Today’s Solutions: November 21, 2024

Design

Levi’s inspires us to re

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

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

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

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

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 b

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

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

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...

Products made from a natural r

Products made from a natural resource that grows: Human hair

UK based Studio Swine has started using human hair to make its new product line– ranging from vanities to hair combs. Studio Swine lays the hair into a sustainably sourced pine–based resin that gives the effect of tortoise shell after it is done Read More...

Bread be gone!

Bread be gone!

Ten years ago, the American neurologist David Perlmutter discovered an interesting connection among his patients. He determined that many of his patients with neurological problems also showed symptoms of stomach and -intestinal problems. After he recommended a gluten-free diet to his patients for Read More...