We like a company that empowers its employees, and here's a prime example. Big Ass Solutions is well-known for their Big Ass Fans and Big Ass Lights. Then one of their mechanics, former auto technician Keith McKay, figured he could harness the company's manufacturing and lighting prowess to produce something he saw a need for: A tough, portable, bright, long-lasting work light.

With the company's encouragement, McKay spent two years designing the Big Ass Light Bar. Now it's ready for primetime:

At press time the Big Ass Light Bar had been successfully funded on IndieGogo, gathering $83,000 in pledges on a $25,000 goal. It's expected to ship in July of 2017, and for those of you that want to pick one up for $385 (it's expected to retail for $500) there's still eight days left to pledge.

Callisto Media, one of Publishers Weekly’s fastest-growing U.S. publishers, is seeking a talented contract Design Project Manager. Callisto is a fast-paced and successful startup at the forefront of a new publishing venture, creating books in Cooking, Health, Diet, Business, Crafts, Reference, and Fitness, among other genres. Please view a sample

We ware extremely impressed with the diversity of our reader submitted projects this year. Ranging from seating innovations to unexpected processes to low-tech solutions, our readers brought the heat. Here are the 15 most popular projects from 2016.

Aquapaw, a wonderfully low-tech solution to making pet bathing much easier, had everyone excited this year, including the Core77 editors. The combination sprayer and scrubber is turned on and off by pressing the button in the palm or by making a fist.

The modular, dual function bicycle, Shibusa, is a hassle-free commuting solution for getting to and from work while maintaining the ability to enjoy bike-riding in other recreational situations

Proximity Button uses a bit of tech to help keep track of wandering dementia patients. It's discreet design keeps from distressing patients but allows their caretakers to track them in case of emergency. 

The Journey ceramics series turns mishaps to magic—each object's design is the result of bumps and random movements during the shipping process. 

Waiting in the airport may be less of a drag in the near future: The Flip Seating concept is designed around a single module that can be rotated, flipped and re-combinedwith other modules to create a range of seating configurations.

FABrics brought the open source model to furniture this year. The chairs can be made anywhere in the world using universal materials and technologies and are designed to be manufactured locally by the user .

Lagranja's Cooking Tableware set aims to incorporate decorative design to industrially mass produced objects

A beautiful manufacturing process always captures our attention—DieFabriek lampshades are spun into form like cotton candy.

FreezeTHAT makes ice-making much easier thanks to its triangular design and internally sealed cooling gel . The BPA-free silicone tray freezes its contents in 10 minutes or less.

We've seen many standing desk solutions over the past couple of years, but the W Chair has the best of both worlds—it keeps your back straight while you work and improves concentration and productivity, just like standing desks. Similar kneeling desks have been around for awhile, but this minimal version brings sleek design into the mix.

Curatio is a dedicated 3D hand scanner that is able to create a precise surface model of the hand.

A true packaging success, the 'Mattress for Eggs' system takes on the delicate challenge of stabilizing eggs for carrying purposes. We love how functional the aesthetically pleasing spiral design is—the buffers alleviate bumps and shakes that may happen during transport .

'Painful' Chair is a true ode to traditional practices. Inspired by Chinese acupuncture, the handmade chair's seat is made up of 800 hammered wood nails that are responsive to touch. 

There's nothing worse than cleaning food waste out of your kitchen drain with your bare hands. WATER PASS collects the food waste for you—all you do is lift and dispose. 

BONCHO is another low-tech solution to a common problem: staying dry in bad weather while biking. The clever design covers your body and your hands, so every inch stays dry.

Feature your project here for a chance to be published on our homepage in the new year.

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

2016 was a great year for digital fabrication, with machines becoming smaller, cheaper and easier to use; technologies many of us could never dream of affording are starting to come within reach. Who'd have thought we'd ever see a desktop vacuum forming machine like the FormBox?

Or "Wazer's Affordable Desktop Waterjet Cutter?"

CNC mills are typically bulky affairs that arrive on large delivery trucks. But Shaper changed the CNC game with the introduction of their handheld self-correcting router, the Origin.

We were amazed by the Origin--but wondered how practical it would be in daily use, and asked you for your input as well with "How Practical is the Shaper Origin Self-Correcting Router?" Turns out the company was listening, and they took the time to answer both our questions and yours with detailed video demonstrations.

