Produced in collaboration with The Woolbeding Charity and the National Trust, Glasshouse acts as a spectacular focal point for a new garden that takes visitors on a 12-step journey through a mock Silk Road. The ancient network of Eurasian trade routes played a central role in cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and the West, and it still influences the designs of English gardens to this day. Some favorite English garden plants like rosemary, lavender, and fennel were brought to Britain for the first time along this route.

Following the garden path, visitors will discover over 300 plant species across 12 regions of the Silk Road, including Mediterranean evergreens and Gallica roses brought to Europe by traders from Persia. Inside the Glasshouse, they’ll find tropical species like umbrella trees, magnolias, bananas, and a rare Aralia vietnamensis. During colder weather, the structure’s ten steel “sepals” remain closed to protect the plants. When it’s warm, the sepals open using a hydraulic mechanism to provide access to sunlight and ventilation.

“This is a place and a project that literally unfolds,” says Heatherwick. “You step through this bewitchingly beautiful garden and discover an object that starts like a jewel and ends like a crown as the Glasshouse slowly unfurls. I think it also speaks of our need to keep creating amazing pasts. Weaving contemporary inventions into the fabric of historic settings and having the confidence to let each one speak to the other.”

It takes about four minutes for the Glasshouse to fully open, a process that must be a spectacle to behold in person. The structure already looks like a beautiful gem when closed, but once the sepals unfurl and point toward the sky, it catches the sunlight in a whole new way, scattering spiky geometric shadows all over the lawn.

“This Heatherwick Glasshouse represents the cutting edge of technical design and engineering, but it’s also a restoration of something that is part of Woolbeding’s history,” says Mark Woodruff of The Woolbeding Charity. “It stands as a crowning achievement in contemporary design, to house the flora of sub-tropical south-west China at the end of a path retracing the steps along the Silk Route, from temperate Europe and across mountains, arid lands, and high pastures that brought the plants from their native habitat in Asia to come to define much of the richness and glory of gardening in England.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChkJ7_3Y4PA

The Woolbeding Glasshouse and Silk Route Garden were created with the help of engineering firm Atelier Ten, MRG Studio landscape architects, moving structure specialist Eadon Consulting Ltd., Bellapart glasshouse engineering design and construction, and others.

The post Heatherwick Studio’s Sculptural Glasshouse Unfurls into a Crown first appeared on Dornob.

But surprisingly less luxurious is their former home on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where the couple lived early in their relationship. The realities of living in the “tiny” 1,324-square-foot Nottingham Cottage are revealed in the documentary’s home movie footage.

Affectionally known as “Nott Cott,” Nottingham Cottage is among the smaller houses on the palace grounds, containing two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, small living spaces, and a petite back garden. Harry first moved into the cottage in 2013, and Meghan joined him in 2017, shortly before the couple’s engagement.

Home movie footage depicts interiors that look cozy and relatable. The proportions are small, the materials similar to those you’d see in any other modest home. The kitchen features a checkered black and white floor, white cabinets, and unremarkable gray countertops. This is where Harry proposed to Meghan while roasting a chicken. The compact living room is featured in a scene in which the couple announces their engagement to the world.

Closet space is apparently tight, as the prince is pictured dressing in his officer’s uniform with a freestanding rack of clothing behind him. In another shot, Meghan stands in the doorway of an apparently carpeted bathroom. “It was just a chapter of our lives where I don’t think anyone could believe what it was actually like behind the scenes,” she said of the couple’s time in the home.

“It is on a slight lean with really low ceilings,” Harry said. “I don’t know who it was for. They must have been short,” Meghan added, “He would just hit his head constantly because he’s so tall.” Oprah was apparently astonished by the size of the cottage when she visited. Harry said, “Well, Oprah came over for tea, didn’t she? And when she came in, she sat down, she goes ‘No one would ever believe it!'”

Nottingham Cottage was designed by architect Christopher Wren for William III and Mary II in 1689. The decor and finishings have changed several times since then, as the cottage was occupied by various generations of royalty. Queen Elizabeth II’s uncle, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester lived there prior to the 1950s before it became home to several senior members of the royal family’s staff.

Notably, the cottage was once promised for life to Marion Crawford, a former governess of then-Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, but her rights to it were revoked after she published a tell-all memoir about the royal family.

Other occupants included Miles Hunt-Davis, the Duke of Edinburgh’s private secretary; Robert Fellowes, Queen Elizabeth II’s private secretary, and his wife Lady Jane Fellowes, who is the older sister of Princess Diana; and Prince William and Kate Middleton, the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, prior to the birth of Prince George. After Harry and Meghan moved out, Princess Eugenie moved in along with her husband Jack Brooksbank and their son August.

As for Harry and Meghan’s Montecito home, where they live with their children Archie and Lillibet, it seems that the couple may find it not quite private enough given their ultra-high profile. Though the seven-acre estate is located off the beaten path about 90 minutes north of Los Angeles (near the estates of Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres), the family still has trouble with trespassers and paparazzi.

Realtor.com reports that police were called to the residence nine times in nine months, once resulting in the arrest of a man named Nickolas Brooks, who drove over 2,300 miles from Ohio to intrude on the property. Next up for Harry and Meghan might be a more secure residence within a guard-gated community.

The post Netflix’s “Harry & Meghan” Doc Gives Us a Peek at Nottingham Cottage, the Couple’s First Home first appeared on Dornob.

