Underground bike storage systems, like those seen in Japan, are amazing. But they obviously require a massive amount of excavation and construction.
A Swiss company called V-Locker has designed an easier-to-implement solution. The company has developed tower modules containing bike lockers that travel upwards in a paternoster-like arrangement.
Depending on the size of the tower, these can hold 6, 8, 12 or 20 bikes per unit, within a minimal footprint; 4.5 square meters, or 48 square feet, is all that’s required.
A single door at the bottom is where riders can access the lockers (via app, of course). As a bonus, riders can also store their backpacks and helmets in the lockers, which are of course weatherproof.
The towers themselves are modular, making installation straightforward. The pieces are trucked to the site and stacked with a crane.
The exterior designs are customizable, in order to comply with any given municipality’s visual regulations or tastes.
This is no mere concept, by the way; there are currently six of these located through Switzerland and seven in Germany, with more to come.
The design and engineering for these was done by consultancy Meyer-Hayoz.
Sportswear brand Nike has unveiled its new collection of elite footwear ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this summer, claiming that AI is sparking a “super cycle” of innovation.
The company has developed its Nike Air cushioning technology in four new designs as part of a collection called the Blueprint Pack.
Included are the Nike GT Hustle 3 basketball shoe, the 2024 Nike Mercurial football boot and the Nike Victory 2 and Nike Maxfly 2 spikes for sprinting and middle-distance track-running.
Nike’s GT Hustle 3 basketball shoe features a double layer of Nike Air pockets
Nike chief design officer Martin Lotti said increased energy return – or bounce – provided by the improved Nike Air will be “the difference-maker” at this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games hosted in Paris in July and August.
“The Olympics represents the biggest platform for sports – the athletes have been training all their lives to get ready for this,” he told Dezeen. “Being in the sports industry, designing sports equipment for footwear and apparel, it’s also our pinnacle moment.”
“It’s an amazing test for us every single time, to not only do new products, but new and better products, and that allows us to have an incredible platform to innovate and design and literally put our best foot forward.”
A four-millimetre Nike Air layer is said to improve stopping and acceleration in the 2024 Nike Mercurial football boot
Competition between brands to develop increasingly high-performance footwear for major sporting events has been intensifying in recent years – notably in marathon running with the so-called “super-shoe wars”, where shoe development has roughly coincided with record-breaking run times.
The past decade has seen Nike focus primarily on lightweight foams and springboard-style carbon-fibre plates, but with the latest releases, it has turned to optimising its Air technology.
Nike Air in the sole of the Nike Victory 2 is designed to enable greater stability for track runners
Artificial intelligence (AI) and improved digital modelling have enabled “a new super cycle of Air innovation that is driving better, faster, more efficient solutions” the brand said, as researchers can test more ways to apply the system than was previously possible.
Combined with Nike’s vast bank of data taken from recording athletes in its research lab, that makes it possible to simulate how a footwear design will perform, react to load and weigh without the need to make a physical prototype, the brand explained.
Nike-sponsored sprinters will wear the Nike Maxfly 2 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
While Nike has not disclosed any updates to its record-breaking marathon shoe the Alphafly 3 to mark the Paris games, it said advances in Nike Air are allowing the system to be applied to other specialist sport shoes in new ways.
For instance, it said its running spikes now have a flatter ground-facing profile to provide athletes with greater stability, while a double-layer of Nike Air Zoom in the Nike GT Hustle 3 affords better energy return to basketball players.
An ultra-thin four-millimetre Air Zoom layer in the 2024 Nike Mercurial, tweaked from the previous 2022 version, makes it easier for footballers to stop and accelerate on soft ground, according to the brand.
Nike Air – a pressurised air pocket embedded within the sole of shoes – was first used in the midsole of the Nike Tailwind running shoe in 1978 and has since featured across the manufacturer’s entire footwear range.
Nike said AI technology has allowed it to use its Nike Air Zoom cushioning system in a new format in the Nike Pegasus Premium
The Blueprint Pack, which will be released to the public in July, features 13 shoes in total identified by a white, orange and blue colour scheme that Nike said was inspired by drawings in the sketchbooks of company co-founder Bill Bowerman.