This year we also saw established digital fabrication technologies being used in new ways. Finland-based Cajo Technologies blew us away with their laser that can burn different colors into different materials.

Students at TU Delft used multi-axis 3D printing, which "allows metals and resins to be printed mid-air in any direction without the need for support structures," to create a functional bicycle frame.

The OLO 3D Printer cures resin using nothing more than the light from your smartphone. It snagged $2-million-plus on Kickstarter, and we saw some debate on the device in "The $99 3D Printer: a Pioneering Product or Design Misstep?"

Perhaps the most eye-popping--or teeth-correcting--digital fabrication story of the year was this one: New Jersey Institute of Technology design student Amos Dudley made a casting of his own teeth, 3D printed his own plastic braces and corrected his misaligned dentition!

One of the digital fabrication stories that we thought would be in the news this year, but which sadly was not, was the Glowforge laser cutter we wrote up in 2015. Despite racking up $28 million in crowdfunding over a year ago, the machine has yet to ship. Just a reminder that crowdfunding and attempting to mass produce new technologies is still a risky business.

Lastly, while digital fabrication is clearly the future, it's worth remembering its place within manufacturing--and what human beings can still do better and faster than any machine. To see what we're talking about, check out British clogger Jeremy Atkinson "Creating Complicated Shapes by Hand, Faster than a 3D Printer, Using Primitive Tools."

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

This year, 3D printed, sustainable and technology infused footwear designs reigned supreme over the rest, further proving that footwear design is a booming creative industry. The most popular designs from this year incorporate unique materials, manufacturing techniques and technological gimmicks to captivate footwear fans across the globe.

To start things off, we took a look at how shoes were made before 3D printing and sustainable efforts took over the industry. We also checked out techniques to make complicated shapes by hand with clogger's tools.

Reebok's Liquid Speeds

The 3D printed footwear scramble between all major footwear companies kicked off earlier this year with the release of Under Armour's 3D ARCHITECHS—the first 3D printed shoes to actually hit the market. Following the 3D ARCHITECHS, Reebok released a limited run of their liquid 3D printed kicks, the Liquid Speeds. We got to test these guys out in a thorough review, packaging and all. Following Reebok, adidas recently released their take on the trend—their 3D Runners.

Thanks to efforts from multiple companies, sustainable footwear was on everyone's mind this year. The most popular example is the adidas x Parley ocean shoe, which is made from recycled ocean plastic debris. It gets even better—a version of the sustainable sneakers are set to hit the market in the near future. 

On a similar note, as part of the Carbon XPrize competition, NRG developed shoes made mostly from recycled carbon dioxide emissions. And These simple, tied together shoes do more than look nice—they respond to workers' health issues and reduce waste by eliminating glue from the manufacturing process.

Boundary-blurring silhouettes also came into play earlier this year when Nike released their KD8 sneakers. Are they high-tops? Low-tops? They're both, and they're definitely...different. 

These funky Japanese wrapping cloth inspired sneakers from Vibram intrigued us from the start, but we found a rarely perfect product review so we didn't have to get a pair for ourselves.

Rounding up our year in review footwear edition is the release of the sci-fi turned reality classics, the Air Mags. Nike's self-lacing sneaker concept started over 30 years ago when the Air Mags debuted in Back the the Future 2. This year, an 89 pair special released occurred to benefit Parkinson's disease. Self-lacing is a sought after gimmick that Nike is making "more affordable"and actually performance related through the release of their HyperAdapt 1.0 sneakers.

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

15 Reader Submitted Projects That Wowed This Year

This collection, consisting of five lights, was inspired by the « Eagle » lunar module which took the first men to the Moon in 1969.

Landing

Landing

Credit: Alfred Cromback

Landing

Landing

Credit: Alfred Cromback

Landing

Landing

Credit: Alfred Cromback

Moon

Moon

Credit: Alfred Cromback

Moon

Moon

Credit: Alfred Cromback

Orbit

Orbit

Credit: Alfred Cromback

Orbit

Orbit

Credit: Alfred Cromback

Lift Off

Lift Off

Credit: Alfred Cromback

Lift Off

Lift Off

Credit: Alfred Cromback

Lift Off

Lift Off

Credit: Alfred Cromback

The introduction of drones into the consumer market really only took place around this time last year, so 2016 could effectively be deemed the first year of the drone. And as drones proliferated into the mainstream, interesting, creative uses for the new technology were inevitable—thus resulting in a ton of interesting drone news as well as some pretty strange applications. 

