A similar approach has been adopted by the (unaffiliated) Bowio Book Light, “designed and engineered by readers for readers”:
The Bowio is held fast to the book by magnetic flaps on each end. And yes, it works on softcovers as well as hardcovers.
Here the unnamed designer gives you a sub-two-minute rundown of his design and production process:
The Bowio has been an absolute crowdfunding smash, clocking over $1 million with combined Kickstarter and IndieGogo campaigns. The $49 light is expected to ship by November of this year.
Dezeen Showroom: an alternative to conventional spotlights, the Plint lamp by Massimo Colagrande for Nemo Lighting has a sculptural form and doesn’t require installation.
Developed based on Nemo’s experience in museum projects, the Plint accent light illuminates architectural elements or art pieces in the home without the need for a ceiling track.
The Plint light is informed by Nemo’s museum experience but intended for the home
Instead, Plint is mobile and flexible — it can illuminate items from below or from a nearby supporting surface, and it can be positioned vertically or horizontally.
The design is sculptural, with the the adjustable spotlight contained between two matt black aluminium panels.
The light has a sculptural form that can be placed on any surface
The high-performance LED spotlight has two colour temperatures, and the light beam can be adjusted through the onboard zoom.
“Plint is a product capable of making the technical light source silent and discreet, a sculptural parallelepiped whose composition is inspired by abstract neoplastic forms,” said Colagrande.
The light is available to purchase via Nemo’s newly launched e-commerce platform Nemo Unique.
About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
The U.S. Army has released stunning footage of their new night vision technology, demonstrated by the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular (ENVG-B). It has to be seen to be believed:
The previous generation of night vision featured a greenish glow, because the images were generated by electrons traveling through a green phosphors tube. The Army’s new tech uses a white phosphors tube. Coupled with whatever secretive image-enhancing technology they’re using, the contrast in the rotoscoping-reminiscent images is startlingly good, and the resolution has been improved as well.
The new technology behind the approximately 2-pound goggles was not developed solely in a lab, the Army writes, but in the field as well, using what they’re calling “Soldier-Centered Design:”
“Soldier feedback was incorporated into forming the design and functions of the ENVG-B through events called Soldier Touchpoints. In total, 10 Soldier Touchpoints were conducted throughout the two years that the ENVG-B went from concept to fielding. These Soldier Touchpoints allowed Soldiers who were testing the system to provide feedback and help improve it. The ENVG-B is made for Soldiers and designed by Soldiers.
“The creation of these goggles and other Army advancements signify an evolution in technology that would not be possible without such Soldier feedback. This feedback helps the Army integrate the current needs of Soldiers with the Army’s future, multi-domain battlefield.”
Spanish architecture studio Marià Castelló has built a three-volume home with ceramic vaulted ceilings on the Mediterranean island of Formentera.
Located on an agricultural plot in a rural area of Formentera – one of the Balearic Islands – Es Pou is a single-storey two-bedroom home.
Top: Marià Castelló designed the white house on Formentera. Above: the home has a cubic design
Built on the western side of the site, the south-facing home was positioned alongside a cluster of trees that shades the building.
Marià Castelló split the striking home into three white-rectangular volumes that each contain one of the building’s functions.
“The proposal is divided into three volumes, which order the program while providing it with a smaller grain and in accordance with the scale of the landscape,” Marià Castelló told Dezeen.
The first volume contains an open-air living space
The first volume, which is the smallest of the three, contains a sheltered porch that acts as a transitional space between the interior and exterior.
The second volume contains an open-plan living space, while the third houses the bedrooms.
The living area visually extends to the porch
Terracotta tiles were used for the floors of each volume, linking the porch with the living spaces via a stepping stone-like platform.
The interior of the second volume has an open-plan arrangement that contains a small kitchen, dining space and living area.
An earthy material palette and white painted walls unify the interior with the exterior while glass doors visually extend the living space toward the porch and wheat fields.
A Mallorcan-style ceramic vaulted ceiling stretches across the space contrasting with the regularity of the rectangular plan.
Pale wood was used for cabinetry
“From the inside and through the porch, deep perspectives are discovered towards the flat landscape of wheat and oat fields, where the soft and warm colour of the earth and the muted greens of the almond and fig trees predominate,” said Castelló.
“The light, colour, and material from the outside enter the interior of the house thanks to ceramics and wood, two noble materials that are combined in a subtle and timeless way.”
Latticed corridors allow light to dapple into the home
Connecting the two volumes is a space enclosed by terracotta-lattice walls that forms a light-filled corridor between the living and bedroom spaces.
The sleeping block contains two bedrooms that are finished with the same earthy material palette as the rest of the house. Terracotta tiles extend up the wall to frame sleeping areas, while pale wood was used to create storage areas.
Tiles extend across the wall
“The materials were chosen to get the highest harmony and balance from the architecture to the interior design details,” he explained.
“We also valued the environmental footprint, selecting them the closest we could get from our location.”
An earthy palette unifies the home
Marià Castelló is an architecture studio that was founded in 2002. It creates work that focuses on sustainability and natural landscapes.
Construction managers: Lorena Ruzafa and Marià Castelló Building engineer: José Luís Velilla Lon Structural engineer: Ferran Juan Nicolau Facilities engineer: Javier Colomar Riera Design team: Lorena Ruzafa y Marga Ferrer Builder: Toni 13
A startup called Catham.city has designed a chair with an attached treadwheel for cats called The Loveseat.
I cannot fathom why these two things must be attached. The company’s justification doesn’t make any sense to me:
“Pet products are made to serve pets but are placed far away from us in our household. Catham.city creates furniture for cat lovers to bring us closer together.”
