With its distinct Asian inspired look, the design of what is called the, ‘Urban Forest‘ by MAD Architects of Beijing definitely has its appeal to both ‘green’ and design enthusiasts alike. A proposed commercial high-rise building in the city centre for Chongqing, China, the slightly off-centred stacked floor design mimics that of the mountainous landscapes of China. The 70 floor building acts as a facade, rising above the clutter that is of a typical city with imagery of a plant growing freely. Read the rest of this entry »

Last year, Vidafine presented Philips Design Probe’s Biosphere Farming idea to great appeal so we’ve decided to keep you updated on what else is cooking at Philips. Their latest exploration is Multi-Sensorial Gastronomy which really means understanding how the integration of light, conductive printing, selective fragrance diffusion, micro-vibration and a host of other integrations of sensory stimuli could influence the way diners experience eating in subtle ways. In laymen terms, that means in addition to smell and taste, they want to see how incorporating our full senses to include touch, sight and sound will affect the overall dining experience. (Just a refresher, Philip’s Design Probe is a dedicated ‘far-future’ research initiative to track trends and developments that may ultimately evolve into mainstream issues that have a significant impact on business). In other words, they have created concept tableware that glows when food is place on or in it. Read the rest of this entry »

After reading about Unplug Design Studio and their mission to improve public welfare for all human societies, I wanted to share their Dream Ball and Eyesight design with you all and get you inspired as well. Based out of Seoul, Korea, this team of Korean designers, like all product designers, hope to create something that will make life easier for some, or just give a chance for others. The Dream Ball and Eyesight are examples of just that. Read the rest of this entry »

With the goal of captivating, inspiring and activating tomorrow’s thinkers to take positive action towards saving our planet from the accumulation of waste products, David de Rothschild, a 31-year-old English banking heir and environmental daredevil along with his team of hand picked scientists are on a mission, to address the issue of sustainability with the creation of Plastiki. An all around environmentally friendly masterpiece, the Plastiki is a 60-foot catamaran floating on approximately 12,000 reclaimed whole plastic bottles which have been highly pressurized. The masts are made out of reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipes, while the ropes are also made from recycled plastics. Read the rest of this entry »

There was certainly a lot of hype leading up to the launch of Apple’s newest gadget, the iPad which was announced a couple of weeks ago. Almost everyone was predicting Apple was going to roll out this revolutionary device. But when Apple unveiled the iPad’s specs, I kinda sat there with a somewhat dumbfounded look that read “that’s it?” It felt like a giant bubble burst above my head of all these fantastic concepts that I, and others envisioned the iPad to be and all we were left with was this giant iPhone. Nevertheless, when it comes to revolutionary and the type of applications that the iPad and iPhone has the potential for, it always brings me back to Mac Funamizu’s amazing concept, the Looking Glass. Read the rest of this entry »