Paper Honeycomb: from structural element to mainstream architectural design

Paper HoneyComb from structures to architectural design

Being undervalued for many years as a cheap and unstable material, being mainly used as a structural element in doors with some applications in airplane industry and protective packaging, the paper honeycomb has  recently entered the select area of architectural design. Perhaps you wondered how can Ikea furniture be so strong and so light in the same time. Paper honeycomb is the answer.

Bin Bin waste paper basket by John Brauer

"Fractal-ish" philosophy in John Brauer's Bin Bin

How come I didn’t see it before. I have a thing with cool designs for waste paper bins as they tend to be a central focusing piece in every study room or [home] office. Remember my previous article on  wastebasketball trash bin ? That one was brilliant in its playfulness, colors (not so much on the green side as it was soooo inviting to throw things at it) while John Brauer’s Bin Bin have some sort of fractal-inspired design, where the very bin resembles it’s content.

No Battery Remote Controls open new era of slick devices

Battery-Less Remote Control Prototype by NEC is powered by vibrations

Finally someone thought of powering remote controls with vibrations produced by pressing on buttons. That means no more ” Honey the remote battery needs to be replaced!!” or repeated pressing for changing the channel when the battery dries out.

Another good thing that comes out of this is that there will be less toxic waste in the land fills, something that battery manufacturers won’t be very happy about.

Transformer Laptop Stand from LapDawg makes a statement of ergonomy and design

A better laptop stand that can fit many sitting positions

There have been countless occasions I wished I had a laptop stand to hold my laptop while lying in bed and thinking of all those nasty electromagnetic waves and the un-natural position it forces me to take to properly watch and write. Although there are many designs out there for a laptop stand ( I’ve already covered one such smart design here but it’s only a desk stand) there was none I have encountered to be multifunctional and to impress me such as to write about it here on perfectcube, where only best designed, most ergonomic and green products get.

Wooden caterpillar track makes a nice chair design: the Miserolo Chair

The Miserolo Chair is a caterpillar track for tranquille homes

I love the kind of seating the Miserolo chair fits in. Designed by serbian designer Uros Vitas it is confortable and it allows a great deal of back-leaning without the fear of falling over.

But unlike all the other contraptions of the concept, which are whether metal-frame or bent plywood, this one can really be made anywhere with two pieces of strong flexible plastic ribbons and a lot of solid wood blocks. A CNC

The map of a 4 degrees rise in temperature effects

4 deg rise in temperature map

Here’s the map of the global warming effects of a rise of 4 degrees in temperature made by the british government.  Do you still think global warming is just a fancy word made up for political debates and tv shows? Well, to put it mildly …it’s NOT!

Hit the link to see the map better and also a few movie suggestions that tackle climate change.

Golf Ball Aerodynamics makes cars go further just like, well… golf balls

Could Golf Ball-like dimples increase car mileage? Apparently YES.

It is well-known that “Dimpled balls fly farther than non-dimpled balls” (wikipedia). Also there’s been some time since I first heard about the hypothesis that similar dimples in aircraft fuselage or cars bodies would make them more energy-efficient. But that was all about this theory. I didn’t see any development that would make it to the mass produced products.

Apparently The Mythbusters, the popular Discovery Channel show, did some work on this one. And the result was one that

Transparent paper could replace plastic in more than one application

Researchers at Kyoto Univ. developed a method to render paper glass-transparent

I have to write this one down. I tried so much to find such information when I was writing the article on replacing plastic and metal with translucent ceramics and somehow I missed it, so for future reference I will write about it right now.

We’re used to seeing paper lamp shades that scatter light in a warm way and there is paper with a high degree of translucency – tracing paper – but did you thought that glass-transparent paper is possible? Thought so. Neither did I. Until I have stumbled over

contemporary beanbag inspiring designs

designer beanbags of today's times are luxury and style anybody would like

I was looking in the past days all over the internet for a green and eco-friendly sofa or lounge but even the greenest options weren’t that green after all. You can have a look at my previous article to see what’s all about. For the easy-readers I’ll just state my conclusion and go on with the article: there doesn’t seem to be a complete green alternative for the very thing that makes sofas comfortable: foam . So where else can you find comfort and style and the

eco-friendly, non-toxic foam-like material needed

An eco-friendly affordable alternative to Latex foam is needed

As you did probably noticed, lately, my interest has been going round the concern on toxic chemicals in our beloved state-of-the-art designer items, be they electronics, furniture, clothes or food. There are many alternatives already for woodworking, construction, electronics, food, clothing but there’s one field of furniture making where there is a lack of alternative and accessible eco-friendly materials. That’s upholstery.

Swank Lounge Chair means confort of eyes and muscles

Swank Lounge Chair is eye relaxation as well as body comfort

Huntinburg, Indiana based OFS has designed a lounge chair I couldn’t just pass by. It’s so elegant, so simple in construction that even your eyes start to relax when watching it even before you close them up after sitting down. As they say, “Swank is a statement about comfort and convenience through simplicity in form, and brevity in material use”. Nothing more true. Hit the link to see it yourself and dream of elegance and style.

Zero Energy Passive Cooler for a greener world

Evaporative cooler preserves food with zero energy consumption

Winner of the designboom’s green life contest, this project is  (by the author rochus jacob’s words):

” a transfer and optimization of basic technology mainly used in emerging countries to the high-tech kitchen. Food gets preserved by the cooling effect of evaporating water using no electricity. The system is designed to be stackable, can be used as an alternative for a pantry, second fridge or an

Ecovative to focus on SIPs with greensulate core

Greensulate based SIPs

Remember my  previous article on Ecovative’s Greensulate product to replace polystyrene? You can check it to see what greensulate is. I then wrote another article on Structural Insulated Panels, SIPs, and expressed my wish to see greensulate be the insulation part in a SIP. I have just ran into a youtube video on how greensulate is made and at the end of the movie my prayers are answered. Hit the link to see the video.

Hazardous chemicals treatening our lives

More and more research shows that we've been living in a pond of dangerous chemicals for the last half century

In the last 70 years the chemical industry bloomed and many toxic products were introduced in our daily life without proper knowledge, understanding or research on the effects they might have on living beings over long periods of time. I feel shivers on my back when I read that this or that chemical was found in the umbilical cord in 10 out of 10 newborns (PFC), others were found in mother’s breast-milk (Lead), pests were found

ECO-FRIENDLY-NANO-TECHNOLOGY will offer the composite materials of tomorrow

(image by Scott Dougherty) Both nano and bio technology products are my bet on saving the planet

Let’s face the truth… we can’t go back to stone age and only use naturally occurring stuff. We can’t just use wood for everything. Or stone. Or glass. Or vegetable oil. Human civilisation needs science more badly than ever to be able to stop going belly-up.

We need (1) to develop non-polluting energy-efficient industrial processes that use solely renewable energy-sources here on earth.

We need  (2) materials that are safe for humans, that don’t leach hazardous chemicals be it contact leaching or off-gassing.

We need (3) to scale these industries efficiently to be able to cover the demand from a growing earth population without damaging the nature.