To sum it all up, here are a number of unconventional applications to 2016's hottest new technology.

A Drone Scaled Up to Carry Humans

This year, a Chinese technology company called eHang released a video announcing their venture into creating an autonomous flying "drone" vehicle for humans. When we reviewed it earlier this year, the video had us highly skeptical...viewing it again, I must admit that not much in our minds has changed. 

Conceptual Drones

As we peer into a future where drones will help consumers and federal institutions alike, this fascinating article written by discursive design professors Bruce and Stephanie Tharp helps us further examine the integration of drones into our public and private lives in the year 2016 by showcasing a number of engaging design projects. 

Read more here

Medieval Documentation Drone

Many people are still resistant to the integration of drone technology into our everyday lives. Once such group protesting the normalization of their flight? The Renn fair crowd.

Using a Drone as a Blender

What's the best way to show your drone has the fastest, sharpest, most effective blades? You use the drone as a blender, of course. This year, Speed Motion Films used a DJI Phantom drone to try and blend pretty much anything that darn machine could handle.

Drone Vs. Raptor

While you may not be able to understand the audio in this, the objective is clear—governments around the world are preparing for the influx of unwelcome surveillance drones using a number of different methods. While the Dutch police are employing a few trained feathered friends to take go defense against the robots....

...the Tokyo police force is fighting fire with fire. After finding an authorized drone this year on the roof of the Japanese prime minister's home and labelling it as a terrorist incident, the police started sending out federal drones flown by remote pilots to capture any unidentified flying objects.

The Killer Drone

This year, the Finnish are responsible for the #1 drone to haunt your dreams—introducing the Killer Drone, aka a large drone equipped with a remote controlled chainsaw. Yep, we aren't sleeping a peep either after this one!

Flying Goth 

And last but certainly not least of 2016, we have the fabricated drone created by Otto Dieffenbach back in March to resemble Gothminister singer Bjørn Alexander Brem. Ominously floating and flying around like Superman, this creation was certainly both extra spooky and totally excellent. 

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

15 Reader Submitted Projects That Wowed This Year

Footwear Designs That Pushed Boundaries in 2016

We noticed a popularity in sketching articles this year, ranging from traditional pen and paper to a new wave of digital drawing. As designers, we understand that sketching will always be important in the design process—it's here to stay. 

In Episode 1 of our Coreskills series, sketch master Spencer Nugent of Sketch-a-Day takes us through a solid sketching warm-up for designers.

Looking toward the future, we understand that sketching will continue to transition to digital platforms. We especially like what the Microsoft Surface Studio and its dial will do for design drawing, which enhances digital sketching to an unparalleled new dimension.

To go along with the Surface Studio, the new Mental Canvas Drawing App looks amazing. Through its clever 2D to 3D transitions, the designer can easily see a rendering of their space come to life. It seems most useful to architects, but there would be significant uses for ID'ers and Product Designers too. If this app is any indication as to what's next for sketching, we might be okay with what's to come.

Along with new sketching techniques, good old fashioned educational sketchbooks made headlines this year. Sketching Process by Tom Skeehan focuses on different sketching processes used by Industrial Designers.

In How to Draw: FIGURES, author Mark Kokavec goes back to the basics to teach readers how to draw the human form on paper. The sketchbook filled with templates that use a sort of reverse-engineering technique that he calls "phasing-out."

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

15 Reader Submitted Projects That Wowed This Year

Footwear Designs That Pushed Boundaries in 2016

2016 Marks the First Year in the "Age of the Drone" 

Look at this wooden board. 

Let's say you're going to cut it into four pieces to make a box, like this:

Obviously the grain will match as it rounds corners B, C and D. But at corner A, where you've got the opposite ends of the board meeting, the grain will not match. In fact it's impossible to have grain running continuously around a board, isn't it?