Freestanding Tubs

Clawfoot cast iron tubs will never go out of style, but the builder-quality jetted soaking tubs seen in many homes are getting a little tired. Often built into tiled surrounds, these behemoths are just as ugly as they are difficult to clean. This year, more people will go for reasonably sized freestanding bathtubs in interesting shapes to make their bathrooms feel more spa-like. Translucent tubs and Japanese-style soaking tubs are standout options, like this striking red tub from Cassa Design.

Cozy Colors and Bold Prints

Painting the entire bathroom white can go a long way toward making it feel fresh, but there’s a serious downside in all that visible dirt. It’s also kind of boring. Cozier, warmer color schemes will replace this outdated trend in 2023 to make the bathroom feel more comforting. Olive green, peach, and rich earth tones are among the top colors that will gain popularity this year, along with boosting the personality factor through wallpaper.

Modern stick-up wallpaper is much easier to put up and take down than its predecessor, and it’s available in virtually every print and color you can imagine on Etsy. For more traditional styles, you can’t go wrong with William Morris. This dark botanical print is from Etsy seller Los Angeles Wallpaper.

More of Your Personality

Bring warmth and personality to your bathroom with decor like antique furniture, window treatments, oil paintings, and other statement-making pieces. Some people are even adding rugs (just not too close to the toilet, of course). The idea is to decorate the bathroom more like you would the other rooms in your home instead of keeping it so sterile. Bringing in elements that really speak to who you are will not only make your bathroom more interesting to look at, it’ll also make it feel nicer to be in. Large artworks and a textural vase do just that in this bathroom by designer Sean Anderson.

Artistic Tile

Textured, decorative tile will be a hit in 2023, along with mosaics and other custom patterns. Try mixing and matching tile patterns, finding handmade options that feel really unique, or creating eye-catching geometric patterns. Terrazzo continues to be on the rise, bringing in a lot of fun speckled textures while remaining easy to clean. It often comes in large-format sizes, too, so there’s less grout to deal with. This gorgeous installation was created by designer Jamie Drake in collaboration with Cheryl Hazan Mosaic.

Mix of Old and New

Bathrooms where everything is brand new and matchy-matchy can feel a little soulless. On the other hand, you also don’t want it to feel like a time capsule. Go for a sweet spot in the middle by mixing old and new elements. For example, an antique commode is a great replacement for a vanity from a big-box store. Ornate mirrors and lighting also pop in small spaces. Here, designer Andrea Schumacher turned an old chinoiserie cabinet into a washstand with the addition of a marble waterfall top.

Statement Stone

Big slabs of statement stone also rank among this year’s top bathroom decor trends. The more dramatic, the better. It might come in the form of a bespoke vanity top, a backsplash, shower walls, or even flooring. Natural materials are preferable if possible, but you can get a similar look with materials like travertine and eco-stone. This dramatic wall is made of Elite Stone’s Calacatta Borghini Imperiale paneling.

The post 6 Spectacular Bathroom Decor Trends for 2023 first appeared on Dornob.

The ancient Etruscans thrived for some 500 years in central Italy before the Roman Republic was established in 509 BCE. The Roman-Etruscan wars resulted in the overthrowing of the last Etruscan king of Rome and the assimilation of Etruscan culture into the new Roman Empire. The statues make it clear that the Romans and Etruscans were not only co-mingling, but worshipping together at this sacred site. The Italian Culture Ministry describes it as a “unique multicultural and multilingual haven of peace” during a time when the civilizations were mostly at war.

A team of Italian archaeologists unearthed the bronze statues of human figures in September and October from the mud and waters of an ancient pool in San Casciano dei Bagni’s hot springs. Over 2,000 years old and almost perfectly preserved by the unique site conditions, the statues represent the largest deposit of bronze statues of the Etruscan and Roman age ever discovered in Italy.

They date back to between the second century BCE and the first century CE, yet their features are still sharp, and the inscriptions (in both Etruscan and Latin) are still legible. Among the statues are representations of the gods Apollo, his son Asclepius, and Asclepius’ daughter Hygeia, from whose name we get the English word “hygiene.” Back in 2020, when the dig first began, archaeologists discovered a large marble pool of an ancient sanctuary decorated with fountains and altars to these same deities.

Other findings include about 5,000 coins, small votive offerings representing body parts in need of healing, and bronze depictions of internal organs that are shockingly accurate. The findings indicate that Etruscan and Roman families prayed together at the sacred sanctuary of the thermal baths.

“The pool was a sacred place, only the religious custodians could bathe there,” says Ludovico Salerno, a member of the local archaeological association that participated in the work. “Sick people came to the sanctuary in the hopes of being cured and would offer gifts to the gods. It was a place of suffering, and it was a place of hope.”

Researchers have determined that Romans dismantled the sanctuary piece by piece around the year 500 CE, about two centuries after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. The statues were then laid at the bottom of the pool and covered with columns and slabs of marble in what archaeologists describe as a reverent and respectful burial.

Together, the findings provide an unusual amount of context for what life was like in that particular place at that particular time, potentially allowing scholars to rewrite the history of the transition from the Etruscan to Roman civilizations. “We can describe all the life, day by day here, through four or five centuries, so this is incredible,” says archaeologist Emanuele Mariotti.

