An Olympic gold medal is already a difficult, rare item to attain. And next year, winter Olympians will have an opportunity to win a gold medal that's even more rare. Come February, the seven finalists standing on the tallest part of the podium in Sochi, Russia will be awarded medals made of gold and metal from outer space.

Earlier this year, a meteor the size of a bus slammed into the Russian city of Chelyabinsk with the force of 20 atom bombs, generating much spectacular dashcam footage on YouTube. Fragments of that meteorite have been harvested and will be machined into the medals themselves, creating a gold and chondrite disc that only a handful of people on the Earth will ever wear around their necks. "We will hand out [the special] medals to all the athletes who will win gold on that day," said Chelyabinsk Region Culture Minister Alexei Betekhtin, "because both the meteorite strike and the Olympic Games are the global events."

Chelyabinsk and Sochi are not geographically close; the chondrite-infused medals will travel some 2,700 kilometers from the first city to the second. But the original meteor, of course, traveled quite a bit further than that.

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Chicago Bean Sunrise by Lara Images

Since we've already highlighted the Speaker Line-Up and the Program for the IDSA 2013 International Conference, not to mention the fact that attending is only way you'll get a chance to create a 3D Printed Flying Car, is there much else we need to say that will motivate you to register for this amazing event?

How about this - If you haven't registered yet, your chance to take advantage of the late registration prices ends on August 11th.

Once the late registration period ends, you'll still be able to sign up on-site or via phone, but the price to attend jumps another $50 to $100, depending on whether or not you're an IDSA Member. If you like saving money, and want to benefit from all these reasons to attend, don't wait. Register today!

Bad Ass. Those are the words that come to mind to describe Hand-Eye Supply's latest collaboration piece. Behold the mighty Bridgetown Forge x Hand-Eye Supply Hand-Forged Nata Hatchet! Each Nata is crafted in Portland, OR by the experienced and rugged hands of blacksmith Arnon Kartmazov of Bridgetown Forge with the assistance Nitzan Lilie, punctuated by short bouts of Russian martial arts while the metal is heating.

A nata is a traditional Japanese Hatchet that utilizes a square blade and a slightly curved handle for good balance and cutting angle. For the BF x HES Nata we agreed on a slightly smaller axe blade with double beveled edge for ease of use. The blade is forged from reclaimed 5160 Carbon Spring Steel from truck leaf springs used for wheel suspension. 5160 is extremely durable and commonly used by blacksmiths because it can handle high impact applications but will hold a sharp edge. For hatchets Arnon prefers 5160 to white or blue steel, which is traditionally used for Nata, because of it's tendency to chip. The handles are made from hickory by Nitzan Lilie, former competitive tango dancer and tough as nails blacksmith. The handles are then pinned with hammered copper. Each blade is finished with a stamp of Bridgetown Forge and the HES logo, to mark it's authenticity.

Since each Nata is formed by hand they vary slightly in size and character but all are made to perform! They are razor sharp and burly as hell!

Bridgetown Forge is run by Arnon Kartmazov, who's over a decade of experience apprenticing in Japan makes him an ideal person to craft this Japanese style hatchet. Beyond his experience in Japan, Arnon studied with master blacksmith Uri Hofi in Israel world renowned for his forging ability. Arnon's Japanese knives are sought after by chefs. "Arnon has been heavily influenced by the Japanese esthetic, and feels that even the most ordinary, everyday objects can, and perhaps should be special, surprising, of high quality, long-lasting and a pleasure to use. Thus, Bridgetown Forge makes items like food bowls, spoons, and sushi platters -- all forged from stainless steel, and finished to please both the eye and the hand."

Included is a leather sheath made by OROX Leather Co. Available from Hand-Eye Supply with for $220.

Below are photos of Arnon Kartmazov and Nitzan Lilie forging our nata.

Eben Bayer (left) and Gavin McIntyre founded Ecovative in 2007.

