The project combines StoneCycling’s expertise in construction waste mitigation with Biomason’s innovative biocement, a binder that produces a material made by bacteria and sand. Combined with StoneCycling’s recaptured mineral waste, the biocement becomes a tile that’s three times stronger and 20 percent lighter than typical concrete masonry while maintaining a near-zero carbon footprint. And while conventional cement takes 28 days to fully cure, precast modules of BioBased tile cure in just 72 hours.

Ginger Krieg Dosier, co-founder and CEO of Biomason, has spent the last nine years searching for a way to “grow” cement bricks and tiles with bacteria. The process sounds pretty fascinating. Biomason uses natural micro-organisms to produce carbon-based material in ambient temperatures just like coral does in nature, though exactly how they manage to do that is apparently proprietary information.

That carbon is combined with calcium to produce biocement materials, which can even be seeded with marine microorganisms to give it self-healing abilities and enable it to anchor itself to the ocean floor and create marine infrastructure, breakwater assemblies, and near-shore sediment stabilization.

BioBased tiles shape the biocement into easy-to-use modules with all sorts of applications, so it can be used almost exactly like traditional concrete. They’ve been installed at businesses around the world, including the Dropbox headquarters in California and Helix Lab in Denmark. More recently, Biomason struck a deal with retailer H&M to install it in many of the company’s 5,000-plus retail locations around the world.

If it continues to take off, this bio-based material could make a huge environmental impact. Concrete’s carbon footprint is currently larger than the entire aviation industry and those of the countries of China and India. It’s also the second most in-demand substance in the world after water. Biomason estimates that its biocement could eliminate 25 percent of the concrete industry’s global carbon emissions by 2030.

“The demand for low-carbon building materials is clear,” says StoneCycling’s Massa. The aim of our partnership with Biomason is to accelerate the use of sustainable building materials and architecture even further. We share the belief in our collective ability to solve climate change, and we’re thrilled to be working with Biomason on new low-carbon products to revolutionize the construction industry.”

“Since our inception 10 years ago, we have focused not only on disrupting the cement industry with groundbreaking technology, but also in establishing a licensing and partnership ecosystem to enable broad adoption of our solutions throughout the construction industry,” Krieg Dosier says. “StoneCycling will be a key partner as we scale commercially and bring BioBased tiles to the European market.”

The post BioBased Tiles: Bacteria Used to Grow Strong and Sustainable Cement Alternative first appeared on Dornob.

Developed by a team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturer Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, POWERPASTE stores hydrogen at normal temperature and pressure, keeping it chemically locked until it mixes with water. That means it can be easily transported and safely handled without requiring expensive new updates to filling stations. All drivers would have to do is change a cartridge full of this goo every now and then, and add tap water into a water tank.

Conventional hydrogen-powered vehicles keep hydrogen in a reinforced tank fueled at a pressure of 700 bar (more than 10,000 pounds of pressure per square inch), while a fuel cell converts the hydrogen into electricity, driving the electric motor. It’s too heavy and bulky as it is to adapt to smaller vehicles. The new POWERPASTE consists of magnesium powder combined with hydrogen to form magnesium hydride, with an ester and metal salt added to form its thick consistency. When the paste is fed to a scooter or motorbike’s propulsion system using a built-in plunger system and water from the onboard tank, it creates a similar reaction to a conventional hydrogen fuel cell. Crucially, the system remains safe even when vehicles are sitting in the hot sun for hours.

“POWERPASTE thus has a huge energy storage density,” says Dr. Marcus Vogt, research associate at Fraunhofer IFAM. “It is substantially higher than that of a 700 bar high-pressure tank. And compared to batteries, it has ten times the energy storage density.”

As a result, POWERPASTE offers a range comparable to or greater than gasoline, and a higher range than compressed hydrogen at a pressure of 700 bar. In addition to scooters and motorcycles, it could be useful for the kinds of tiny cars that usually operate on electricity, like meter maid trucks and urban car share fleets, as well as large drones. Fraunhofer IFAM is currently building a POWERPASTE production plant in Germany, scheduled to go into operation in 2021, which will produce up to four tons of the stuff per year.

