In Holland, police have found a correlation between the rising popularity of e-bikes and an increase in accidents. And in 2022, the country experienced a record number of fatal bicycle accidents. To combat this, Dutch authorities passed a law regulating e-bike capabilities. Legally, e-bikes must stop providing pedal assistance once the cyclist has reached a speed of 25 km/h (16 mph).
This seems impossible to enforce; a fit cyclist can easily hit 32 km/h (20 mph) under their own steam. How can a cop prove their speed was juiced by the bike?
The Dutch answer is, technology. The Dutch police have commissioned nearly 250 special portable dynamometers built by manufacturer Dynostar. These rollentestbanken (“roller test benches”) have been distributed to police around the country to perform roadside checks.
The testing process is kind of amusing. An officer places the bike on the rig, then must sit on it and start pedaling their ass off. A readout provides their speed, and the pedaling officer must judge what speed they’d reached when the pedal assistance quit. Supporting officers help hold the bike in place while the riding officer pedals.
On the plus side, the officers probably get a pretty good workout.
Here’s a strange piece of furniture I can’t take my eyes off of. I spotted this rather extreme triangular console table on an auction site:
It’s nearly 7′ long, and 20″ wide at its widest point. The auctioneer has branded it “Mid Century Modern,” but there’s no designer attributed (nor evidence that some dude didn’t just build this in his garage). They also suggest the table was designed “in the manner of Harvey Probber.”
That seems a stretch. Furniture designer Probber, who studied at Pratt and started his own furniture business in the 1940s, did in fact design a mid-century triangular table, but it was a somewhat more rational right triangle:
For the first table, I’m going to stick with the guy-in-garage theory. If I’m wrong and you know who designed this, please comment and I’ll attribute it.
Content creation is a big thing these days, whether you’re producing video for live streaming, making graphic art, or even digitally carving 3D models for virtual spaces. Unsurprisingly, there’s a wide variety of software tools available to creators as well, ranging from simple ones you can run directly on your phone to the more sophisticated suites that require a laptop or even a desktop. The variety of features in apps that people use on a daily basis can become mentally exhausting, especially when it comes to memorizing keyboard combos that should help speed up workflows. Our fingers can only do so much, and the number of shortcuts we have to remember across multiple apps can actually do more harm than good. This DIY project tries to make designers’ and creators’ lives a bit easier by offering a mini keyboard that can adapt its icons and actions to match the app you’re using.
So-called macro keyboards like the Elgato Stream Deck are becoming more popular not just among streamers but also among computer power users. They provide a dedicated set of buttons separate from your keyboard that you can map to almost any function in an app to make them easier to use. As popular as these gadgets might be, they’re still considered niche and, therefore, expensive, out of reach of budding creators.
If you’re anything of a tinkerer or maker, however, you can also just make your own, like what this Keybon project aims to accomplish. It’s a small box with nine tactile buttons buttons that you can assign to a specific function or keyboard shortcut. And just like those pricey commercial macro keyboards, it can switch to a different layout depending on what software you’re running at the time.
What makes Keybon extra special is that each of those nine buttons actually has small 0.66-inch screens on top, and you can select an icon to match the action that the button represents at that time. While it might be faster with muscle memory, visual cues like this will help your brain adjust when switching between apps and layouts. At the same time, you also don’t have to force yourself to actually memorize the actions and buttons and simply take a quick glance at the keyboard to know which one to press.
That said, this kind of project does require a bit of electronics and software know-how to create Keybon, but that also opens the door to more freedom in the design of the device. Fortunately, all the needed pieces are available for free, so it can also become a springboard for makers and creators to customize their own personal macro keyboard to their hearts’ content.
Dezeen Showroom: acoustic design brand Autex has created a collection of noise-reducing wall coverings that are applied to walls the same way as traditional wallpaper.
The surfaces in the Composition collection are characterised by their solid block colours and soft, tactile textures.
Composition wall coverings come in nearly 40 colourways
“Composition is the workhorse of acoustic wallcoverings,” said Autex.
