The sales pitch for this new 2014 series is compelling: 51 inexpensive designer objects made for young city dwellers, people who may be on the move more often or whose domiciles simply lack square footage.

The research driving IKEA’s 2014 PS collection, On the Move, is spot on: more people are living in cities than ever before, and young persons are particularly like to have smaller residences. The design results, though, are a bit of a mixed bag, with some truly useful modular and multi-functional pieces alongside less-obvious options.

And indeed the collection features a some handy items, like a small-footprint, unattached wall shelf (that fits corners as well) by Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa, easy to set up and shift as needed.

Similarly practical: a tall and lightweight mesh wardrobe by French designer Matali Crasset that can be tilted and rolled around within or between apartments.

Other choices are a bit more debatable – it is hard to see how often a balancing bench (by Swedish designer Henrik Preutz) will come in handy, particularly in narrow halls for which it is intended (its angled feet could trip you up in a skinny space).

Though it has a smaller footprint at least, it is also hard to say why a combined magazine rack, side table and standing lamp (by Polish designer Tomek Rygalik) is better when integrated rather than separated, especially when it comes to transporting it between places.

And then there is this awkwardly cute greenhouse plant holder (by Swiss designer Nicolas Cortolezzis) that seems just slightly redundant, unless you like to take your flora for walks in the park.

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, some of the pieces are a weird mix of retro, modern, farm and industrial, but one could argue that is all part of a refreshing trend toward a new time-spanning eclecticism.

Regardless, enough of these designs are on the right tack that they are worth a closer look, including bookshelves that are just a bit easier to transport thanks to wire-frame edges and folding, rolling and flip-down tables that have at least a little more character than their regular retail cousins. And the direction is right: urban dwellings are small, and portability a plus.

From 3D-printed towers of sand to garbage-powered architecture of the seas, these eVolo Skyscraper Competition entries push the envelope in every possible direction, and a few impossible ones too. A common theme this year: harvesting energy and building materials from local environments, and turning pollution into part of a futuristic solution. The award winners are certainly impressive, but a number of other entrants are well worth their honorable mentions as well. Set everywhere from the urban jungles of Los Angeles and suburbs of Detroit to the world’s rain forests, deserts, oceans, here are ten designs, selected from hundreds, all deserving of a closer look (leading up to and including the three award winners).

Sand Babel is one such runner up, an incredible skyscraper crafted from the very sands on which it sits, its 3D-printed construction powered by solar energy (abundantly available). Inspired by desert tornadoes, its above-ground portion is anchored by an underground system of root-like spaces. Temperature differentials help the structure generate water via condensation along its expansive top viewing platform.

Project Blue, another honorable mention recipient, is fueled by its environment as well, but takes things up a notch by turning particulate pollution in the sky and converting it into “green energy by creating an enormous upside down cooling tower with a multi-tubular cyclic desulfurization system that produces nitrogen and sulfur. When both elements are combined with the atmospheres surplus of carbon monoxide the result is water coal that would later be transformed methane and used as green energy through a low-pressure reaction called low pressure efficient mathanation – a physical-chemical process to generate methane from a mixture of various gases out of biomass fermentation or thermo-chemical gasification.”

The Hyper-Speed Vertical Train Hub provides a fantastic vertical spin on a conventionally horizontal phenomena, turning transportation on its side and making it more visible in the city, all while saving precious ground space. “The proposal will ‘flip’ the traditional form and function of the current train station design vertically, and re-form it into a cylindrical mass to increase the towers train capacity. This tall cylindrical form aims to eliminate the current impact that traditional stations have currently on land use, therefore returning the remaining site mass back to the densely packed urban Mega City.”

The Skyvillage draws its inspiration from the challenging condition created by freeway interstates, which are at the heart of the car-centric city of Los Angeles where the conceptual project is set. The “Los Angeles freeway system segregates the city’s fabric restricting urban activities to single locations. Similarly, skyscrapers exacerbate this condition of segregation instead of encouraging urban integration. The envisioned vertical city would bridge over freeway interruptions and connect the four quadrants around 101 and 110 freeways as a single architectural organism while boosting cultural exchange, urban activities, and social interaction.”

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Futurbanist 10 Award Worthy 2014 Evolo Skyscraper Designs

Imagine no more: now you can scan items right out of a physical catalog and watch them pop up in your own bedroom, kitchen, living or dining room at home, on-screen and in real-time before your eyes.

Watch as couches, sofas, chairs, beds, bookcases and more are picked off the page and planted in place, letting you see how that piece you like would really look context, automatically scaled to size on the spot from the digital source object.

IKEA notes that its European customers in particular have small spaces and need to know before they buy just how much room something will take up and where it will go – and its shoppers more broadly rarely know their home dimensions by heart.

From IKEA: “The 2014 IKEA catalogue gives you the ability to place virtual furniture in your own home with the help of augmented reality. Unlock the feature by scanning selected pages in the 2014 printed IKEA catalogue with the IKEA catalogue application (available for iOS and Android) or by browsing the pages in the digital 2014 IKEA catalogue on your smartphone or tablet. Then simply place the printed IKEA catalogue where you want to put the furniture in your room, choose a product from a selection of the IKEA range and see how it will look in your home!”

How it works: “Customers can put the physical Ikea Catalogue into their room in the space where they want to test a product. The Ikea Catalogue App picks up the catalogue and uses it to gauge the correct scale for products that will be shown on-screen. The product then appears on the customer’s mobile phone camera within the Ikea Catalogue App so it can be tested for colour and size. Customers can then test different products to find the right one for their home – finding the perfect fit.”