Read&Roll – the toilet companion for the morning newspaper

I once wrote about a product called bedside companion, if you remember. This time it’s the bathroom involved, namely the better known paper holder.

Designed by Turkish Architect Direnc Demirbas, Read&Roll offers a simple solution for people that like to read in the bathroom.

organic pendant from Emdelight for low ceilings

Just looking around on the web for some modern lighting for low ceiling rooms, like when there is a dropped ceiling for sound isolation or electrical wiring and air condition ducts, I’ve stubled upon this organic shaped lamp from Emdelight and thought of nailing the design on my blog.

Orbital Light is just alien beauty

I’ve been lately on a passionate and feverish research on eco friendly, simple design and maybe rescued materials pendants and chandeliers. This one blew my mind with the simplicity of the concept, organic form, natural planet-like shape lighted from the inside out making you feel like in a sort of protecting space cocoon.

Bendant transformer Pendant Lamp

I like modern chandeliers. I am also keen on flat-pack furniture. What about a modern flat-pack chandelier that can also change shape to suit your light needs by covering/uncovering the bulb at your command? That sounds like the mother of all chandeliers right? If I got you interested cross over and get some pretty pictures of the thing.

recycled glasses collection might be just what you want for no more glasses missmatch

Have you collected over the time a vast stockpile of glasses all sizes and shapes? Looks awful right? While having different style glasses might be just what you want when you don’t want to mix up glasses at your next party, there is no unity in the aesthetics.  A designer touch might be welcomed.

That’s where Michelle Ivankovic, senior designer for Umbra comes

solar-powered gadgets, the next big thing in GREEN devices?

AU (KDDI) Green Road Project and Sharp are going to present in june a Waterproof, Solar Powered Mobile Phone, targeted to the Japanese market.

Check it out in the UPDATED article.

think particleboard of all sorts is toxic? You’re darn right. Than check out X-Board

Ever wondered why the furniture at IKEA was so light and looked so strong? While the vast majority of the other important furniture makers offers massive earth-unfriendly wood furniture or chemicals filled engineered wood, be it MDF, plywood, chipboard or OSB -does Urea-formaldehyde, Phenol-formaldehyde or Melamine-formaldehyde resins ring a bell?No? Than check it on wikipedia. It’ll be an eco-illuminating experience – Xanita are in the game with an eco-friendly

ever thought of recycling and re-purposing? how about a yogurt cups lamp?

From time to time it comes to my mind how many useful stuff I throw out as garbage. Most of times I am too busy – and most of us are – to think to clever ways of re-purposing what we generally call “trash”. But that is what designers can do as imagining new useful and appealing objects to ease our lives.

Check out this lamp shade made out of yogurt cups. So simple

Provector’s ‘Flower’ adds itself to the artillery against mosquitos. Sweet.

Being of national importance in some countries around the world, the battle against mosquitoes is far from over even in the modern industrialized countries but lately more and more weapons emerge and promise an itchy-free life. Provector’s solution is one of the cutest ones proposing a lovely 4 colour flower-shaped deadly weapon. Mosquitoes

mobile baby-seat that can attach to any chair

When going to a baby party or just visiting your mother-in-law, carrying a baby seat can be a difficult thing to achieve. But taking care of the baby at lunch time is even more stressfull and will clear much of the party’s joy. So why don’t you consider a compact, highly mobile baby-seat like the one in the picture below.

The design belongs to Camilla Altéus and Fia Sjöström from Sweden and makes a very good companion

get that book without trouble: P-Hook Bookmark Sign

Perhaps you too have a small library and all your books are stuffed together to fit in. Then you know that when you want some book you also get some 2-3 neighboring books follow it out and  it’s very annoying to stick them back in. This simple, DIY-certified bookmark keeps your reading page position safe and makes your life easier when getting the book out.

solar-powered gadgets, the next big thing in GREEN devices?

Finally the big players in the telecom industry try to step up and do something environmentally conscious and , of course, a little image campaign doesn’t hurt. Samsung as yet has the best shot with its Earth Phone that has a real solar-panel on its back and is made of recycled PETs, proving green is something  Samsung is really considering.

Moreover this phone doesn’t contain brominated flame retardants or beryllium and neither does it contain phthalates, all of them very dangerous chemicals your child shouldn’t be exposed to.

