Category: Design

Newspaper Wood: Paper Pages Turn into Wood

Newspaper Wood: Paper Pages Turn into Wood

Posted on by Kbaumlier

NewspaperWood by Vij5 and Mieke Meijer is a unique example of upcyling materials and flipping the resource to product process.  Instead of using wood as a source to make paper, NewspaperWood uses the paper to make wood.  The design came out of Meijer’s project at the Design Academy Eindhoven.

For a student design project, Meijer took stacks of newspapers, glued them together, and rolled them into a tight ‘log’ that he left to dry, deform and harden.  After they ‘cured, ’ these logs could be used as building blocks that could be cut, carved, routed, and used in place of normal wood.

The NewspaperWood has grains and rings similar to a tree. Each slice has a different cross-section of print with its own visual properties.  Years later he collaborated with the Dutch design team Vij5, and he began to roll out real products based on these reconstituted pieces of ‘timber.’  Out of this came a series of practical and experimental that use recycled newspapers in new ways that include lamps, jewelry, and other household objects.

For an exhibit in Milan at Salone, Vij5 invited other designers to create products using the NewspaperWood material and the products can be seen on the vij5.nl website.

Image Source:
www.vij5.nl

Links:

www.vij5.nl

miekemeijer.nl/

 

Pic Nic Pants – Pants with a Built in Table

Pic Nic Pants – Pants with a Built in Table

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Have you ever wanted to just sit down and eat lunch?   A new pair of pants that also acts as a table might be able to help you eat in any location.

The pants were created by an  experimental Italian design company called Acquacalda,. The Picnic Pants have a special panel that becomes a flat surface to balance your plate on when you sit down.   The panel is made from a special fabric that stretches and becomes taut when you need it – so you can eat off your plate.

On the website, the designers write, “ Fashion imposes forms to whom finding a function seems a must. Pic Nic Pants take advantage of the usual cross-legged position to become a comfortable surface useful for consumption of a meal outdoors. Laterally pants have an orientable pocket for drinks.”

You can read more about where to get the pants on the acquacaldadesign website and then get ready to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner anywhere you go.

Image Source:
www.acquacaldadesign.it

Links:

www.acquacaldadesign.it/pantalonepicnic_e.htm

Solar Bottle Bulbs – A Liter of Light

Solar Bottle Bulbs – A Liter of Light

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Need more light? A solar bottle light bulb was designed by an engineer from Brazil in 2002 who wanted to find a cheap way to illuminate  dark and small spaces in low-income areas in Brazil.  The  “solar bottle bulb” as it is called is made of an empty 1.5 liter soda bottle which is filled with purified water and liquid bleach, and is put into the roof of a home or shack so that it is half outside and half inside the structure.  The result is a light source that during the day puts out as much light as a 50W incandescent bulb.

This simple solution to bring light to a dark space is easy to make.  To make and install a bottle bulb, it takes about an hour.  The design has been used by some MIT students and others in an effort to bring light to the Phillippines to homes that do not have access to daylight or electricity.  Currently, millions of Filipinos live without any kind of light source in living spaces.

The project Liter of Light called Isang Litrong Liwanag, is a sustainable lighting project done by MIT students which aims to bring the Solar Bottle Bulb’ to communities nationwide.  To date, the organization has installed 10,000 of these units throughout the city of Manila.

Image Source:
Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light)

Links:

Use a 2-Liter Bottle a a 50 Watt Ligth Bulb lightbulb

Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light)

 

SolarSinter : A Machine that Uses Sun and Sand for Production

SolarSinter : A Machine that Uses Sun and Sand for Production

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Can sun and sand help power the future?  Markus Kayser is a designer who is interested the potential natural energy and technology and develops projects to explore current methodologies in manufacturing and the potential of new production scenarios. His latest project, SolarSinter, uses sunlight and sand as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process, combining natural energy and material with high-tech production technology.  The project was setup in the desert, and explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material are in abundance.

The inspiration for SolarSinter started in 2010, when Kayser took his first solar machine the Sun-Cutter to the Egyptian desert.  The Sun-Cutter was a solar-powered, semi-automated low-tech laser cutter, that used the power of the sun to power and ‘laser’ cut 2D components out of plywood.  While working on this project, Kayser got the idea to make a new machine that would combine the potential of the sun as well as the sand.   He researched the process of 3D printing, which use laser technology and resin to create 3D objects from a powder material, and created the SolarSinter.

The SolarSinter was tested in the Moroccan desert and later in the Sahara desert near Siwa, Egypt.  Kayser was able to create some objects with his setup, and the SolarSinter presents the potential of using sun and sand for production.

Is this the power of the future?  The SolarSinter presents innovative solutions to use the abundant resources of the sun and sand offers an almost unlimited supply of silica in the form of quartz.

Image Source:
www.markuskayser.com/

Links:

www.markuskayser.com/

Type the Sky: Letters Made of Sky

Type the Sky: Letters Made of Sky

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Photographer and illustrator Lisa Rienermann was in Barcelona in 2005 studying abroad, and looked up to see houses, the sky and the letter “Q.”  The negative space between the houses formed a letter.

She spent the next few weeks running around, looking up, and finding more letters in the alphabet formed by architecture and sky.  The project culminated in a booklet and poster of the sky alphabet, and the poster which said on the front, “Will you look at me? And “Yeah!” on the back.

Rienerman’s type is a reminder to look up to see what is being formed by the framing and negative space of our urban environment.  The project was awarded a certificate of typographic excellence by the Type Directors Club New York 2007.

Image Source:
www.lisarienermann.com/

Links:

www.lisarienermann.com/

jpgmag.com/photos/205473