Campsite is a New York based design blog and studio run by visual designer Max Ritt.
This amazing chair is part of an ongoing study, Martín Azúa of nature and it’s integration into physical objects. In the case of this chair it exists not only as a place to sit and relax, but also as a home to plant and a habitation for a small animal. We begin to see through projects like The Inner Life how proximity to nature provides a more intimate understanding of it and also a improved level of calm.
(via NOTCOT »)
The city of Lucerne Switzerland has created these awesome floor stickers as part of an initiative to engage people with the trash cans and get them to use them more. The playful nature of these is great and I think will truly appeal to the kid inside all of us.
(via swissmiss »)
Freight containers are a great modular building component and a great way to re-purpose something that would normally just become post industrial waste. Benjamin Garcia Saxe has created a prototype for a client of the most modestly priced modern home I have ever encountered. Ringing in at $40,000 this little shipping container wonder is amazing. Composed of two 40 foot containers linked by an open space with clerestory windows at the top, this layout gives great views and also provides good cross ventilation. This prototype was developed as part of Saxe’s project “Containers of Hope”, which as this example proves is working hard to create environmentally responsible and affordable housing solutions. Their main market is first time home buyers in developing nations, but this design is most certainly suitable for a wider array of applications.
(via HomeDSGN »)
Truly inspired and functional new glassware designs are few and far between these days. It seems like a rather difficult space to redefine or at the least to improve the standard we have become accustomed to over the last century. Govino Glasses do a nice job of combining the beauty and aesthetic of wine glasses with a reusable, shatterproof, BPA free polymer. The design is impeccable, especially the indentation, which provides a nice little grip to keep the glass from slipping out of your hand.
(via Cool Hunting »)
Last October I saw Dong Ping Wong speak at the FEAST conference, and the + Pool was one of the corner stones of his presentation. That was the first time I had come across the project and it literally blew me away. I hadn’t really thought of using the NYC waterways for swimming beyond that deadly hot day once a year when I contemplate hurling myself into the Hudson River. After seeing Wong speak, I posted about his presentation and the + Pool here on campsite, and since then the project has come leaps and bounds.
Since this past fall FAMILY and PlayLab have teamed up with world renowned engineering firm ARUP to figure out the feasibility of the project and have now launched a kickstarter to begin gathering grass roots funding. If you want to swim in NYC and don’t want to make the trip to Rockaway Beach or Long Island help make the + Pool happen. It’s also good for the environment!
Finding the intersection of art and sustainability can be tough, unless you are The National Gallery in London, and you are working with Van Gogh’s A Wheatfield, with Cypresses as inspiration. Taking this famous painting and the technique of creating a green wall, designers used around 26 varieties and over 8,000 total plants to bring Van Gogh’s masterpiece to life literally.
(via Inhabitat »)
For me this video is more depressing than inspiring, but sometimes I think that is what we need to shock our brains. Something drastic jump start a change in how we live. I would have been walking to my meeting today either way, but now I can think of another reason why. This great info motion graphic was done by Chris Harmon. Thanks for breaking this down for everyone Chris. It
(via OK Great »)
Despite the ups and downs in the weather right now summer is coming, and this Gardner Folding Chair With Tools
(via materialicious »)
It is great to see architects designing and thinking smaller. The Cube Project called QB1 is a 3 meter cubic house, which includes all the necessary requirements for living. Just on a more confined scale than we have become used to. In the past people traveled in tiny steamship compartments and cramped stagecoaches, and I think for environmental and economic reasons we should look back to those spaces in designing for the future. QB1 is definitely channeling some of it’s predecessors of it’s scale.
Also check out the video of the construction after the jump.
(via Jetson Green »)
I would definitely use a Wrap-n-Mat
(via swissmiss »)
Over the course of 2010 there were a bunch of concept videos and designs based on the idea of translucent displays, and even display technologies that were so cheap they could be applied to any surface. Now, a mere two months into 2011, to hear that Samsung has unveiled a 46″ LCD television that is solar-powered, zero energy, and transparent. Well this is just a complete mental explosion. I do have to say it starts to feel a little scary when the most absurd future visualizations from the movies of your childhood start to become realities, and we have definitely gotten to that point.
The prototype was unveiled at CeBit in Germany. The television has integrated solar panels that draw energy from ambient light in the room, so dark screening rooms will no longer be friends with the televisions of the future. The translucence of the display is actually attributable to the display being so thin. The next obvious jump is to start integrating this type of display into glass surfaces for any and all applications. The biggest one off the bat is obviously going to be car windshields. Yes another hazard on the road! My cynicism aside the combined super powers in this new TV really are rad and the energy efficiency side of it really impresses me coming from a big corporation like Samsung.
(via Inhabitat »)
I meant to post this along time ago, but it just sort of floated in my drafts until today. This design for a Tea House by David Jameson Architects is an amazing act of simplicity. The minimalist approach truly does justice to the history and practice of tea as it is done in Japan. I also really appreciate this building from the standpoint of it being a great solution to designing a simple and small out building. Albeit the huge i-beams seem a tad excessive.
(via NOTCOT »)
I love architectural design thinking applied to atypical problems. IE-TAGs are a brilliantly clear vision to make a better post-it by Naruse Inokuma Architects. Beginning with discarded wood and ending with a stack of recycled sticky notes.
(via Core77 »)
This short documentary about linen is one the most informative and beautiful films I have ever watched. Benoit Millot captures, very much in the style of Gary Hustwit, the essence of linen from plant, through production and manufacturing all the way to purchase.
The new green city car prototype by famed race car engineer Gordon Murray is the race car for those of us who love the planet. The Murray T.25 City Car , to me is more than a green machine. It’s design and engineering combine to make an energy efficient car that looks superior to normal cars. Previously the only well known comparable options, Toyota’s Prius and Smart Car lacked the luster the T.25 delivers. I hope that this new benchmark in energy efficient city cars gives competing automakers some perspective.