“As a durable, high-performance alternative to paint and wallpaper, Composition maintains a rich, solid colour and soft, velvety finish regardless of what life throws its way.”
The wall coverings are applied like in drops like wallpaper
According to Autex, the surfaces are hard-wearing and are suitable for use in schools and other education-related interiors, dampening sound to create an atmosphere of focus and calm.
The range includes 38 colours that can be used solo or in combination to create patterns and combinations to suit a range of interior schemes.
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.
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…are Bose’s new $299 Ultra Open Earbuds, designed to deliver in-ear sound without blocking out the outside world. “Listen to a podcast as you’re walking the dog and want to hear that bicycle about to pass, hear your number called at the deli while watching a video in line, or play your favorite workout music in the background while still catching up with your friend on a run.”
Rather than plugging your ear canal, the buds ride on the inside of your ears. As for how they stay there:
“[The] innovative cuff-shaped design [provides] comfort and stability — a special flex arm coated in super-soft silicone connects the speaker to the battery barrel, so it rests gently on your skin for hours, while providing a light-as-air grip to keep the earbuds secure on almost any ear.”
When it comes to tech wearables, the ear is the body part that’s been the most thoroughly investigated; so it’s interesting to see a company as well-established as Bose continuing to experiment with new ways to attach things to our ears. These have only just been announced, but I’ll be curious to read long-term reviews in the future detailing just how comfortable the cuff design really is (or isn’t).
As for how they sound amidst real-world noise, Bose has a demonstration you can listen to here.
From the welcoming nature of Milan Design Week to the themes of MoMA’s research and development salons, insight from one of the most influential voices in design
From the welcoming nature of Milan Design Week to the themes of MoMA’s research and development salons, insight from one of the most influential voices in design
Josh Rubin, Evan Orensten
21 February 2024
One of the most influential voices in design, the architect, author, editor and Design Emergency podcast co-host Paola Antonelli is the Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art, as well as the museum’s founding Director of Research and Development. Antonelli has been with MoMA since 1994—and she’s been a friend of COOL HUNTING for nearly two decades. Eloquent and always straight forward, she continues to set a standard for design curation. In our latest episode of Design Tangents, she touches upon her expansive work, the welcoming nature of Milan Design Week, the conflict of design for good versus design for violence, and so much more.
More than wax poetic, Antonelli’s musings are anchored in an understanding of the power of design. “Culture, creativity, design, architecture: they are not just luxuries or necessary, functional things,” she tells us. “They really are a way to deal with living together in a world that is more and more complex and hard to inhabit.”
“Design is a real force to be reckoned with,” she adds. “It’s an enzyme that helps with progress. Without design, great revolutions could not come to life.” Part of Antonelli’s mission is explaining that to public audiences, while preventing them from feeling like design is an elite term that’s out of touch. In fact, it all began with her MoMA exhibition Humble Masterpieces, wherein she explained to visitors that everyone has a museum-worthy design collection in their desk drawer.
Design is a real force to be reckoned with. It’s an enzyme that helps progress happen.
Paola Antonelli
In 2008, as the world was engulfed in a financial crisis, Antonelli grew tired of observing that, “whenever there is a crisis, culture is the first to be considered superfluous.” She felt that MoMA had an opportunity to show that culture could provide the nourishment that society needed—that it could be a testing ground for the way we will live in the future. “We can show that museums and other cultural institutions can be the R&D of society,” she says of the initial idea.
A few years later, MoMA began a research and development focus dedicated to this concept, with Antonelli at its helm. As a result, critically acclaimed MoMA R&D salons continue to tackle future-forward topics, from the tactile to abstract. Attendees are provided a reading list in advance and high-level dialogue commences. “We are showing the world that museums are life,” she adds.
To learn more about the salon series, Antonelli’s thoughts on her own podcasts, as well as insight on the current MoMA exhibition Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design, tune in to Design Tangents now.
Subscribe to Design Tangents on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify, so that when each episode comes out it’ll be ready and waiting in your player of choice.
