WebUrbanist » Furniture & Interiors

Going Viral: 10 Neat Gadgets for Germaphobic Geeks

Steve — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:00:56 +0000

Computer viruses aren’t the only infections you have to worry about, especially if you’re a geek, gamer and/or gadgeteer who lives in the scary, paranoid land of germaphobia. These 10 neat gadgets target both germaphobic geeks and the evil nano-beasties that torment them.

The Cole Cleaner

(images via: Switched and Nuka-Cola.com)

These pixels are making me thirsty! Join the club, friend, and crack open a cold one for yourself as well… but not before you annihilate any unseen pathogens that might be (ha!) lurking on the can. Leon Peng designed The Cole Cleaner just for you paranoid drinkers who can’t be bothered to go upstairs and get a glass from the kitchen.

(image via: Yanko Design)

The Cole Cleaner’s mission is to make the world safe from unwanted bacteria, one can at a time. Install your aluminum-encased beverage of choice into Peng’s sterilizer and watch (not too closely) your can get blasted wuth UV radiation, rendering it free from infectious organisms. Too bad it’s now going to touch your biohazard of a mouth.

Vioguard™ Self-Sanitizing Computer Keyboard

(images via: Vioguard.com and Geekwire)

It’s hard to imagine any piece of computer hardware that’s touched more than one’s keyboard – to use it is to touch it, basically. Wouldn’t it be nice to start each working (or playing) day with a brand new, clean-as-a-whistle keyboard? Now there’s the next best thing: the Vioguard™ Self-Sanitizing Computer Keyboard.

(images via: Vivalageek and InventorSpot)

The Vioguard Self-Sanitizing Keyboard is a self-disinfecting computer keyboard slides back into a specially designed sheaf after using, where germicidal UV-C ultraviolet light beams its way into those tiny nooks and crannies where infectious germs hide. It only takes a few seconds to eliminate those harmful microorganisms it took hours for you to put there.

Handheld Disinfectant Steam Cleaner

(images via: Amazon.com, HSN and Hoover.com)

“Give me steam, and how you feel to make it real, real as any place you’ve been…” That was Peter Gabriel, a dude who knows a bit about steam and what it can do for you, your desktop, your filthy electronic devices and the rest of your grubby lifestyle.

(image via: Red Ferret)

UV is cool and all, but when heat (203°F heat, to be exact) is required to wipe out viruses and mold as well as stubborn bacteria like E. Coli and Staphylococcus, the Hoover Handheld Disinfectant Steam Cleaner comes into its own. This handy device heats up in just 3 minutes and comes with two steam nozzles and a window squeegee… for cleaning windows, not Windows.

Shocking Thumb Wars

(images via: Firebox and Deviltronics)

Back in the days when kids walked 3 miles to school and back through raging blizzards and fashionable men wore onions on their belts, which was the style at the time, Thumb Wars was the game of games! Nowadays, however, no young OCD-afflicted whippersnapper wants to touch some other young OCD-afflicted whippersnapper’s thumb… and that’s why we have Shocking Thumb Wars.

(image via: Firebox)

Shocking Thumb Wars removes the actual hands-on warring of actual germ-infested thumbs in favor of digitized thumb-operated games titled 50/50, Rebound and Endurance. The latter variation is reminiscent of those weird CIA experiments in which some test subjects were allowed to shock other test subjects and were found to enjoy it. This is pretty much the home version.

Plane Clean Air Filter

(images via: Gizmodo, Plane Clean Air and Giz Wiz Search)

Germophobic types often have a fear of flying that has nothing to do with the plane crashing: it’s the air they’re worried about. Scaremongering headlines about supposedly sickness-inducing recycled air have got folks reaching for their… Plane Clean Air Filters!

(image via: Allergy One)

Just snap on of these blue babies over on of the the overhead air nozzles (also known as a “gasper nozzle”) and rest comfortably knowing the Plane Clean Air Filter is busily removing more than 99.5% of the airborne visuses, bacteria, allergens and other particulate matter from the air stream. AS for your cabin-mates, they’ll be slightly less comfortable as they wonder what the heck that blue thing is stuck to the overhead console.

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The Swings of Things: 15 Daring Swing Set Designs

Steph — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:00:19 +0000

Dangle high up in the sky or from the side of a bridge in swings that have been installed in the most unexpected locations, or enjoy the modern and magical designs of swings that are outside the ordinary. These 15 unusual swing designs range from art installations to awesome products you can purchase for your own home.