Excavations will resume next spring, and the statues will be displayed in a new museum planned for the site.

The post Shockingly Well-Preserved Statues Unearthed in Italy Rewrite the History of Ancient Rome first appeared on Dornob.

“Suspension House” preserves all the charms of this very special setting but lessens the home’s impact on the creek. The project presented an engineering problem at the outset: how would the architects expand and modernize the home without changing its outline? Their solution was to stack a whole new level on top of the two existing ones and modify the structural supports so they could accommodate the extra weight.

The original 1970s version of the home was built on columns driven into the creek bed. The new structural system uses steel supports under the floors to anchor the home to the bedrock so that no part of it is touching the water. The tranquil flow is unimpeded, and nearly every living space inside the 2,500-square-foot dwelling enjoys a beautiful view. Each level has its own glass-enclosed balcony, and a spacious deck (also following the contours of an existing structure) spills out onto the hillside. From inside, massive new floor-to-ceiling windows create an immersive experience.

Set at a 90-degree angle to the two original floors, the new addition contains the home’s primary suite, bedroom, and flex room. The shared spaces like the kitchen, dining area, and living room are on the middle level, and the spaces closest to the water include a guest room and utility room. The pale zinc cladding and black steel framework coupled with the stacked rectilinear shapes preserve the original home’s modernist feel.

“Transparent materials and carefully considered sight lines merge the home with this dramatic landscape,” say the architects. “The two lower floors stay studiously within the confines of the original building; yet the minimal glass volumes, steeped in the surrounding beauty, feel more expansive than ever. A third floor addition strikes a more slender profile facing east to engage the breadth of the site. The experience is one of being in nature and also humbled by it.”

Of course, the project calls to mind the famous Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright, a 1935 home in southwest Pennsylvania built partly over a waterfall on the Bear Run creek. But that’s not the only beautiful home that enjoys such unusual surroundings. “Bridge House” by architect Dan Brunn hovers above a small natural stream in the mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles, using lightweight modular steel for a low impact on the natural site. And in rural Australia, architect Max Pritchard built a similarly bridge-like home with recycled corrugated metal siding, set across a seasonal winter creek that divides the property.

The post Modernist Suspension House Spans a Creek Between Two California Hillsides first appeared on Dornob.

Though you can take steps to limit their presence, like buying less toxic products and washing your bedding at least once a week, an air filter is probably the best way to breathe cleaner air at night. A new product called the AirTulip Sleep may be the best solution yet, building a high-powered air purification system right into the headboard.

Fluid dynamics and aerodynamics expert Arjen de Jong teamed up with Raoul Valstar to design the AirTulip Sleep in response to COVID-19. The duo wanted to offer advanced air filtration technology in a new form that wouldn’t just take up a bunch of space in the home. The AirTulip Sleep replaces a conventional headboard, directly shielding you from contaminants in your most vulnerable state, and it’s virtually silent to boot.

How the Air Purifying Headboard Works

AirTulip Sleep uses a unique type of airflow to reduce contaminants. Fans, hairdryers, A/C vents, and even the wind spread contaminants through the air in a motion called turbulent airflow. The blowing motion stirs up pollutants and mixes particles and gases with clean air, which makes it hard for most conventional air purifiers to work efficiently.

The AirTulip uses laminar airflow instead, creating a chamber of clean air directly around the headboard where you need it. Laminar airflow is used in hospitals, medical labs, and other scientific facilities that require a sterile environment. The AirTulip Sleep uses it to create an output of clean air without the kind of blowing motion that brings in pollutants from elsewhere in the bedroom.

The product has been tested and verified by the Eindhoven University of Technology, which confirmed that it’s able to reduce the air particle count to zero. The AirTulip sleep also uses Ultra-Low Particulate Air Filters (ULPA) that filter 99.9997 percent of air particles, making it 100 times more efficient than a standard HEPA filter.

Even More Benefits

The AirTulip Sleep is a smart headboard, so you can use the accompanying app to track your sleep quality on your Apple Watch, Fitbit, Oura Ring, or Garmin Fitness Watch. It also offers dual-zone temperature regulations.

The addition of active cooling and heating options on each side of the bed allows you to individually control the temperature between -7 degrees Fahrenheit cooler and +7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the bedroom itself. The laminar flow feature ensures that you won’t feel the temperature difference on the other side of the bed.

Other features include a “day mode” for more powerful air filtration when whisper-quiet operation isn’t as important, a storage shelf along the back for plants or other objects, two integrated wireless smartphone chargers, a reading lamp, a USB charger, and ambient lighting.

How to Order One for Your Home

The AirTulip Sleep comes in all common bed frame sizes, including US twin, full, queen, and king sizes, and European 80/90cm, 140cm, 160cm, and 180cm mattresses. It integrates seamlessly with existing bed frames with the same mounting points. Available colors include mint fabric with a light oak frame, pearl fabric with a birch frame, stone fabric with a titanium-colored frame, and anthracite fabric with a black wood-colored frame.

AirTulip just wrapped up a successful round of crowdfunding on IndieGogo and Kickstarter, with rewards shipping now. It’ll soon be available for retail purchase for $1499 and up; subscribe to the AirTulip newsletter for updates.

The post Air Purifying Headboard Creates a Bubble of Clean Air Around You As You Sleep first appeared on Dornob.

