Core77

Industrial Design Student Work: A Handwashing Station for Kindergarteners

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This Lavabo project is by Moritz Steiner, a Product Design student at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Steiner designed and fabricated a colorful handwashing station for kindergarteners.

LAVABO: From grooming ritual to haptic adventure

LAVABO explores how an everyday moment like handwashing in kindergarten can become a truly engaging experience.

Instead of a silent, touchless faucet, this wash station makes technology visible rather than concealing it. Exposed pipes, mechanical levers, a clear color-coded system, and tactile tools make the flow of water tangible and transform hygiene into a playful learning experience. Instead of an anonymous black box, it offers an analog counterpoint to invisible sensor technology.

The project fosters self-efficacy, curiosity, and responsibility, demonstrating how design can instill in children an understanding, joy, and appreciation for water and technology.

The Wild-Looking Seating in Renault's E-Space Concept

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Thanks to the Paris Motor Show, this week we've seen some wild automotive concepts from Citröen and Fiat. Now Renault gets into the game with their E-Space Concept, the name being a twist on their pioneering Espace minivan from 1984. (American readers: What the Dodge Caravan was in the 'States, the original Espace was to Europe.)

The E-Space Concept is for an electric minivan, penned with clean lines:

As with the other vehicles we looked at this week, it has ditched the instrument cluster and gone with a full-width screen.

That aside, the most striking thing about the concept is the interior, specifically the seats.

Breaking free from the cues of the automotive world with its traditional bucket seats, the seats embrace the world of interior design, with lacquered shells that bring to mind the style of Pierre Paulin.

Visually light and particularly slim at the top – much like the seats in the 1984 Espace – they appear to float in the cabin.

From a more technical perspective, the seat design is both modular and sophisticated. Identical in size and design, the seats rotate slightly on their axis, inviting passengers to sit down.

The characteristics of the six seats vary depending on the row. The two seats in row 2 swivel through 180° to form a "TGV train square" with row 3.

In the standard, forward-facing position, passengers in row 2 have access to folding tray tables with a 12.3-inch screen mounted on the backs of the seats in row 1.

In the four-seat configuration, the two seats in row 2 fold down completely to form a large table available to the passengers in row 3. In this configuration, they can also see the screens on the backs of the seats in row 1.

The E-Space is a temperature-taking concept, rather than a production preview. However, Renault says that that full-width dashboard screen will appear in their next-gen Scenic and Rafale SUVs. It seems that with multiple manfacturers, those things are coming, whether we want them or not.

Memobottle's Easy-to-Clean Water Bottle Lid Design

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Australian company Memobottle made their name producing flat water bottles that more easily fit into crowded bags.

Now the company is producing a cupholder-friendly cylindrical bottle, the Memo Round. Before designing it, they studied the pain points of the category, zeroing in on the following:

"Unscrew the lid [of your average reusable water bottle], and you'll find seals, channels and tight corners that were never designed to come apart. Water sits in them. Mould grows in them. And no amount of rinsing gets it out."

The company thus designed the lid of their Memobottle Round to use a minimum of components, all of which can easily be detached for cleaning. "The lid comes apart in three pieces, in three seconds. Every part that touches your water can be reached, washed and dried, so mould and muck have nowhere to build up."

The three pieces are the mouthpiece, the lid itself, and an internal plug that holds both the mouthpiece and the stainless steel straw in place.

Assembled, the mouthpiece rotates into its drinking and stowage positions. The designers have added detentes that make the mouthpiece audibly click as it locks into either position.

The video shows how the lid disassembly:

The Memo Round has been successfully Kickstarted, with six days left to pledge at press time. The 700mL (23 oz) version is going for $31, and it's $40 for the 1L (33 oz) model. They expect to ship them next month.

Akinori Goto's Incredible 3D-Printed Zoetrope

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Here we see an odd-looking wireframe, 3D-printed by Japanese artist Akinori Goto. The piece is called Ballet #01.

When you place it on a turntable and shine a narrow beam of light on it, you see that it's a zoetrope:

Just incredible.

You can see more of Goto's work here.