Sky-High Billboard Swing by Architect Didier Faustino

(images via: visual therapy)

Who (other than those afraid of heights) would turn down the chance to see the skyline from a billboard-height swing? French-Portuguese architect Didier Faustino converted an advertising billboard into an interactive project for the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennial of Urbanism and Architecture.

Entitled ‘Double Happiness’, the work “responds to the society of materialism where individual desires seem to be prevailing over all. This nomad piece of urban furniture allows the reactivation of different public spaces and enables inhabitants to reappropriate fragments of their city.”

Sculptural Swings by Fletcher and Myburgh

(images via: myburghdesigns)

Garden swings don’t get much more magical than this. Artists Fletcher and Myburgh have designed a collection of gorgeous swings made of copper; some have an ornate Art Nouveau look to them while others are strikingly modern. Depending on complexity and weight, the swings run between £2,000 and £19,000.

Urban Swing Installation Project by Jeff Waldman

(images via: notcot)

Why shouldn’t we enjoy the spaces under piers, beside bridges and beneath industrial remains? Jeff Waldman’s whimsical swing installations reclaim these spaces for the sake of fun, placing swings in unexpected locations. The swings have graced Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Marshall Islands and Panama.

Monument Swing by Kamila Szejnochon, Poland

(images via: kamilaszejnoch)

The hand of a statue commemorating the Berling Army Soldiers in Warsaw was just begging for an installation like this one. Artist Kamila Szejnochon wanted to “pursue a dialog with memorials that served as community propaganda… to suggest a change in the function of the monuments is an attempt to build a bridge between the present and the past, to add a contemporary layer distinct from their original style and function.”

Swings on a Train

(images via: BART Swings 2009 Flickr)

Riding the train got a lot more fun when swings were surreptitiously installed on San Francisco’s BART public transit system. Tied to the handrails, the swings invited riders to play and laugh, and photos were taken to document the event.

Swing Necklace by Johanna Richter

(images via: sleek identity)

Just as you adorn your own body with jewelry, you can do the same for your home – but this extra-extra-large necklace serves another purpose, too. Johanna Richter’s Swing Necklace is a handmade swing made of either balls of gray felt or oiled beechwood, and can be hung in doorways or other locations as both decor and entertainment.

Floating Swing Sofa by Philippe Nigro

(images via: freshome)

Perhaps more of an art piece than a practical piece of furniture, this floating sofa can be suspended from a steel tube from with cables for a spider-web-like effect. It’s hard to say whether the couch actually swings or just hangs from the frame like a hammock; either way, it’s… interesting.

Bus Stop Swing

(images via: apartment therapy)

Artist Bruno Taylor installed a swing at a bus stop for an industrial design class, taking a video of the various reactions received by bus riders and passersby. “71% of adults used to play on the streets when they were young. 21% of children do so now. Are we designing children and play out of the public realm?”

“This project is a study into different ways of bringing play back into public space. It focuses on ways of incorporating incidental play in the public realm by not so much as having separate play equipment that dictates the users but by using existing furniture and architectural elements that indicate playful behaviour for all. It asks us to question the current framework for public space and whether it is sufficient while also giving permission for young people to play in public. Play as you go…”

Carefree Dining Swing Set

(images via: duffy)

Swinging while eating: a good idea, or not? Perhaps it wouldn’t make for ideal digestion, and it could result in quite a mess, but this dining set is definitely an eye-catcher. Designed by Duffy, the dining swing set features a frame that hovers over the table, serving as a support for eight dangling chairs in shades of black, red or white.

VisionDivision

(images via: inhabitat)

Design firm Visiondivision created an unusual concession stand and swing set made from a single giant tree for the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s 100 Acres Park. Called Chopstick, the project turns a whole tree on its side, stripping it of its bark and using it as a frame for a concession kiosk, children’s swings and a bench swing for adults.

Tempting Swinging Beds

(images via: lebeanock, bernstein architecture)

Be warned – if you put a swinging bed in your house, you might just never get out of it. ‘Le Beanock’ is half hammock, half bean bag, and probably one of the most comfortable things you’d ever have the pleasure of experiencing. Bernstein Architecture, meanwhile, offers a whole range of suspended furniture, including beds hanging from cables.