This is the ninth profile in our series on American design entrepreneurs, looking at how they got where they are, what they do all day, and what advice they have for other designers running their own businesses. Read last week's profile here.

In June, the Green Island, New York company Ecovative "grew" a house. From mushrooms. This is just the latest radical experiment from the materials-production outfit known for using mycelium—or the roots of mushrooms—to create biomaterials for everyday applications like wall insulation and packaging. For the aforementioned house, the company filled the pine tongue-and-groove walls of a 60-square-foot structure with its fire-resistant, environmentally-friendly Mushroom Insulation. "That house is still alive," says Ecovative's 28-year-old co-founder Eben Bayer. "If you were to cut a hole in the wall to run wiring, for example, the material would be dry. If you spritzed it with water, it would grow back and close in around the wiring."

The idea to grow home-compostable bioplastics from living materials began in 2007 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), when Bayer and fellow student Gavin McIntyre first used mycelium to create a rigid, moldable material. With the encouragement of a professor, Bayer and McIntyre founded Ecovative out of RPI's Business Incubator—which turned out to be a valuable resource for the budding entrepreneurs. "Depending on the one you're in, [business incubators] can provide a lot of services like networking and coaching," Bayer says. "But the thing that RPI did for us that was life-changing was that for the first six months they gave us free office space."

Bayer says that they also benefitted from being left alone. "What we really needed was a wet lab," Bayer says. "Trying to do biology with carpeting is not easy. We put up walls so people wouldn't know what we were doing, and there was steam coming out from under our door. They ignored us."

Eben Bayer with a sheet of Ecovative's Mushroom Insulation

Mushroom Packaging used for wine shipping

Here's yet another badly-acted, supposed-to-be-ironic infomercial, but this one belies a clever product design. The Jar-with-a-Twist is a structural package design that operates like a deodorant stick, elevating the interior base as the user cranks. Have a look:

The cited three cents per unit in additional cost is something I'd gladly pay for the convenience of being able to get every last drop of the jar's contents. I love the brilliance of simply molding threads into the surface. And as someone who hates waste, I'd love to see this package design mechanism applied to, well, everything. How many millions of gallons of shampoo/toothpaste/mayonnaise/you-name-it must we throw out each year, simply because it's not practical to extract all of it?

The Jar-with-a-Twist concept was developed by this small team of guys and is currently patent pending.

As of this morning, the folks at Munich's Bavarian Motor Works—a.k.a. BMW—have unveiled the new all-electric BMW i3, the first in their 'i' sub-brand. We first caught wind of their efforts at the 2012 NY Auto Show, and while the production model doesn't look that far off from previously-seen prototypes, rest assured that the design and engineering teams at BMW have spent some five years bringing the new vehicle to market.

The vehicle concept behind the BMW i3 was designed from the outset to incorporate an all-electric drive system. This has numerous advantages over "conversion" vehicles, in which the original combustion engine is swapped for an electric motor. The engineers can design whatever works best, in terms of construction, dimensions and configuration of the electric drive system's components. The car's development is dictated by the characteristics designed into the car by the development team and not by the constraints imposed by a pre-existing vehicle design. For example, the space in a conversion vehicle set aside for the fuel tank or exhaust system cannot be used. In the BMW i3 there is no need for this kind of compromise.

The new automobile offers a veritable carload of talking points, but here's the nitty-gritty:
- The BMW i3 will be available in Q2 2014 with a sticker price of $41,350 before federal and local incentives; a range extender option costs about 10% more
- The range of 80–100 hours on a single charge is consistent with data from BMW Project i, in which 1,000 drivers logged over 12 million miles to yield the finding that the average distance traveled per day is 30 miles
- The 170-hp engine is electronically limited to a top speed of 93mph
- Preliminary acceleration testing yields results of 0–30mph in 3.5 seconds and zero to sixty in approximately seven seconds
- The 22 kWh lithium ion battery weighs 450lbs (204kg) and takes three hours to charge via 220V power supply; an SAE DC quick charge option takes only half an hour
- Total weight is about 2,700lbs (1,225kg)
- Aluminum chassis with carbon fiber panels; thermoplastic exterior acts as an extended bumper for added durability in urban settings
- The dashboard is made from sustainably-harvested eucalyptus