Elon Musk may call hydrogen fuel cells “stupid,” but the hydrogen industry is projected to generate $2.5 trillion in revenue by 2050, posing stiff competition for Tesla’s electric vehicles. Some hydrogen-powered cars are already on the market, like Toyota’s Mirai, Honda’s Clarity Fuel Cell, and Hyundai’s Nexo, all “plug-free” EVs that can refuel at gas stations equipped with hydrogen fuel in less than five minutes. The 2021 Mirai gets 402 miles of range, and more than 6,500 of this model have been sold or leased in California since 2015. For now, they’re only available in the Golden State, which has 42 hydrogen fueling stations in various stages of completion.

The post Strange New Hydrogen Goo Could Cleanly Power Small Vehicles Like Scooters first appeared on Dornob.

A recent NPR feature pointed out that popular plastic alternatives like paper, canvas, and glass have worrisome carbon footprints of their own. The piece almost sounds like a public relations campaign for plastic companies, in fact, suggesting that plastics are commonly used to replace things that would do even more damage to the climate, so we might as well just find a way to live with it.

Of course, that analysis was completed by the American Chemistry Council, which isn’t exactly a neutral third party in the matter. It leaves out all sorts of possible alternatives with the potential for much lower environmental impacts all around, from production to the end of their lives.

Here’s one particularly cool example: liquid toiletries that are contained not by plastic or glass, but by solid soap. A designer and post-graduate student at Central Sant Martins Mi Zhou came up with this clever idea, reexamining the usefulness of packaging and what we should expect from it.

Developed for the Materials Future program and exhibited in the school’s degree show between June 19th and 23rd, 2019, “Soapack” is solid enough to safely house liquid contents like shampoo, hand soap, and body wash, looking a bit firmer than typical soap. While the designer doesn’t specify the exact shelf life of this material or whether it’s made from anything more complex than standard solid soap, it seems substantial enough to do the job it was meant to do and then some.

The resulting products also offer two-for-one functionality, allowing you to use the bottles like bars of soap when the liquid is gone. Plus, the packages are just plain beautiful, resembling vintage faceted glass perfume bottles. If there’s one caveat to the idea, it’s the potential for higher pricing, but soap doesn’t necessarily cost much more to produce than common packaging materials anyways.

The brilliance of this eco-friendly packaging concept lies not only in its extra value to the end user, but also in the fact that there’s ultimately nothing to dispose of. There’s not even anything the consumer needs to reuse or recycle, which is ultimately what we should be aiming for as much as possible. To that end, it calls to mind innovations like edible packaging made of seaweed or sugar, which could help eradicate the need for a lot of single-use plastics as well as cardboard and glass.

It’s true that traditional materials like paper and canvas aren’t necessarily better for the environment than plastic, especially if we’re producing far too much of them in the first place and failing to properly reclaim them when their usefulness to the consumer has ended. But all manner of fascinating materials are currently in various stages of development, including “liquid wood,” algae-based water bottles, and a number of mushroom-based concepts.

These breakthroughs tell us that plastic is no longer the material of the future, but rather something we should leave in the past and move beyond.

The post Plastic-Free Packaging Wraps Liquid Toiletries in Solid Soap first appeared on Dornob.

This cruelty-free leather alternative is made from the fibers of leaves that are generally discarded after their fruit is harvested, which means that all the resources involved in the creation of Vegan Pineapple sneakers are raw, natural, and free of any negative environmental impact. There’s also low production waste and water use involved in the tanning of the leather, thereby totally bypassing the need for harmful chemicals. And by purchasing the produce from local farmers in the Philippines, Mercer is even doing their part to grow the economy of a developing country by enhancing its exports. Talk about a win-win for both the people and the planet!

Company founder Pim Dresen states: “We have been trying and testing for a long time to get it done with mango and strawberry leather, but we could not get it right. Then we discovered Piñatex, which offered an amazing material ready to use, tested and all. Plus, we love pineapple.”