Hinterher's Flexible Bike Cargo Trailers

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German company Hinterher makes bicycle cargo trailers that can be stored flat. The company was founded by architect and furniture builder Peter Hornung, who designed the first Hinterher trailer as an alternative to his delivery van.

The design is simple and versatile: It's essentially an aluminum tray, two wheels, the drawbar and a kickstand.

The drawbar also doubles as a handle, so you can use the trailer independently—for instance, parking your bike and using the trailer as a shopping cart.

Multiple sizes are offered.

"The combination of a bicycle and a trailer is appealing," the company writes, "because the drivetrain and cargo area are separate. This turns any bike into a cargo bike while retaining the advantages of a high-quality, simple-to-assemble product that requires minimal maintenance.

"While cargo bikes are often only available in one-size-fits-all models, your perfectly fitting bike remains fully usable and can be flexibly upgraded as needed."

Fiat's Strange, Transforming Multiplay Concept Vehicle

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This week Fiat unveiled their Multiplay concept, a boundary-blurring vehicle with transforming bodywork. "The concept combines the space efficiency of an MPV, the character of an SUV and the versatility of a pick-up," the company writes.

"At the heart of the project is the C-Pillar 'Metamorfosi' architecture: a mobile rear module that enables the vehicle to switch from a 6+1 family configuration to a four-seat pick-up with an open bed." The idea seems to be that you'd remove the rear seats, slide the rear module forward and have a tiny open bed with a tonneau cover.

Bizarrely, the company touts this teal-colored "petsenger" seat, designed for small dogs.

Furthermore the front passenger seat folds flat, combining with the upholstered dashboard to form a rear-facing chaise longue. The geometry of the seat bottom is quite strange.

In any case, here's what the vehicle transformations look like:

Fiat points out that this is purely an exploratory concept: "Multiplay is conceived as a laboratory of solutions for tomorrow's mobility and is not a preview of a specific production model."

ID Firm Layer Develops Corrugated Plywood: Strong, Lightweight

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This Ripple table is by British industrial design and engineering firm Layer.

Its construction was made possible by a production innovation:

Ripple uses an innovative and sustainable new process for corrugating plywood to deliver an ultra-lightweight product with minimal environmental impact.

Easily maneuverable by a single person, the table responds to the dynamic living trends shaping the future.

LAYER designed Ripple as part of an internal studio research project into lightweight constructions. The impressive strength to weight ratio is enabled by an innovative production process of corrugating plywood for furniture through pressure lamination, which was developed by LAYER in collaboration with Canadian manufacturer Corelam.

We used innovative 3mm corrugated plywood to deliver a huge strength-to-weight ratio for impressive usability and sustainability stats.

Poka-Yoke: Idiot-Proof Design

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Di2 is Shimano's electronic gear-changing system for mountain bikes. It's a rear derailleur that uses battery power to move the chain between gears.

The battery pops out for recharging, which presents a potential problem for the forgetful. Imagine loading your bike up, driving out to your trail of the day, then finding that the battery is sitting in the charger in your garage. To prevent this situation, cyclist and 3D printing enthusiast Chris Heerschap (whose work we looked at here) designed this dummy battery and reminder flag for the Di2:

"The dummy battery is geometrically identical to the Shimano battery, but also has a flexible leash with an attention flag which hangs outside the derailleur to help you remember that there is no battery installed.

"Having a dummy battery also helps to maintain the water resistance of the derailleur, since the battery is part of the derailleur's water proofing. This way if you remove the battery from the bike but then want to wash the bike, this dummy will help keep the derailleur water resistant."

I find these kinds of mnemonic devices interesting as a design category. You also might call it idiot-proofing, and it makes me think of a common problem in the tractor-owner community. Modern tractors come with a ROPS (rollover protection system), essentially a tall roll bar.

These roll bars are typically taller than the average American garage opening.

This means you have to remember to fold the ROPS down before you try driving into the garage.

More than a few owners have forgotten the ROPS is up, and damaged their garage doors or headers.