That's right, BMW has elected to develop their own carbon fiber production, right here in the U.S. of A. Even so, I was interested to learn that this process takes place across three-quarters of the globe: the precursor polyacrilonitrile (PAN) comes from Japan; it's transformed into CFRP—carbon fiber reinforced plastic—in Moses Lake, WA, and assembled in Leipzig, Germany (additionally, about 10% of the CF is recycled). Thus, the fact that carbon fiber is extremely lightweight surely saves cost on transportation of raw materials as well; the New York Times has a nice overview of the process.

Why Washington State? Well, besides the fact that its a hotbed for aerospace engineering, it so happens that a renewable energy source was paramount, and access to hydroelectricity, which offers a 24/7 solution over solar or wind power, was a major selling point for the lakeside locale. State Governor Jay Inslee described it as a case of "using carbon to build cars instead of to fuel them," going so far as to suggest that the "more carbon goes into the car, the less goes into the environment." (Mayor Michael Bloomberg also made a few brief remarks, acknowledging his city's abiding car culture and the fact that he used to own a Bimmer.)

A panel discussion on infrastructure during this morning's global debut, simulcast from New York City, London and Beijing

I was also interested to hear an offhand comment from BMW Head of Design Adrian van Hooydonk, to effect that the relatively nimble manufacturing process could eventually occur in local markets. He clarified that this was a possibility (but not planned for the time being):

[In terms of production, the primary issue is] the amount of energy that it takes to build to these cars. So we came up with this new process that uses far less energy than [what is required] to bend metal. The means the machines are not as heavy, and you end up with a factory that you can [conceivably] build more quickly, one that is smaller—one that you could even build up and take down again.

Whereas a conventional factory, you have to do a significant amount of investment and groundwork before you can even put those machines there. So it could be an added benefit, one day, that this type of production is far more flexible and could be set up in different places.

We had a chance to speak to van Hooydonk on the occasion of the launch—he shared the trajectory of BMW's efforts to develop an electric vehicle and what's on the horizon for the storied automaker:

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Text & photos by Francis Bitonti Studio

Last week marked the start of the New Skins: Computational Design for Fashion workshop, led by designer Francis Bitonti of the famed 'Dita Dress/' and facilitated by Pratt Institute's DAHRC. The three-week summer course, which kicked off on July 22, is an intensive exploration of applications for computationally-based design methodologies and cutting-edge manufacturing technologies.

"I want to give the fashion industry the opportunity to see how computation can be more than a means of execution," says Bitonti. "It's a medium for design, a fresh way to think and as much about aesthetics and culture as it is about production and performance."

During week one, the students created a 3D scan of a human body from a model. This scan data will be used to design a garment entirely in a digital environment. The researchers will use this scan data to "grow" garments in the computer using advanced computer algorithms. In coming weeks the digital immersion learning and implementing both advanced 3D modeling and computer programming. "Computer programming is going to be an essential skill for the next generation of designers," Bitonti asserts. "It's how we talk to machines, it's like learning how to sew for previous generations."

The 12 students themselves come from a variety of disciplines ranging from Architecture, Fashion, industrial Design and Fine Art, and hail from all over the world, from as far afield as Israel and Norway.

You pop the bubbles in bubble wrap to relieve stress. But sometimes you just cannot pop them fast enough, and that leads to even more stress. To solve this niggling problem, Los-Angeles-based comedian/magician Eric Buss used some good ol' fashioned American ingenuity. And this, friends, is why the terrorists hate us.

My only concern is that Buss' contraption does not burn fossil fuels nor create any direct pollution. SUV version, please!

