Category Archives: furniture

Radical Traceability

Small and independent producers can benefit from the Internet’s Long Tail and on-demand manufacturing to find supply and demand for their products. Now, they can also count on radical traceability in the form of Myfab.com, a website that combines user-contributed design with the ability to follow each step in the manufacturing process once a product […]

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Blinking Chairs

Ryota Kuwakubo’s Nicodama is a project that – to put it simply – puts blinky eyes on inanimate objects as a means of giving them personality. From the placard at the Ars Electronica Center: “Nicodama” combines findings from the field of behavioral biology (ethology) with technology and Japanese philosophy. The “Nicodamas” communicate with each other […]

Also posted in animation, interaction, product design, surveillance | Comments closed

Corrugated Cardboard Cubby

I saw this beautifully crafted electronic parts drawer cubby at Distance Lab the other day – a great example of upcycling old cardboard packaging into a very useful piece of furniture that feels and works much better than the cheap plastic alternative.

Also posted in 2d, 3d, fabrication, materials, upcycling | Comments closed

carbon fiber kitchen

Move over stainless steel: I spotted this carbon-fiber kitchen island in the Tokyokitchen gallery at the Axis building in Roppongi. When I used to work with kitchen manufacturers I learned that most people only buy new cabinets every twenty or thirty years. Considering the weight and size of most kitchen cabinetry, there is a major […]

Also posted in energy, environment, fabrication, materials | Comments closed

light noodles

Charlie Davidson’s Hasta la Pasta is part of the redesign (tagline: for designers who don’t want to make landfill) Lighten Up collection of lamps that have vastly reduced environmental impact. Making products out of food – like these spoons and these espresso cups – guarantees that they compost well and affords alternative uses – especially […]

Also posted in futurecraft, lighting, materials, open objects, product design, soft/glowing | Comments closed

design it yourself

Enzo Mari‘s 1974 Autoprogettazioni (Design and build-it-yourself projects) are simple schemes for tables and chairs that can be made from scrap wood in a variety of proportions and configurations. You can follow the designs or even buy complete kits, but you don’t have to: just looking at these images allows the designs to be freely […]

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cocoon chair

Team Shine Shine Shine‘s Lin Yi-Hsien and Margaret Huang made this privacy couch called ‘hide’ from multi-colored felt, and when you’re ready to come out of your shell it turns into a bean bag.

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yousmoke

Transparency is a noble pursuit in this age of business2.0, and we’ve seen companies like Chumby and TCHO benefit from free press and a boosted brand identity in exchange for posting their entire process on-line for all to see. So what happens when a company that makes bad products still practices transparently? Flickr introduced me […]

Also posted in futurecraft, livingbreathing, possessed products, supply chain, traceability | Comments closed