Mercer Amsterdam wants to make it absolutely clear that these new sneakers do not forfeit any of the comfort or luxury of real leather. As a matter of fact, each W3RD Vegan Pineapple sneaker has been lined with OnSteam: an ultra-durable microfiber textile that is 100-percent breathable, helps reduce sweating, and maintains a cool, dry internal temperature at all times.

This isn’t the first time that Mercer’s signature W3RD shoe has gotten a facelift, either. Last year, the company released W3RD 2.0 Night Mission, a space-themed shoe designed in collaboration with NASA to celebrate the anniversary of the challenging Apollo 17 mission. That sneaker’s dark colorway, featuring a cobalt blue strip across the heel and the official NASA logo patch on the side, mimicked the dark abyss that the original mission’s astronauts would have experienced back in 1972.

From a design perspective, the Vegan Pineapple is pretty much the exact opposite of the Night Mission. The clean, minimalist aesthetic of the former, complete with a beige outer and crisp white midsole, really appeals to the luxurious vibe of the Mercer brand whilst still harnessing that authentic, organic feel. Plus, there’s no better combination for apparel than something that looks great and does the planet a world of good. The company has already expressed interest in experimenting with even more alternative materials in the near future to continue pushing for a sustainable future.

The €250 handmade-in-Europe vegan sneakers were available for pre-order all throughout March 2019, with initial deliveries expected to begin shipping at the end of April.

The post The Vegan Sneaker That Will Change the Face of Luxury Fashion first appeared on Dornob.

Thanks to the latest in green technology, there’s now a new option making its way onto the market that eliminates many of these concerns. It’s remarkably easy and eco-friendly to produce, looks and feels almost exactly like animal leather, and avoids producing a lot of the waste normally associated with the leather industry. It’s called “Mylo” and it’s made entirely from mushrooms.

The process of producing this intriguing new material begins with mycelium cells: the vegetative part of fungus most typically found growing underground like roots. Fungal mycelium consists of branching, thread-like strands that absorb nutrients and can self-assemble into dense mats.

Developed by a company called Bolt Threads, Mylo takes just days to produce by growing mycelium in beds of corn stalks, where they form an interconnected three-dimensional network. Once they’re ready, Bolt Threads compresses these mats to make a 2D material, after which they tan and dye it to produce the final product. According to the company, Mylo is strong and abrasion-resistant with a warm, supple feel and a ton of leather-like qualities.

They add: “Our friends at Ecovative pioneered this mycelium fabrication technology, which literally grew out of the great work they’ve been doing in creating soft flexible foams. We were blown away and thrilled when they agreed to allow us to help develop it into a commercially viable new material. We’ve established a long-term partnership with Ecovative to optimize this technology and put processes in place to produce commercial-ready Mylo™ material and bring products to market that consumers will love.”

Last fall, Bolt Threads launched the Mylo special edition of the Chester Wallace Driving Bag: a multi-pocketed tote that fused the innovative leather alternative with high-quality design. The world’s first commercially available Mylo product, the tote started at $400 and was only available in limited quantities. While its Kickstarter campaign has long since closed, it’s possible that the bag will become available for purchase again. In any case, it’s just one of many Mylo offerings in the making.

The company website reads: “Designed in collaboration with Portland-based brand Chester Wallace, the Bolt Projects Mylo™ Driver Bag is a unisex tote, crafted with practical functionality top of mind. A recreation of Chester Wallace’s classic Driver silhouette, every bag is hand-cut and sewn in Portland, OR and constructed entirely from Bolt Threads’ Mylo™ material, paired with a canvas base. The bag features a durable carry-all silhouette with two internal and three external organization pockets.”

If you’d like to stay in the loop about future Mylo products, you can always sign up for newsletter updates at the Bolt Threads website. In the meantime, check out other cool innovations like fungi bricks, mushroom-based home insulation, and an entire pavilion made of mycelium.

The post Mylo: A Leather-Like Material Made of Mushrooms first appeared on Dornob.

Paper

Food with Fashion designs paper straws that are colorful and biodegradable. These straws come in a variety of styles and patterns, from “Rainbow Chevron” to “Multicolor Stripes” and “Green Daisies.” Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and Easter straws go great with table decorations, and there are even straws to complement wedding and baby shower decor. How do Food with Fashion’s straws hold up in drinks? “They are durable, biodegradable, and food-safe,” says the company. “The thick coating allows them to last for hours in water and other liquid beverages!”

