Hasta La Ideas

Kingston University graduate Aaron Dunkerton has designed an enclosed cavity brick fitting that allows endangered birds to nest in new buildings and garden walls.

Aaron Dunkerton’s Bird Brick cavity is made of five handmade, clamp-fired bricks which can be built into new buildings or garden walls to encourage birds to nest in urban areas. Birds can access the sealed cavity through a small clay entrance hole.

“Over the last 50 years the UK has lost over 44 million birds,” Dunkerton told Dezeen. “The house sparrow population has decreased by almost 70% and I decided to do something to help with their conservation.”

“House sparrows are sociable birds. They like to nest in small colonies of three to four breeding pairs in and around homes. However, as these holes and gaps are being filled up for better insulation, these birds are running out of places to nest,” said Dunkerton.

Each cavity must be cleared out once every 2-5 years, between September and November. The circular brick stopper twists out to allow the enclosed cavity to be cleaned out and must then be re-pointed in place.

The bricks were cast with the help of UK-based brick company, MBH Freshfield Lane in West Sussex.

Bird Brick was one of 20 projects shortlisted for the Design Council’s 2013 Future Pioneer Award, and was exhibited at New Designers 2013 in London last month, alongside New Designer of the Year Henry Franks.

Dunkerton will also exhibit work at London Design Festival 2013, with graduate design collective NOUS, which also includes Alice Kim’s maternity vest for plants.

See more stories about bird boxes »
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See our coverage of graduate shows 2013 »

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Aaron Dunkerton appeared first on Dezeen.

Berg potrebbe rappresentare una svolta nel mio perenne binomio vestiti-caos. Composto da 9 silhouette sulle quali infilare tutto ciò che teoricamente non è ancora stato stirato e/o pulito. La forma ricorda quella di una montagna ed è stato disegnato da Arash Eskafi.

Né en Australie mais ayant grandi en France avant de s’installer aux USA, l’artiste Gul Bruvel imagine de magnifiques visages en acier inoxydable. D’une grande fluidité, ces compositions de rubans d’acier réunies sous le nom de « Flow Series » sont à découvrir en images dans la suite.

The latest version of the affordable XO tablet, designed by Yves Behar for the One Laptop Per Child Association, goes on sale this week (+ movie).

The seven-inch touchscreen Android tablet will be available for $150 at Walmart stores across the USA this week, marking a move away from the product’s initial focus on the developing world.

The new version features a rubber exterior and a carrying hook, while the bilingual English/Spanish software comes with a suite of pre-loaded apps, games and books.

The XO tablet is the fourth iteration of the One Laptop Per Child concept, all of which have been designed by One Laptop Per Child’s chief designer, Yves Behar of San Francisco design studio fuseproject.

The first, nicknamed the “$100 laptop”, was a clamshell design with a keyboard that could be charged by hand-crank and was intended for children in remote villages without power.

The product was one of five winners of the Index Awards for sustainable design in 2007 and won the Design Museum’s inaugural Design of the Year award in 2008.

Its successor, the XOXO laptop, was unveiled in 2008 and featured two hinged touch-screens.

The third version, called the XO-3, was launched last year. This was a tablet with a removable rubber cover that could also house solar panels to recharge the battery.

“The new tablet is an evolution of all the things we have learned with the original XO Laptop,” says Yves Behar. “The new user interface is colourful and easy to use, while the protective rubber exterior features a carrying loop similar to the original XO finger hooks.”

See more stories about One Laptop Per Child »
See more design by Fuseproject »

Here’s some text from One Laptop Per Child:

FUSEPROJECT AND ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD ANNOUNCE NEW XO TABLET DESIGNED TO SPARK THE CHILD’S IMAGINATION

The fuseproject-designed XO Tablet arrives in Walmart stores across the country this week. Developed in collaboration with the One Laptop Per Child Association, the tablet harnesses the power of a touchscreen device to create new ways for children to learn. The powerful Android tablet has a new user interface and protective cover that delivers the continuity of the design language of the original One Laptop Per Child with a new learning experience.

Centered around the idea of aspirational “dreams”, the main screen is organized by topics rather than applications. A clear hierarchy of information makes tiers of learning within each dream easy to follow and access, a key element of the new child-centric XO Learning System Interface. A simple sentence “I want to be an…” is the opener to a myriad of software, games, and applications grouped around each of the subjects of interest.

“The new tablet is an evolution of all the things we have learned with the original XO Laptop,” says Yves Behar, fuseproject founder and Chief Designer of OLPC since 2006. “The new user interface is colorful and easy to use, while the protective rubber exterior features a carrying loop similar to the original XO finger hooks. What is unique about this version is how we crafted the user interface and the industrial design simultaneously. We wanted to make sure that together they would deliver a cohesive experience while stimulating discovery and offering a few surprises.”

The seven-inch tablet, made by Vivitar, is running Android OS, and is the only multilingual (English/Spanish) and Google-certified tablet for kids on the market. It includes content curated and selected for age-appropriateness by OLPC in collaboration with Common Sense Media, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping parents and teachers make informed decisions about media.

The pre-loaded software includes 100 free pre-loaded apps, games, and books. Special parental controls such as the XO Journal tool, allow parents to track how much time children spend on each app and can provide insight into where children’s interests lie.

The One Laptop Per Child Association has distributed 2.5 million of the original XO Laptop in 60 countries, and is now launching the new $150 tablet in the US starting at Walmart, as well as in developing countries such as Uruguay, Cambodia, and Barbados.

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for One Laptop Per Child appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: these tables by London designer Michael Sodeau have noughts and crosses inserted between their legs.

Michael Sodeau designed the Noughts and Crosses tables to accompany his earlier Noughts and Crosses stools and will launch them with British furniture brand Modus at the London Design Festival in September.

The steel powder-coated O and X shapes are placed underneath the tabletop, acting as a cross-brace for three or four legs. They will be available in black or red, while the oak tables will come in three different heights.

The tall cafe table also includes a shelf with coloured hooks, creating a place for hanging bags and coats.

Other Modus products on show during the London Design Festival will include the curved wooden Norse char by Simon Pengelly and Arik Levy’s Japanese-inspired Geta furniture, both of which were launched in Milan.

Other interesting tables on Dezeen includes a coffee table designed to resemble an ancient brain-teaser puzzle and a table that lets you eat your dinner directly off its surface. See all tables »

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by Michael Sodeau for Modus appeared first on Dezeen.