Nike launched the products at an exhibition held in Paris‘s Palais Brongniart, where it erected giant statues of its sponsored athletes in front of the neoclassical building.
Also debuted were two new iterations of its Pegasus series of extra-cushioned running shoes.
Oversized orange statues of Nike athletes were stationed outside the venue for the launch event
One was the Nike Pegasus Premium, which Nike said uses its first “sculpted, visible Air Zoom unit”, developed with the above-mentioned AI technology, to deliver more energy return than previous versions.
It also launched the Nike Pegasus 41, featuring an improved ReactX foam midsole compared with its predecessor that the brand said increases energy return while reducing the shoe’s carbon footprint.
The two consumer-oriented shoes will be released in spring 2025 and June 2024 respectively. Among Nike’s recent shoe releases is the Air Max Dn.
Dezeen Showroom: industrial design studio Spalvieri & Del Ciotto has designed the Stilo furniture system for Italian brand Scavolini that includes a range of composition possibilities.
Stilo is a sleek and flexible furniture system, which Spalvieri & Del Ciotto created with understated geometric silhouettes in mind.
Stilo is a furniture system for a range of residential spaces
The pieces include wall-mounted modules, cabinets and open-fronted elements that can be installed in various settings – from kitchens to bathrooms or living spaces.
Stilo is available in either black or titanium hues as well as numerous other finishes.
Stilo furniture system by Spalvieri & Del Ciotto for Scavolini
“This furniture system is a testament to the changing nature of social interaction and domestic life. Its sophisticated design creates a seamless flow between different areas of the home, fostering a sense of connection and community,” said Scavolini.
“Thanks to its flexible design, Stilo is the perfect fit for both prestigious dwellings and more compact apartments, generating unique and exclusive settings.”
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.
It can’t be stressed enough that literacy is the best tool for empowerment and social change. Literacy is everyone’s prerogative but it is not available for everyone in reality. For some their economic status is a hindrance, while for some the social stigmas and lack of opportunity become an impediment. Whatever the circumstance may be, the inability to read and write can lead to issues in everyday life, with the littlest of things such as signing a document or reading the medical prescription/medication.
Literacy drives have been a common endeavor in most developing countries in the last few decades, yet the UNESC report has alarming numbers. Reportedly, some “773 million” people globally “struggle with literacy.” The World Literacy Foundation, which has been at the forefront of providing literacy to the maximum individuals possible, has collaborated with Media.Monks to create the Literacy Pen: a speech-to-text assistance device.
Literacy Pen is the first, portable education tool that can let the illiterate read and write instantly. It is a small device – compatible with any standard pen or pencil – with an onboard screen to display visual input that can be directly copied onto paper.
Designed with key literacy development aspects like visual repetition in hindsight, this user-friendly, lightweight tool comes with a microphone. The user can effortlessly slide a pen into the compactly designed Literacy Pen, and speak desired words into the microphone, which transcribes them word by word automatically onto the digital screen. From here the individual can see and directly copy it onto paper using the attached pen.
How much of that is possible in the real-world environment where individuals we are talking about would have never held a pen in their hand before? Considering this tool is inexpensive that the lowest in the economic hierarchy can own, with due practice, at least some people should be able to sign their financial documents or even land a job.
Jørn Utzon is the Danish architect best known for designing the Sydney Opera House. That was a 16-year ordeal, beginning with winning a design competition in 1957, then being unpleasantly confronted with engineering challenges, ballooning costs and politically-motivated personal attacks. So vicious were the latter that Utzon left Australia in 1966, vowing never to return. He kept his promise, refused to attend the structure’s eventual opening in 1973, and never got to see the completed Opera House in person.
While that’s all been documented, less well known is that prior to Utzon’s introduction to the complexities of international architecture, he actually designed a whimsical piece of furniture. He had been prototyping a sort of pre-metabolist stool in the 1950s, prior to getting swept up in the Opera House maelstrom.
The stool was never realized, but Fritz Hansen has announced they’ve now put the Utzon Stool into production, after six-plus decades.
