Design
Rainbow mural brings together community in Mexican "drug capital"
Somewhere over the rainbow, you will find this Mexican town called Palmitas, in the district of Pachuca. A youth organization called Germen Crew teamed up with the Mexican authorities to beautify this neighborhood, previously known as the "drug capital" of the region. According to the Facebook Read More...
Japanese architect unveils plans to reuse earthquake rubble to build Nepal relief shelters
He did it again. Shigeru Ban, the Japanese architect known for his work on emergency shelters, unveiled a plan to reuse brick salvaged from collapsed buildings as construction material for relief shelters in Nepal. After the earthquake in April, the Nepalese are still in dire need of shelters Read More...
Levi's inspires us to recycle old clothing and shoes
Americans send about 24 billion pounds of unwanted clothing, shoes, and other textiles to landfills each year. That's a staggering amount of waste, considering that an estimated 95% of those textiles could be recycled, if only there were simple, easy, and widespread ways for consumers to do so. Read More...
Can coffee-waste furniture get people excited about sustainability?
Such is the bet made by British designer and materials development expert Adam Fairweather, who is striving to turn upcycling into an art form. His latest obssession are coffee grounds. Addressing food waste is less on his mind than “using materials that have a perceived value to them, to Read More...
Pencils collection to increase color psychology literacy
The impact of color on mood and behavior is a well established fact. Although the science has yet to investigate ancient healing traditions based on color, the interest in color psychology has been growing. The School of Life, an international organization dedicated to helping people develop Read More...
Ikea’s refugee shelters are unbeatable
Ikea’s flat-packed refugee shelters—tested in Ethiopia and Iraq—are, according to some design experts, one of the most significant developments in design in the last 10 years. The innovative shelters are made from insulated polymers, create a 17.5-square-metre enclosure, fit up to five Read More...
First Turkish mosque designed by a woman
Turkey has more than 82,000 mosques. All except for one have been designed by men. Zeynep Fadillioglu is a 59-year-old interior designer and the brains behind the Şakirin mosque in Istanbul. Fadillioglu payed particular attention to ornamentation in the Şakirin mosque, along with uniformity, Read More...
Bench raises awareness about bee population decline
Bees of the world are in trouble—their habitats are being endangered by development, and their health is greatly impacted by pesticides. To raise awareness about the declining population of the world’s bees Dutch artist AnneMarie van Splunter has designed the Buzzbench, a bench that doubles as Read More...
IKEA takes strategic approach to green technology
IKEA has announced it will abandon all non-energy efficient lighting by 2015. The Swedish furniture giant has partnered with Scottish lighting company Design LED Products to create the lighting fixtures of the future. IKEA will fund DLP’s production in return for access to their technology. Of Read More...
Redesigned hospital room makes patients heal faster
In hospitals we should expect any help to get better. But the food is terrible and the rooms are even worse. Researchers at The University Medical Center at Princeton spent months thinking, evaluating, and designing a room to make people feel better. The result? It worked—and remarkably well. Read More...