Some people hang signs that they can't miss…

…while others attach brightly-colored flags to their ROPS. After the pull out of the garage and set the ROPS up, they remove the flags and hang them from the garage door.

While there's no official name for this category of mnemonic, idiot-proofing design, there is a close companion in the engineering world. The Japanese call it poka-yoke, which loosely translates as mistake-proofing. An example of this are cables that have shaped connectors, so that you cannot insert them upside down.

If you had to name this category, what would you call it?

To Build a Low-Cost EV, Citröen Dusts Off the 2CV

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The development story of Citröen's iconic 2CV is a good one, and we covered it here. That model had an incredible production run, over four decades, that ended in the '90s.

Now Citröen is returning to the well with their new 2CV Concept, an affordable EV. Embracing the spirit of the original 2CV, the company has designed it to be as stripped-down and low-cost as possible.

The vents are essentially two covered holes directly below the windshield.

The lightweight front bench seat can be popped out and used as an actual bench.

The door handles are fabric straps.

The dashboard is ultra minimal, with graphics designed to recall comic book art.

There is a larger 8" touchscreen for navigation.

The roof is fabric.

Instead of a center console, there's a removable storage basket.

The radio and speaker is a single unit, and is also removable.

An amusing touch: Harkening back to the original's farmer-friendly design brief, the storage compartment in the door is designed to hold eggs.

The company says they've kept the vehicle's weight down to one metric ton (2,205 lbs), which will allow for a smaller, cheaper battery.

The production target date is sometime in 2028, with a target price of just €15,000 (USD $16,800).

Core77 Weekly Roundup (10-5-26 to 10-9-26)

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Here's what we looked at this week:

Tortoise Gear's super-easy-to-install add-on clip for Swiss Army Knives.

Better UX for farmers and off-roaders: The Tuff Jug Ripper Cap solves a tricky fueling situation.

Industrial designer Eduardo Blanco's Cartesian pencil holders.

Industrial designer Hsinhung Chou's simple, versatile, "Handy" mobile furniture piece.

A Bauhausian take on the coat rack, by industrial designer Steffen Kehrle.

User feedback yields a useful study object made of brass.

Ettore Sottsass's convention-bucking Valigia desk lamp is back on the market.

An industrial design classic: Richard Sapper's Telefunken Match.

This in-flight cocooning blanket.

Totetsu Ironworks' handmade iron pourover coffee rig.

BMW unveils their radical new 3 Series cockpit.

Inkaren's corner-bound notebooks.

Red Bull's hilarious Flugtag DIY flying machine competition.

Researchers develop a tire prototype with replaceable treads, tackling two environmental problems at once.

Researchers Develop a Tire Prototype with Replaceable Treads

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Once upon a time, if the soles of your shoes wore out, a cobbler could attach fresh soles. Nowadays, once your sneaker soles wear out, you junk them.

Tires are the same. It's insane that we have to throw out a tire because that tiny percentage of material around the perimeter has worn down, but that's the established convention.

Even worse, tires are a major source of microplastic pollution. When the treads wear down, that material doesn't just magically disappear; it sloughs off as microplastic particles. The ones that don't make it into our lungs accumulate in the environment, settling into soil or waterways. Have you ever seen a farm next to a roadway? What do you think is making its way into those crops? Gas-engine cars and EVs alike are microplastic-spewing machines.

Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in Spain are trying to solve both problems. Their ECOTIRE prototype is a tire with separately molded treads that are mechanically attached to the casing. This means that once the treads wear, they can be popped off and replaced.

The tires can be mass produced. The researchers developed these molds:

The technology means that manufacturers could select "more sustainable and biocompatible materials" for the treads. The team has been experimenting with silicone rubber treads, finding the material offers roughly ten times less deterioration that conventional rubber. (I.e. they still shed microplastics, but far less.)

Promisingly, in testing they've found the ECOTIRE behaves much like a regular tire.

"The behavior of our tire is already similar enough to that of conventional tires that we are very close to transferring it to the industry alongside companies in the sector," says researcher Daniel García-Pozuelo, "although there is still a long road ahead before it reaches society."