Design Tangents is presented by Genesis and produced and edited by SANDOW Design Group. Special thanks to the podcast production team: Rob Schulte and Rachel Senatore and to Amber Lin for creating our show art. Discover more design podcasts from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com.
Meet the all-new Saltsaun NW trailer, a sauna that you can hitch up and tow anywhere with you. You can use the sauna in your backyard, or wherever you like. The NW trailer is influenced by the covered wagons that used to roam Oregon, and it is designed to be a versatile on-/off road trailer, allowing a Himalayan salt-lined cedar wood sauna to be attached behind any vehicle. There is an option of an electric or wood stove, for when you’re traveling on or off-grid.
Designer: Bend Teardrop
The Saltsaun NW trailer isn’t the first of its kind, but it does have a very appealing and unique design with impressive amenities and capabilities that truly set it apart. The trailer consists of a highway-speed-capable and off-road-ready square-tube chassis that measures 6×8 feet. The trailer measures 13 inches and rides on 15-inch wheels. The roof of the Saltsaun NW features the design and construction skills we saw in the teardrop trailer by Bend, which creates a rounded-roof body, quite similar to a solid-roofed covered wagon.
The trailer is made from cedar wood locally sourced in the Pacific Northwest. It features a large checker plate panel up front, with aluminum paneling below, and a corrugated metal roof scaffolding that provides protection to the wood from the hazards of road and weather. The roof also shelters a small porch with two integrated seats which are designed for cooling off.
The Saltsaun NW trailer can house four to five adults on its benches. The focal point of the design is the electric or wood stove that can set the temperature between 100 and 200 °F (38 to 93 °C). The trailer’s electric model features a 3-kW steam-ready heater that can be plugged into a 110-V outlet with a recommended 20-A+ output., whereas the wooden stove model is intended to be an off-grid solution, and it is equipped with a rock basket for steaming, as well as a deep-cycle battery, and 100-W solar panel for the interior/exterior lighting.
Called 1550 on the Green, the 28-storey skyscraper in downtown Houston consists of a “bundle” of six towers that curve slightly as they rise, with the tallest reaching a height of 450 feet (137 metres).
Commenters had mixed opinions.
BIG completes staggered “bundle of towers” in Houston
Souji found the building “not bad, but not good either”. They continued “the ‘steps’ make the composition a bit interesting, but aesthetically it’s already dated – looks straight out of the 1970s”.
MrG called the project “a good middle-ground design-wise”.
Dwg thought “the elevations look well resolved and the silhouette is kept clean” and they posited “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with keeping it simple but doing it well”.
However, Marius declared it “a chunky, banal one-liner” and Locus chimed in that “BIG is running out of steam”.
Migaloo aims to disrupt superyacht market with giant luxury submarine
“Toys for real-life Bond villains”
One story that commenters could agree on this week was about the design for a 165-metre-long submersible superyacht, unveiled by Australian company Migaloo, that could allow ultra-rich people to enjoy private underwater adventures.
Several readers voiced concerns about the climate impact. “I am disgusted”, commented Marina Zurkow. “It is distressing that the ultra-wealthy have zero consciousness of environmental catastrophe,” they continued.
Rd thought the ultra-rich “are getting ready for dystopian times – not trying to prevent it, but arm themselves against the consequences”.
Freediverx was also indignant. “As if we needed more toys for our real-life Bond villains,” they said.
Others drew parallels to another submarine-related story from last year: “guess they haven’t learnt from the Titan…” wrote Scotty.
Meanwhile, HeywoodFloyd argued “so much vitriol directed at the rich, what about the numbskulls who actually took the time to design it?”
Dezeen is the world’s most commented architecture and design magazine, receiving thousands of comments each month from readers. Keep up to date on the latest discussions on our comments page and subscribe to our weekly Debate newsletter, where we feature the best reader comments from stories in the last seven days.
UK practice Heatherwick Studio is set to turn the 177-metre-high BT Tower in central London into a hotel, following its sale to American hotelier MCR Hotels.
MCR Hotels announced today that it had purchased the Grade II-listed tower from the BT Group telecommunications company with Heatherwick Studio and is set to turn the structure into a hotel.