Bamboo

Glass

Stainless Steel

The post Hate Plastic Waste? Try These Clever Straw Alternatives first appeared on Dornob.

The post Fantastic Futuristic Green House Design first appeared on Dornob.

Just like an animal can be calmed with the pressure of a specially made coat, an anti-anxiety product called ‘The Weight‘ offers the comfort of a loved one’s arms when no one’s actually around. Designer Mia Cinelli was inspired by the weighted blankets that are often used in occupational therapy practice as a natural, medication-free way to soothe stress.

Cinelli developed the ‘comfort object,’ which is like a small weighted body pillow, after the loss of her fiance’s father. Shaped like a person’s upper body and arms, the object has plush hands that you can hold within your own. The weight not only provides that sense of a human presence next to you, but also represents the metaphorical heaviness of grief.

Of course, it’s ok to take medication for anxiety (and any other condition) if that’s what helps you. Products like The Weight simply offer another option, whether complementary or as an alternative. It’s not snake oil, either. Scientists have found that the pressure of weighted blankets puts the autonomic nervous system into “rest mode,” reducing symptoms like quick breathing and rapid heartbeat.

“Its use imitates an intimate gesture, reminiscent of a hug from behind,” says Cinelli. “When I feel relaxed and take the weight off, I feel lighter – both physically and in spirit. P.S., please hug someone you love today, before you cannot anymore.”

About the designer

“Mia Cinelli is an artist and designer; she graduated with her BFA in Graphic Communication from Northern Michigan University, and an MFA in Art + Design from the University of Michigan Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design. After serving as an Assistant Professor and Gallery Director at Defiance College for three years, she became a new Assistant Professor of Art Studio and Digital Design at The University of Kentucky in the School of Art & Visual Studies in the fall of 2017.”

The post If You Need a Hug, This Anti-Anxiety Pillow Will Deliver first appeared on Dornob.

Earthbag construction just got a lot faster and much easier thanks to an innovation from United Earth Builders. Their Earth Home Builder is made from a repurposed auger and can more or less 3D print houses in an amazingly short amount of time.

For those unfamiliar with the term, earthbag construction is just what it sounds like: bags are filled with soil or sand and those bags are laid on top of one another. The stacks form the starting point for walls. The layers of bags are often supported by adding cement between them like mortar, or securing the layers with barbed wire. The Earth Home Builder requires neither of those mid-construction additions; its reinforcement material consists of 5 1/2″ rebar hammered in at key points to keep the bags stable.

In ordinary circumstances, humans can fill earthbags at a rate of approximately 30 feet per hour. The Earth Home Builder can “print” the bags of earth at a rate of 400 feet per hour. The machine consists of a big hopper that holds the filling material and a spout where it spits out earth into an attached bag. The operator slowly lets the fill material out and a helper or two can manually guide the bag into place as it’s being filled.

After the bags have all been laid in place and secured, an external cover like plaster or adobe is applied to protect the bags from the elements and add extra stability. Some earthbag builders keep stacking the bags up into a dome to create a roof, but United Earth Builders finished off their example building with a traditional roof made of formed concrete and timber. The group is looking for nonprofits to work with in their endeavor to bring stable, inexpensive, quickly-constructed homes to the people and places that need them most.

The post Revolutionary Machine Lets You 3D-Print Houses from Local Dirt first appeared on Dornob.

Most people pay attention to the part of the mushroom we see (and sometimes even eat) that grows above the ground – but what about the latticework of tendrils that intertwine inside the dirt from which they grow?

As it turns out, this malleable network can, per Philip Ross, “be used to form a super-strong, water-, mold- and fire-resistant building material. The dried mycelium can be grown and formed into just about any shape, and it has a remarkable consistency that makes it stronger, pound for pound, than concrete.” (via Inhabitat)

Stools and chairs are just the start – stone-like arches and eventually whole buildings may be yet to come. Like bamboo, the speed of growth and workability of the material make it a great candidate for locally-grown architecture, particularly in fungi-friendly climates. The strength of concrete, but easier to create and lightweight to boot – we have not seen the last of mushroom-based building technologies.