Give craftspeople more credit, as they've figured out a clever way to have grain running all the way around a box, matching up at all four corners. Here craftsman Don Kondra demonstrates how it's done:

2016 will be remembered as the year of AI systems—they've begun to take over the arts, child care, holiday cheer and human jobs. We've taken inventory of the skills the systems have gained in 2016 in order to prepare ourselves for years to come:

Paint By Algorithm

Do you ever wish artists like Picasso, Basquiat or even Michelangelo could come back to life to create new work? No need—there's an AI system for that! This one took data from Rembrandt's paintings and composed a new one in the late artist's style. 

Understanding Human Emotion

IBM's Watson expanded its artistic palette to film when it edited a movie trailer for the horror movie, Morgan. This marks the first AI edited movie trailer, and the irony is almost too creepy—Morgan is about an AI system spiraling out of control.

Read My Lips...

Humans can only read lips at a lame accuracy of 52.3%—the reasoning behind training an AI to do much better. LipNet far surpasses humans with an impressive speech to text accuracy rate of 93.4%. 

Rockabye Baby

The one thing humans value more than their own lives is the lives of their children. SNOO the robotic cradle acts as an extension of the parent to help lull babies to sleep by mimicking the uterus experience. Equal parts terrifying and helpful.

Look Son, No Hands!

This self-propelled baby stroller pushes itself so you don't have to. Parents, would you use this?

Give Thanks to Opposable Thumbs

A main criticism of the spike in technology is the fear of losing touch with our human qualities. The good news? Drones are still incapable of cooking—a skill better left to humans for now, as demonstrated by the X-Star Premium Drone's messy attempt at putting together Thanksgiving dinner.

Spreading Christmas Cheer is Singling Loud for All to Hear

Thanksgiving isn't the only holiday that's been infiltrated by robots this year—an AI created it's own holiday song based on 100 hours of Christmas music, 50 hours of song lyrics, and video feed from the game Just Dance. If that's not scary enough, the first-person lyrics include, "I've always been there for the rest of our lives." Start training for war now.

Ultimate Strength

It looks like AAA will have some competition in the near future. This year, six powerful microbots figured out how to work together to pull a 4,000 pound car. 

Performing Human Activities

It's incredible how physical robots have developed over the years. This humanoid robot programmed by Boston Dynamics is able to accomplish simple human tasks—think opening doors and standing back up after falling—with astounding tenacity.

How can we cope?

AI systems with humanlike qualities are both frightening and exciting. The next step in developing technology is figuring out how to properly integrate them into our workflow and education system. At this year's Core77 Conference, keynote speaker Alexis Lloyd reminded us that coexisting with technology is the key to the success of both robots and humans. 

What About Our Jobs?

Another popular topic this year stems from our fear of losing human jobs to AI. In this video from online think tank Big Think, Dr. Michio Kaku breaks down what jobs we can expect to see thrive and become obsolete in the near future.

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

15 Reader Submitted Projects That Wowed This Year

Footwear Designs That Pushed Boundaries in 2016

2016 Marks the First Year in the "Age of the Drone"

The Best of Sketching in 2016

KMCA,Inc. is looking for an individual(s) to fulfill an advanced model making position. If you are the type of person who is eager to learn, is a problem solver able to work independently and within a team, has knowledge of CAD/CAM or is willing to learn, then we would like

Attending and sharing images from design events around the world is one of our favorite pastimes, and 2016 gave us ample opportunity to do just this. From site visits to design fairs, conferences and exhibits we covered a lot of ground. The photos here are a few of our favorites, and if you missed any of the posts or collections when they came out take some time to see for yourself.

Cologne Design Week - Living Concepts for the Urban Nomad

Cologne Design Week - Craft and Small-Scale Production at Design Parcours Ehrenfeld

Designers Tower Focuses on Wood Work for Urban Living

Home and Housewares Show

International Home and Housewares Show

Holz-Handwerk 2016

The Best Tools from the Holz-Handwerk Show

Furniture and Tool Storage from the Holz-Handwerk Show

Material and Finishes Exploration from the Holz-Handwerk Show

Student Shows at Milan Design Week 2016

Experimental Materials and the Handmade Digital: Highlights from Milan's Ventura Lambrate Design District

Designers Big and Small at Salone del Mobile 2016

Triennale di Milano 2016

Milan's Satellite Shows

Furniture and Lighting at ICFF

Objects That Surprise at Sight Unseen

Gallery - Highlights from NeoCon 2016

Gallery - Highlights from the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial

Keep Calm and Carry on: Shoreditch and London Design Fair

Highlights from London Design Festival 2016, From King's Cross to Kensington (and Everywhere in Between)

Map Presents the Industrial Design Process

Partake in Particle Particular

COMP's Parquet Shelving System

Installation View

Tord Boontje's Futuristic Funhouse of Electro Craft

Seeds of Doubt: "No Ordinary Love"

Gallery - Part of the Solution: Process and Progress at Dutch Design Week 2016

History of the Corvette Logo

New Making Space at Parsons School of Design

Occidental Leather Toolbelt Factory Visit

SF MoMA Opening

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

15 Reader Submitted Projects That Wowed This Year

Footwear Designs That Pushed Boundaries in 2016

2016 Marks the First Year in the "Age of the Drone"

The Best of Sketching in 2016

9 Ways Robots and AI Took Over 2016 + How to Cope

This year we saw the invention of a lot of neat, useful things that allow us humans to do more, waste less, use nature to protect ourselves from nature, create absolutely perfect toast and more.

The New Jersey family behind the Zenesis House developed a nature-powered snow-melting system, allowing them to ditch their shovels forever while creating their own electricity.

A Texas homeowner used water to fight water, saving his home from flooding using the clever Aquadam.

A tween girl from New Zealand invented the Kindling Cracker, which allows one to safely and quickly turn firewood into kindling.

The Makinex Powered Hand Truck allows single users to effortlessly hoist and move nearly 400 pounds, with no fear of sustaining back injuries.

The Zipper Truck System is a brilliant, sustainable way to quickly build tunnels that will last forever.

The Vertical Walking invention allows folks to ascend and descend while using less energy than taking the stairs.

From Japan comes the Tsunago pencil sharpener, which allows you to combine a shorter pencil with a longer one, so you can use pencil stubs up right to the very end.

A Canadian inventor developed these crazy omnidirectional wheels and put them on his Toyota, though we have our doubts about the video.

And in a quest to create absolutely perfect toast, appliance manufacturer Balmuda developed a special toaster that requires adding the magic ingredient: Water.

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

15 Reader Submitted Projects That Wowed This Year

Footwear Designs That Pushed Boundaries in 2016

2016 Marks the First Year in the "Age of the Drone"

The Best of Sketching in 2016

9 Ways Robots and AI Took Over 2016 + How to Cope

2016 Year in Photos

Each day, our Design Directory is updated with new firm projects that push boundaries and raise questions about the future of design. From medical devices to modern takes on classic objects, here's a roundup of future gazing firm projects from 2016.

The futuristic baby monitor, Nanit, provides parents with unparalleled insight into their child's sleep patterns and habits.

Halo is the first iPhone compatible hearing aid. The discreet divice targets a younger, tech-savvy demographic of hearing impaired people, encouraging earlier treatment of hearing loss.

Layer's attempt at reviving the dying concept of the home phone is bright, sleek and makes you want to tell people to call you on your home phone again.

Another one from Layer: GO is the firm's new research lab, LayerLab's, inaugural project. The made-to-measure 3D-printed consumer wheelchair is designed to fit the individual needs of a wide range of disabilities and lifestyles. The wheelchair accurately fits the individual’s body shape, weight and disability to reduce injury and increase comfort, flexibility, and support.

The Hospital Bedside Cabinet may look simple, but its rounded shape with smooth surfaces and no joints, junctions or sharp corners helps eliminate harmful germs that would otherwise hide in hospital furniture.

Trace is a small device that helps action sports athletes measure their maximum speed, vertical distance, distance traveled, calories burned, number of jumps, and airtime with incredible accuracy.

Construction technology has adapted to meet the demands of the modern and complex job site, but protective safety equipment has seen fewer updates. EXO is a smart protective suit that helps keep construction workers comfortable and safe while working.

Gest embodies the one-device-does-all model that is competing with single use devices. The wireless input device can be used to control just about anything, from replacing the keyboard to flying drones. 

Pillo is a friendly reminder to take your pills and stick to a routine. We love the positive, cute interface that makes a daunting task seem a little more fun for patient or at home use.

A 2016 Core77 Design Awards winner, Wondersphere is proof that design can make a difference in peoples' lives. The system brings nature into the hospital without compromising the safety of at-risk patients.

