At almost $15 US apiece, plus shipping from the UK, you won’t catch me smashing too many of these seed-laden ceramic pineapples in the near future. Give me a half-dozen at that price, packed in hay inside a roughly-stenciled wooden crate (“HAND GRENADE, FLOWER SEED, 6CT, NOT FOR EXPORT”), and we’ll talk. Still, pretty appealing concept–you got the flower power, the military cool factor, and the visceral appeal of smashing a ceramic pot all rolled into one.
Not exactly practical, but certainly clever, this shelf made from recycled magazines is by designer Sean Miller.
Sean coated the magazines with a a water/starch mixture and then he placed them under pressure for about a week to harden. Next he took a band saw to the consolidated stack and carved out space for a shelf. Holes were also cut into the bookshelf’s sides, allowing it to slide onto three rods to be hung. About 80 mags were used.
It’s another personal fave from among the finalists of Inhabitat’s second annual Spring Greening contest.
From chandeliers made from recycled hangers, and lamps made from water bottles, to flip flops made from chop sticks (Chop Flops pictured above) to a shelving system made out of old bike tires, this year’s Inhabitat Spring Greening Competition finalists have come up with some wildly creative and surprisingly beautiful designs. I’m honored to be […]
I have to say, for the record, that those are way smaller than any actual traffic cone I’ve ever seen, and are far, far too clean to have ever seen any real use on a street. I’m pretty sure reusing real traffic cones would result in a lamp that was both way too big and way, way too beat up to make good-looking furniture. Still, cool-looking lamp, and a straightforward re-make.
This spherical POP pendant lamp made from soda can pull tabs by Mauricio Affonso is just one of 23 impressive finalists in Inhabitat’s second annual Spring Greening creative reuse contest. You can see the others, and vote on your faves, here.
Then again, if Calla lilies replaced each new brick on the planet, it would reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by at least 800 million tons a year. But we’d also be living in a world without useful new bricks to build stuff with. It is probably reasonable to expect that Dosier’s “Bacteria Bricks” will fare better as a construction material than Calla lilies, but whether they are truly comparable to conventional masonry in mechanical properties, durability, and weather resistance still remains to be proved. Also, her bricks take weeks to harden, compared to traditionally-fired bricks which can be manufactured in two days.
The Twittering power meter from MAKE Volume 18: ReMake America now works with Google Powermeter. This was a bit of a struggle but we did it (code on github). For long time readers of MAKE you’ll likely recall this was a project of ours/mine I co-designed with Limor Fried (Ladyada) and recently Devlin Thyne. So […]