Timeless Garden concept by Francesco Castiglione Morelli and Tommaso Ceschi draws electricity from wet mud

The project of the two designers is inspiring. No batteries means no toxic materials, fire hazardous chemicals, landfill pollution at the end of the lifespan, transporting energy and many carbon released into the atmosphere during the production.

Built from two recycled plastic bodies fashioned as a pot/clock, the clock is powered by a reaction  between electrodes with bacteria in the wet soil. It is sustainable to a certain point, green juice from a natural reaction and recycled materials but the lawn advertised in the pictures is less fortunate.

discussion on home automation for the environmentalist

For the last week or more I’ve been flirting with home automation. I knew about it but never looked deeper inside its guts. Now I can say my knowledge on the subject is wide enough to be able to make some decisions and discuss it in an article. Anyway any responsible and knowledgeable comments are more than welcomed.

Home Automation Solutions, known as Domotics in Europe, is a way to control every bit of equipment and device in a home with the purpose of lowering energy bills (efficiency) and rising the comfort (quality of life).

zero-energy computer from Fujitsu saves the energy loss in stand-by state

Having all these devices around consuming power while in stand-by can make an environmentally conscious person feeling guilty but there’s nothing he can do, except always go and push the turn off button on all of them or manage to get a smart extension socket that can be controlled by remote or whatever.
To fight global warming some companies push the limits on technology and

test your walls for heat lackage with Gunnar Kramp’s hand scanner Thermal Torch

Gunnar Kramp’s Thermal Torch design for the Greener Gadget Top 50 got him a Semi-Finalist position but when you look a little deeper into the specifications of the device it gets really interesting. Being equiped with a thermal camera to get the

stop unnecessary waste from CFLs: throw only the glass tube, not the working ballast

Unnecessary waste is a big problem of today’s world. We throw away too much of everything. But when you advertise something as greener, like CFL bulbs, and build it so that that complicated circuitry that makes it expensive gets in the landfields together with the damaged illuminating mixture in the glass tube is just stupid. Unless LED bulbs won’t come down to reasonable prices 3E Techonologies has come up with the solution

modern planters collection

Lately my interest in off-gassing and remedies to the toxicity of modern homes has been expressed in writing an article of useful plants in cleaning air and removing hazardous VOCs.  I thought to compile a post on modern planters

bio plastic from wood developed

Researched heavily 40 years ago, dumped in the 1990s as a perfect formula wasn’t to be found and forgot about as cheap petroleum plastics popped everywhere rendering it not feasible, “liquid wood”, as it was called, is a plastic-like substance derived from the wood’s lignin, the natural compound that lends strength to trees. It has been re-discovered

sustainable floors for eco-conscious homes

When remodeling your house (cause that’s what it’s left to do in these crisis times) or building a new one (for you lucky ones) you should consider sustainable in every aspect of it. This article will focus on floring.

green flat roofs – the way to go for tomorrow roofing

Although pitched roofing still is de facto for new buildings, this is the case mostly because it’s cheaper. But from a usability point of view flat roofs offer much more.

In a study on flat roofs I can see many things that would suggest that these kind of roofs will be the way to go for tomorrow. The flat roof technology has improved big time over the latest years and the bad reputation it developed should be certainly cleared. Let’s see a few facts

tree house hideaway – modern multilevel cube house

This is like a nice wrapper for my blog and what’s it all about: the cube, that something that hold something…holds our lifes at home, holds our high-tech gadgets and our modern, green hopefully furniture… everything that gets improved all the

Nicola from Bern’s coat hook design: brilliant

What a brilliant and simple ideea from the “why didn’t I think of that” series.

Grow Your Own Fresh Air with this 3 plants solution

A study made by Paharpur Business Centre and Software Technology Incubator Park (PBC™ – STIP) in New Delhi, India, on plants that can improve air quality indoors has concluded that only 3 plants are enough to induce a healthy change.

Air to Air heat exchangers: get fresh air, keep the energy inside

Homes of today follow a green and expense-cutting trend to reduce energy exchange with the environment, keeping a comfortable temperature inside and some money in the bank. But all that sealing actually makes the stall air inside a health treat to the house inhabitants. It can get very humid, due to the paints that prevent vapor exchange through the walls, VOC (volatile organic compounds – chemicals that offgas from paints, plastics, etc) loaded, naturally occuring Radon (Rn) gasses  build up as well as mold and mildew. These problems can be solved by

greener cement is a must for the 3rd CO2 polluter of the world

Known for its massive CO2 emissions, the cement industry needs a way to get it’s technology greener and less energy-intensive. The 3rd CO2 polluter of the world, after fossil fuels and deforestration, it is also the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas. According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD www.WBCSD.org), “Concrete is the most widely used material on earth apart from water, with nearly three tons used annually for each man, woman, and child.”

