Hasta La Ideas

There are many milk alternatives, but Strive is the first of its kind. It uses lab-grown, animal-free whey, making it a real dairy beverage that’s void of cholesterol, soy, lactose and nuts. It looks, feels and tastes like animal milk and, most importantly, acts like it too—whether you’re whipping it or baking with it. Price reflects a pack of two.

Asus likes to experiment with unique collaborations with creative outfits, and more often than not, the results are excellent. Back in 2020, they joined forces with Berlin-based ACRONYM to create the ROG ZEPHYRUS G14-ACRNM laptop and now the two camps have again collaborated for a limited-edition tablet.

ACRONYM co-founded in 1994 by Errolson Hugh, a pioneer in the technical-apparel industry, has struck partnerships with the likes of Nike in the past, and now they developed the functional and stylish ROG Flow Z13 ACRNM RMT02 tablet for Asus.

Designer: ACRONYM and Asus

The gaming tablet’s industrial chassis is very artistic, which is obvious since Hugh leveraged the design prowess of Phil Saunders who designed the Iron Man suit. Ideation for this cool-looking machine propped up to go with the existing line-up of ACRONYM jackets, and project head, Rod Chong (LA-based creative director) delivered exactly what was needed. Both camps worked for almost a year on this design and the results are stunning. The package comes with an integrated strap in the body, rubber holds for improved grip and reinforced corners for protection from bump damage. The keyboard and screensaver on this edition have been visually ramped up for that extra flair. All of this while being ultra-functional and looking stunning with any modern outfit.

According to Hugh, Republic of Gamers was the perfect partner for their next big creation since ROG has a very open-minded approach. “Its engineers were willing to go into unknown territory, and they had the know-how and the competence to deliver those ideas.” For Shawn Yen, ROG Vice President of the Gaming Business Unit, their collaboration with ACRONYM opened their perspective towards looking at things “from a different angle.”

Based on the Asus ROG Flow Z13, the one designed by ACRONYM also gets a bump up in specifications for ultimate performance. While the vanilla version has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card, the special edition gets an RTX 4070 instead. The same goes for LPDDR5 RAM as well, there’s 16GB on the normal one and 32GB on the ACRONYM edition. Other than that, the 13.4-inch IPS QHD+ (16:10) screen having 165Hz refresh rate, the 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13900H processor, 1TB of M.2 SSD storage and the 56Wh battery with 130W charging are identical.

According to Asus, only 14 limited edition versions of the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 ACRONYM will be available to purchase. The price for all the added perks and exclusivity will be a mind-numbing $2,500, so one should better stick to the Surface Pro, iPad Pro, or Galaxy Tab S6!

The post Special Edition Asus tablet designed by ACRONYM is functional and striking work of art first appeared on Yanko Design.

Handmade in Japan, VADA sunglasses are high-quality and sturdy with a distinctly jaunty look. Their Siren design features diamond-shaped lenses and are crafted from organic cellulose acetate. This material, along with the 18k gold-plated hardware, makes them feel anything but flimsy—though they are lightweight and comfortable to wear. Available as spectacles or sunglasses, Siren comes in various colorways from black onyx to bright green spearmint and candy pink Urchin (pictured here). With 100% UVA and UVB protection and an anti-reflective coating, they provide function and flair in equal parts.

US architect Morris Adjmi took cues from tenements that once housed Italian immigrants to create a new mixed-use building with a decorative brickwork facade.

Rising seven storeys, Grand Mulberry is located on a storied site in Manhattan‘s Little Italy neighborhood.

To design the new building, architect Morris Adjmi – who leads an eponymous local studio – took cues from the area’s history and architecture, including its tenement buildings dating to the 19th and early 20th centuries.

For the street-facing elevations, the architect designed a rounded corner and a grid of rectangular, punched windows surrounded by red-orange bricks. A distinctive “Morse code-like” pattern was created using bricks with domed extrusions.

The domed bricks are arranged in a way that evokes the tripartite facade of a building that once stood on the site, making it a “ghost of the past building”, said Adjmi.

The ground level contains space for retail and a new home for the Italian American Museum, slated to open in 2024. The upper portion of the building holds a total of 20 condominiums.

“Given the project’s setting, the objective from the onset was to design a building that was contextual yet unmistakably contemporary,” the firm said.

“With a nod to the traditional Italianate tenement embedded in its bones, Grand Mulberry is a brand-new building that does not completely erase the site’s history and that doesn’t necessarily make passersby mourn for the New York that was.”

At the base of the building, the ornamental bricks – hand-moulded by Glen-Gery– form horizontal bands. At the middle and top levels, they are arranged to evoke pediment windows and arched widows, respectively.

“Looking carefully, one can see the mark of the traditional tripartite façade that consisted of a base, a middle and top layers, with differing details and brickwork used for each portion,” the architect said.

“At the same time, the bricks’ path and dimensionality create a visual texture that adds energy to the block, building on Little Italy’s distinct flavour.”

The rear elevations are faced with a combination of metal panels, concrete and bricks.

The building is topped with a cluster of volumes that is set back from the streetwall and wrapped in light grey cladding.

Within the building, the team drew upon traditional materials and techniques, the architect said.

In the lobby, one finds black-and-white, mosaic-style flooring and plaster finishes. The residential units feature wooden flooring, marble countertops and decorative tile backsplashes.

Overall, the building “encapsulates traces from historical architecture while engaging with the neighbourhood”, the architect said.

The building is named after its location on the corner of Grand and Mulberry streets – a site once occupied by brownstones that partly dated to the 1830s.

The site was famous for housing a bank that operated from 1882 to 1932 and was used by Italian immigrants.

Born in New Orleans, Morris Adjmi began his career working with the Italian architect Aldo Rossi in the 1980s. After Rossi’s death in 1997, Adjmi established Morris Adjmi Architects in New York. The studio also has an office in New Orleans.

Its other projects include a 25-storey, glass-and-steel tower in Philadelphia that contains apartments and a hotel.

The photography is by Morris Adjmi Architects.

The post Morris Adjmi uses domed brick on facade to evoke historic New York appeared first on Dezeen.

Palm oil and soy are two of the world’s largest drivers of deforestation, with the former destroying almost 25 million acres of forests in Indonesia and 47% of tree cover in Malaysia. A new method from agriculture company Terviva offers a climate-friendly alternative to both palm oil and soy by using the resilient pongamia trees. Capable of growing with minimal resources on degraded land, the trees have beans that are rich in oil (which is why India has used it for oil lamps and varnishes). Terviva discovered that when they process the bean and remove its bitterness it results in an oil (which they called Ponova) that’s rich in Omega-9 fatty acids. Ponova has already entered production and is used in a plant-based protein bar from food brand and B-corp Aloha. Meanwhile, Terviva plans on partnering with farmers whose lands have been devastated by climate change or disease in order to grow pongamia trees and strengthen their land. Learn more about the promising mission at Fast Company.

Image courtesy of Terviva