The Bathroom Reinvented

A former editor at Dwell, Virginia Gardiner is an industrial designer at Design London Imperial College, where she is developing and promoting her plumbing-free toilet, the Gardiner CH4. 

"In America, we have a flush and forget mentality," she points out.  But 2.6 billion people in the world lack any form of functional toilet, and humans create an average of two pounds of excretion per person per day.

In the video, Virginia shares the ins and outs of her low-cost, low-tech concept for a waterless toilet system. She reviews some new ideas for enabling better sanitation in even the most remote areas of the world, and breaks down the details on turning human waste into a high-value commodity.

Self-cleaning surfaces, phase changing materials and built-in sensors that generate energy from the footsteps of the visitors. The 3XN pavilion ‘Learning from Nature’ unites the most advanced technologies and intelligent materials in a preview of the innovative architectural design of tomorrow. 

 
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art invited the Danish architecture firm 3XN to design a pavilion demonstrating cutting edge possibilities within sustainable and intelligent materials. The result is a pavilion that is built of bio composites with integrated intelligence that creates a dynamic interaction with its physical surroundings and its users.
 
Everything about the pavilion is literally inspired by nature itself: The biological cycle of nature is the fundamental basis for the shape, the materials and the dynamic energy generation. The pavilion is shaped as a Moebius band to symbolize the biological cycle; and the properties of the construction are very like those of nature – for example, the pavilion has a coating of nanoparticles that helps clean the surfaces and clean the air. Additionally, the pavilion is built of biodegradable materials; and as for energy, the pavilion is 100 percent self-sufficient.     

 
 
Kim Herforth Nielsen, Principal of 3XN, comments on the project:
 
"The Pavilion has given us the opportunity to showcase the possibilities which exist in building with sustainable and intelligent materials. Our objective has been to show that Green Architecture can be dynamic and active.  We often think that we need to minimize use of resources at all costs. Instead of focusing on consuming the least amount of energy, we need to focus on producing and using energy and materials in a more intelligent way than is the case today."

’Learning from Nature’ is unveiled today and can be seen at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, until October 2009.

'Anish'	'Magazine'

Dejavu Home is a great new collection of furniture that I would like to share with you. The Italian company has presented their lamps and furniture at Milano Superstudio during the last Salone del Mobile.

'Pico'	'Olivia'
'Bone'	'Ariston'
'Qubi'	'Woody'

'101i bicycle' by Vesa Jääskö for Helkama Velox (2005)	'Aki Choklat for Lahtiset' by Aki Choklat for Huopaliike Lahtinen (2009)

What is luxury today? Design Forum Finland’s summer exhibition studies modern varieties and phenomena of luxury. “Luxury” has traditionally referred to opulence, abundance and rare expensive products and designer brands. Today's luxury products emphasize above all good design and their focus is shifting from the objects as such to their different, and even surprising, contexts.

'Nokia Ltd Edition city rubber boots' by Nina Auren & Nokian Jalkineet team for Nokia (2007-2008)	'Puro bathtub' by Arup Product Design for Durat (2007)
'Sense Light Swing' by Alexander Lervik for Saas Instruments (2005)	'Suunto Lumi Florette wristop computer' by Elizabeth Salonen for Suunto (2006)

The concept of luxury has become enmeshed in our everyday lives, while at the same time it is continuously changing. Luxury is being associated more and more with personal choices and traditional, time-consuming skills of the hand and natural, ecological materials but also with new technological applications. Information on the designer and maker, and the working process, makes products unique and desirable.

'X-Frame coffee table' by Tapio Wirkkala for Artek (1958, relaunch 2008)	'Koti dining table' by Saara Renvall for Lundia

Luksus 09
Exhibition from June 12 to - August 30 2009
Design Forum Finland, Erottajankatu 7, Helsinki

StudioDesk is a traditional workspace with a modern twist. It is specifically designed to offer laptop users a clutter-free working environment. Its sliding top surface uncovers a large easily accessed storage compartment that completely conceals all one’s peripheral hardware and their accompanying cables.

Designed by Bluelounge, a multidisciplinary design studio founded in 1999 by designers Dominic Symons and Melissa Sunjaya, with offices both in Los Angeles and Jakarta, Indonesia.

Designboost has explored the personal viewpoint of sustainable cities of some of the worlds most acknowledged designers. To find out Designboost went to Milan Design Week and made a MiniBoost.

The MiniBoost resulted in thirteen unique interviews. The seven first interviews are released and include personalities like Ilse Crawford, Tom Dixon, Konstantin Grcic, Arik Levy, Ross Lovegrove, Katrin Olina and Satyendra Pakhale.

The questions asked look at sustainable cities from a holistic point of view and touch among other subjects sustainability according to cultural life, emotional amplification and the personal stories of the inhabitants. The questions are written by different Boosters at the DesignBoost 2008 key event "Long Live the City" in Malmö, Sweden. One may say that the MiniBoost is like a relay race with questions as batons passed on to new Boosters.

Listen to what Ilse, Tom, Konstantin, Arik, Ross, Katrin and Satyendra have to say about it.

	Arik Levy at Miniboost Milan
Satyendra Pakhale at Miniboost Milan	Konstantin Grcic at Miniboost Milan
Katrin Olina at Miniboost Milan	Ilse Crawford at Miniboost Milan
Tom Dixon at Miniboost Milan	Ross Lovegrove at Miniboost Milan

Next week Designboost will release six more interviews from the Milan Design Week MiniBoost including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Kristina Dryza, Richard Hutten, James Irvine, Tim Power and Patricia Urquiola.