“This is an extraordinary building and an amazing opportunity to bring it back to life,” said Heatherwick Studio founder Thomas Heatherwick.
“We’re excited at the prospect of working with Fitzrovia’s residents and with many thousands of Londoners, to repurpose this important piece of the city’s living heritage.”
Heatherwick Studio will turn the BT Tower into a hotel. Photo by Doyle of London
Completed in 1964, the communications tower – originally known as the Post Office Tower – in Fitzrovia was the tallest building in London until the NatWest Tower was built in 1980.
Designed by Eric Bedford and G R Yeats, the distinctive structure was designed to support microwave aerials, which were removed in 2011. It was topped by a six-storey structure of suites including a revolving restaurant on the 34th floor, which closed in the early 1980s.
The BT Group sold the building as it no longer forms part of its operations plan. According to BT Group, it will take “a number of years to vacate the premises” due to the complexity and amount of technical equipment within the building.
MCR Hotels announced it will now “consider how best to reimagine its use as a hotel”.
“We are proud to become owners and custodians of the iconic BT Tower,” said MCR Hotels CEO Tyler Morse.
“We will take our time to carefully develop proposals that respect the London landmark’s rich history and open the building for everyone to enjoy.”
The tower was the tallest building in London in the 1960s and 70s. Photo courtesy of Property Services Agency
“We see many parallels between the TWA Hotel and the BT Tower,” said Morse. “Both are world-renowned, groundbreaking pieces of architecture. It’s been a privilege to adapt the TWA Flight Center into new use for future generations, as it will be the BT Tower.”
Another iconic London building to be turned into a hotel is the Chancery Building on Grosvenor Square, which formerly held the US Embassy and was designed by Finnish architect Saarinen in the 1950s. It will be converted into a hotel by British architect David Chipperfield.
Architecture studio EFFEKT has created a charging station for electric vehicles in Sønderborg, Denmark, which is designed as a park with gardens and seating areas.
Called Better Energy Charge, the park is a pilot project for renewable energy company Better Energy and is located alongside a solar farm on the company’s R&D campus.
According to EFFEKT, the aim is to demonstrate how to “transform the conventional petrol station into a park” where visitors can unwind.
EFFEKT designed an EV charging station in Denmark
Looking to create a pleasant space for users to rest while their vehicles charge, the park’s charging points have been positioned around wildflower gardens, wooden benches and an arched, cross-laminated timber (CLT) canopy.
“A main idea was to offer the drivers a chance to recharge mentally while they wait for their cars to charge,” EFFEKT creative director Sinus Lynge told Dezeen.
“Therefore, the entire station is designed as a drivable garden with an inviting and playful roof structure reminiscent of a classic garden pavilion, offering a completely different experience than what we associate with traditional gas stations,” he added.
It features a canopy made from cross-laminated timber
Supported by large timber arches, the CLT canopy shelters the southern end of the charging park and contains a glazed showroom area where information about renewable energy is displayed for users.
A staircase leads up to a small platform on the canopy’s green roof, where visitors are given a view over the surrounding Better Energy campus.
To the north, a paved area features areas of planting with flowers and trees that are wrapped by wooden benches. These help to demarcate parking areas on either side of the charging points.
“We wanted the pavilion’s design to be organic and inviting, much like Danish furniture classics,” said Lynge. “We have used nature’s own materials – the construction is built in cross-laminated timber,” he added.
It is designed as a park where drivers can also “recharge mentally”
The timber structure was constructed with a modular grid system, allowing it to be easily extended, downsized or dismantled or repurposed in the future.
“The design concept is meant to be scaled to many different locations,” Lynge told Dezeen.
“The design and construction system, utilizing a modular grid, is intended for expansion across Northern Europe, [and] work is already underway for station number two, with an anticipated opening at the end of 2024,” he added.
The canopy is designed to be easily extended, downsized or dismantled
Better Energy Charge is one of the first stations to implement a dynamic pricing scheme, which incentivises users to charge their vehicles when there is the most renewable energy available in the grid.
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