Will It Blend?

I can’t really tell what it would ride like, but this Nissan IV concept car is, well, a bit eye-catching. The ultra lightweight car was designed for 1,000 pound challenge at the 2010 LA Auto Show. It looks about 2035, with electric power, and the use of  ”organic synthetics” – parts grown like pumpkins and rutabegas. A totally natural process, theoretically 100% sustainable and carbon-neutral. Seats for four. The car also sports a photo-voltaic rooftop, as well as a regenerative capacitor technology that returns 60% of kinetic energy spent.

I’ll be planting one next year.

Check out the other entries at the LA Auto Show.

Green By Design: The Shoebox

Kudos to Puma and Yves Behar for spending some serious time and intellectual capital on redesigning a humble shoebox: the new bag/box is far more utile and far less consumptive to produce than its standard predecessor. Hit the jump here to see more images of how this bag/box works. And let’s hope that manufacturers leverage Puma’s efforts and make similar positive changes in their manufacturing processes.

Hat tip to Gizmodo.

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Storage Cool

Do you have this problem? Not enough space for your clothes and your axes? How about this one-stop shopping solution? The only problem I foresee is trying to figure out whether to wear your cashmere or your Les Paul Gold Top. Hat tip to Storage | Glee.

Creative Design 101

While I am not a fan of advertisements generally, I can get behind good design and clever concepts. Check out some of the very witty pieces crafted by students on display at Gencay’s design blog. I would love to see some of the Super Bowl ads these bright minds might dream up!

Laze Around In Pure Design Style

You can sign me up for one of these. Designner Ieva Laurina imagines her own version of a harem tent strung between two trees. Called the Nest hammock, it will be displayed at the upcoming (October) Łódź Design Festival. Laurina describes her work:

The hammock is like a flying cloud. And it can make you fly as well. It gives shelter from the busy everyday life, taking you into another world. It is like going back in time to your childhood, when everything seemed so easy and accessible and you could almost walk above the ground. The hammock can be used inside the house as well as outside. Besides the functional side it is a sculptural object that reacts to wind and any movement. Watching the ropes move is almost like looking at a waterfall.

Beautiful and comfortable.

Hat tip to MocoLoco

Why Come Out Of Your Shell …

…. when you can live in it. This extraordinary house was built in 2006 in Mexico. Rooms become chambers, and the interior fittings mimic what molusks must feel like in their own tiny shell-homes. See more fascinating pictures here.

A Puzzling Approach to Music

Hee Yong’s imagining of the marriage of a Rubik’s cube and an Mp-3 player is decidedly clever.  Test and stimulate yourself at the same time: you have to activate the player by  solving the puzzle. Different layers have different functions, like play, pause, forward, or back. Then you must solve it again to stop it. Have at it!!!

Hat tip to Yanko Design.

Stairways To Heaven

Lovely stairs, images taken by various artists at FivePrime, showing sculptural tendencies and begging you to climb (or descend).

Cool Kids Design

It’s a children’s hospital in London. Really. Check out The Cool Hunter for some sleek and chic kids’ spaces. Fantastic designs for the shorter set. But I do have a question: why is all the best design in countries outside of the U.S.?

The Bubble Wrap Building

What better way to house a swimming pool than with a building built of bubbles? There was much to delight the eyes during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but the PTW’s National Swimming Center ranks right up there as one of the coolest sights. The construction of the “wrap” is based on the structure of organic cells and the natural formation of soap bubbles. It is built of a lightweight and transparent Teflon called ETFE. The building also is highly green, in that it traps 90% of the solar energy passing through the bubbles to heat the pool water within.

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