Red Bull's Hilarious Flugtag DIY Flying Machine Competition

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Remember that "egg drop" ID school project? For the uninitiated, the students design a vessel to hold a single egg. The vessel is then dropped off the roof of a building, and the egg is meant to survive the fall.

Red Bull's Flugtag (German for "flight day") event is a much more exciting version of the egg drop.

In this international competition, teams design and build an engine-free flying craft. Each team has four crew members and one pilot. The crew members push the craft down a short runway platform built above a body of water, and then design + gravity decide how far the pilot will make it.

The results range from impressive to hilarious. There are no engineering requirements to enter, which occasionally results in highly ambitious designs executed by folks with a poor grasp of flight mechanics. Additionally, entrants are judged on creativity and showmanship, not just flight distance, encouraging strange and unusual concepts.

Here's a compilation of the most, and least, impressive creations. The teams in this vid hailed from Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

A Handmade Iron Pourover Coffee Rig

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This Wedge Coffee Dripper Set combines low-tech coffeemaking with traditional Japanese metalwork. Made by Totetsu Ironworks, the components feature a baked-on Japanese lacquer finish.

The height adjustment uses a simple wedge mechanism.

The cone is stainless steel, and everything else is iron.

These run $120 (not counting import duties, taxes and shipping).

Inkaren's Corner-Bound Notebooks

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Every spiral-bound notebook or sketchbook I've ever seen had the bindings on either the long or short edges. But Japanese stationery brand Inkaren produces these Diagonal Ring Notebooks, which use a lot less material for the binding:

The design was "born from breaking free from the unconscious limitations of how the rings should be attached," the company says. "The diagonal rings don't get in the way when writing, and the pages turn smoothly. The cover is made of special paper with a sturdy, leather-like texture, while the pages inside are made of paper chosen for its writing comfort. One edge is held in place with elastic, so it won't easily fall apart in your bag."

(If you're wondering why the binding is in the top right corner, rather than the top left as you might expect, in Japan it's common for books to be printed from right to left.)

They come with blank, lined or dot-grid pages. They also make a notepad version.

While these are affordable in Japan—the 50-page A5 notebook size runs the equivalent of USD $8—imported ones run more than twice that.

BMW Unveils Radical New 3 Series Cockpit

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BMW has unveiled their new eighth-generation 3 Series, featuring their Neue Klasse design language. The exteriors evoke the calm, clean design language of the Neue Klasse concept car from a few years ago, so no surprises there. But the cockpit is quite the radical departure from conventional ones.

As Tesla and Volvo have done, the designers have jettisoned the central instrument cluster. Vital data is now presented in what they're calling Panoramic Vision, spread across a thin strip that runs across the top of the dashboard.

That Panoramic Vision screen is above the top of the steering wheel. "Driving information appears clearly within the driver's field of view without obstructing the road ahead," the company says. "Content in the center and front-passenger areas can be personalized and viewed by all occupants."

Because the driver no longer needs to look through the steering wheel to read gauges, the designers have added a chunky spoke at the 12 o'clock position (and a mirroring one at 6 o'clock), which I don't think I've ever seen in a production car. The sides of the steering wheel have received beefy gripping surfaces.

The steering wheel has also been loaded up with what BMW calls "shy-tech" controls:

"The multifunction steering wheel employs the shy-tech principle, meaning the controls on the left side for driving assistance and parking functions are only illuminated when available. The infotainment controls, meanwhile, provide haptic feedback. The clear partitioning into assistance, parking and infotainment functions lends itself to safe, intuitive operation, with no need for drivers to take their eyes off the road."

The central touchscreen has been given a gestural form, leaning towards the driver in a parallelogram shape, with what would be the pointiest corners lopped off. BMW calls this a "free-cut" design and says the screen "is angled toward the driver to reinforce BMW's traditional driver focus;" they say the driver can drag-and-drop widgets from the central touchscreen onto the Panoramic Vision screen, so perhaps the screen's odd shape facilitates this. (It's hard to tell without seeing video of the procedure.)

The new 3 Series vehicles will launch early next year, at which point we expect to see a rash of influencer videos showing us how the cockpit works.