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A Swiss Design for a Space-Saving Locker Room

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A Swiss company called Zippsafe has designed a new type of locker room.

Intended to cut down on space needs by businesses, Zippsafe's design consists of narrow textile "lockers"—really, a sort of side-access garment bag, containing a plastic valet—that take up far less space than traditional metal lockers.

"Retractable hangers and side pockets neatly organize belongings. With two interior compartments in each bag and a separate shoe drawer at the bottom, clean and dirty items are easy to segregate."

There is a minimal bench surface provided for donning/doffing shoes.

Despite the narrow amount of space allotted to each bag, the company says they can accommodate bulky items like helmets. (The bags simply expand into their neighbors.)

The zippers electronically lock and unlock via RFID cards carried by the employees.


My first thought was, would I want to zip a wet rain jacket into one of these and leave it there all day? The company's solution: "Ventilation is built into the Zippsafe system and continually circulates air through the lockers, drying damp clothing and shoes, and reducing odors. Active carbon filtration in the ventilation system lowers humidity and impedes pathogen growth." On that latter note, they also say the bags can be removed for cleaning, though it's not clear what the procedure is; do these go into a washing machine?

Zippsafe launched in Europe eight years ago, targeting office buildings, department stores, industrial facilities and healthcare facilities. Having found success there, they're now making a push to expand into America.

Here's the system in action:



Crowdfunding Smash: This Stair-Climbing Robot Vacuum

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Last June we showed you this Migo Ascender, a stair-climbing robot vacuum:

That's an animation, of course. But now developer Migo Robotics has finally produced the real deal, with both vacuuming and mopping functionality.

On floors it behaves like an ordinary robot vacuum. When it vacuums stairs, however, the internal roller rotates 90 degrees and the unit moves laterally.

The company says the unit can climb a broad range of stairway types:

In between cleanings, the camera- and LIDAR-equipped unit docks itself in a cooler-sized recharging station. The dock also automatically empties the dustbin and changes the water, the company says. (You, of course, have to change the dock's dust bags, refill the removable clean water tank, and empty the removable dirty water tank.)

They also claim the unit can cover 500 square meters (5,380 square feet) on a single charge.

While I'm impressed by the engineering that went into this, I'm skeptical of a $1,500 product this complicated from a company that hasn't yet established a track record. How much mopping can it really do, with a 6-oz tank? How well does the automatic dustbin emptying work? Where do you take the thing if it breaks?

As usual, my skepticism is not shared by Kickstarter backers, who have propelled the Ascender to $1.6-million-plus and counting, with 35 days left to pledge at press time. Perhaps they were lured by the discount: Though it's meant to retail for $1,500, the Kickstarter offerings start at $850, with an estimated July delivery.

Here's a demo video, if you're interested:


An Add-On Kitchen Drawer and Worksurface

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For those that don't have enough storage space in their kitchen, here's an add-on countertop drawer with an additional pull-out surface.

Conveniently, the drawer and the pull-out surface can be vertically swapped to suit your set-up.




With an interior height of 9cm (3.5") the drawer's not massive, but it's good enough for storing cutlery, foil on rolls, teabags, etc.

Made of powder-coated steel, the drawer is manufactured by Japanese housewares brand Yamazaki. It retails for ¥10,925 (USD $72).


Focus on Quality, Not Quantity

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The Core77 Design Awards Health & Wellness category features consumer products or services designed to aid users in matters of health or in achieving an enhanced sense of well-being.

Industrial Designer Paul Danial's body of work might be considered work of the body. Paul brings an academic background in human kinetics and industrial design to his role as UX-HF Ergonomics Expert III with Noble-Metaphase, part of Aptar Pharma. There, he consults and designs hand-intensive products with a focus on medical devices, optimizing user experience through human centered design. He approaches his work with curiosity and creativity, offering solutions that improve patients' quality of life and practitioner effectiveness. In his efforts to understand how things work, Paul likes to take things apart and reimagine them, covering any available surface with sketches and doodles in the process. He also looks to the skies for motivation, with a keen interest in aerospace and aviation that has led him to pursue his private pilot's license.

Health & Wellness category Jury Captain Paul Danial

Patient impact is the driving purpose behind Paul's work. He considers bettering people's quality of life one of the core pillars in the health and wellness industry, and he maintains a constant focus on "fostering a symbiotic and purposeful connection between people and products" through human centered design: "When considering the impact some of these health products have on people's lives, every care and attention to detail is weighted heavily and keeps the passion and motivation alive."

Medtronic Vasao High Speed ENT Drill, designed by Metaphase

If Paul has any concerns about the state of the industry, they center around the growing emphasis on speed and quantity, which often come at the expense of thoughtful, high-quality design. He cites the rise of AI and the resulting shifts across industries as designers "navigate the new paradigm of high efficiency and instantaneous thought." In Paul's opinion, the most effective, thorough designs are produced by human processes that can often seem tedious and meticulous. But as he said, "Any innovative method that wants to thrive in today's world will encourage designers to use emerging technologies, AI included, without neglecting their own intelligence and innate human ability to solve users' problems."