Earlier this year, popular Linux-based operating system Ubuntu announced their mobile OS, leading to speculation about a forthcoming foray into hardware. Last week saw the launch of an ambitious crowdfunding campaign for the very same: Canonical, the company behind the OS, is seeking a whopping $32 million to introduce a "low-volume, high-technology platform," The new smartphone is expressly designed for "enthusiasts and mobile computing professionals"—Ubuntu draws an analogy to Formula 1 racing, in which performance-oriented R&D "accelerates the adoption of new technologies and drives them down into the mainstream."

To that end, the first generation of the Ubuntu Edge—available only via presale on IndieGogo—features a clever dual-boot system, such that the device runs Ubuntu mobile OS and Android simultaneously. Moreover, since the Edge runs a full version of Ubuntu desktop OS, it can also serve as a full-fledged PC when connected to an external monitor. Thus, the smartphone also represents "the future of converged computing," in which a single piece of hardware serves as the brain behind a suite of applications: mobile, desktop and potentially anything in between.

Of course, the rectangular black slab itself has duly impressive specs, with a 4.5-inch, 1280×720 sapphire glass screen, plus 4GB of RAM and a massive 128GB hard drive, as well as Dual LTE, Bluetooth, front- and rear-cameras—in short, the works. Designed in-house at Ubuntu, industrial designer Chee Wong has posted a first look at the "materials, stories and process [behind] the development of the Ubuntu Edge."

Ford research engineer Zach Nelson hacked up an Xbox 360 controller, and used an out-of-date MakerBot Thing-O-Matic, to make a rather interesting mod to a Shelby GT500: A haptic shift knob. When the RPMs hit a mere 3,000—god that car must have some awesome low-end torque—Nelson's 3D-printed custom knob vibrates, telling you it's time to shift (rather than informing you that you just ate a grenade in Call of Duty).

It might sound gimmicky, but Nelson's experiment provides a glimpse of the future. OpenXC is Ford's program to make vehicle data available to the user in realtime, with the diagnostic system beaming it to a tablet or smartphone over Bluetooth. By tapping that info, installing an Arduino controller, and programming in some simple values, Nelson was able to go from concept to execution in a matter of weeks.

While some tech blogs have breathlessly been reporting that Nelson's device "will teach people how to drive a stick," that's obviously incorrect, and not the real point of the experiment; nor is the LED indicator going to be a gamechanger, as few of us who drive stick have ever been driving around going "Gee, what gear am I in?" Rather, Nelson is demonstrating that by simply opening the floodgates of a vehicle's information, Ford is enabling you customize your driving experience in a manner of your choosing. And it points towards the future: Open-source vehicle telematics, combined with digital manufacturing devices and Arduino, should open up a world of interesting possibilities.

Nelson has posted the technical details of how he did it here.

This is a true story. Descriptions of companies, clients, schools, projects, and designers may be altered and anonymized to protect the innocent.

Editor: At the beginning of this tale, "Good Ol' Boy" set out to chase his dream job. Here we learn that sometimes opportunity knocks on a door you didn't even know was there. If you missed the first, second or third part of this story, catch up first!

I had been promised a Junior Industrial Designer job at Consumer Electronics Giant for $42,000 a year. But after a boardroom shuffle, the new Evil Boss now told me the new offer was $35,000 a year.

"Take it or leave it," Evil Boss prompted.

"I need a day to think about it," I said.

Evil Boss pointed to his desk drawer. "I've got a lot of books here, [Good Ol' Boy]," he said. "There's a lot of designers that want to come work for me."

I was pretty sure he was full of shit about having people's portfolios in his drawer, and about people wanting to work for him specifically, the damn egomaniac; but there was no doubt that this was a gig a lot of designers would kill for. "So you want an answer right this second?" I asked.

"You have twenty minutes."

What an a**hole.