“Utzon approached furniture design by applying the same principles that defined his architecture, a synthesis of diverse references and what he called additive architecture, multiple configurations using a limited number of prefabricated components. In the stool, the modular principle is evident in the repetitive shapes of the steam-bent legs. Utzon often used maritime references and the spheres of the seat recall marine fenders along with his love of nature and its recurring forms.”
“The wooden spheres echo wooden models that Utzon made for some of his projects, the most famous of which is the spherical solution for the sails of the Sydney Opera House roof. The protruding mushroomlike forms also evoke the playful side of Utzon.”
Made of beech with brass accents, the stool runs $1,500.
An old-school construction trick used in Japan, the Swiss Alps, and probably other places, is to hold roofing down using heavy rocks.
UK-based design/research/building firm Material Cultures used this technique, as well as timber framing, in building this Rock Hut for client Grizedale Arts:
“The timber frame was built using green larch: a locally sourced, fast growing softwood milled at Graythwaite Estate sawmill, pegged together with oak dowels hewn from locally forested oak.”
“Eliminating the need for concrete footings, the structure sits on a dry-stone wall plinth, built under the guidance of John Atkinson using a technique which is ubiquitous across the Lake District for everything from farm walls to fine houses.”
“Uplift on the eaves of the structure is resisted by a series of boulders from the quarry at Broughton Moor chained to the rafters, and embedded into the earth banks either side of the structure.”
“A gate of irregular timber was provided by renowned oak swill craftsman Owen Jones MBE.”
“In its simplest form the act of building could be thought of as a gathering up of different elements of the landscape, or the orchestration of the movement and configuration of material from one place to another. This project explores how an understanding of material context and historic technologies can play a role in contemporary building as move towards a post-carbon future.”
Dezeen Showroom: German bathroom brand Bette has expanded its anti-slip surface treatment for bathrooms, which now includes a wider range of applications and colourways.
BetteAnti-Slip Sense is reserved for use in tandem with white shower trays and bathtubs
Aiming to provide an alternative to often unsightly rubberised anti-slip mats, the treatment is designed for use in bathrooms used by children or older people who require more grip when bathing.
“BetteAnti-Slip Sense can be supplied with all Bette glossy white shower trays, floor-level shower areas and baths,” said Bette. “It provides slip protection for the entire surface, without being seen or felt.”
The treatment helps to retain a bathroom’s clean, cohesive appearance
“For Bette shower trays and floor-level shower areas in its wide range of colours and matt finishes, including matt white, BetteAnti-Slip Pro is the anti-slip solution,” the brand continued.
Both BetteAnti-Slip Sense and BetteAnti-Slip Pro are easy to clean and contribute to a streamlined bathroom interior aesthetic.
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.
We’re in a time and age where people have started living more sustainably and consciously, and this is reflected in their everyday decisions. They’re making changes in their daily lives, consumption, and even means of transportation! People are slowly but surely adopting bicycles as they are eco-friendly alternatives to the pollution-causing automotive, but also they’re an excellent source of exercise. I mean, not only do we get to save the Earth from air pollution, but we can also get some intense cardio done. And, we’ve curated a whole range of innovative designs for you that caught our attention. From a “wheel-less” bicycle to a bicycle with triangle wheels – these impressive bicycles will surely convert you to Team Cycles!
1. The Wheelless Bike
Meet the Wheelless Bike – an innovative and extraordinary innovative by the US-based YouTuber The Q! This mindboggling bicycle literally has NO wheels. Since the bicycle lacks wheels, it has been integrated with rotating elements that help it move forward. It is equipped with two sets of wheel belts that have been mounted at unusual angles, to form fascinating silhouettes. The unique Wheelless Bike is designed to function like a tank, allowing the bike and you to be moved forward by the rotating wheel belts.
2. Firefly MiniVelo Travel Bike
This customized bike is the Firefly MiniVelo travel bike for Ming Thein! It is a titanium bicycle specially tailored for Ming Thein, and designed to fit perfectly into a Rimowa travel case. The bike is custom-made, and it can be easily assembled and disassembled like a puzzle, to fit snugly into a briefcase, and back to ride without a single flinch or issue. It features a lightweight and durable chassis that can be efficiently unfastened into two halves, with the other parts also following suit.
