Hugh Frost's Frosty Cool Neo-London Bus!

From Shane O'Donoghue @carenthusiast.com:

"Hugh Frost, an industrial designer, reckons he has an answer to London's (and other cities) pollution and congestion problems in one: a new vehicle that consolidates passenger and freight transportation.

The Freight*BUS is a massive new vehicle featuring advanced technology and the ability to adapt to varying numbers of passengers and freight.

This flexibility is in part due to ceiling-suspended pairs of seats, which can be completely folded out of the way.

At night, or during off-peak times of day, Frost envisages his Freight*BUS being utilised to carry goods around the city, with a capacity of the equivalent to 35 standard 'europallets'. To aid loading and unloading, Frost has designed a palletless system.

The Freight*BUS is designed for several possible propulsion systems, including batteries that are automatically recharged when the bus stops and the potential for fuel cell operation in the future.

Thanks to in-wheel electric motors, the bus can manoeuvre into tight bus stops in a 'crab' like movement.

Although the Freight*BUS did not win Boris Johnson's competition, Frost is looking for partners to fund development of his concept further. More information can be found at www.onroutebus.co.uk.

The Freight*BUS is a massive new vehicle featuring advanced technology and the ability to adapt to varying numbers of passengers and freight.

This flexibility is in part due to ceiling-suspended pairs of seats, which can be completely folded out of the way.

At night, or during off-peak times of day, Frost envisages his Freight*BUS being utilised to carry goods around the city, with a capacity of the equivalent to 35 standard 'europallets'. To aid loading and unloading, Frost has designed a palletless system.

The Freight*BUS is designed for several possible propulsion systems, including batteries that are automatically recharged when the bus stops and the potential for fuel cell operation in the future.

Thanks to in-wheel electric motors, the bus can manoeuvre into tight bus stops in a 'crab' like movement.

Although the Freight*BUS did not win Boris Johnson's competition, Frost is looking for partners to fund development of his concept further. More information can be found at www.onroutebus.co.uk."

Dig. So it's a passenger bus during the day, a freight delivery truck at night, and an aerodynamically sound and awesome looking vehicle at all times. Got it?

Well done, Mr. Frost!

We hope that more hear of your idea and cotton to it's elegance and effectiveness.

Here is the Freight*BUS site.


Much love,

Jackson

Baumraum - a Tree house

At some point in your life you probably built a tree house. Or wanted to. It's just cool to have your own space above the ground separated from the rest of the world, right?
That's probably the exact thing that Andreas Wenning thought when he created Baumraum. Wenning is a German architect and furniture designer who started the previously mentioned Baumraum. It's actually just a tree house, but for grown ups.


This is one of the many designs Baumraum offers. All the designs are more or less custom made, that means that there is a list of designs that are fine-tuned to your wishes and your tree. I must say I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the houses. Take a look at this picture taken from a Baumraum house in Austria.

You can actually sleep in it! How does that do on the awesome-scale?! And look at those windows. You are waked and the first thing you see is a sea of green leaves, you hear a variety of birds and all of a sudden you feel a little closer to nature.

It should be noted that Baumraum houses are tree-friendly (yay!) their construction requires no nails or screws in the tree. So the tree's vessels stay intact and it certainly won't get sick. But how does your house stay up in the air then? An intelligent question, Baumraum uses steel cables that are connected to the ground and pieces of extremely sturdy textile that are montaged onto the tree.

For €20.000 (roughly $25.000) Wenning's company will make sure you get a professional tree house up your tree.
Think about the possibilities such a 'baumraum' can give you. It's an awesome sleeping place, you can use it as a terrace and have a drink while the sun sets on that warm summer day or you can make it into a place where you can break away from the stressful day-to-day life.

-jdh

Billy May's Nike Hindsight - Sport Glasses Give Spider Sense

Here at SuperForest we're madly in love with bicycles and bike safety, so these Nike Hindsight glasses, while still in the concept stage, have tickled and titillated us.

Special lens technology enhances the wearer's field of view, giving him or her an extra 25 degrees of peripheral vision.

