For automakers on the cusp of the 1990s, interest in aerodynamic efficiency was high. This yielded popular cars—the 1988 Honda CRX, the 1989 Ford Thunderbird, the 1990 Mazda RX-7—with drag coefficients (Cd) around 0.32. This aerodynamic sculpting also yielded, to
Patina is often romanticized, as it (arguably) improves the look of leather and some metals. But sometimes objects just get worn out. Which they should, right? Ideally we’d all be using things until they fell apart, rather than throwing them out
This KŌSA container references the directionality of traditional basket weaving, but here the perpendicular elements do not actually touch. Instead the structure comes from the material: Two pieces of thin sheet steel, seamlessly joined. It was designed by Japanese/Scandinavian industrial
Let’s say you’ve assembled a team and designed an awesome powered wheelchair. One that works better than incumbent designs and is easy on the eyes. How do you bring it to market? In the U.S., the process is onerous and
This Abaco bathroom system is by Cea Design, an Italian manufacturer of high-end bathrooms. It’s designed to not look like a toilet at all, when not in use, and is made of stainless steel. It can also be customized with
In many parts of the world, people harvest rainwater. In rural America, where I live, you’ll see people using two solutions. The first is a rain barrel. Rain barrels are something you permanently site: Once they’re at their 55-gallon capacity,
A bathroom scale has one job: To tell you how much you weigh. But in the 1980s, the industrial designers at Krups decided to go further, with their Data EG scale. The scale contained a pull-out weight chart in the
The form of a grinder/peppermill must communicate to the user which part they’re supposed to turn. With his new KG01 design, Konstantin Grcic indicates the grab point using a rather industrial design language: “The transition from the cylindrical body to
When you think of Chinese automobiles, safety isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But in a relatively short amount of time, China’s nascent automaking industry appears to have caught up with, and even exceeded, long-established car brands in
This is another of those products that archaeologists will wonder about, when they dig them up in the distant future. Chinese company Xuzhou Herui Outdoor Products Co. sells these Frost Titan Core Balls, an ice cube alternative made out of