Users simply upload 10 to 20 photos of their faces, and the app’s AI-powered image generating tool does the rest. It may seem like harmless fun, but some artists say the AI is stealing their work. Even worse, the app is generating sexualized images of minors, and users are unwittingly signing away the rights to their own images.

Fantasy Portraits Ignite Ethical Concerns

Artificial intelligence often learns by scraping the internet for content. The Lensa app’s Magic Avatar function draws from sites where real artists upload their work, like DeviantArt, Behance, and ArtStation. Lensa runs on Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image app trained to learn patterns through an online database of images called LAION-5B.

Some artists are recognizing their distinctive styles and even the remnants of their signatures in the AI portraits, like Kim Leutwyler, a Sydney-based artist who told The Guardian she saw almost every portrait she’s ever shared on the internet in the Lensa results.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Spanish illustrator Amy Stelladia says she learned her art was being used by AI apps after discovering a website called haveibeentrained.com, which allows artists to search the LAION dataset for their work. The tool also provides an easy way for artists to request that their art be removed from the AI-training network.

For artists, the problem is twofold. First, the AI is flooding the market with cheap art that exploits and devalues human creativity. “They are meant to compete with our own work, using pieces and conscious decisions made by artists but purged from all that context and meaning,” Stelladia says. “It just feels wrong to use people’s life work without consent, to build something that can take work opportunities away.”

Second, AI photo apps like Lensa are making bank while the human artists they draw from barely scrape by. By some estimates, Lensa is drawing in $1 million USD per day, and the artists seeing their work in its results aren’t even getting credited, let alone compensated.

Portrait Results are More Than a Little Problematic

Some users have found that even when they submit source images that are fully clothed and show no skin at all, the results are often semi-nude and sexually suggestive. At MIT Technology Review, Melissa Heikkilä writes that out of 100 avatars she generated, 16 were topless and another 14 were barely clad. Heikkilä notes that she and another colleague of Asian descent seemed to get more images like these than their white colleagues who tried the app.

Lensa’s Magic Avatar has also generated nude art based on photographs of children, lightened black skin, and made users significantly thinner than they appear in the source images they uploaded.

AI training data like LAION is full of racist stereotypes, pornography, and even explicit images of rape. Of course, AI training data reflects the biases and prejudices of human artists and other content producers, but there doesn’t appear to be any attempt on the app creators’ part to moderate that data. While Stable Diffusion offers a filter on its dataset to limit graphic results, Lensa doesn’t appear to use it.

Lensa also doesn’t seem to enforce its policies prohibiting nudity and minors, and it doesn’t prevent users from uploading source images of people other than themselves. That makes it easy for anyone to exploit Magic Avatar and produce sexualized images of anyone they want, including children.

Signing Away the Rights to Your Own Image

When users upload their own images to Magic Avatar and similar apps, they’re essentially selling their personal information for a very low price. Lensa’s privacy policy allows them to “collect and store your Face Data for online processing function.”

Though the images are supposedly automatically deleted within 24 hours after being processed by Lensa, they’re used to train the AI to produce more portraits. Users aren’t compensated when the company uses their images for that purpose. The app thus becomes just another way to give corporations more control over our identities — and that doesn’t seem worth the four bucks.

The post That Popular AI Photo App is Stealing from Human Artists — and Worse first appeared on Dornob.

So what does it all mean, and where will it end?

Pandemic-Induced Growth is Stalling

These layoffs are massive for the tech industry. Some companies have incrementally let go of workers over the course of the year, while others have suddenly slashed staff by the thousands. Silicon Valley suffered a large proportion of the hits, and nearly 24,000 layoffs occurred in San Francisco alone. After years of hiring frenzies, luxurious perks, big-budget renovations of headquarters, and sky-high salaries, it appears the party is finally over, at least for now.

The tech industry was already on a high before the pandemic started, but COVID-19 restrictions spurred an e-commerce boom, a spike in internet-based activities and demand for both software and hardware that made it easier to work from home. Some companies hired too many workers too quickly in response.

There was always bound to be a correction as consumers began to spend less time on their devices and limit their own spending in response to inflation. Rising interest rates, the war in Ukraine, supply chain issues, high fuel costs, and other factors have played their own roles. But experts say part of what’s happening is simply group-think, with companies following each other’s lead.

Tech Jobs are Here to Stay

The good news is that tech workers don’t need to fear a future in which they aren’t in demand. Though the competitive salaries and benefits enjoyed within the industry may decrease as part of an industry-wide belt-tightening, laid-off workers can always find jobs elsewhere.

Tech companies hit by decreases in ad spending and other shifts related to pandemic recovery may be laying workers off, but others are still hiring. According to tech insights firm Dice, the overall tech sector is actually facing a shortage of workers, and in June, there were about eight available job postings for every person laid off prior to that point.

Roles based on cloud operations, cybersecurity, and data science and analytics are all still in high demand, especially among companies using languages like R, Go, and Typescript. If laid-off workers do struggle to find new roles in other companies, they can look to the U.S. government as a source of some promising new jobs.

What Tech Layoffs Say About the Economy

Layoffs in tech don’t necessarily mean the broader economy is in danger. Federal data shows that layoff rates continue to hover near record lows. The November jobs report showed that employers added 263,000 jobs and the national unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent.

