted to design the machine to suit its clinical setting, while still comforting patients and expressing “the futuristic nature” of the technology.

Comprised of three main elements – the head, the body and the base – the eight-foot-tall robot features a rounded form with soft edges, similar to other, less invasive, medical machines in a bid to give as much of a “friendly-feeling” as possible.

While the majority of the robot is coloured in white, for sterility purposes, the inner surface of the head has been given a light, mint green colour to provide “visual comfort”.

Designed “with zero room for error”, the head of the machine holds and guides the needle that performs the operation, and contains a large amount of cameras and sensors to capture the whole brain.

The asymmetric body features a “car-like curvature”, and provides the mechanics for controlled movement. This part of the robot, which moves in five axes, was designed to make the motion appear “clean and effortless”.

The body is attached to the base, which provides weighted support for the whole structure and holds the processing power to operate the entire machine.

Musk also showed viewers the group of pigs that he and his team have been testing the Neuralink implant on during the live presentation.

The implant sends real-time signals from the animal’s brain whenever it touches something with its snout.

Described as “healthy and happy”, one of the pigs was given an implant two months ago, while another pig has dual Neuralink implants, demonstrating that it is possible to have multiple chips in your head at one time.

A third pig has no implant. According to Musk, each of the animals are “indistinguishable” from each other.

Musk also showed a pig that previously had a chip inserted into its brain, but had since been removed, to show that the procedure is reversible without any serious side-effects.

Neuralink received a Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA in July. The startup is now preparing for its first human implantation, pending required approvals and further safety testing.

Woke Studios’ design for the Neuralink N1 brain implant was recently longlisted in the wearable design project category for this year’s Dezeen Awards.

Other longlisted projects in this category include a carbon-negative raincoat made of algae, a mask that makes the wearer’s face undetectable to public facial recognition technology and water-filled headphones that offer immersive sound even for people who are hard of hearing.

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