2 years away from CFL-cheap LED bulbs

Everybody hured about LEDs. Everybody desires LEDs in his home. But not everybody affords LEDs. I have talked about LEDs with a couple of other ocasions and this news is certainly worth mentioning. British scientists led by Colin Humphreys, professor of Materials Science and Head of the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, have overcame one huge obstacle in making cheap LED bulbs which was the impossibility of growing Gallium nitride on silicon as if shrinks at twice the rate of silicon as it cools down getting the whole thing rendered unusable because of cracks. The improved way is to add

[Update: scam] India’s 10$ laptop one step closer to the masses

Remmember the initial rumour about an OLPC competitor that could put XO to shame? Some more good news surfaced on indiatimes.com. The 10$ laptop, which had to resemble somewhere the double price Negroponte’s 100$ laptop got to, actually costs $20, with efforts ongoing to get to the $10 target and is to be revealed in Tirupati

Are Structurally Insulated Panels the future of environmental-conscious homes?

In a world that becomes more and more concerned about CO2 emissions, sea-level rising, melting glaciers and so on, constructions are an important contributor to the pollution of the environment. Not only by all of its materials that take huge amounts of energy in the making but also by heat leakage out of insufficient insulated buildings or the poor standards of many of the actual ones. On one hand the companies are to blame for irresponsibility or lack of interest but also authorities because they are not setting compulsory and tight enough standards.

In this medium the SIPs enter the stage carrying a few substantial pluses like

smart homes need a way to protect wireless communication between devices: paint

Wanna build a smart-home? You have all the ingredients? A central server managing the lights, the tv, the stereo, the blinds, the thermostat, the solar panels on the roof, the LCD displays in every room and who knows what else? I suspect you want a wifi-capable

new-concept digital presentation tool: Prezi, the zooming map prezentation

I haven’t seen any improvement in the concept of software presentation tools for a very long time and this one got me surprised.

Even similar concepts exist like mind mapping user interfaces, zoomable presentation tools like this seem so natural and simple to understand and use.

Greensulate, green insulation made of mushroom mycellium

In a world where expenses on heating houses are growing and sustainable issues of buildings loosing heat and thus requireing more energy, a dual major in mechanical engineering and product design, Eben Bayer, hopes to solve some of those growing issues — by growing… mushrooms.

Eben Bayer developed

La Chanh Nguyen’s Moss Carpet

If you hate the smell of a bath mat after a few months then you’ll surely be interested in La Chanh Nguyen’s Moss Carpet. La Chanh Nguyen idea was to shape nicely a rott-resistant foam called plastazote and

Cologne Design Festival: one simple ingenious table design

Don’t know where this ingenious table design comes from nor who designed it but I simply love its simplicity. As a sidetable this would be perfect supposing it’s sturdy enough to bear a few magazines, acoup of tea and a beer… or two… .

One more picture after the break:

imitating nature to increase efficiency of blades

In a previous post - Sycamore Nature Inspired Ceiling Fan - I have mentioned of the  trend among engineers and industrial designers who are just starting to discover and study models in nature that evolved to perfect designs after millions of ears of evolution.

This time the serrated fins of humpback whales seem to be one more such brilliant design engineered by nature.

These bumps, called tubercles, are what’s allowing a whale the size of a truck

ecological/zero electricity water purification device by Aquaovo: Ovopur

This is good news for me as I am pretty much against pets put into landfills with tons per day  in my city alone. Aquaovo has created a device that purifies water using gravitational force and a combination of active elements like KDF 55, activated carbon, microporous bioceramics and quartz crystal.

Sounds pretty interesting right?

solar can-stack-box to warm your house for 15 bucks

Some clever guy at blog.hemmings.com has built a solar-heater based on soda cans painted black, inserted in a wooden box, covered by glass, you know, the usual stuff. What’s pretty amazing about his ideea is that for 15 bucks you get air 15 degrees warmer than the air inside.
Made thinner it would make some perfect exterior windows blinds that open-up rotating to be perpendicular to sun-rays.