Basically, wear these and you can see frontways and sideways at once, (plus a little behindways too!) Great for avoiding cars, trucks, pedestrians, and other cyclists while you're out running or biking.

Mas clever, no?

The Hindsight was designed by the frightfully talented Billy May.
(Saw it at Yanko Design.)

Frog Design's 30 Year Light Bulb

"We realized the easiest way to create acceptance was to deliver the technology in an already widely accepted form. The form of a standard light bulb was then the obvious choice. It would not ask consumers to change their form of power, their light socket or replace the lampshade attached to the bulb. And it underscored the notion that good design is about solving problems for the whole ecosystem of the product.

In the end, we arrived at a concept that offers better energy efficiency than CFLs without the toxic mercury, provides a desirable light quality and dimming capability, and fits into the socket connection of the incandescent—all in a package that will last 30 years."

-Frog Design

Now, normally I'm not into concept art, but this design is a real winner. I would love to put these in every fixture in my apartment.

Fancy a nap?

JooYoun Paek is an artist and interactive designer based in New York. She certainly has her finger on the pulse when it comes to innovative, unusual and interesting pieces. Case in point, her Pillowig.

DesignBand - Bird Turf Urban Birdhouses!

In most cities, where you see power lines you'll undoubtedly see a pair of sneakers chucked over them, hanging in the breeze.



DesignBand has very cleverly upended this meme with their spicy idea: Bird Turf!

"an urban birdhouse inspired by the uniquely American act of throwing shoes over powerlines... Bird Turf proudly reclaims city space for natural habitat by manipulating a distinctly cultural typology."

In other words, if you've gotta chuck something over a power line, donate those old Jordans to Goodwill and chuck these instead!



Nicey nice nice.

A chirpy chirpy "thank you!" to the good people at DesignBand.

Walls full of imagination!

Hi!
I just stumbled across this New York City artist named Ami Suma who specializes in murals for kid's rooms!

Her work is fun, modern and not overly 'kid'. I never see kid paintings that I would put on my son's walls, but Ami's work, I totally would!

Check it out:

So, how does it work? Here's the process, it's simple:

Of course, she only uses AFM safecoat and zero VOC paints that have no harmful toxins to cause indoor air pollution.

What a great service to offer! A room full of imagination and endless fun for the kids!
(Could also be a great gift, for a very special friend!)

And thanks to DesignSponge for the tip!

Keep Painting!
niki

Hotel Experimenta

A hotel usually gives you everything you need to get through your day. A bed, a bathroom and preferably a bit of food. So theoretically you don't have to get out of the hotel building to survive.

With this idea Dutch designer Jan Konings created Hotel Experimenta. It's consists out of just one room, but that one room has a view.

What appears to be a blue/green colored box with a vague purpose turns out to be a hotel. As Konings himself calls it "an inverted hotel", you can't stay in to get your breakfast; you have to get out.

The moment you make your reservation for Hotel Experimenta the streets turn into the hotel corridors, the city becomes the lobby and the city's inhabitants facilitate the activities and guest services.

As it's name says, Hotel Experimenta is an experience. It's part of a design exhibition in Amsterdam which is stretched throughout the city, and reservations are welcome until 2 November.

Hotel Experimenta

-jdh

Vote Ecologically

With the US Presidential Elections in just a few weeks and the battle for votes about to begin there is possibly no better time to address the environment as a serious point on the political agenda.

But with the United States of America being in a Wall Street nightmare the focus tends to shift from the environment to stock, banks and the global economy.

Well, luckily enough for the green-minded garment company Under The Canopy designed an awe-some t-shirt telling you what to vote on November 4th.

That's right, Vote Ecologically. No matter what party you vote, vote for the outdoors. It's propaganda for the green, and available for $28 or $34 from Under The Canopy. And did I mention it's been made of organic cotton and 2% of the money goes to the Rainforest Foundation?

via:treehugger

-jdh

Awesome Anatomy

A while ago Superforester Jackson posted something about Tom Geisler's art. An artist who made posters concerning human anatomy. In short Geisler delivered an excellent job at showing human anatomy in a fun way.

