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A Moss-Covered Earthen Roof Blends Architecture and Landscape The Sekiyuan Waiting Area  in Ichihara City, Chiba, is a small architectural gesture with unusually rich cultural depth. Designed and built by Kurosawa Kawara-ten  together with an architect and an artist—none of them professional builders in the traditional sense—the structure is a quiet but significant exploration of how informal building practices  can contribute to contemporary architecture. The project was car

Nike’s Project Amplify signals a new chapter in Nike wearable design , where footwear evolves into a hybrid system that extends the body itself. Rather than focusing on elite performance gains, the motor-assisted anklet reframes athletic design around accessibility, endurance, and everyday movement. Developed in collaboration with robotics company Dephy, Project Amplify is conceived as a wearable “second set of calf muscles.” The device adheres to the lower leg, integrating a

Why 3D Printed Carbon Fiber Instruments Matter for Modern Musicians Forte3D is rethinking the future of string performance with 3D printed carbon fiber instruments  built to survive real-world conditions that often damage traditional wood. Where wooden cellos and violins can crack, warp, or slowly deform with changes in humidity and temperature, carbon fiber stays stable—helping musicians travel, rehearse, and perform with less anxiety about the environment. The idea began wi

A new plant-based plastic  developed by researchers at Japan’s RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science dissolves completely in water within just a few hours — leaving no microplastics or residue behind. Built from cellulose, one of the most abundant natural materials on Earth, the innovation points toward a future where packaging no longer becomes permanent pollution. How This Plant-Based Plastic Works The newly developed plant-based plastic  is built using carboxymethyl cel

Rethinking Single-Use Objects with a Plastic-Free Soy Sauce Fish Dropper Single-use food packaging is often designed for moments but persists for decades. The plastic-free soy sauce fish dropper  created by Heliograf and Vert Design challenges this imbalance by aligning material lifespan with actual use. Named Holy Carp! , the small container replaces the iconic plastic soy sauce fish with a biodegradable alternative that decomposes in soil within weeks instead of years. Desi

Minimal Studio has unveiled Plastic Box , a fully functioning supermarket in Mallorca that doubles as an immersive architectural installation. Defined by exposed concrete, industrial materials and a ceiling made from 1,200 recycled crates, the project reframes everyday shopping through the lens of brutalist supermarket design . Located in Port of Pollensa, Plastic Box was conceived as a “raw concrete envelope.” Minimal Studio stripped the existing structure back to its bones,

Smart Socks for Diabetes That Help Users Feel the Ground Again People living with diabetes often struggle with neuropathy , a nerve-damage condition that reduces sensation in the feet and increases the risk of falls, ulcers, chronic pain, and infections. ETH Zurich spin-off MYNERVA  has created a breakthrough solution: Leia , a pair of smart socks for diabetes designed to restore sensation in the foot sole and relieve neuropathic pain without medication. Leia integrates elect

Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia have developed a groundbreaking construction material that encases rammed earth inside permanent cardboard tubes , eliminating the need for cement and significantly reducing embodied carbon. The system, known as CCRE (cardboard-confined rammed earth) , offers a low-carbon, lightweight, and thermally efficient alternative for low-rise and modular architecture. A low-carbon redesign of rammed earth T

A new hardware startup founded by MIT engineers and leading origami innovators is rethinking one of the most overlooked pieces of everyday design: the umbrella. Ori , the world’s first frameless origami umbrella , replaces metal ribs and fabric with a single engineered canopy that folds with architectural precision. At full size, Ori offers a standard 1-meter canopy. When closed, it collapses into a 3.5 × 23 cm cylinder , turning the canopy itself into the supporting structur

deTour 2025 Hong Kong , titled The Shape of Yearning , arrives from 28 November to 7 December 2025 , turning PMQ into a ten-day creative laboratory of exhibitions, installations, workshops, tours, and performances. Curated by designer Adonian Chan  and organized by PMQ , with sponsorship from the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) , this edition invites visitors to reflect on desire, interpretation, and the emotional charge embedded in everyday object

