This meandering house was planned around a central narrow corridor, resulting in its accordion-like shape. Designed by FujiwaraMuro Architects, it’s a bit out of place in a Japanese residential neighborhood filled with traditional homes. More »
There’s something really meditative about these slotted lamps. They’re made out of wood from California cypress trees and the light inside is a constant current LED, but the sculptural elements come through more than the utility as a lamp. More »
If you’ve got a cat, you know they like to get into places they shouldn’t, and if your anipal is anything like our cat, Mr. Lucky, he wants to be where the people are all the time. Well if you’re sick of kitty stepping all over the top of your coffee table, but want to give him or her a place to hang out nearby, here’s a solution for you.
This clever coffee table incorporates a stretchy and soft woven cat hammock underneath, so kitty can rest comfortably under your feet, without being under foot.
This table was designed a couple of years ago by Koichi Futatsumata for Case-Real, and it can be ordered from E&Y for the rather princely sum of ¥199,000 (~$2118 USD). For those of us who don’t feel like spending two grand on our cats, you can always just buy them a Cat Crib.
[via Neatorama on Facebook]
An expensive, ornate vase can be as much of a centerpiece as the flowers that are in it. These floating vases designed by the Japanese group oodesign take things in the opposite direction by making them look like water ripples. More »
Public transit doesn’t have to be a total bummer if you’ve got a nice enough hub for it all to connect to. That seems to be the logic behind the upcoming 1.5-million-square-foot, San Francisco Transbay Transit Center. Some are calling it the city’ “Grand Central,” and if it lives up to the plans, it’ll certainly be grand. More »
Disposable paper plates are wasteful. Unfortunately, they’re one of the few options if you’re having a picnic or hosting an outdoor meal for various reasons. Re-using them doesn’t seem like a very hygienic or practical thing to do, since most get soiled pretty badly after one use anyway.
An upgrade to the conventional paper plate comes in the form of the Plate-Oh!
It’s basically a paper plate with ten disposable layers pressed on top of it. So instead of throwing the plate away after using it once, you’ll simply have to peel the soiled, topmost layer off by lifting the corner of that layer and pulling gently. Dispose of that layer, and voila! You’ve got a clean paper plate to use for the next party!
The Plate-Oh! concept was designed by Sahar Madanat Haddad, and there are no immediate plans to commercialize the Plate-Oh!
[via Yanko Design]
There are some people who are just don’t know how to take care of plants. Or it might be that you’ve got some special plants in your house that need special care. It’s for reasons like that some designers decided to come up with this device, which allows you to detect the health of your plants.
An entry in the LiteOn Design Awards, The Plant Doctor was conceived by Fan Xu and Du Xubing. The device uses integrated sensors and a microcontroller to detect soil moisture, nutrition content, etc. All of this data can be charted on a transparent display so that you can monitor the health of your plants. It’s also supposed to power itself from the electrolytes in the soil. The device will analyze the soil content and process this information.
While there are similar devices on the market already, the Plant Doctor is still just a concept; but I can already see it being used all over the place, especially when horticulturists are trying to grow and care for rare plants. For the rest of us, there’s always this.
[via Yanko Design]
Between unbelievable balloon art, a scaly aluminum aquarium, and a Google Image Search art project, we have beaucoup beautiful things to show you this week. Take a second to gander at the gorgeous things we found in art, architecture, and design this week. More »
Jason Hackensworth is a balloon artist, but not the kind that wears oversized shoes and has been the villain in a 1990 horror movie. He’s known for his balloon sculptures of biological forms and creatures, like this anemone-like sculpture, currently on display in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. More »
Believe it or not, this is the Dutch Embassy in Ethiopia. It doesn’t look like your average bureaucratic building, but perhaps more government agencies should take cues from not just its unusual aesthetic, but how the architects—Dick van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek—drew influence from two different cultures. More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