3. The J.Laverick Aston Martin .1R
Meet the J.Laverick Aston Martin .1R – an alluring advanced titanium road bike that is created using a mix of 3D-printed titanium lugs, and sculpted carbon fiber tubes which builds a lightweight yet sturdy bicycle without any kind of exposed bolts on the outer body. According to Aston Martin’s designers, this is the world’s first and is also described as a “titanium hypercar on two wheels”. You can also choose between a saddle or a handlebar type, and currently, the exact pricing of the bicycle isn’t known.
4. Bike With Treads
Sergii Gordieiev aka The Q on YouTube is known for his ingenious and out-of-the-box bicycle designs, and this time he is back with a bicycle with treads instead of wheels! The handlebars, frame, and seat have all been assembled from scratch to accommodate the other not-so-ordinary elements of the custom bike. The body features a lower profile at the rear than the front fork. The handlebar and the cushioned seating are aligned, making the bike comfy to fit on, however, with those treads constantly moving, I wonder how comfy this bike might be.
5. Moccle
Dubbed the Moccle, this rather adorable-looking bicycle with a fun and unique aesthetic, is designed to help you truly enjoy riding. The simple bike isn’t equipped with gears, a dashboard, or even shock absorbers, but it does have a bent-wood frame to absorb shock. The bent plywood frame is fixed in place with the help of a metal fixture, and this frame flexes when pressurized, absorbing any stress from bad rocky terrains or undulating surfaces. The Moccle truly brings back the joy of old-school peddling!
6. Gordieiev’s Bicycle with Square Wheels
Meet another spectacular creation by Sergii Gordieiev – a bicycle with square wheels! This innovative bicycle features wheels that don’t roll, but instead, they move on a conveyor belt-like platform that rotates as you hit your foot on the pedal. The best imagery to understand how it works would be to imagine war tanks moving on their metal tracks without any wheels, except in this case it is a cycle and the wheels are square-shaped!
7. RE:CYCLE
Named RE:CYCLE, this innovative bicycle design is made from recycled aluminum coffee capsules. The aluminum in the coffee capsules has been melted down and then utilized to build this durable, sturdy, and powerful bike. It perfectly merges sustainability and clever design, while maintaining Vélosophy’s iconic and subtle design philosophy and language. It features a lovely purple frame that draws inspiration from Arpeggio – the famous Nespresso coffee, while the bell looks like a coffee capsule!
8. Wing Cycle
Named the Wing Cycle, this beautiful roadster bike is inspired by avians! It doesn’t go for the traditional diamond shape and instead adopts a form inspired by a bird wing. The bike includes a cable wire design that supports the seat, and the cable rope system can be easily adjusted to change the positioning of the seat for diverse riding moods. It features a material palette of chrome, leather, and wood, creating a sleek and skeletal bicycle that grabs attention.
9. Infinity All-Wheel Drive Bicycle
Stephan Henrich designed an innovative and uniquely shaped bicycle called the Infinity All-Wheel Drive Bicycle. It is one of the most out-of-the-box automotive designs I’ve seen in a while, and it moves forward with the help of a monotyre-clip chain system that creates a temporary rim in the wheel sections as well as a dental belt drive in the interior groove. The unique bicycle sets into motion using a short chain, and an 8-speed gearbox which is unlike anything we’ve seen before.
10. Bicycle With Triangle Wheels
Designed by the Q, this mind-boggling bicycle is equipped with triangle-shaped wheels. It is a cleverly designed bicycle that moves in a linear form, creating adjacent lines between each of the rollers, and the flat surface it is riding on. This allows the triangular wheels to overcome their limitations, and roll quite comfortably without any hurdles. The triangle-shaped wheels are truly far more comfortable than you can imagine, and also so fun to ride!
Anyone enmeshed in the global art circuit is personally familiar with or has heard praise of the unique magnificence of the Dallas Art Fair. This should come as no surprise considering the magnitude of the art scene in Dallas, which encompasses acclaimed destinations like the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center, pioneering organizations like The Power Station and Dallas Contemporary, as well as the innumerable private residences with collections—like the home of the family of art advisor Adam Green (which featured one of the most impressive and diverse curations in the city during our recent visit). At the center of it all is the Dallas Art Fair, flush with eye-catching works from local, national and international galleries, set in a navigable layout that encourages easy discovery.
