Underpaid Genius

(via GALLERY)

Tick table legs look like giant paperclips.

Stacking side chair, designed by Verner Panton, Manufactured by Vitra for Herman Miller, Inc., Designed 1960, Gift of Robert Blaich, 1977-1-1 (via New Material, New Form | Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York)

Sisma Calce seismic fabric helps hold buildings together during earthquakes

Changing building codes to ensure that new structures are less vulnerable to earthquakes is all well and good, but what about older buildings? If someone told you that the answer was wallpaper, you’d think they were crazy, but a team from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Karlsruhe, Germany has developed a fabric to reinforce older walls. Marketed as “Sisma Calce,” the low-cost seismic fabric is designed to be plastered on walls to reduce earthquake damage or to at least give survivors a better chance of escape from falling debris.

Sisma Calce is made of glass fibers and elastic polypropylene fibers laid in four directions for added strength. It can be retrofitted to older buildings using special plaster to reinforce exterior walls and reduce earthquake-induced stresses to prevent damage to the wall that would allow cracks to form. In a small or medium earthquake, this may be all that is needed.

Should the stresses prove too great and the wall begins to crack and collapse, the polypropylene fibers would hold the wall together long enough to give survivors a chance to reach safety. In the case of moderate to severe earthquakes, the fabric may limit damage enough to allow the building to be repaired.

A Lamp That Looks Like a Head of Garlic

(via laughingsquid)

fieldstudy:

Series of marks for the Wander Postcard Project. 

inspirezme:

Sitting here sipping on a beer i came across this bottle opener, almost instantaneously i thought ‘Why didn’t i think of that?’. Designer Rush Dixon of Rush3 Studio did and he developed the concept from a rusted, 1930s opener he found, then added some clever touches that give the stainless steel gadget more functionality and a slick new profile.

Kebo not only opens your bottle but also keeps the cap flat, rather than bending it backward like most other methods. That means you can stick it back on again if you can’t manage to drink your entire bottle in a single sitting. This is my kind of innovation.

[ images © Rush Dixon / via CoDesign ]

(via inspirezme)

OSTRICH PILLOW DESIGNED BY Kawamura-Ganjavian

OSTRICH PILLOW offers a micro environment in which to take a warm and comfortable power nap at ease. It is neither a pillow, nor cushion, bed or garment, but a bit of each all at the same time. It’s soothing cave-like interior shelters and isolates both your head and hands, perfect for a power nap. You can use the Ostrich Pillow at your desk, on a bench, on the train or while you wait at the air … (via OSTRICH PILLOW | STUDIO BANANA THiNGS)

Heineken Cube: a cube beer bottle.

(via Would You Drink Beer From A Square Bottle? - DesignTAXI.com)

thenextweb:

The Paparazzo iPhone Light ($50) is designed to give your photos a boost by replacing it with a 300 lumen LED light that connects to your iPhone’s dock connector, adding a dedicated shutter button and handy grip in the process. (via Paparazzo iPhone Light | Uncrate)

(via npr)