Hotello

Hotello is a portable space, containing all the necessary elements for a minimal room: a desk, a lamp, a stool, a shelf, a locker. Hotello consists of a metal structure that supports double curtains (translucent and sound absorbant) as well as all the furniture needed to work and rest. Designed by Roberto De Luca and Antonio Scarponi.

Lid Sid will keep the covers of your pots and pans open when they need some air‭, ‬and will raise smiles whenever you use him‭.‬ What a fun gift for friends that love to cook but have everything.

Famous Robots

Daniel Nyari has created a poster that features 30 headshots of famous robots from film, television, and comics. How many you do recognize?

Moses Bridge by RO&AD Architecten

The West Brabant Water Line is a defense-line consisting of a series of fortresses and cities with inundation areas in the south-west of the Netherlands. It dates from the 17th century but fell into disrepair in the 19th century. When the water line was finally restored, an access bridge across the the moat of one of the fortresses, Fort de Roovere, was needed. This fort now has a new, recreational function and lies on several routes for cycling and hiking.

It is, of course, highly improper to build bridges across the moats of defense works, especially on the side of the fortress the enemy was expected to appear on. That’s why we designed an invisible bridge. Its construction is entirely made of wood, waterproofed with EPDM foil. The bridge lies like a trench in the fortress and the moat, shaped to blend in with the outlines of the landscape.

The bridge can’t be seen from a distance because the ground and the water come all the way up to its edge. When you get closer, the fortress opens up to you through a narrow trench. You can then walk up to its gates like Moses on the water.

Tweeting from Space

Japanese aeronautical engineer and astronaut Soichi Noguchi has is tweeting from space! No joke. Follow him @astro_soichi.

Chameleon Bandage

This Chameleon Bandage takes the concept of band-aid protection a notch higher by becoming literally invisible. It’s a 2012 IF Design Talents Entry by Xue Xing Wu, Zi Yu Li, Yue Hua Zhu and Zhi Qiang Wang.

Love when human products imitate nature and hope these will be available for purchase soon.

Cable Label Guys

These little cable label guys are here to help you sort your various cordage. Something as dry as a cable salad can definitely use some humor. Get them here. 

MUJI Touchscreen Gloves

These MUJI gloves come with conductive material interwoven into the thumb and forefinger so you can operate your device without subjecting your bare hands to the cold! YES!

Umbrella-Coat Raincoat

This raincoat is a combination of a rain coat, an umbrella and waterproof trousers. Depending on the weather conditions and the amount of rain it can be adjusted to different levels of protection. With this raincoat your hands are free: you can protect them from cold weather, you can carry things and you can work with them. Also, it can be perfect for people with walking disabilities. In addition in a crowded street you do not bump into other umbrellas.

Designer: Athanasia Leivaditou (Greece) 
Material: Waterproof fabric 
Colours: Varies 
Dimension: Varies

From DesignSpotter

Spaceport America by Foster + Partners

Foster + Partners have completed the world’s first space terminal for tourists in New Mexico. Flying displays by Virgin Galactic space vehicles WhiteKnightTwoand SpaceShipTwo marked the opening of Spaceport America.

The low-rise building is dug into the landscape beside the El Camino Real road and is entered through a cleft between the two wings. Full-height glazing wraps around the end of the building, facing onto the runway beyond.

The spaceport hangar is located in the centre of the building, with administrative areas to the west and flight training and preparation areas to the east. The project was designed in collaboration with New Mexico architects SMPC and project manager URS Corporation. Operators Virgin Galactic are currently running a test flight programme.

Passing Cloud by Tiago Barros

If you’re not worried about where you go or how fast you get there, this enormous inflatable cloud is the mode of transport for you. Predominant winds would determine the routes and speed of the hovering cloud, which would move from place to place without any fixed destinations.

Passengers would board the cloud using ladders and would simply sit on the surface during travel. Inside the nylon-covered balloon, a steel skeleton like that of a zeppelin airship would support the object’s structure.

New York architect Tiago Barros proposed the design for a transport network of floating clouds in the sky to the Van Alen Institute and the Department of Cultural Affairs of New York City, who were expecting competition entries for a high-speed rail network.