I went into the shared office where I worked, sat down, and made a quick list:

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Remember the awkwardness of "the talk?" Wei Sun designed a Jenga-style game to capture that tension and unease, bringing her research—into how parents in the US talk about sex with their kids—to life. Grown adults revert to ungainly youth as they sheepishly giggle and blush, tentatively sliding blocks from the stack, which prompt them to recount tales from their own adolescence and share insights from Sun's research.

As part of the course Transcultural Design at IIT's Institute of Design, students like Sun (from China), are exploring how to design for cultures other than their own, something more of us are finding we do everyday. Designed to engage people in the context and stories of a particular culture, these experiential research objects help others connect and learn through participation and self reflection.

It is relatively easy for designers to work within their own culture because they innately grasp the context around any given challenge or solution But, take that problem statement to another country or within a different culture and suddenly their high-resolution understanding of a user's needs breaks down because of miscommunications, unknown traditions and "exotic" habits.

Paul Sheetz (from the US) chose the makarapa, a South African miner's hat customized and worn for sporting matches, to transform his research on the national concept of ubuntu, or unity. Throughout the country's divisive history, Sheetz found that sports have provided a symbolic common ground. In assembling Sheetz's makarapa, the wearer is exposed to diverse South African stories. While contemplating what brings community and countrymen together, participants are engaged in figuring out which traits resonate with their own story, that they want to use to customize their hat.

With the global launch of the new all-electric i3 on Monday, BMW made headlines for bringing carbon fiber manufacturing in-house—in the USA, as a matter of fact—in order to achieve a mass-producible electric vehicle at a competitive pricepoint. But in some ways, the new BMW i3 is just the hardware, the physical product in a broader, forward-looking ecosystem of services and support for early adopters.

A quasi-skeuomorphic 'fuel door' & pump-like charger handle

With an admittedly modest range of 80–100 miles, many have noted that the BMW i3 has a fraction of the already-questionable 250-mile range of the Tesla Model S. In other words, the spec sheet ostensibly fuels (sorry) what is known as 'range anxiety': fear of running out of juice on the road. After all, even the best of us forget to charge our phones once in a while; the electric vehicle represents this inconvenience writ large, and the prospect of being stranded has already proven to be a PR nightmare for electric vehicles. (As far as I can tell, the Tesla Model S's higher [longer?] range is proportional to its beefed-up battery power; I can't speak to how cutthroat R&D for this technology is, but I imagine it's ultimately a tradeoff in terms of added weight and, in turn, pricing.)

Inasmuch as 'range anxiety' is a valid (albeit overhyped) issue—the Verge has a nice analysis—BMW's 360° Electric is billed as a complement to the i3, a suite of added-value services that is broadly addresses these concerns. The "Premium Mobility Service" is billed as a "crucial part of the BMW i and urban lifestyle," starting with a SIM card in the BMW i3 that enables BMW ConnectedDrive services. This includes the proprietary navigation software, which allows the driver to locate the nearest charging station, as well as providing real-time range estimates and battery data. 360° Electric also includes a 24/7 concierge service and a host of OnStar-like features, such as Intelligent Emergency Call in case of an accident.

This Wood Species series comes to us from guest writer Rob Wilkey, an Atlanta-based woodworker and industrial designer whose expertise is in small home goods, furniture, and large installations.

* * *

Over the next few articles, we'll be analyzing a number of common North American wood species. This week's featured species:

Oak is abundant, inexpensive, easy to work, and remarkably durable. It's no surprise that oak is one of the most popular choices for every kind of woodworking project. Due to its abundance and comparatively low price, oak is also an excellent choice for large-scale projects. The tables, booth and benches pictured below (which happen to be at my favorite bar) were made entirely from boards of solid oak.

Over 600 species of oak exist throughout the world, but those most commonly available in North America are Red Oak and White Oak. Both are lighter brown in color, with Red Oak exhibiting a slightly more reddish hue. Red Oak is typically less expensive, and is common enough to be found at most hardware stores.