Now design company Kikkerland produced a line consisting out of models showing animal anatomy in a great, colorful, awesome way.

Wait, anatomy, that sounds silly. Well, according to Kikkerland it isn't. Take a look at their anatomically correct models.

 

  

The upper picture is the model of a snail and the lower is one of the human body. On the left side the muscle system and on the right the bone and artery systems.
The small statues are colorful, fun and decorative. And there's a whole lot of them.

via:lost at e minor

-jdh

The DutchTub

Did you ever took a hike in the mountains and, while hiking, thought: "Oh boy, I wish I had a hot tub within reach now!"

In the rare case you did the DutchTub is probably a good solution.

Under the motto of "boundless bathing" the Dutch designer Floris Schoonderbeek designed this special tub. So, how does one realize "boundless bathing"?

The DutchTub is basically half of a sphere to which you can connect your garden hose. You turn the hose on and the bath is filled with cold water. You get some wood, stuff it in the destined compartment and set it on fire. Around this fireplace there's a spiraling pipe containing the water from the tub. Due to physical liquid laws the cold water comes in at the bottom, is heated, spirals up and enters the tub again.

With two and a half hours of warming-up time the tub hasn't been designed for hasty bathers. The tub is available for a rough €4450 (which should be about $6400) and comes in six colors.

-jdh

LUNAR - Designer's Field Guide to Sustainability

As beautiful as it is practical, and you can download your very own for free.

Thank you, LUNAR!

Solar Trees

Switching off the lights as you leave a room helps. It helps your bank account balance as well as the environment.
But what about those lights that illuminate the streets all night long? The good old street lights? They suck energy from the grid for days on a yearly basis and thus contribute to pollution.

Not good, not good. As thought designer Ross Lovegrove when he had the Solar Tree in mind. It's a redesign of the casual streetlight. But as it power source it has got an battery which is charged by some photovoltaic cells. (You know, solar panels). And it looks a bit like a tree, that's all.

Yes the design is certainly awesome. When I thought about the fact that it was inspired upon a tree it occurred to me that 'regular' trees convert light energy into chemical energy (which we digest), and this solar tree converts the light into chemical energy, to convert it back to light again at a later time.

Probably the best part of it all is that the Solar Tree is reality, it tours the world and I hope a city will soon replace the normal street lanterns with the Solar Tree.

-jdh

The Paper Pulp Lamp

It's a fact that you receive a lot of packaging when you buy a new appliance. Whether it is a computer, television or lamp. You're always in for a load of packaging materials that are, in general, not so good for the environment.

On behalf of the environment the extremely bright British design student David Gardener designed something cool for his graduation assignment. The Paper Pulp Lamp.

This is what the packaging looks like. And here it comes, the packaging is in fact the lamp! When someone buys the lamp they get a package which looks like this. The only thing the end-user has to do is move the electronic parts around for a bit, fold the set and plug the cord in.

And here it is. The Paper Pulp Lamp in a fully functioning state. Gardener said his design was inspired upon the packaging industry that uses paper pulp for it's product (paper pulp is recycled paper). And that the underlying idea was to create a lamp existing solely out of it's own packaging.

Nice!

-jdh

Aalto Vase v2.0

When talking about vase design the Aalto Vase is probably one of the most famous designs. It was designed back in 1937 by the Finnish Alvar Aalto and rumor has it he inspired the vase upon a lake. Lake Aalto.

But after more than 70 years of climate change Lake Aalto isn't the same Lake Aalto anymore.


Ouch, it shrunk for a bit. That's just a fact. But recently a bright Czech (someone from the Czech Republic, a European country) named Jan Ctvrtnik (try pronounce that) redesigned the classic for a competition. The aim was to visualize climate change. Take a look:

To me it wasn't a surprise that Ctrvrtnik won. It's just such a simple adaption to a conventional design with a brilliant story behind it.

-jdh

The S**t Box

Once upon a time there was a man who visited festivals on a regular basis. After three days of festival and no cleaning service the toilets tend to get pretty dirty. The man mentioned earlier got annoyed by this and started brainstorming about a solution.

