This doorknob is called the Doorclaxon, the knob part is squishy, and will be presumably make a noise when you squeeze it. Designed by Dieter Volkers. His website is silent about whether the knob/bell is actually for sale.

(Photo: Dieter Volkers. Link: Core77.)

Yesterday I came across this pair of scissors doubling as a door handle at a barbershop in Abcoude.

This simple and elegant solution presents a win-win-win situation for everyone involved:

1. Potential customers will be able to tell what kind of business this is.

2. Customers can use the handle to open the door.

3. The owner can now also serve passing giants.

I forgot to note the name of the barbershop, but it is the one on the corner of the Stationstraat and the Burgemeester des Tombeweg.

As if it isn’t bad enough that since they privatized, the national railroad monopolist barely seems to manage to run a train on time, to boot the NS (Dutch Railways) has now resorted to forced labour. Everybody passing through this revolving door helps the Driebergen-Zeist railway station generate a little bit of electricity. According to an enthousiastic manufacturer, Boon Edam, this is the world’s first energy generating revolving door and a breakthrough in “entrance technology.” There’s a word I bet you did not know existed. They estimate the amount of revolutions to be a scientific “gazillion times.”

The electricity thus won is used to illuminate a sign that says how much electricity the door has generated so far.

Link: Forever Geek. Photo Boon Edam.