Paul's advice to entrants in the Core77 Design Awards includes focusing on a clearly defined problem statement. "Designers working on making their designs feasible need to define the who/what/why behind the conception and evolution of their ideas," he said. He also encourages designers to remain expressive, thoughtful, and compassionate in their work, reflecting his belief that a designer's ability to exhibit those traits will connect with users and "further elaborate on the problem statement."


The Uplyft system, designed by Pathway NPI

The 2023 winner in the Core77 Design Awards Health & Wellness category was UpLyft, a system designed to help people with limited mobility transfer themselves from a horizontal position to an upright seated position, as in a wheelchair, in just two minutes – an innovation that helps patients and caregivers alike.

If you have a design that might improve the quality of life for some lucky user(s), submit your entry to the 2024 Core77 Design Awards.


A Modern, Three-Application Design for a Drinking Fountain

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This Hydra Drinking Fountain was designed by Diwiz, an industrial design consultancy based in Portugal.

Made of steel, it maximizes its utility by providing three outlets: One at wheelchair height, which can also be used by non-wheelchair-users; a water bottle refilling station up top; and down below, a fillable bowl for dogs.


The Hydra was designed for Portugal-based street furniture manufacturer Larus, but it's not clear if it's in production.


The Core77 Design Awards Final Deadline is 2 Days Away!

Reader Submitted: Souper Connect | Human-shaped Blocks Designed To Connect People Through Play

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When humans become building blocks, possibilities for fun are endless. Connections for all ages from 3 to 101 can be fostered by building a human cloud, breaking it, fidgeting with it, spinning it, and sparking the imagination.

Souper Connect is a modular human-shaped block that can't stand up by itself, reminding us to lean on each other. Its shape provides countless means of interconnection; the octagonal geometry of the arms and legs allows for rotated angles of joining, expanding the building possibilities. These blocks offer a minimal and identifiable form that inspires imaginative play and collaboration, lets you fidget and with enough pieces can bring out the building engineer in any of us. Souper Connect was designed in New York City by Peter Minsoub Sim and developed by Souper Studio. It was recognized by the 2023 Design Intelligence Awards and picked as a 'Project We Love' by Kickstarter.

Building Together
Play with the whole family
Credit: Andrew Longo
Leo's Tower
Build big
Credit: Andrew Longo
Chaos
In a chaotic world, find connection
Credit: Andrew Longo
Souper Stack
With the perfect fit, these blocks are oh so satisfying
Credit: Andrew Longo
Souper Keychain
Made to take on the go
Credit: Andrew Longo
Office display
Add a bit of delight
Credit: Andrew Longo
Souper Connect in Aluminum
Precision-milled aluminum
Credit: Andrew Longo
Souper Airplane
Let your imagination take hold
Credit: Andrew Longo
Souper Connect Keychain
Take it with you wherever you go
Credit: Andrew Longo
Desktop stack
Fidget and find focus
Credit: Andrew Longo
View the full project here

An Architect's Custom 3D-Printed, Leather-Wrapped Bicycle Handlebar Grips

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Michigan-based Brian Oltrogge is that rarest of architects: One who is deeply immersed in actual hands-on fabrication. On his Instagram and YouTube channels, he covers projects pursued out of personal interest, covering casting, metalworking, welding, woodworking, CNC milling, 3D printing, etc.

His latest project, which involves both 3D printing and leatherwork, came about when the handlebar grips on his bicycle finally aged out. "Most all grips I have used eventually break down," Oltrogge writes, "coating your hands with slimy rubber compounds. I knew I wanted to upgrade my human machine interface to a nice leather-wrapped, ergonomic design that would be fairly easy to reproduce if I needed another set."

Oltrogge 3D-printed the structure…

…and wrapped them in Kodiak leather, which is "pretty good for items that will be exposed to the elements."



In the build video below, Oltrogge runs through his process, which is done with repeatability in mind (i.e. for the next time the grips wear out). So I guess you can't call these one-offs. It's a sponsored vid, but it's easy enough to blow past the sponsored part and get to the good stuff:



Industrial Facility's Radice Chair & Stool

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This simple and surprising Radice chair and stool is by Industrial Facility, a/k/a Sam Hecht and Kim Colin.

RADICE finds its underlying beauty and simplicity in its structure. It is the bringing together of what appears the front-half of a traditional 4-legged stool, with a single back leg – the 'root'. It is a visual improvisation, where two things meet unexpectedly.

"RADICE has tension in its form and it is a slight surprise that the third leg works as well as it does to resolve the overall structure. It could be viewed as structurally diagrammatic, yet is made comfortable visually and physically because of how its third leg supports the seat," says Sam Hecht. The backrest is small and reassuring, allowing a coat or handbag to rest on it and the seat is open for large and small people. It is light both visually and in weight, using no screws or metal fittings, yet also passing stringent BIFMA* standards to ensure it is structurally sound, stable and reliable.