The overall number of American workers laid off has averaged about 1.4 million a month in 2022, while it was about 1.8 million per month between 2017 and 2019. Job openings also remain above their pre-pandemic trend, and applications for jobless benefits have remained more or less level.

Though they’re pretty divided on the subject, most experts believe a recession isn’t a certainty in 2023. Analysts at Goldman Sachs say the tech industry is only a tiny fraction of the larger jobs market, and laid-off workers aren’t likely to remain unemployed for long. Plus, previous mass layoffs in the tech industry didn’t always result in job cuts elsewhere in the economy or point to a looming economic downturn.

Many jobs in the tech industry are focused on innovation, so individual companies can afford to streamline their workforces without impacting their core businesses. The same can’t usually be said for blue-collar jobs and jobs in other industries, where roles directly influence a company’s daily functionality and revenue.

It’s unclear exactly when the tech layoffs will end, but there’s some comfort in knowing things aren’t all as bad as they seem.

The post When Will the Tech Layoffs End? first appeared on Dornob.

Set within the city’s High Fashion District, the industrial club has plenty of interesting things to look at, not the least of which is the 01, a compact crossover plug-in hybrid featuring a 177-horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine and an 80-horsepower electric motor. Though it’s available for purchase, the main appeal of the 01 is Lynk & Co’s monthly subscription service, which grants you use of the vehicle whenever you need it without worrying about things like insurance and maintenance. The car can also be borrowed for shorter periods. It’s designed to appeal to a broad range of tastes, and it offers all the functionality most people need in an urban vehicle.

A partnership between Chinese company Geely and the Swedish Volvo, Lynk & Co knew that people curious about renting or borrowing the 01 vehicle would want a chance to see it in person, but they didn’t want it to feel like visiting your neighborhood Toyota dealer. They decided to bring the car to the people who will use it most — those located in large cities — instead of opening a larger public facility in a more suburban location.

Designed in collaboration with Gothenburg-based studio New Order Arkitektur, the company’s Milan location is the tenth such club to open in the past few years. The interiors repeat some motifs like a cocktail bar and a signature mustard yellow sofa, but it also boasts elements that are distinctly Milanese. A neon “whirlpool light” wraps around a column in the center of the mostly concrete space, which is also outfitted with stylish furniture, a curving lamppost sculpture by local brand Seletti, and the Lynk & Co 01 set under a skylight.

The Tarot Room offers guests a chance to look into the future, and the Candy Shop Toilet encloses sweets within glass tubes, with everything else in the restroom painted a lurid pink. The company’s commitment to sustainability is also on display in the form of recycled materials and objects for sale that hew to the same vision (like Triwa watches with recycled plastic straps). A wood-clad meeting room is lined with reproductions of famous Milanese art. Runways also weave through the space, paying homage to Milan’s reputation as a center of the fashion world.

Previously, Lynk & Co opened a second club in Barcelona designed by Masquespacio. That space was designed to evoke “a world of utopias,” drawing in curious passersby on the well-trafficked Paseo de Grácia with big, colorful sculptural elements visible through the front windows. Other clubs are located in Gothenburg, Antwerp, Rome, Berlin, and Amsterdam, with a new location coming soon in Dusseldorf. Lynk & Co seems to be focused on Europe for now, but CEO Alain Visser has said the company sees market opportunities in U.S. states like New York and California.

“Being present in Milan means not only being part of a beautiful city that renews itself on a daily basis, but it also means entering a fabric where the community that lives there pulsates with ideas: with our club and the events we will organize here,” says Visser. “We want to give space to all those people who want to change their concept of mobility and lifestyle. It’s important to have fun while driving towards a more sustainable future.”

The post Lynk & Co’s Milan Club is a Sustainable Hub for Creative Car Lovers first appeared on Dornob.

The machine is everything you want a coffee maker to be: functional, easy to use, reliable, and attractive. At a glance, it looks like a more colorful version of an average consumer espresso machine with all the parts you’d expect to find, including a hopper, brewer assembly, and water tank. Turn it around and you’ll find that all the typically mysterious interior parts are visible and clearly labeled, including the water pump, flow meter, thermoblock, and power adapter.

Each module has intuitive interaction points so it’s easy to see how to pull it out and reattach it. Aligning magnets ensure that each component fits securely into place, and a repair drawer includes all the tools a user needs to disassemble the machine completely (as well as a few spare parts like extra screws and water pipes).

The Kara uses only one type of screw with two different lengths, both color-coded so it’s easy to tell exactly where they go. The water pipes running from one component to another are visible so you can physically see if there’s a problem. When you do need to self-service, the same touchscreen on the front that lets you choose how the machine brews your beverage also guides you through the repair process.

“Repairing the most common failure points does not require specialized tools and can be done easily and safely by a layman even without much technical knowledge,” says Mair. “The housing is designed so every part can be 3D printed if you don’t have access to original replacement parts, and technical components can be replaced or substituted because they are part of an open system.”

Mair’s vision of more sustainable consumer appliances isn’t just repair-oriented — it also incorporates the ability to substitute parts as needed. He calls for industry-standard parts and components that can be switched out easily by the end user. If mainboards in washing machines, dishwashers, and other appliances were universal, for instance, they could all be easily repurposed.

When possible, components should be made of a single material to make them more recyclable when they do break down. Parts like knobs and buttons should be designed so their replacements can be 3D printed or laser-cut while still offering the same performance. All objects should also be built to last, so we don’t have to replace them constantly.