This difference in price and availability is mainly due to differences in rot resistance: Red Oak is far more susceptible to water damage and fungal decay than its hardy cousin White Oak. In fact, White Oak is so durable that it was the lumber of choice for old wood-frame boats, and is still used today for whiskey and wine barrels. These oak barrels aren't just economical and reusable—the wood's tannins actually play a large role in flavoring the spirits as they age.

Remember that crazy CO2 Scraper Concept? It called for a towering structure filled with trees, to scrub the surrounding air of carbon dioxide. Well, it turns out there's a very common manmade material that, with the right tweak, could serve a similar function and literally kill pollution. The material? Cement.

Smog-eating cement first made headlines back in 2007, when it was introduced in the U.S. by the Italian company Italcementi, whose R&D center is pictured below. The cement is called TX Active and the magic ingredient is titanium oxide. When exposed to sunlight, titanium oxide can neutralize some pollutants - basically the toxins are oxidized when they come into contact with the cement. For instance, nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide gasses are made harmless when they are turned into nitrates or sulfates. Without the catalyst of titanium oxide, the nitrogen and sulfur oxide break down in the atmosphere creating smog and ground level ozone.

But with the catalyst, the nitrates and sulfates simply wash off with rainwater, leaving the cement very clean and without a need for chemical treatment -- an added bonus. One of the more well-known examples of this self-cleaning cement is the Air France headquarters in Roissey-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The HQ is housed in a very white building, that has remained through the years very white.

Originally the cement was made for Richard Meier, the architect who requested a very white cement for the Jubilee Church in Rome.

I recently saw the Tom Cruise flick Oblivion, which people apparently hated; but one thing I really dug was the shot you see above. Director Joseph Kosinski, depicting New York City in the year 2017, gives us our first glimpse of the completed One World Trade Center. The movie was released in April of this year, but as we saw earlier, in reality it wasn't even until May that the spire was raised. And just this morning, I looked up to see the real deal still has glasswork to be done, and still has a construction elevator running up its side. Oblivion was the first convincing depiction I'd seen of the completed structure.

Kosinksi is an architect by training, and until recently was still teaching 3D modeling as an adjunct assistant prof at Columbia, so it's no surprise that he took the time to get One WTC right. (Amusingly, had he swung the camera just a bit to the left in the shot above, we'd see Gehry's ugly 8 Spruce Street; thankfully the framing precludes it, and I wonder if it was intentional.) But even directors with no architectural background are in a prime position to educate, or at least familiarize, the general public with different styles of architecture. With that in mind Architizer's Zachary Edelson has written "A Brief History Of Modern Architecture Through Movies," where he ticks off a list of flicks with such iconic backdrops that any layperson who's seen them can get an instant frame of reference for what Art Deco, Art Nouveau or Modernism looks like.

By necessity Nelson's list is far from complete, but it makes me wonder what films you guys would use to describe not just architecture, but entire design movements to laypeople. I first saw Blade Runner, with Deckard chilling out in the Ennis House, before I even knew who Frank Lloyd Wright was.

In an earlier post, I commented on how Japanese children at the school where I worked were taught to pitch in with recycling. But I failed to mention a rather strange counterpoint, emblematic of that country's bewildering contradictions: One day a horrific smell wafted over the campus. I went outside to investigate, and discovered that a farmer in the lot adjacent to the school was burning an enormous pile of tires. The wind carried the vile, black smoke all over the school and the playing grounds. I asked a teacher about this and he shrugged. "There is no place to put them," he said.

I've since learned tires can of course be re-molded and re-treaded. But I had no idea how labor- and energy-intensive it was until I saw this video. Those of you who are into molding will enjoy seeing how the mold comes apart/together around 3:15. I also dug watching how they remove the flashing, and that inflatable thingy that serves as the mold's core:

The amount of man-hours that goes into each tire, not to mention the one-hour-plus molding time, is staggering. But what I found most surprising was that despite all of that energy burned, re-molding is still 30 to 60% cheaper than creating the tire from scratch.