The coloured wood stain options for radice are based on the cycle of an autumn leaf turning colour.

The Radice series is in production by Italian furniture brand Mattiazzi.

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*Business & Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association


Genesis Unveils "Reductive Design" Concept

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This week Genesis unveiled their Neolun concept, an EV in the form of a full-size SUV. The surfacing is startlingly clean:

"The Neolun Concept's exterior revolves around the principle of 'reductive design,'" the company says, "characterized by clean, refined lines that deliberately eliminate any unnecessary details."

I'd argue they also eliminated a necessary detail: Door handles. Ingress is meant to be accomplished with an electronic fob (or worse, an app).


Form-wise, it can be said that all of the parts relate to each other, and while I appreciate the restraint, the vehicle doesn't have much gesture to it. I'd need to see it in person—the press release only features three images of the exterior—but the vehicle's nose, as seen in profile, seems particularly aimless. It's as if the designers ran out of time.

Notably the car lacks a B-pillar, which is great for ingress/egress but raises questions about structure. The company will only say "Development of the B-pillarless coach doors has reached a level where its application to production vehicles is now feasible."

Genesis also says "The body-integrated lamps seamlessly blend with the vehicle's front and rear design," without saying how that would be achieved. They also mention the vehicle will feature a pop-up roof rack and automatically-deploying side steps, but curiously haven't provided any images. With any luck they'll release more information soon.

ALERT! Tomorrow is your last day to enter the 2024 Core77 Design Awards

Two Magnetic Connections Systems that Broke $100,000 on Kickstarter

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People who love gadgets, love magnets and connecting things. Here's two magnetic connection systems that easily blew past $100,000 on Kickstarter.

The first is this Swift-Lock camera carrying mount, targeting photographers. Its intelligent design places the straps at the base of your SLR, rather than on the sides. This arrangement prevents the camera from bouncing around on your body while hanging from the straps in transit.

The second is this more general Magno-Link system, which targets the EDC crowd. Offered in aluminum or titanium, it features embedded magnets and a spring latch, and is for attaching…you know, EDC stuff.


The former was designed by German company Spinn Design, whose photographer's tool we looked at here. The latter is by a Turkish EDC company Retvon. They're going for $64 and $24 a pop, respectively.


Challenging Industrial Design Student Work: An All-Gender Urinal

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I think this project illustrates the difficulties of trying to reconcile industrial design with social issues. Called Urin*alle, it was done by Leonie Roth and Luisa Tschumi while studying Industrial Design at Switzerland's Basel Academy of Art and Design.

"Urin*alle is a waterless all-gender urinal that offers contactless use regardless of the genitalia."

"The conventional design of toilets and urinals is not ergonomically adapted to people with vulvas and makes it difficult or uncomfortable for them to use public sanitary facilities. Urinals convince with their simple design, which enables fast and contactless urination. They save a large amount of water and enable nutrient reclamation through the separated collection of urine."

"Following the principle "Form Follows Function," the design has been adapted in height, angle and shape to the needs and ergonomics of the users. The front part offers contactless urination for people with a vulva; for people with a penis, the back part is provided, which is based on conventional men's urinals."

"With its smooth ceramic surface, urin*alle operates without the need for water, and used toilet paper can be disposed of in a separate waste bin. This not only saves valuable water, the separate collection of urine enables recovery of the finite raw material phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium, fundamental nutrients for plant growth. In addition, urin*alle requires significantly less care and maintenance than flush urinals."

?"Urin*alle is intended to complement and not replace existing sanitary facilities. This project stimulates socio-political discussions, makes a significant contribution to gender equality and helps saving resources."

Amusing Unintended Consequence of Wearing Ultra-Thin Eyeglasses

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An industrial designer can't be expected to imagine every offline consideration of what they design, right?

Think of those ultra-thin, presumably titanium eyeglasses that you picture Swiss architects wearing. Now imagine one of them puts it down on a patterned tablecloth or bedspread, like this:

Amusingly, that photo was posted by a Redditor with the caption "Couldn't find my glasses for 3 hours - a task made even tougher by the fact that I wasn't wearing my glasses SMH."

(If you can't find the glasses in the photo, imagine the image as being an unnumbered one-month calendar. The specs are in the neighborhood of the third day of the first week.)

The subReddit it was posted on is itself amusing. It's called r/AccidentalCamouflage.


Made in Yame: Design Excursion to Japan

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After a long pause during the pandemic, SVA Made in Yame returns with its unique opportunity to study traditional craft in Japan and present product ideas to the MoMA Design Store for production. Open to students and design professionals, the program covers a dozen crafts and immerses you in the food, culture and countryside of Kyushu— Fukuoka City included!

It's not cheap at $5k, but when you look at what's included and the depth of programming, it is a pretty amazing opportunity. Check out the website at madeinyame.sva.edu and their instagram @svamadeinyame— you might see some familiar names have attended. But act soon… the enrollment deadline is April 1st.







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