The Kara is a brilliant proof-of-concept, demonstrating that sustainable consumer appliances aren’t actually that hard to produce. We’ve all just been suckered into a form of consumerism that finds disposability not just acceptable but desirable.

The corporations that manufacture all the things we use every day count on us throwing away the old version in favor of the new on a regular basis. While it’s unlikely that those companies will voluntarily switch to a system like Mair’s, which would probably net them fewer profits in the long run, perhaps future legislation will put consumers and the environment first. One can dream, anyway.

The post Kara: The Sustainable Coffee Machine That Lasts a Lifetime first appeared on Dornob.

The countercultural art movement began with a group of students at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kinshasa, who decided to make art from what they could find around them. Most of what they found was the waste of faraway strangers: tires, foam, bottles, paint cans, CDs, flip-flops, exhaust pipes, and more. In 2015, the artists founded the collective Ndaku Ya Life is Beautiful, led by Eddy Ekete, and began performing while wearing their startlingly creative costumes.

Each costume echoes the ancestral clothing arts of the Congolese, and each has its own story to tell. Jared Kalenga’s “Robot Annonce” is a suit made of broken radio parts in a warning against the spread of fake news. “Femme Électrique” is a costume made of electrical wiring by Falonne Mambu, symbolizing the Congo’s inconsistent electrical service and the kidnappings and sexual assaults that occur when the lights go out.

“Tin Can” by Mvunzi Muteba Jr. aims to raise awareness among Africans about how the presence of multinational companies (such as those mining for rare minerals) has affected the continent and kept its citizens poor despite its many riches. “Tire Man” by Savant Noir is a protest of those stolen resources, like the rubber used to manufacture tires. Other issues represented by the costumes and performances include gang violence, viruses, pollution, a lack of safe drinking water, and the Western-style consumerism that’s beginning to creep into the country.

Gladieu’s photos capture these costumes against relevant backdrops, including graffitied concrete walls, industrial sites, gutters full of trash, and public street markets with locals looking on. In publishing the book, he hopes the levity and creativity of the images will catch the attention of Westerners who don’t want to be guilted into caring about where their waste ends up. His approach celebrates the Congolese culture and the resilience of the community of Kinshasa, sharing the ways in which the artists have reclaimed their experiences and translated them into something beautiful.

“(In the photographs), we are talking about ecology, but we are talking about ecology through African masks,” says Gladieu. “As you can see, they’re completely covered up. You don’t see any part of the skin. The traditional masks were done with natural materials. They symbolized the spirit of the ancestors or the spirit of support of the natural world. These young artists reinvent these traditional masks in a way, but they do it today with trash because they find more trash and natural materials.”

Published by Actes Sud, Homo Détritus was released in hardcover in November 2022 and is now available for backorder from Bookshop.org. You can see more of these images at Gladieu’s website, and on Instagram.

The post Stephen Gladieu’s New Book Spotlights the Congo’s Protest Art Against Western Trash first appeared on Dornob.

Lagerkvist and Lindgren’s design process involved researching the therapeutic benefits of nature to determine what people find most calming and relaxing. The designers believe the allure of stone lies in its symbolism, representing “nature’s slow and boundless rhythm.” When translated into malleable materials, those same qualities can feel like the reassuring embrace of Mother Nature herself.

The designers wanted “Pebble Rubble” to transcend the functions and qualities of an ordinary seat, reminding the user to slow down and appreciate the resilience and dependability of the natural world. The shapes of the rocks call to mind the process by which all the jagged edges were polished over long periods of time by the rain and wind, perhaps cloaked by a coating of moss or a layer of fallen leaves.

“Imagine we find ourselves upon a massive, mysterious slab of stone,” say Lagerkvist and Lindgren. “As if, in a time long before our own, someone gifted with superhuman strength lifted and positioned it, creating a megalithic seat. Let’s imagine that all this occurs in an unexpected location – in the entrance of a bank, the lounge of a hotel, or in the halls of a library. Lastly, let’s imagine that we are getting closer to its surface and only then becoming aware of their softness.”

“Our new system of furniture for Moroso took its forms from found shapes in nature. As children in our native Sweden, our playground was the forest, and we imagined rocks, moss, and fallen trees to be furniture and places for the body to rest and occupy. For this seating group, we 3D scanned rocks we saw on our many forest walks, and composed these organic shapes together into furniture pieces.”

Designed for Italian furniture brand Moroso, the modular cushions of the Pebble Rubble sofas come in 15 different shapes and sizes, and a range of colors including beige, gray, brown, green, lavender, and orange. Each one is available in 16 new textiles produced by Kvadrat by digitally scanning natural surfaces like moss, minerals, and snow for a realistically organic effect.

You can custom-order your preferred combination to create oversized river rock vignettes that fit your space, choosing from shapes that can act as base cushions, back support cushions, throw pillows, and stools.

The Pebble Rubble collection was produced with the hospitality and corporate sectors in mind, but it’s easy to imagine them in the home, too. You can purchase them online from shops like Mohd Furniture, with prices available upon request.

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A decade after they designed the canteen within the building, designers Roelof Mulder and Ira Koers returned to come up with a mobile furniture solution that’s also every bit as elegant as the architecture demands (because let’s be honest, folding chairs were never going to cut it). The duo’s mobile bamboo work islands fit together like puzzle pieces and include cutouts for massive potted plants and trees to make full use of the room’s grand scale.