In an interview with Glass Tire, Ross explained how he got started with this idea.

“It was when I started to learn how to grow mushrooms. The initial impulse was to figure out how to grow reishi mushrooms as medicine, but when I started cultivating them and learned their growth habits, I immediately wanted to work with them as an art material– a casting material. It was a casting material that could be altered as it was setting. In casting, the amount of time you can work with the material before it sets is called ‘open time.’ In plaster that might be five minutes, and in cement it might be a couple hours. But with mushrooms, the open time is almost as long as you can keep them alive.”

“You can start to think about plasticity and forming things through much more subtle encouragement. The shapes can be controlled via the environment: the temperature, the position in relation to gravity, all these things that we take for granted, but are profound shapers of the world. You can begin to play with these factors and use them as non-physical tools of manipulation. Light, gravity, heat and the cleanliness of the environment determine the form, as opposed to a chisel or a drill or something like that.”

The post Building with Mushroom Bricks first appeared on Dornob.

Gingerbread homes are just so 20th Century, don’t you think? Here are a few quirky variants on this timeless classic for the more adventurous cook-turned-constructor.

From Instrucables user KitchenTableScraps, with both a pastry chef and architecture background, comes a more urban solution inspired by Brooklyn – the gingerbread townhouse, technically edible but too beautiful to destroy.

DomesticEngineer takes a similarly hybrid approach, combining an unusual type of domicile- the igloo – with the appropriately winter-season, gingerbread-building activity.

Finally, from TringsThings there is a more fanciful gingerbread castle fusing elements of edible construction with fairy-tale architecture. A slightly easier and less-picky project, too, for kids or those without model-building educations from architecture schools.

The post Townhomes to Igloos: Unusual Gingerbread Housing Ideas first appeared on Dornob.

No one wants to talk about it, but there is something odd about leaving public (perhaps even private) bathrooms by way of a grab-and-twist knob, handle or other hand-held object. Nobody wants to get a nasty virus from a restroom. The solution is simple, safe and sanitary, but still rarely implemented.

Toeopener has a nice ring to it, and speaks to its functionality as well as the photos or videos – simply use your foot instead of your hands. This plastic-bumpered metal bar screws into place, making installation (and removal) easy as well.

If it sounds awkward, well, it does not look particularly uncomfortable in practice. The catch is that it may not be particularly friendly to disabled or elderly persons – this drawback can be offset by including the same grips we all know to expect at arm level, regardless.

“The Toepener (toe opener) came to life at the beginning of 2011.  It was designed to liberate the hands of bathroom users, to free them of the unease of touching a dirty door handle. The Toepener is ADA compliant and made of sturdy, rust-resistant stainless steel. It mounts easily and securely with four phillips head screws that are included with your purchase.”

You can find the Toepener hands-free foot door opener at many retailers, or buy it from their website for $49.95.

Similar options abound. The Step-n-pull is one common option, shown in use above. It comes in a variety of colors to blend into residential uses as well as commercial, if you like.

“When you invest in making your restrooms touch free, yet your customers are still having to touch the dirty door handle, what’s the point? StepNpull® foot operated door openers offer a low-cost and effective way to ensure your customers have a germ-free option when exiting your restroom. Simply step and pull, it’s that easy!”

The GermKick is a similar idea, but works a little differently.

“One advantage of a lift-pull opener is that it doesn’t put force on the door hinges. Stepping on the corner of the door has a 3-feet of leverage on the bottom hinge and over 7-feet of leverage on the top hinge, particularly if teen-agers take it for a ride.. This could cause early failure of the door hinges, depending on their quality and the traffic through them.”

The post Hands-Free Foot Operated Door Openers first appeared on Dornob.

Inspired by plastic pop-out modeling sets, this collection of coffee-oriented tableware (likewise made via a single-injection mold) contains everything you need to accomplish the task at hand … and replant some coffee after the fact.