The OnCue Keyboard , a gaming-inspired therapeutic device designed for people with Parkinson’s disease, has won the 2025 James Dyson Award  in the medical category. Created by product designer Alessandra Galli, the keyboard combines inclusive design, haptic feedback, and artificial intelligence to help users type more easily, accurately, and independently. OnCue Keyboard and the 2025 James Dyson Award Out of more than 2,100 submissions from 28 countries, the OnCue Keyboard  w

A 3D Printed Synthesizer for Toddlers: Designing Early Creativity Through Play What if a toddler’s first toy wasn’t just for pushing buttons — but for composing electronic music ? Software engineer Alastair Roberts brings that idea to life with Alma , a fully functional 3D printed synthesizer for toddlers . Designed as a playful introduction to sound, rhythm, and creative discovery, Alma bridges the worlds of product design, music technology, and childhood learning . With an

A New Düsseldorf Opera House Shaped by the River Snøhetta’s competition-winning proposal for the Düsseldorf opera house  envisions a cultural landmark shaped by the long geological history of the Rhine. Designed as the future home of the Oper am Rhein, the building occupies a compact triangular plot and is organized into three trapezium-shaped volumes that open at ground level to the city around them. Each sloping roof tilts and lifts in response to neighboring structures, fr

What begins as a cute fashion accessory quickly reveals itself as an impressive case study in interaction design , tactile robotics , and emotional technology . Mirumi , the mini attachable robot  developed by Yukai Engineering , transforms everyday objects—bag handles, belt loops, straps—into small stages for expression. Once a prototype shown at CES 2025 , the robot is now headed toward real production, bringing lifelike behavior, soft materials, and charm into the world of

Inclusive Boccia Ramp Ghiotto  is an inclusive boccia ramp  created to strengthen social interaction among children with and without disabilities in school environments. Designed by Diego Reggiani  as part of a university design laboratory at Politecnico di Milano , the project was shortlisted for the iF Design Student Award . Rooted in universal design principles, Ghiotto aims to address a meaningful challenge: helping wheelchair-using children connect, play, and build relat

British company Carbon Cell  is close to launching a breakthrough carbon-negative foam packaging  material that offers a compostable, plastic-free alternative to expanded polystyrene. Made entirely from agricultural waste, the material looks and performs like the conventional foam used in packaging and insulation—without contributing to plastic pollution. The lightweight rigid foam is created from biochar , a carbon-rich material produced through the pyrolysis of crop waste.

In the Archaeological Park of Herakleia, along the quiet landscape of Italy’s Ionian plain, Gijs Van Vaerenbergh  introduces Inverse Ruin  — a temporary installation that reimagines the footprint of an ancient temple through a contemporary architectural gesture. Created as part of Siris , a larger interpretive program curated by STUDIO STUDIO STUDIO  with artistic direction by Antonio Oriente , the project offers a new way to see, understand, and inhabit the remnants of the A

A Legacy That Reshaped Architecture Frank Gehry’s passing at 96 marks the end of one of the most transformative careers in contemporary architecture. Few figures have shifted the global imagination as profoundly as he did. With a sculptural vocabulary that pushed beyond conventional geometry, and a fearless embrace of materials like titanium, stainless steel, plywood, and glass, Gehry revolutionized not only how buildings look, but how they behave—how they interact with light

Alwah House , a 900-square-meter residence designed by RCR Arquitectes, rises from the Dubai desert like a blooming family of ribbed petals. Partially embedded in the sand, the home draws inspiration from the natural logic of flowers and oases. Its curved, shaded volumes create a microclimate where light, wind, and shadow choreograph the spatial experience, forming a topographic network shaped by the desert itself. Architecture of Alwah House At the heart of Alwah House  is t

A Bar That Appears… by Almost Disappearing - Invisible AWT Bar During Art Week Tokyo 2025, Ichio Matsuzawa Office introduced the invisible AWT bar , an experimental social space formed not through walls or solid partitions, but through light, transparency, and distortion. Instead of architecture shaping the room, the installation explores how material behavior — reflections, angles, and bending light — can become the true generator of form. At the center of this exploration a