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Glow-in-the-Dark Home Furniture Lights Up Nights

Steph — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:00:46 +0000

During the day, these 14 furniture and home decor items like lounge chairs, sideboards, bathroom countertops, tiles and wallpaper look fairly ordinary (though beautifully designed). But when the lights go out, they reveal their versatility, lighting up with built-in LED lights or glowing from within.

Full Moon Sideboard

(images via: yanko design)

Not only does this gorgeous sideboard feature a stunning digital image of the moon over three-quarters of its surfaces, but it was also treated with glow-in-the-dark paint and ecologically friendly dark blue paint to create a heavenly effect at night. The sideboard was designed by Sotirios Papadopaulos for ENNEZERO and displayed in Milan in 2008.

Bright Woods with Embedded Glow-in-the-Dark Stripes

(images via: gruppo avanzini)

Rounded wooden furniture that can act as ottomans, stools or coffee tables, ‘Bright Woods‘ from Gruppo Avanzini includes stripes of various types of wood in between glow-in-the-dark resin.

LED Light Pots for the Garden

(images via: rotoluxe)

Why install extra lighting in your garden when your potted plants could glow? These pot lights from Rotoluxe come in various shapes and sizes including printed varieties, and include lighting elements that shine from within their transparent bodies.

Transparent Glowing Bathroom Counters

(images via: mastro fiore)

The soft illumination given off by these glowing countertops makes night lights in the bathroom a thing of the past. Italian company Masto Fiore hand-crafts these beautiful countertops from natural alabaster stone with integrated illumination. Pair them with translucent glass sink vessels and you’ve got quite a magical effect.

Light-Emitting Wallpaper

(images via: jonas samson)

It’s wallpaper that lights up! Designed by Jonas Samson, this light-emitting wallpaper is unfortunately just a prototype and not for sale, but it’s an intriguing concept.

Lounge that Glows at Night

(images via: solpuri)

By day, the Lagoon daybed by Solpuri is a comfortable and very chic place to relax, accommodating two and offering a removable shade. By night, the translucent base of the lounger lights up from inside.

Glowing Textiles by Kathy Schicker

(images via: kathy schicker)

Designer Kathy Schicker calls our attention to something we never realized that we needed: glow-in-the-dark textiles. Offering a range of prints, Schicker’s collection looks like ordinary fabric during the day but starts to glow when the lights go out.

Light-Up Outdoor Bar

(images via: vondom)

Furniture maker Vondom offers up yet another futuristic glow-in-the-dark offering in the form of a lighted outdoor bar. The Fiesta bar comes in curved and straight sections so you can adjust it to the size and shape you want, and is fitted with LED lights in your choice of colors.

Gumball Modern Garden Furniture

(images via: plust)

The unusual rounded shapes of this garden collection by Plust are enough to make it stand out, living up to its name ‘Gumball’ with candy-bright colors. But what sets this collection apart even more is – you guessed it – the capability to glow in the dark.

Via Lattea Furniture by Meritalia

(images via: meritalia)

Inhabitat likened this unusual furniture line to ‘ a collection of homemade marshmallows’, and it’s easy to see why. The chairs and couches of the Via Lattea collection, designed by Mario Bellini for Meritalia, are made of steel mesh covered with recycled fiber sacks that were once used to transport grain, stones and sugar. The sacs are filled with air and include LED lights

Lucedentro Glowing Tiles

(images via: lucedentro)

An Italian company specializing in photoluminescence has produced these incredible glowing tiles, which can be used to create a bathtub as pictured, an artistic mosaic or even to cover entire surfaces like floors and wall tiles. When the lights go out, the photoluminescence materials glow in a range of colors.

Ergonomic Lounge Chair Lantern

(image via: vondom)

Who doesn’t love a good dual-purpose piece of furniture? Vondom offers another modern outdoor lounge chair that is beautiful enough during the day, but turns into a lantern of sorts when the sun sets. The materials used to make it are 100% recyclable, and they can withstand extreme weather conditions, making it a durable and eco-friendly choice.

Vondom Pillow Patio Furniture

(images via: vondom)

Patio furniture doesn’t get much more inviting – in a space-age sort of way – than this. Shaped like comfy pillows, this collection designed by Stefano Giovannoni for Vondom is made of the same material as the lantern/lounge chair and comes in a range of shapes including bucket-like side tables that make perfect coolers.

Floating Sphere Lights for Indoors or Out

(images via: slide design)

Throw them in the pool, toss them on the lawn or just position them through your house. The Aqua Globo by Slide Design looks equally cool indoors and out, providing visual interest and a soft glow.