This tiny, low-tech device provides a needed solution to a global problem—waste from discarded Keurig K-Cups.

The Perkins SMART Brailer is a keyboard with many added features that go beyond the traditional braille keyboard.

Root is an educational robot specifically designed to provide an interactive way for children to learn to code. The system is as intuitive and approachable as any tablet app, providing a framework easy for teachers to understand and comfortable for young students to use. 

Gramovox reimagines vintage audio design with modern technology. It's fun to look at—albeit a little unsettling—and is still high performance. 

View more Design Directory projects here

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

15 Reader Submitted Projects That Wowed This Year

Footwear Designs That Pushed Boundaries in 2016

2016 Marks the First Year in the "Age of the Drone"

The Best of Sketching in 2016

9 Ways Robots and AI Took Over 2016 + How to Cope

2016 Year in Photos

'Tipsy' is a contemporary spin (no pun intended) on the standard whiskey glass that makes it hard to take your eyes off your drink. It can only rest at a seemingly precarious angle, and it engages its user to try and tip it and watch it wobble.

Project Images

The glass has a unique bottom-seeking weight dynamic in the hand

Photoshoot

Photoshoot

'Tipsy' in action!

The tipping motion, while fun, also helps aerate the whiskey

Sketches

Fabrication

Acrylic rod being hollowed on Bridgeport mill

Used to be that you either lived in a house or an apartment building. But nowadays interest in alternative types of dwellings has exploded. For starters, the Tiny House Movement has caught on to the point where it's now diversifying, as we saw with this Tiny A-Frame Cabin.

And the $95,000 Luxury Tiny House.

Speaking of luxury, while you might not want to live here full-time, this Walkthrough of a Luxury Camping Tent drew some eyeballs.

Out of your budget? If you spoke Japanese, this year you could've applied to live rent-free in one of Muji's new experimental house designs.

Or maybe you prefer life on the road. Mike Hudson does, and that's why he converted his van into a wood-paneled home for his perpetual road trip.

Speaking of life on the road, we got to see what long-haul truck drivers who have luxury sleeper cabs live in.

Perhaps the most amazing dwelling we saw this year was the one built by two guys--using only hand tools!

Of course, we couldn't talk about alternative living without checking in with folks whose job is it to create homes. Connect Homes co-founder Gordon Stott sounded off with "How to Fix Pre-fab Architecture? Make It More Like Product Design."

And speaking of alternative living, Ben Uyeda is making a huge contribution in this field by empowering others to furnish their own homes. Be sure to read "Meet the Architect Who Quit Designing Houses for the Rich to Provide Free Furniture Designs for the Poor."

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

15 Reader Submitted Projects That Wowed This Year

Footwear Designs That Pushed Boundaries in 2016

2016 Marks the First Year in the "Age of the Drone"

The Best of Sketching in 2016

9 Ways Robots and AI Took Over 2016 + How to Cope

2016 Year in Photos

If you became a follower of our Instagram this past year, you're probably familiar with the term  "process porn", or, a short, highly satisfying short clip of any kind manual or automatic manufacturing process. Whether it's a highly satisfying video of a woodworker planing an extraordinarily thin wood shaving from a 2x4, an expertly or sensuously glazed pot or a mesmerizing example of glassblowing, chances are any type of process you could think of is most likely floating around on our Instagram page. 

Here are 10 of our most popular examples of #processporn from the year 2016.

10. Inertia welding 

Whether you're well familiar with the process or not, inertia welding (also known as friction welding) is pretty undeniably a hypnotizing sight.

9. Glassblowing 

We had several entertaining glassblowing videos on the Instagram this past year, but getting to see how they executed the groovy multicolored decoration on this pitcher made this video a clear standout from the rest.  

8. Wood turning on lathe 

Another thing we were reminded of this year? That Canadian woodworker Matthias Wandel is a magician. Get your fix below by watching him make a wooden ball on his handmade lathe.

7. Street painting 

This video exhibits a clever tool in action used for road sign painting- it's an amazingly simple tool, no roller required! 

6. Hand chiseling 

No matter how many machines that are out there in the world helping us make incredible things, there's still nothing quite as satisfying as watching someone whittle away at a piece of wood with their own bare hands.... 

...except of course maybe this video below of a machine milling a piece of stainless steel ever so effortlessly.