Why are they “placed far away from us”? If you’ve got the room in your home for this Loveseat, couldn’t you also place an existing cat treadwheel next to an existing chair? I’m a dog person, so if there’s cat person logic going on here, I’m probably not grasping it.
Going for $500 on Kickstarter (and expected to retail for $650), at press time The Loveseat was more than halfway there on a $20,000 goal, with 30 days left to pledge.
Barber Osgerby has designed 31 products for Axor One that range from slender wall-mounted taps to floor-standing faucets for bathtubs and large shower heads.
Each product is available with different handles and controls, some of which are technology-reliant to ensure “ultra-precise” temperature control and water-saving, according to Axor.
Above: Axor One is a collection of bathroom faucets. Top image: the faucets have slender curved silhouettes
“How do you challenge the archetype?” asked Barber Osgerby. “Through the pursuit of art and science, invention and interaction.”
“Axor One provokes the memory of water but heralds a new way of controlling it that is much more precise and incredibly refined,” the duo said. “The Axor One products are unique, made possible through our design thinking, and realised by the incredible engineering of Axor.”
It includes products for sinks, baths and showers
The technology-driven handles for the washbasin taps include a lever with a power button to stop and start the water flow, which is also swivelled to increase temperature.
A three-hole washbasin faucet is also available. One of its handles is a power button to control water flow, while the second turns to change temperatures.
Some taps have technology-driven controls
For the shower and bathtub products, the controls are combined in a single panel called a “thermostatic module”, which has large buttons to control water temperature and output.
All of the designs are made with a chrome or matte black finish as standard. Other metallic finishes from Axor’s exclusive FinishPlus surface range are available upon request.
About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
PET bottles are barely (less than 30%) recycled in America, a country that has the infrastructure to recycle it. In developing nations that don’t have recycling technology and equipment, yet are awash in PET bottles, an environmental disaster looms.
In Uganda, for instance, “plastic bottles are burned, discarded as litter in the streets, or thrown into landfills in the absence of a local recycling option,” writes Paige Balcom, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at U.C. Berkeley.
On the ground in Uganda, Balcom used her skillset to devise a technical solution that would simultaneously have a positive social impact.
“[Balcom] developed manually-operated machines that make durable products from PET. The machines can be locally made using parts that are commonly available in medium-size towns or cities in developing countries and are intended to be operated by local youth.
“PET plastic trash is collected, shredded, washed, dried in the sun, and fed into the machines. The plastic is melted and the chemical structure of the PET is altered just enough to make it strong and prevent the brittleness and breakage that normally inhibit PET repurposing. Molten plastic is molded into usable products like wall tiles that are sold to contractors, builders, hardware stores, and homeowners.
“The PET recycled plastic wall tiles passed flammability testing and are cheaper and more durable than ceramic tiles currently on the market.”
Balcom and a Ugandan colleague, Peter Okwoko, founded a company called Takataka Plastics to replicate and commercialize the techniques and create local jobs. Thus far they’ve been able to produce both tiles and, during the pandemic, face shields, both made from 100% recycled PET.
With 16 employees thus far, the company estimates that by the end of 2021, they’ll have the capacity to recycle 9 tonnes of PET per month.
For her efforts, Balcom won a Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. Her plan is to use the $15,000 in winnings “to finance grants in Uganda to support local innovators.” She also plans to return to Uganda to scale Takataka Plastics up once she’s completed her PhD.
First launched by Axor in 2003, Axor Citterio now spans 70 different faucets suited for washbasins, bathtubs and showers.
The products feature a variety of handle styles and are distinguished by their flat surfaces, which diverge from traditional tubular taps.
The taps are distinguished by their flat surfaces
“Anyone can do a tube, but when you have the flat surfaces of Axor Citterio it is not an easy process and luxury is in the quality of the execution,” said Citterio.
“It’s a simple shape but you feel quality. Those who enjoy celebrating the daily ritual of washing should do so with beautiful objects such as Axor Citterio.”
The collection includes taps for baths, showers and sinks
Among the products in the collection are one-hole and three-hole faucets in varying heights as well as wall-mounted variations designed specifically for sinks.
The collection also includes larger taps that range from an overhead shower to a statement free-standing faucet for baths with a hand-held shower pipe.
Different handles are available including a new version with a rhombic cut pattern
Handles are available as levers, crosses or pins with one of the newest styles featuring a textured “rhombic cut” pattern on its surface.
All products come in classic chrome as well as in a matt black or warm, brushed gold finish.
About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from Victorinox’s massive Swiss Champ XXL are their nifty Mini Tools:
The cleverly-designed tools tuck away in the corkscrew of your Swiss Army Knife, giving you the ability to work on tiny stuff: The set of 4 includes a mini flathead screwdriver for repairing eyeglasses or sunglasses, a T4 Torx, a Philips 000 and a SIM card pin.
The only bummer is that you can only stow one at a time.
According to Axor, the aim is that they can suit bathrooms of any style and complement the brand’s new and existing collections.
The Axor Universal Circular Accessories collection includes towel racks (top image) and shelves (above)
Included in the comprehensive collection are wall and shaving mirrors as well as towel hooks and rails in various sizes.
Also among the products are shelves, soap dispensers and rubbish bins alongside holders for toilet roll and brushes.
A soap dispenser is also among the 21 products
The products are unified by their deliberately simple forms with “slim silhouettes, rounded corners and balanced proportions”, Axor said.
The range will be available to purchase in a chrome or matte black finish starting this autumn. Other colour finishes from the Axor FinishPlus range are available on request.
About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
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