The 12 units are set on wheels so they can easily be rolled into various configurations or out of the space altogether. Once pushed into place, they appear to be one large workspace combining comfortable couch-like upholstered seating with large platforms that can be used as desks. There’s no one correct way to orient them, so the spaces within can be spontaneously created as desired. They’re often arranged symmetrically, with an opening in the center so that users can nestle within the living greenery in chairs or at small café-style tables.

Made of durable bamboo, the mobile work islands are equipped with bumpers so they can be shifted around safely. The same semi-circular cutouts that wrap around the potted plants when they’re placed in the center of the room can also accommodate the giant beams along the perimeter. When the units are pushed to the edges, they maintain seating while offering a large open gathering area in the center.

The greenery adds privacy, dampens sound, and changes the overall mood of the room. What could feel like an overly large space full of echoes becomes intimate and comfortable, creating new vantage points from which to admire the hall’s many brick arches opening to other spaces. Mulder and Koers eliminated some existing curtains and frosted glass in the hall to encourage more open lines of sight and views of the city outside.

Keeping the use of this central hall flexible pays tribute to the building’s long and varied history. First built as a Catholic orphanage in 1780, it was converted into a bank in the 1960s. What was then an open central courtyard was roofed over to create the hall as it is seen today. That same decade, the Maagdenhuis became the administrative center for the University of Amsterdam, the site of historic student protests in 1969.

With Mulder and Koers’ mobile work islands, the Maagdenhuis atrium remains open to evolution, responding to whatever needs the University might have. The design duo recently created a similarly lush planted courtyard effect in the central hall of the in The Netherlands’ Dijklander Hospital, updating the original 1980s design by Jan Tennekes with a modern aesthetic that “resuscitates it with biophilia.”

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The 15 pieces include multiple Burberry logo t-shirts, a Minecraft logo jacquard scarf, a black cotton gabardine car coat, a Burberry logo baseball cap, a square cotton scarf, a hoodie, a bucket hat, jogging pants, and sweatshirts. The final item in the collection (and perhaps its most notable) is a version of Burberry’s classic Waterloo trench coat featuring a pixelated white Burberry x Minecraft logo on the back.

The collection’s laid-back loungewear vibe merges the distinctive styles of the two brands, with comfort being the main priority. Price tags are in the usual Burberry territory of $250 to $2,990. The Burberry x Minecraft collection can be purchased online and in select stores in New York, Shenzhen, London, Tokyo, Seoul, Taiwan, and Bangkok.

Each real, physical garment has a digital counterpart in the game. Avatars wearing the collection get the chance to complete a series of challenges within four realms, like navigating a maze covered in Burberry’s signature pattern. The game itself is downloadable for free as an add-on adventure for the Minecraft game.

The official Minecraft website explains that “The new, free DLC, Burberry: Freedom to Go Beyond, reflects Burberry and Minecraft’s appreciation of the wonder of nature. As the player, you venture into an alternate reality version of London taken over by a malevolent entity called the Nexus. Once a place blooming with foliage and gentle animals, this land has been drained of color and life. Its inhabitants have been scattered to the four realms of air, water, fire, and earth, and your quest is to restore the spirit of the wild by traveling to each realm, reviving its Nature Guardian, and freeing the animals trapped there.”

“On your adventure, you’ll encounter creative references to the Burberry brand’s universe – including an Equestrian Knight character, Thomas Burberry Monogram maze, and a range of members from the Burberry animal kingdom, each bestowed with mystical powers.”

The pairing of Burberry and Minecraft may seem a little strange, but we can probably expect a lot more mixing of traditionally fusty fashion brands and digital technologies in the near future. Balenciaga already designed skins for the game Fortnite, and Gucci recently released the Gucci: Good Game collection celebrating the world of gaming through rainbow-hued iridescent apparel and accessories.

Burberry’s Director for Channel Innovation Phillip Hennche says he knows the collaboration is a bit unexpected. But Burberry sees digital crossover as the way of the future and wanted to work with one of the largest, most beloved games, hence the Minecraft choice.

“Gaming is a super important channel for us in terms of how we engage our customer,” Hennche told Vogue Business. “We know that it’s a very important passion point for our target markets and consumers. We know that they are there, they are present, and they’re very active in that community.”

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Standing between the Semis wrapped in Pepsi and FritoLay branding, Musk spoke about the need to reduce carbon emissions before pivoting to talking up the selling points of the trucks. “It looks sick,” Musk said, gesturing at one of the vehicles. “You want to drive that. I mean, that thing looks like it came from the future.”

The first delivery of Tesla Semis went to PepsiCo, which placed an order for 100 trucks back in December 2017. Other customers waiting for deliveries include companies like Walmart, UPS, FedEx, and Anheuser-Busch, most of which placed orders numbering in the dozens. PepsiCo plans to use at least 15 of the Semis to achieve zero-emissions status at its Modesto, California Frito-Lay facility.

Some Promises Kept, Others in Question

Musk originally unveiled the Tesla Semi electric Class 8 truck prototype in 2017, with plans to start production in 2019. Then came delay after delay. After a couple years of prototyping, finalizing the design, and road testing the truck, Tesla faced pandemic-related supply chain challenges and a shortage of battery cells.