However, unlike its petroleum-based predecessors, each (spoon, cup and saucer) set is in this case constructed from non-polluting, fully-biodegradable organic materials, and comes complete with spare beans for post-beverage replanting.

Cheap, stackable and eco-friendly, the concept still has a few kinks to be ironed out – for example, breaking down parts to put in the cup-turned-planter portion (as growth mediums) sounds somewhat implausible, and having to stick some portions in the ground makes the whole thing less practical as well.

It would also be nice to see models or renderings of the process in greater detail. Still, this so-called Coffee Kit by Joana Carvalho shows some promise … even if it is only, for now, the seed of a more well-resolved design idea.

The post Self-Seeding Coffee Set Supplants Would-Be Plastic Waste first appeared on Dornob.

Twist-off tops can hurt your hands and are more prone to leaks, while traditional tight-sealed ones can be a real pain if you do not have a bottle opener handy (or know how to use a table or lighter in a pinch).

Designers like Gonglue Jiang suggest you spare your teeth and save some time by simply pulling up on a soda-can-like tab along the top, dispensing with that tedious twist (or pop) task that only grows more troublesome the more you drink.

Still, some may find this amazing (as this author did) while to others it might be old news – while they are absent (or at least incredibly rare) in the states, this sort of pull-tab opening system has started to be used in other parts of the world already in various forms.

“‘EasyOpen’ save your hand, teeth and table  when there is no bottle opener beside. People always cannot find the bottle opener when they want a beer. They usually use hand, teeth, or other tools to open it instead of bottle opener. Why not design a bottle cap the same as canned beer? EasyOpen gives a solution of opening a bottle beer in a easier way. In the same time, the cap can be hold on hand when open it and won’t fall out on the ground or anywhere as the ordinary cap does.”

About designer Gonglue Jiang:

“As a designer, I have won iF Concept Award and Gold Prize of Zhenhai Cup. I have designed the first China exclusive edition for world top handbags brand Rebecca Minkoff; I have presented a design case study in Design Emotion Conference. As a researcher, I have conducted cross-cultural studies in Microsoft Research Asia; I have published papers on top HCI conferences including INTERACT 2009 and CHI 2011. As an innovator,
I have won Wall Street Journal’s Asian Innovation Award as a team.”

The post Easy-Open Bottle Caps Need No Opener first appeared on Dornob.

Diamonds walk a fine line between being classic, classy and cliche – particularly in a day and age when people worry about whether a ring, earring or other piece of diamond jewelry is a conflict-free and otherwise reasonable thing to buy.

Stephanie Maslow has thus timed her Modern Rock collection well to tap into a market where consumers fret about being cheap on the one hand (perhaps that one with the engagement or wedding band?) and too self-indulgent on the other. Sterling silver takes the place of the traditional diamond solitaire, maintaining the same traditional physical form in a unique and unusual material: metal.

Unlike conventional kitsch materials such as plastic or glass, there is no true attempt to mimic the original diamond in terms of reflectiveness, transparency or other visual features with which we are familiar. Instead, these faux-jeweled pieces are works of industrial design that celebrate their alternative materiality.

So these ear studs, pendants and even wedding-and-engagement-style rings have the same sizes, cuts, facets and could serve the same function as other real-diamond jewelry … but whether a spouse would accept them as a replacement for typical and truly-precious metal jewels is, however, another matter entirely.

“This solid 14k palladium white gold ring is rock star quality. I make this ring to look like a real diamond but without the consequences. It’s bling with a conscience. Not for the faint of heart- you know who you are, hot stuff. You do things on your own terms, your way, and no one can tell you otherwise. I made this ring for you, you get me? This is faceted, modern metal. I use the same techniques a stone cutter uses and the real thing would be 2 1/2 carats. The asscher cut is a faceted square cut with a high crown so you’ll get some serious shine. I use palladium white gold because it’s a truer white color than traditional white gold. There’s no need for rhodium plating, it’s a very white metal naturally. I exclusively use 100% recycled metals to create the smallest footprint with my jewelry as possible. Handcrafted in our NYC studio, this ring will take about 5 weeks to make.”

The post Precious Metals? Solid Metal Diamond Rings first appeared on Dornob.