5. Stainless steel milling

4. Foam insulation 

This foam seems to fit in anywhere and insulate practically anything! I can't keep my eyes off of that goopy pink stuff... 

3. Metal cutting 

Searching the depths of the internet for different process videos inevitably means discovering some new machinery along the way—check out this metal cutting machine, which cuts through thick metal like butter.

2. Fiberglass chair making 

The process used to make Eames and Artek Karuselli chairs is a controversial one due to its incorporation of fiberglass, a material that can prove hazardous to those handling it on a daily basis. But given these chairs are so labor-intensive, it is certainly a fascinating process to watch.

1. Doll making 

With our process porn videos, we hoped to give our audience what they wanted—and according to the numbers, what you wanted the very most was some creepy old footage of dolls being manufactured. So cheers to that, and to another happy year full of great process porn videos! 

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More from Core77's 2016 Year in Review

The 16 Best Stories from 2016

16(ish) of 2016's Best Materials Moments

2016 Best of Furniture Design

10 Things 2016 Had to Offer to the Future of Transportation

2016 Best of Digital Fabrication

Footwear Designs That Pushed Boundaries in 2016

The Best of Sketching in 2016

9 Ways Robots and AI Took Over 2016 + How to Cope

2016 Best of Alternative Living

Core77's editors spend time combing through the news so you don't have to. Here's a weekly roundup of our favorite stories from the World Wide Web.

The Year in Nine Objects

As designers are well aware, time is not marked only by events but also by the objects we make and use. To sum up 2016, the New Yorker rounds up nine objects that defined this roller coaster ride of a year—the clever, the horrendous and the controversial.

—Allison Fonder, community manager

How a Red Party Cup Became an American Icon

As 2016 comes to a close, so does an era of true partying. The iconic cup's inventor, Robert Leo Hulseman, died a few days ago at age 84. Smithsonian runs through the history of the cup and how it became an American party staple.

—Emily Engle, editorial assistant

Millennials in the Workplace

This week I watched consultant Simon Sinek speaking on "Millennials in the Workplace." This incredibly insightful talk both addresses and looks beyond Millennial stereotypes to examine the values and circumstances that they were raised under. It is well worth the watch.

—Rain Noe, senior editor

Pirate Chest

This is a fun build: Jimmy DiResta creates--predominantly freehand!--a pirate-style treasure chest. Sheet metal brake? Not needed. Also check out the innovative way he uses the vise to create the small curved braces for the top:

NYC Birdhouse

The last one was fun, this one's funny, at least for NYC residents: DiResta builds a birdhouse (for pigeons?) in the NYC tenement house style:

Field Mouse Maze Experiments

This is fascinating: Matthias Wandel has a mouse problem in his country shop, decides to add complexity to his mousetrap design by adding a maze, then leaves a camera on to see what happens. As Wandel keeps tweaking the trap, we see he's got an extremely smart--and savings-minded--mouse.

Radial Arm Saw, Part 3

The meticulous Frank Howarth designs more modifications and optimizations for his radial arm saw workstation, then builds them on-camera:

Benchtop Router Table

This week Jay Bates has to come up with a space-efficient design for a small router table. Space-efficient because, given limited room in his shop, he needs it to nest within his existing drill press stand:

Making a Paved Seating Area

April Wilkerson, who must secretly be a general contractor, rips up her yard this week and lays in a paved patio for her new firepit:

Trike (Green Machine) from Junk, Part 2

Bob Clagett finishes building his childhood dream vehicle

DIY String Light Chandelier for $40

Linn from Darbin Orvar creates an inexpensive, rustic-looking chandelier using string lights:

"A Chair for my Niece"

Laura Kampf creates a beautiful wooden chair as a gift for her niece:

DIY Leather Boxes

HomeMade Modern produces a series of simple leather boxes using dimensional lumber for the underpinnings:

How the Heisz Box Joint Jig Works

John Heisz explains how his brilliantly-designed box joint jig, which uses threaded rod for precise carriage advancement, works.

Insulated Doghouse

Holy COW this dog is cute. DIY Tyler and DIY Mrs. Tyler build an insulated house with lift-off roof for their new puppy:

Wooden Light Bulb

A quick one for "non-denominational holidays:" Dustin Penner cranks out a wooden lightbulb.