The big picture after the break:

bedside companion

For 35€ – or 35 minutes of your DIYer time , you could have a bedside buddy to hold for you a glass of water (protected from falling over by clever metal cutting)and also your favourite book (perhaps the latest and greatest e-paper would work also and could provide that guilt-free sleep of protecting the environment).

You can order it at Contor

Another picture after the break:

pkolino puzzle-desk: a 2 piece challenge for kids

I love this ideea of challenging kids with a puzzle-like 2 pieces desk/bench which is in the same time nice as design and frees some space when not used. Have to bookmark this for future reference . See a picture on the other side…

eco-cook: economy on resources

As the global warming crisis and its consequences deepen, the rational use of water becomes vital. This is what Kechenyi Camille from France believes and this got her winning a honourable mention at designboom’s Dining in 2015 contest.

Here’s what she said about her design:

OneLessDesk is the hi-tech workspace for you

Sorta transformer but stylish and futuristic, MAC-inspired design of OneLessDesk fits perfectly in your room. Retracting input devices holder when you finish working you get a compact piece of furniture that doesn’t get in your way when you don’t need it.

I would have loved a way of lowering the monitor below and get all that space cleared but anyway for $900 you can have it as is or just watch it for inspiration and a free of charge DIY design:

Another sofa-bed that would make Optimus Prime proud: Flou’s “Book”

Transformer furniture keeps better and better as personal space gets smaller and smaller. Italian designers at Flu imagined a stylish sofa-bed which even if shows it’s a 2-part mattress has something glamorous that make it suitable for elegant interiors. Equipped with a folding orthopedic mattress or with a memoform mattress, it comes in three versions: with a reclining head-board and with rectangular or roller backhead and armrests.

Here’s a detailed pic of the thing :

2D turns 3D: laptop stand out of a bamboo plywood sheet

Student designer Dice Yamaguchi from California’s Art Center College of Design did a great job when imagined this laptop stand made of a cleverly cut to pieces plywood sheet. I’ve seen this kind of economic (green?) way of making three dimmensional things out of 2D sheets of plywood/metal/etc and I was impressed by the concept. So I am by this one that proves once more that one doesn’t have to use large amounts of material and complicated ways of producing things.

Here’s the picture of the design:

Presenting Design-Pod, the all-in-one home-office you’ll ever need

Smart home-office ideea from Australia-based Andrew Maynard Architects, this unit can fold and unfold in your living-room and goes unnoticed when not in use. For me it looks like a mini-bar. Put some glasses and a botthle of wisky on top and there you go.

For the courious jump to see a few more photos:

Cheer up a little bit with the trash bin corner : the wastebasketball

Li Jianye’s concept of wastebasketball offers some joy to the waste bin corner in the home office with it’s sporty style.

Great for kids’ room. Even for the desk in my room it would bring some color and happyness to the actually boring and dark side where the paper bin lies.

Boxes on the wall…honorable mention at Premio Vico Magistretti

Boox by it’s name, the piece of furniture imagined by han li + Yan Hu from China is the simplest way of doing transformer furniture;) . I find it very nice among other nice submissions and without more words by me, please read what the authors has to say about his work:

“BOOX is a piece of furniture to store and

unordered order with borrod table

Line Depping from Denmark won the first prize at the Premio Vico Magistretti design contest where guys at designboom.com teamed up with DePadova from Italy to commemorat, Vico Magistretti- Italian designer and architect.

non-rotative wind generator takes on turbine wind generators’ efficiency

Shawn Frayne, a 28-year-old inventor based in Mountain View, Calif., saw the need for small-scale wind power to juice LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Usual wind turbines don’t scale down well – there’s too much friction in the gearbox and other components.

Ceramic Speakers for the art savvy short on money guys

What you do when you don’t mind 7.1 sound and are sort of short on money but art loving guy? Perhaps try some ceramic speakers that use natural materials and the cone sound amplification shape to let you listen the music played in your inexpensive earbuds.

where are the extra chairs when you need them?…err…try that coffee table!

Just like that, we need sometimes extra chairs for our guests and the solution in the image below, designed by Joel Hesselgren, does that. Ingeniously, two chairs can be attached together into a coffee-table that looks great in the living-room.