insecta concept car

i love design that draws from nature. not necessarily a direct transfer but takes the millions of years of design decisions that have resulted in the many well-designed and well-functioning forms we share this planet with, and applies them to something functional like a vehicle.

here's a design that has used the grasshopper as its aesthetic if not functional design-frame.

23 year-old designer shao yung yeh explains, "taking inspirations from nature, the exterior expresses the characteristics of friendly insects, such as grasshoppers - agile, lightweight and green."

the concept features leg-like suspension systems, which actively adjust the height of the car in different traffic situations.

at the back is an independent battery pack with the ability to control the center of gravity of the car.

here's a short animation of the concept.


i'll tell you what, there are many rainy days when i'd leave my bike in the garage if this was on the driveway!

the tensegrity bicycle

roving reporter alan, a.k.a. "the first-born", fired off a breathless e-mail to me here at golden fish world headquarters regarding a magical confluence of buckminster fuller's thinking and a bicycle. at what unholy crossroads would the two meet? well the answer is in the tensegrity bicycle.

tensegrity isn't something you'd generally hear about at the breakfast table so in a nutshell, what's tensegrity? websters has rendered the collective meaning of tensegrity down to "all things working together". but tucked away inside that definition are the following ideas:
"- loading members only in pure compression or pure tension, meaning the structure will only fail if the cables yield or the rods buckle (the rods would have to be an exceptionally weak material with a very large diameter to yield before they buckle or the cables yield)
- preload, which allows cables to be rigid in compression
- exact constraint, which reduces stress localization
- mechanical stability, which allows the members to remain in tension/compression as stress on the structure increases." (wikipedia)
which looks like this: and this:
a well-illustrated overview of all things tensegritous can be found here.

so what about the bicycle? well, using the idea of a structure stabilized by both solid tubes and wires, romanian designer ionut predescu has crafted an improbable-looking but functional machine. here it is:
constructed of carbon fiber and kevlar cables, the tensegrity bike seems to float when viewed from certain angles . . .
i think that the first few rides would be real gut-clenchers if for no other reason than looking down you'd see a wire stretching improbably between the post supporting your nether regions and the post supporting your most advanced regions. in other words, it looks like it should fold together - with you squished in-between the two! i'd like to know what it feels like over bumps, turning, in sudden stops. intuitively i think it's likely no different than a regularly constructed bike. if you get a chance to ride this let me know!

log bowls

the loyal loot collective is making a little bit of a name for itself in design circles. featuring the work of four women - doha chebib, carmen douville, dara humniski and anna thomas, the collective creates works that grow out of narratives that generate simple yet elegant objects that are also functional.

i love all of their work but these log bowls are especially intriguing.

bel air by mathieu lehanneur

the air in most people's homes is an admixture of chemicals, many of which are not very good for us. by-products of manufacturing processes that produce materials which decay or relase gases and particulate matter into the air, it seems to me a logical assumption that many of the illnesses and conditions that are being observed in greater degrees than was previously the norm can be traced to this simple fact.

what to do?

designer and innovator mathieu lehanneur has developed a proposal that capitalizes on some research done by nasa when they noticed that their astronauts were getting sick from lengthy exposure to the materials used to construct the spacecraft. the results of the study showed that the peace lily, bamboo palm, english ivy, mums, and gerbera daisies suck more than their fair share of toxic chemicals out of the air making them prime candidates for a filtration system.
here's mathieu's proposal.





while you're here have a look and a listen:

nike hindsight by billy may

this is one of those design objects that appeals to cyclists who brave city streets as a matter of course. emerging from the credo - what helps you see helps you live longer (or at least see what's going to nail you!) - designer billy may has come up with a very lovely concept that is both practical and visually stunning.

dubbed the nike hindsight these glasses are supposed to provide the wearer with an extra 25% in their range of vision.

here's the thinking: my field of vision is nominally 180 degrees. to see further than that i have to swivel my head. cyclists know that this invariably results in two things. one, your body swivels and slightly adjusts the direction you're travelling in and more importantly, it takes your eyes and your mind off the road in front of you. both are bad news on busy streets.

using fresnel lenses on both sides of the glasses, the rider can detect motion in a field of view beyond the normal human limit of 180º. here are billy's design sketches.






if nike picks up on this then you can be sure that i'll be finding a pair to wrap around these eyes!!

the splinter

with a header like that you might well prepare yourself for a tale of unmitigated and excruciating pain far out of proportion to the tiny little piece of wood embedded in some fleshy little chunk of my finger or toe.



i'm happy to say that in fact i'm talking about a car. a car? named the splinter? well yes folks, and i'm not sure that a marketing company executive might not wriggle uncomfortably when presented with the challenge of moving a few of these strangely named vehicles into public awareness, but there it is - a wooden car named "the splinter".

so what's the idea here? well joe harmon eschews mission statements so here's a project description instead:

we are building a high-performance, mid-engined supercar from wood composites as a graduate project at north carolina state university. wood will be used wherever possible, including the chassis, body, and large percentages of the suspension components and wheels. the car has a target weight of 2500lbs and a power goal of over 600 horsepower. we aren't trying to sell anything; we aren't trying to save the world, and we aren't advocating that everyone should drive a wooden car. this project is a scholastic endeavour in which are simply trying to explore materials, learn, teach, share ideas, and stimulate creativity.

let's take a look at this vehicle.





i think you'll agree that as supercars go, it's a lovely design and certainly the textural features of the wood lend it a unique edge. if you'd like to see video and live webcam of this car being built then visit joe harmon design!