July 16, 2009

Bookcase stores books in the shelves

Filed under: Design,Gadgets,Technology by Branko Collin @ 11:26 am

Upon his promotion, product designer Ianus Keller’s friends gave him this bookcase where every person had created one shelf. One of the shelves contains 1 GB of memory, and Ianus writes in this Bright.nl thread (Dutch) that he uses this shelf both to store books on and in.

The original Bright story was about a design by Marlies Romberg, recently graduated from the HKU (the U stands for Utrecht), called Dear Diary 1.0 and shown below. I am not sure though whether this is an elaborate case mod or a table with a memory.

Update: Marlies Romberg replied to an e-mail I sent her, saying the table is a case mod. For those who don’t speak geek-speak, this means that this is a complete computer with a customized case.

Source photos: Ianus Keller and Marlies Romberg respectively.

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July 15, 2009

Lounge chairs in a park

Filed under: Architecture,Design by Branko Collin @ 9:30 am

lawnge

These metal and plastic grass lounge chairs in the Valkenbergpark in Breda were made by designer Lisette Spee and architect Tim van den Burg, who hope to be able to make more of them.

(Link: Designboom. Photo: Tim van den Burg.)

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July 8, 2009

Writing pad sheets optimized for making paper balls

Filed under: Art,Design by Branko Collin @ 11:33 am

This pad comes with ready-made sheets for creating paper balls, whether thrown away in frustration or just to tease the teacher. The pad was created by Trapped in Suburbia who are operating from the old Caballero cigarette factory in The Hague and describe it as follows:

Play More More More is a note book that encourages clients to play at their work. Every sheet has its own ball print.

(Link. Via Bright. Photos: Trapped in Suburbia)

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June 30, 2009

Folding cargo containers save space and energy

Filed under: Design,Dutch first,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 11:59 am
cargoshell1

Rotterdam businessman Rene Giesbers dreamed up, helped design and launched an innovative container concept called Cargoshell, a fully foldable container made from composite that significantly reduces the amount of space empty containers take up on ships and trains. In fact, acccording to the report on Dutch television (RTL 4) yesterday, some 20% of all containers on ships and some 30% of all containers on trucks are just ’empties’ requiring much fuel to transport. According to a Dutch article earlier this year, some 20 billion euro is lost every year just transporting empty containers.

When the Cargoshell is folded, it takes up 25% of its actual size. It can be folded by one person and a forklift in just 30 seconds.

The Dutch often use foldable and obviously re-usable shopping crates, which I had never seen in North America, that look like this:

krat

This crate was what inspired Giesbers to do the same for containers.

Sometimes innovation is really just staring at us in the face.

(Photo: cargoshell.com)

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June 16, 2009

Cephalopod lamp

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 9:06 am

This lamp, the Ode 1647 by Jacco Maris from Breda, Noord Brabant, must be one of the spookiest I have ever seen, although the designer was mainly looking to recreate the grandeur of chandeliers. I want one in all its splendid tentacliness. Apparently they come in all shapes and sizes. The arms are made of copper weave.

Link: bright.nl, in a short report about the 100% Design fair.

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June 11, 2009

Dutch dike protects national archives in Washington

Filed under: Architecture,Design,General by Orangemaster @ 10:10 am
archives1

File this one under ‘no one is a prophet in their own country’. Dutch inventor and painter Johann van den Noort never got any credit for his work in the Netherlands (was nominated once back in 1996), but this month his custom-made water defences are going to be built to protect nothing less than the National Archives of the United States in Washington DC.

Two water defences, both 2,5 metres high and 8 metres wide, will be installed at the entrance of the archive building. Van den Noort refers to his invention as a ‘floating dike’ or ‘self-flooding water dam’: once the water level rises, the pit with the floating defence, made from polyester and kevlar, fills up. Then, the water pressure pushes the defence above ground, which turns into an impenetrable wall.

Although Van den Noort’s hometown of Kampen, Overijssel saw no use for his invention when it came time to reinforce their own water defences, he did received the award of ‘Best Civil Technical Invention in the world’ at an international invention trade show in Geneva back in 1996, among others.

(Links: idealize and Noort Innovations, Photo: Sanjay K. Bidasaria)

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May 31, 2009

Tower of children’s books in Amsterdam public library

Filed under: Design,Literature by Branko Collin @ 6:31 pm

Speaking of towers of books, this one is in the recently built main branch of the Amsterdam public library, in the children’s books section. The top has pillows in it so that children can sit there and read.

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May 26, 2009

Foldable mobile office with desk and chairs

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 8:37 am

When Tim Vinke says mobile office, he means mobile office. His Kruikantoor—the name is a pun on the word for wheelbarrow, kruiwagen—can be folded and wheeled anywhere.

Bright adds (Dutch) that this was his graduation project at the Minerva Academy in Groningen earlier this year. The object will be displayed at the graduation exhibition (Dutch) from July 4 through July 9.

Source photo: TimVinke.nl.

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May 22, 2009

A new type of modular bike rack

Filed under: Bicycles,Design by Orangemaster @ 10:15 am

fietsenstalling

Two Dutch companies, AAArchitecten and Uq Design, combined forces and designed this bike storage system that doubles as a place to sit. They call it the “Bikes & Chill”.

For those of you who have no clue how badly crowded the bike racks in and around train stations are in the Netherlands, in January there were talks of charging people to park their bikes in Amsterdam. Bike racks are usually full, and if you try and park your bike somewhere else, big men with clamps will bust your bike lock open and take away your bike on their big trucks full of them. Then you have to call this number and try and get your back bike proving it’s yours and usually paying 50 euro.

The colorful “Bikes & Chill” bike storage system is modular and won an innovation prize. One of the conditions of their entry was an innovative design made from plastic fibres.

(Link: bizz.nl, photos: idealize.nl)

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May 13, 2009

Bike folds into a stroller

Filed under: Bicycles,Design by Branko Collin @ 11:05 am

The Taga bicycle has one or two children’s seats in front, but folds into a stroller if need be, and can be folded even further so that it fits the boot of a car. Rutger at Bright seems happy with it (Dutch), as his bakfiets is too bulky and he keeps testing the cobblestones with his teeth when using his mamafiets (a regular bike designed for carrying heavy loads).

Bright’s commenters point out that the Taga looks as cool as a walker though. Well, at least you have got your mobility needs covered from cradle to grave right there. Not that it is impossible for a tricycle to look cool.

Source photos: Taga B.V.

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