Ark Nova by Arata Isozaki and Anish Kapoor

Here are some images of an inflatable concert hall designed by architect Arata Isozaki and artist Anish Kapoor to tour parts of Japan affected by the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. Once complete, the mobile Ark Nova pavilion will stage music and dance performances for victims of the disaster.

The red stretchy skin of the hall is modelled on Kapoor’s orb-like Leviathan sculptures. The venue will seat between 500 and 700 spectators and is designed to enable quick erection and dismantling. The Lucerne Festival in Switzerland initiated the project, alongside music management agency Kajimoto.

Polymorphic kinetic bench

Ten architecture students from Columbia University GSAPP have recently completed Polymorphic, a kinetic installation in the form of a bench.
Utilizing an innovative design and engineering solution inspired by the kinetic action of a see-saw and the reverberating motion of a slinky, the double-sided bench is made of a series of 119 interconnected sections and an interactive balance board. The sections are connected via an inventive pivot and bolt system, allowing the vertical movement of one section to be picked up by others down the line. Together, this motion allows the installation to transform from a series of leveled sections into an undulating form that becomes activated through interaction with its occupants.
The Columbia University GSAPP design group consists of Charlie Able, Alexis Burson, Ivy Chan, Jennifer Chang, Aaron Harris, Trevor Hollyn Taub, Brian Lee, Eliza Montgomery, Vernon Roether, and David Zhai.

Flat Frame Wooden Bike

Flat Frame Systems Ltd is launching their first product – a wooden bicycle at Tent London. The frame is made from engineered wood but the timber laminates are thicker and can be made from beech, ash, oak or maple. The frame can be covered with a high quality veneer in your choice of close to a thousand options. The flat frame system is not like a traditional tube design but is hollow and made from a flat material.

LED Bicycle Light

These detachable LED bike lights are great. Stockholm-based Bookman considered the essentials: color block shape, cuved underside, oversized rubber button and a groove for the attaching elastic cord. Three flashing modes: slow, fast and steady. The front light flashes white; the taillight is red.

Sugru Hacking Putty

I don’t know about your iPhone cables but mine break, right where the cable attaches to the connector. The guys over at  Holstee found a perfect hack: SUGRU PUTTY.

Team SUGRU (gaelic for play) was tired of not being able to fix broken gadgets, so they developed SUGRU, a moldable silicone that is sticky like Super-Glue and fun to use like Play-Doh:

1) Roll it to warm it up
2) Mold it the way you want it
3) Let it cure for 24 hours

World’s Tallest Skyscraper

Over 1,000 meters (that’s 3,280 feet!) with a total construction area of 530,000 sqm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture are currently in design development phase for Kingdom Tower. Slated to surpass Burj Khalifa by 173 meters (coincidently which Adrian Smith also designed while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) Kingdom Tower is the centerpiece of the $20 billion dollar Kingdom City Development, with the tower itself expected to cost $1.2 billion dollars. Featuring a luxury hotel, office space, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and the world’s highest observatory the tower’s foundation drawings are complete with the piling currently being tendered.

The world’s largest tower which will be located near the Red Sea in Jeddah,Saudi Arabia.

iPhone SLR mount

Photojojo‘s new iPhone SLR mount is one of the coolest iPhone add-ons I’ve seen so far. No need to spend $1000+ on a DSLR body, simple get this adapter and use your own Canon EOS or Nikon SLR lenses with your iPhone 4 – with depth of field and manual focus. You can even hang it around your neck just like your real DSLR using two loopholes on either end of the case.

P-Tree by Aandeboom

Unable to prevent revellers urinating against their trees, Roskilde Festival in Denmark installed tree-mounted urinals by Dutch designers Aandeboom.  The urinals are made of rotational-moulded plastic and can either connect to the main sewage system or a tank with a pump. 50 of the orange urinals were strapped to tree trunks for the festival last weekend.

+ Pool by Family and PlayLab

Family and PlayLab have designed a floating swimming pool for New York that would clean river water by filtering it through the walls.  

Called + Pool, the cross-shaped baths could be divided into four separate compartments with a lane-swimming pool, children’s area, sports pool and lounge. 

The designers have launched a campaign through crowd-funding platform Kickstarter to build a full-scale prototype of one arm.