Courtesy of Exploredinary
This year, a little more than 90 galleries populated booths along two floors of the Fashion Industry Gallery (f.i.g.) in the Dallas Arts District. They ranged from the city’s own Sputnik Modern, Conduit Gallery and Pencil On Paper Gallery, to New York City’s Deli Gallery, Lausanne’s Fabienne Levy and CDMX’s Proyectos Monclova. Many longtime COOL HUNTING favorites—from South Kent’s James Barron Gallery to NYC’s The Hole and Miami’s Spinello Projects—brought spectacular pieces for attendees to peruse. Of equal importance were galleries that only exhibit in the Dallas Art Fair, who provided a glimpse at their curatorial convictions.
Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Interval I, 2023. Jacquard tapestry, cotton, wool, silk, Lurex, edition of 3 + 2AP, 295 x 396 cm / 116.1 x 155.9 in. Image courtesy the artist and Kerlin Gallery.
A charitable component—wherein a group of donors, organized through the fair’s foundation, dedicate funds to acquire works from the annual event for the Dallas Museum of Art—underscores a commitment to its home city. This year marked the eighth annual acquisition. “We’re so proud to reflect on the impact the fair has made in our arts community in Dallas over the years,” Kelly Cornell, the director of the Dallas Art Fair, shared during the opening press conference. “What has grown out of humble roots now makes an international impression. The Dallas Art Fair Foundation has now raised over $2 million since it was founded—and facilitated nearly 60 artworks going into the Dallas Museum of Art’s permanent collection. This success is not ours alone. It’s thanks to the galleries’ commitment to Dallas, our incredible collecting community, sponsors, partners and more.”
Thania Petersen, SJAMBOKLAND, 2022. Embroidery thread on cotton poplin, Japanese glass cut beads. 61.50h x 105w in / 156.21h x 266.70w cm. Copyright Thania Petersen. Courtesy of the artist and Nicodim. Photo: Yubo Dong.
This year, transfixing works by three women artists were acquired by the museum. From Irish mixed-media artist Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, “Interval I” (2023) incorporated Jacquard tapestry, cotton, wool, silk and Lurex. It was acquired from Dublin, Ireland’s Kerlin Gallery. Houston-based artist JooYoung Choi‘s cosmic, compelling “The Table of Love” (2022) married acrylic, gouache, vinyl paint, carbon transfer, Gelli print, airbrush, Duralar and cut paper on canvas. Choi is represented by Houston’s Inman Gallery. Cape Town-based multidisciplinary artist Thania Petersen set Japanese glass cut beads and embroidery thread on cotton poplin for “SJAMBOKLAND,” (2022) which was acquired from Nicodim Gallery.
JooYoung Choi, The Table of Love, 2022. Acrylic, gouache, vinyl paint, carbon transfer, Gelli print, airbrush, Duralar, and cut paper on canvas 69 1/4 x 123 in (175.9 x 312.4 cm). Photography: Thomas DuBrock. Image courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery.
The Dallas Museum of Art’s Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck, spearheaded acquisition. “This year’s acquisitions are some of the most ambitious to date,” Dr. Brodbeck shared in advance of the acquisition announcement. “We acquired three monumental works from women artists from Ireland, South Africa and, of course, here in Texas. Their diverse work draws on traditions of textile production, transnational histories of colonialism, pop culture and astro-futurism, while sharing a beautiful and intricate approach to world building that will allow us to tell these stories to our audiences with all the complexity of their artistic vision.” All three depict disparate, deeply nuanced tablescapes that immediately transport viewers elsewhere.
Courtesy of The Eyeboretum
In conjunction with the fair, the city of Dallas welcomed immerse art activations, many hosted by the art-centric luxury hotel The Joule—though none quite as enchanting as their Eyeboretum party, a whimsical garden gathering set in front of Tony Tasset’s towering optical sculpture, aptly entitled, “The Eye.” Together, all of these activities—and the innate, engaging art scene—have established the fair as one not to miss.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
Image: Bjarte Sorensen – 
