Design
Packaging as a service could eliminate unnecessary cardboard and plastic waste
With nearly 700 million trees being cut each year to make the shipping boxes used in e-commerce, and nearly 8 million tons of plastic in tape, bubble wrap and foam, it’s high time the industry rethinks its wasteful practices. Enter THE BOX - a revolutionary, sustainable and trackable shipping Read More...
Architects have created a replicable self-sustaining surgical center in Uganda
Roughly 5 billion people lack any form of safe or affordable surgery, leading to millions of deaths annually worldwide. In response, architects have created a modular, easily replicable surgical facility to provide ambulatory surgical procedures for underserved populations in resource-poor Read More...
This trio of clothing companies empowers young girls with more diverse styles
Children pick up on gender queues from a very young age. Toys, movies, books, and clothing play a big role in reinforcing what it means to be a girl and what you can achieve. Fortunately, there are girls’ clothing brands that are stepping up to tell young women that they can be anything they want Read More...
Eco-friendly living concrete is made from a mix of bacteria and sand
Despite its remarkable properties as a building material, concrete has a dangerous environmental footprint. Cement - the main ingredient for making concrete - is solely responsible for 6 percent of the world’s human-made carbon emissions. And while researchers have sought alternative means of Read More...
How wood became the hottest, most sustainable building material
Architects, builders, and sustainability advocates are all abuzz over a new building material they say could substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the building sector, slash the waste, pollution, and costs associated with construction, and create a more physically, psychologically, Read More...
This Philippine island is reconstructing itself by turning volcano ash into bricks
Last week, the island of Luzon in the Philippines was startled by an eruption of the Taal Volcano - one of the most active in the region - displacing thousands of people and blanketing neighboring towns and villages with thick layers of erupted ash and mud. Following the disaster, the ash-covered Read More...
Athletes at Tokyo 2020 will sleep on beds made from recycled cardboard
The 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo represent the first edition of the games where a real effort is being made to reduce the environmental toll of hosting such a big event. For instance, all the winners’ medals are being made from metal extracted from recycled consumer electronics, including about Read More...
The patterns in this fashion line improve mobility in people with Parkinson’s
Monika Dugar's Reset clothing collection features catchy striped designs, but they aren’t just for aesthetics. Rather, they are meant to increase mobility in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. The clothing works to “reset” the brain with a graphic print which improves mobility through Read More...
This rain-catching rooftop in Bangkok is home to Asia’s biggest urban farm
Over the past few months, we’ve been publishing stories about the new waves of urban design that take rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change into account. In the low-lying megacity of Bangkok, we see yet another example of climate-resilient. The Bangkok campus of Thammasat Read More...
What if wind farms doubled as public art installations?
As absurd as it might sound, many wind energy projects have been denied over the years because people don’t want wind turbines to disrupt their view. To overcome this aesthetic opposition to wind farms, which is known as NIMBY (not in my backyard), the international design collective Prototype Read More...