In 2017, Musk said the Tesla Semi would run on Autopilot, the automaker’s advanced driver assistance system, but made no mention of it at the recent delivery event. It appears that prices will also rise sharply from Musk’s 2017 estimates of $150,000 for the 300-mile range version and $180,000 for the 500-mile version.

But many of the other specs have remained the same, including a tri-motor system that allows the truck to easily cruise by conventional gas-powered trucks pulling the same load. The Semis will still be charged with a “megawatt class charger” and consume less than 2 kWh per mile. The trucks also deliver three times the power of any diesel truck currently available and feature regenerative braking, meaning the brakes deliver power to the battery when drivers stop pressing the accelerator.

The Gigafactory reveal event came after Tesla completed a 500-mile test trip of one of its Semi trucks fully loaded with 81,000 pounds of cargo. The trip began at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California and ended in San Diego without needing to recharge the battery.

Will the Tesla Semi Ever Actually Take Off?

Tesla’s all-electric Semi trucks could dramatically change long-haul trucking. Current diesel-powered trucks in the same category represent one percent of U.S. vehicle sales, but 20 percent of overall vehicle emissions. If they are, in fact, equipped with Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot system, they could reduce demand for drivers and help prevent accidents that occur when drivers are tired or distracted. The system uses sensors and cameras to provide data on the surroundings to the truck’s onboard computer, alerting the driver to potential collisions and applying the brakes automatically in emergencies.

Self-driving functionality is still probably quite a few years from becoming reality, with potential job losses yet to be determined. In the meantime, drivers will have to get used to a very different user experience than what they’re used to, especially inside the cab. Polish truck driver Tomasz Orynski went viral on Twitter after pointing out impractical design choices that make the Semi “a completely stupid vehicle,” including a central seating position that makes it hard to see oncoming traffic or access the window without getting up.

Among other things, the doors are positioned in the rear of the cab, so there’s no longer room for a mattress. The position of the touchscreens replacing physical buttons and levers also makes them hard to reach while keeping eyes on the road.

Musk Drama Could Make Tesla Less Desirable

Meanwhile, it’s hard not to wonder whether Musk’s misadventures at Twitter will affect Tesla. Recent media coverage suggests that all of Musk’s conspiracy theories, transphobic jokes, erratic behavior, and right-wing political comments could harm Tesla by association. Company stocks continue to nosedive, and investors are increasingly furious with Musk over his preoccupation with the social media platform, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“The market voted today that the $TSLA brand has been negatively impacted by the Twitter drama,” tweeted Gary Black, a hedge fund manager who owns about $50 million in Tesla stock. “Where before EV buyers were proud to drive their Teslas to their friends or show off Teslas in their driveways, now the Twitter controversy is hurting Tesla’s brand equity.”

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Pantone calls Viva Magenta a nuanced crimson tone that offers a balance between warm and cool, drawing inspiration from a very organic source: the cochineal beetle. This insect produces carmine dye, one of the strongest and brightest natural dyes in the world. The psychology of this color is a rebellious softness that’s impossible to ignore, speaking to our desire to take on new challenges while meeting others with compassion.

“As we balance our digital and physical lives, we continue to grow our appreciation for the natural world,” says Pantone. “The Color of the Year 2023 acknowledges our gravitational pull towards natural colors as movements swell around climate change, sustainability, and land protection. Viva Magenta offers us the assurance and motivation we need to weather long-term disruptive events.”

“Three years deep into a pandemic, facing a war, an unstable economy, social unrest, supply chain breakdowns, and mounting climate change, we need to heal. And still, we need to find the motivation to continue. Here, Viva Magenta cloaks us in both power and grace, and sends us out into the world with the verve we’ve yearned for.”

Pantone unveiled Viva Magenta at ARTECHOUSE in Miami Beach alongside its exhibition Magentaverse. Presenting its Color of the Year as an immersive experience for the fourth year in a row, the company projected magenta-hued images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and other outer space images into an animated LED tunnel. As visitors explored the exhibition, they activated a LIDAR sensor that triggered the visualization of data in real time.

Pantone also used the AI generative tool Midjourney to create a series of promotional images featuring Viva Magenta, and they’re every bit as surreal as you’d expect. That’s a fitting choice, given that Pantone sees Viva Magenta as a color “capable of driving design to create a more positive future.” Of course, the choice of the term “Magentaverse” is no accident, referring directly to the looming prospect of the metaverse in the near future.

If you want to incorporate Viva Magenta into your home this year, use it as a vibrant pop of color in a neutral setting or make it the focal point of the space in large-scale form using a painted accent wall. ArchDaily has a fantastic gallery of architectural projects that have already employed colors in a similar vein, using saturated magenta for furniture, built-in bookshelves, and even entire facades.

To get a sense of just how much Viva Magenta aims to change our collective mood for 2023, look back on the previous Colors of the Year. In 2022, Pantone chose the soothing warm bluish-purple shade Very Peri to help people get through difficult times. The company saw it as representing “courageous creativity.”

Back in early 2021, when the effects of the coronavirus pandemic were perhaps at their most dramatic (thus far, at least), Pantone announced two Colors of the Year: “Ultimate Gray” and “Illuminating” yellow, a contrast of neutral and bright shades meant to symbolize dependability and cheer.

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