The Shit Box was born.


It's a cardboard box with a lid on it. Under the lid is a hole, when opening the lid the shit box functions the same as your very own toilet. If you want to use it you hang a poo bag inside it (10 bags are included), sit down and do your thing. When done you dispose the poo bag and fold the shit box so it's nice and portable again.

But wait a second. Those bags aren't reusable so it's waste, and waste is bad. Well The Brown Corporation (the firm behind the whole idea) has thought about this one too. The bags contain a substance called P-Life, which breaks the bag down into carbon dioxide and water.
Furthermore the box itself is 100% biodegradable.

Not only this is practical at festivals, for example when taking a multi-day hike in the mountains. You take a shit box with you and as a result you don't have to manure the already fertile soil. It could also be a replacement for the portable toilet, which uses lots of chemicals to keep the inside hygienically clean.

-jdh

Soft House

When it's hot outside people often pull the curtains in front of the windows to shed their living spaces from the rising temperatures. Obvious. But the energy that would have entered your home now goes to waste. A pity.

Someone at KVA, a Boston located architecture bureau, must have noticed this. Before coming up with the Soft House. An intelligent product which could be classified as a multi-purpose-curtain. It's basically a curtain with some incredibly smart nanotechnology in it.

The curtain manages to convert the light energy that falls on it directly into electric energy. Just like a solar panel. If it catches sunlight all day the curtain can generate up to 16 kWh, and that's half of the average daily US household usage.
But it gets better. When you need some light the Soft House can be hung to the roof. Then it transforms into a "suspended soft luminous chandelier".

While I'm amazed with this innovation the possibilities pop up in my head. Umbrellas, clothing and (maybe a tad silly) sunglasses. Anyway, KVA is looking for a few development partners, so there is hope that this product might make it from prototype to the market.

-jdh

Cardboarddesign furniture store in NYC!

Hey!

We've posted before about the cool Flexible Love Chair and now Cardboarddesigns is going to distribute it. They have a new store right in Soho (on West Broadway between Spring and Prince).

They have awesome furniture, all made out of recycled cardboard. Check it:

We've been wanting a teepee for E for a long time now. He would love their kid furniture:

They also have these really cute pics, to show the life of the carboard box:

I know where I'm headed tomorrow.....

Have a great day!

Niki

Kielder Observatory; observe the stars without doing harm

For my whole life I've been interested in the universe for a bit. Just a bit. But I've never been much into observatories and such. However, a few minutes ago I got a damn good reason to be.

It's named the Kielder Observatory and it's located in the UK. A few years ago some amateur astronomers wanted a new centre to watch their precious stars and a design competition was held. Charles Barclay and his fellow architects won

Above one of the early sketches. The building is almost entirely made up of Douglas-fir, so a woody structure.

More importantly it's claimed to be self-sustainable. The power need is fulfilled by a load of solar panels and a wind turbine which generates a rough 2.5 kW. Also there are placed composting toilets inside to forsee the astronomers in their sanitary needs. (To be completely honest, I visited wikipedia to learn what a composting toilet is. In fact it's a pretty simple application. Such a toilet manages to convert human waste into compost.) That's what I call self-sustainability!

Furthermore the Kielder observatory is the perfect example that an eco-friendly building can look good. (Damn good in my opinion).

Some more pictures through Dezeen.

-jdh

Exciting Times!

Hello All,

Environmentally speaking, things seem to be going very well.
Winter is coming to a close, Spring is just around the corner, and there is an unmistakable buzz in the air.

Everywhere I look, I see things that encourage and excite me:

Wind Power in Texas.

(great article here: nytimes.com)

Green skyscrapers and carbon neutral cities popping up around the globe.




(images via inhabitat)

Inhabitat and Treehugger constantly awash with a wealth of inspiring intel.

(image via inhabitat)


(image via treehugger)

Swissmiss and her seemingly endless supply of inspiring design and imagery:





Wonderful times, these.

Love to all,

SFNYC