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Copycats & Clones: 24 Near-Identical Architectural Designs

Steph — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:00:19 +0000

You know you’ve got a winning architectural design when strikingly similar structures begin popping up around the world. Sometimes, these similarities are just coincidences. Sometimes, they’re due to the same architect repeating a theme. And at other times – well – imitation really is the best form of flattery. These 12 pairs of buildings and interiors are almost identical in many cases, from an intentional copy of Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Farnsworth House to the evidently Zaha Hadid-inspired Liverpool Museum.

Banq Restaurant & Xm3

(images via: yatzer + archdaily)

Fluid, curving sheets of wood form what seems to be a highly unusual ceiling design in Boston’s Banq Restaurant by Office dA, Inc, built in 2008. But this wasn’t the first and would not be the last time such a design was integrated into a building interior. The earliest example is the Farkasret Mortuary Chapel, built in Hungary in 1975, which actually resembles a huge wooden ribcage and spine. The W Hotel & Residences in New York City was built in 2008-2009, and the Xm3 restaurant of Poland (pictured) was completed in 2011. See even more examples at PostPost.

Metropol Parasol & Swoosh Pavilion

(images via: yatzer + dezeen)

The world’s largest wooden structure is an absolute stunner, a huge multi-story pavilion and walkway made of bonded timber with a polyurethane coating that provides shade, architectural interest and above all an important landmark for the city of Seville, Spain. The Metropol Parasol’s high profile since its design was first revealed in 2004 is likely the reason many people found the Swoosh Pavilion by students at the Architectural Association school so familiar. The Swoosh Pavilion uses a similar concept, on a much smaller scale; it was erected temporarily in 2008 for the London Festival of Architecture.

Hanoi Museum & China Pavilion

(images via: my modern met 1 + 2)

Inverted pyramids are a popular motif in modern architecture, perhaps because they literally turn an ancient and very familiar man-made shape on its head. Two notable examples that may lead to a few double-takes are the Hanoi Museum, designed by German architectural firm GMP, and the national pavilion for China’s 2010 World Expo, which has since been turned into a national history museum. The Hanoi Museum sits on a beautiful reflecting pool; the 56 wooden brackets used to construct the China Pavilion’s roof are highly symbolic, representing the 56 minority ethnic groups in China.

Hemeroscopium House & Rishikesh House

(images via: archdaily + dezeen)

Both are residences with large, U-shaped cantilevered concrete shapes jutting out from their roofs, looking almost like unfinished freeway ramps. The Hemeroscropium house in Madrid by Ensamble Studio was entirely pre-fabricated and took only seven days to assemble. The structure on the roof of this house is actually an infinity pool, while the similar structure atop the Rishikeshi House by Mumbai architects Rajiv Saini + Associates seems to be simply decorative.

Toree Agbar & Swiss Re Headquarters

(images via: arcspace, foster + partners)

Known locally as the Gherkin for its decidedly pickle-like shape, 30 St. Mary Axe – the Swiss Re Headquarters – instantly became an iconic part of London’s skyline when it was completed in 2004. The Torre Agbar by Jean Nouvel, located in Barcelona, is a glittering spire that serves as the headquarters of the local municipal water company; it features aluminum panels in 25 colors as well as 4,400 windows and 55,619 transparent and translucent glass plates. It was completed in 2005.

Riverside Museum & PEGS Junior Boys School

(images via: archdaily 1 + 2)

A stark graphic silhouette of a house forms the basis of both Zaha Hadid’s Riverside Museum in Glasgow, Scotland and the PEGS Junior Boy’s School in Melbourne, Australia. The former is a bit more stylized, with a white-edged roofline on one side and black on the other, topping giant walls of windows. The latter is sharper, more defined, even including the shape of a chimney, and features glossy black brick in its construction.

The San Remo & The Eldorado

(images via: postpost)

If as a traveler in New York City it seems you’re passing the same building numerous times, rest assured that you’re not lost, and you’re not going crazy. The El Dorado at 300 Central Park West looks almost like an exact replica of The San Remo, which is located in the same area. Both were built in 1931, and both were at least partially designed by architect Emery Roth. The twin towers of each residential building are remarkably similar. When they were built, the San Remo apartments were much pricier, while the lower-rent El Dorado apartments were smaller and more modern. Both buildings now house plenty of celebrities and apartments within sell for up to ten million dollars each.

Farnsworth House & Glass House

(images via: archdaily 1 + 2)

Philip Johnson’s Glass House, built for himself on a 47-acre estate in Connecticut, was openly inspired by the iconic Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe. Both houses are relatively small single-story structures, one black and one white; the Farnsworth House is elevated off the ground. Evidently, van der Rohe was less than impressed with Johnson’s creation. According to ArchDaily, “It is said that the brilliant mentor to Philip Johnson stormed out in fury because of what he interpreted as a lack of thought in the details of the house.”

Maxxi Museum & Liverpool Museum

(images via: minimalismi, wikimedia commons)

When the Museum of Liverpool debuted this year, it’s safe to say that fans of the architect Zaha Hadid were not amused. The Liverpool museum resembles, more than a little bit, the award-winning design of the Maxxi Museum in Rome, which spent over a decade in development and construction. Designed by Dutch architects 3XN, the Liverpool Museum is the largest National Museum to be built in the UK in over 100 years and sits on a UNESCO World Heritage Site along the Mersey River. The Maxxi is the National Museum of 21st Century Art and features an interior that is decidedly more complex.

Serpentine Pavilion & Nestle Museum

(images via: london design guide, archiarcha)

Both of these buildings are blood-red, a highly unusual choice for architecture. That alone is what brought the 2010 incarnation of the temporary Serpentine Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery in London to mind when the Nestle Museum by Metro Arquitectos debuted in 2011. Jean Nouvel designed the Serpentine Pavilion in geometric forms made of glass, polycarbonate and fabric, and absolutely everything in it was red. The public viewing structure of the Nestle Chocolate Museum, located on the side of a highway between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, certainly attracts attention.

Museo Soumaya & Selfridges

(images via: contemporist + dezeen)

When multiple nearly-windowless scaled metallic buildings pop up, they’re bound to get noticed. First there was the 2007 Selfridges building in Birmingham, England, by Future Systems Architects. Smooth and shiny, the four-story building resembles a giant water-rounded boulder with its 15,000 spun aluminum discs painted blue. Then, in 2011, FREE Fernando Romero EnterprisE completed its anvil-shaped Museo Soumaya in Mexico City, which is covered in hexagonal aluminum tiles.

St. Mary’s Cathedral & San Josemaria Escriva Church

(images via: postpost)

One was built in 1963, the other was only just completed in 2011. But St. Mary’s Cathedral in Tokyo and San Josemaria Escriva Church in Mexico City certainly resemble each other, all the more so because their shared characteristics are so unique. St. Mary’s is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tokyo and was designed by Kenzo Tange. As opposed to St. Mary’s cross shape, San Josemaria is a single volume, rising from the ground at an angle. The former resembles another St. Mary’s in San Francisco, while the latter is visually similar to the Luce Memorial Chapel in Taiwan.

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Top Pop-Up Shops: 14 Temporary Retail Stores

Steph — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:00:30 +0000

Popping up in unexpected places overnight, temporary retail locations aim to dazzle shoppers with engaging visuals and alluring merchandise displays. They take over vacant storefronts, unfold from nondescript boxes or appear in the form of tents and igloos, giving shoppers an unexpected look at goods from big-name brands and small designers alike, taken outside the confines of cold and impersonal conventional shops. These 14 pop-up shops stand out for their ingenuity, making it nearly impossible to pass without taking a peek.

Shop that Multiplies with Mirrors

(images via: my modern met)

From the outside, it’s a diminutive box. But step through the door, and you’ll find an interior that seems to go on and on forever, thanks to some clever tricks with mirrors and strips of LED lighting. The Zuo Corp. pop-up shop in Warsaw, designed by Polish architects Super Super and Inside/Outside, seems to transport visitors into another world altogether.

Aesop at Merci, Paris

(images via: dezeen)

Australian skin care brand Aesop really knows how to wow their customers with the interior design in both their permanent retail locations and in their pop-up shops. This temporary shop designed by March Studio, located at Singapore’s Merci in January 2011, made a big impact with a gigantic installation of cardboard boxes suspended in a net.

Kate Spade Igloo in NYC

(images via: racked ny)

It would have been hard to walk by this igloo-shaped pop-up shop in New York’s Bryant Park in December 2010 without taking a glance at the interior – especially if you’re a fan of brand Kate Spade. Located next to the park’s Citi Pond skating rink,the igloo offered a range of goods from $8 stocking stuffers to $495 luxury handbags, not to mention free cups of cocoa.

Arnsdorf by Edwards Moore

(images via: retail design blog)

Do you recognize the items that are stretched like rubber bands all around the inside of this temporary Arnsdorf concept store? Design firm Edwards Moore took inspiration from crystalline forms and rocky landscapes to create these slightly surreal space, which is filled with dozens of pairs of pantyhose in muted neutral colors that matched the shop’s offerings.

UNIQLO Cubes

(images via: racked ny)

Japanese fashion brand UNIQLO has been getting a lot of attention for its innovative cube-shaped pop-up shops, which have been sprouting up all over Manhattan. In fact, several of the shops took center stage at a Uniqlo-sponsored roller skating rink on the High Line, with one offering the brand’s signature cashmere sweaters and another hawking colorful t-shirts.

Puma City Shipping Container Store

(images via: urbanist)

24 shipping containers came together to create Puma’s incredible mobile pop-up shop, which measures 11,000 square feet and travels around the world on cargo ships. Puma City was built for the 2008 Volvo Ocean Race and remains one of the most complex and eco-friendly pop-up shops we’ve seen.

Cool Hunting for Gap

(images via: cool hunting)

Gap teamed up with the website Cool Hunting to create a pop-up shop filled with the kind of fascinating curiosities you see on Cool Hunting’s pages every day. The shop was set into Gap’s project space on 5th Avenue in New York and contained hundreds of items hand-picked by the site’s editors including designs by Jonathon Adler, a limited-edition Mast Brothers chocolate bar and an Outlier cycling cap. It closed in January 2011.

Jack Up the Box

(images via: archdaily)

The winner of DesignByMany challenge to design a pop-up retail store, RPGS’s ‘Jack Up The Box’ features vertical retractable drawers within a raised store so that shoppers can stand beneath it and pull down the drawers to browse. “Our design challenges the conventional notion of pop up retail by elevating the mass of the store in order to liberate the floor plane. This preserves the qualities of the site upon which the store is placed and conditions the space underneath it as the “lobby” of the store. This allows for not only free interaction between consumers but also enables an entirely new shopping experience.”

The AESTHERstream

(images via: inhabitat)

The AESTHERstream is a converted 34-foot Airstream trailer carrying men’s fashion and decorative items. Two movie producers came up with the idea for “the ultimate guy’s workshop, an adventure lab on wheels, a mobile man cave.” They hired designer Thierry Gaugain to outfit the interior with reclaimed wood floors, modular shelving and vintage details.

The Poundshop, London

(images via: dezeen)

Dust sheets, nylon rope and white paint allowed designer Asif Khan to transform a temporarily uninhabited storefront for London Design Festival 2010. Poundshop was a collaboration between design collective Household and illustrator Sara Melin; beneath those dust sheets was furniture from the organizer’s own home. The shop interior was completed on a budget of just 250 pounds.

ALLSAINTS Shipping Container

(images via: chic city fashion)

Edgy British brand AllSaints brought their post-apocalyptic aesthetic on the go in a fittingly banged-up, partially rusted shipping container. The pop-up shop appeared on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue in July 2011 to celebrate the opening of a new permanent retail location, and was also seen at a number of festivals and other events.

Atelier Solarshop Made of Recycled materials

(images via: inhabitat)

A pop-up shop in a former solar panel retail storefront also serves as the headquarters for design collective Atelier Solarshop (named, of course, in tribute to the site’s former use.) The designs and products on display in this Antwerp, Belgium shop are made using found and recycled materials including scrap paper and tree branches.

Eco Pop-Up Shop, London

(images via: treehugger)

A thoughtful collection of eco-friendly goods comes together in ‘Our Eco Shop’, a temporary store located in London. The store features products from over 40 UK designers-makers and small green companies including envelopes made out of old maps, reusable shopping bags, make-up cases, bicycles, pillows and scarves.

Nanushka Beta Store

(images via: dezeen)

With slices of firewood for a floor and a huge billowing cloth creating its ceiling and walls, the Nanushka Beta Store was created for the 2011 autumn/winter season and located in the center of Budapest. The dreamy, tranquil space was designed by a group of students for the clothing brand Nanuskha. “The new Nanushka retail space aims to emphasis the brand’s core values and contrast the sometimes overwhelming racket of the urban experience.”