Core77

Core77 Weekly Roundup (6-29-26 to 7-2-26)

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Here's what we looked at this week:

Rolls-Royce's self-leveling wheel center caps.

The Swerv: A three-wheeled vehicle designed purely to provide thrills.

In Chinese amusement parks, a safer version of the human cannonball trick.

Node and Loft, a flexible wireless charging system by British ID firm Layer.

A nifty, more functional alternative to the countertop access flap.

Strange mobility: The Halfbike Pro, a compact bicycle with no seat.

From Korea, a silicone gewgaw that turns water bottles into dog bowls.

CW&T's tiny, functional folding scissors.

RIOF's table legs that use spring tension rather than joinery.

Design Classic: Hans J. Wegner's incredible PP130 Circle Chair.

From a summer camp for architects, a cool hand-built bridge.

Design Classic: Hans J. Wegner's Incredible PP130 Circle Chair

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Talk about getting better as you age: Hans J. Wegner designed this PP130 Circle Chair late in his career, at the age of 72.

The innovative chair uses a steam-bent hoop supporting a web of tightly-stretched jute, providing unexpected structure.

Wegner had reportedly wanted to incorporate a circle into a chair for years, but it wasn't possible until manufacturer PP Møbler managed to nail the production intricacies.

The chair hit the market in 1986, and is still in production today.

From a Summer Camp for Architects, a Cool Hand-Built Bridge

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Studio in the Woods is something like summer camp for inquisitive architects. It's an annual workshop held in a rural forest in the UK, where architects and makers get together to build functional things out of wood.

At this year's event, "[We] experimented with using scarf joints," writes architect and participant Lee Ivett, "to make long bendy lengths of wood that we could use to create a bridge. The result is a beautiful and seemingly light interpretation of a lenticular truss."

"Thanks to @hookepark for hosting us and for all the incredible people in our group that made this wonderful thing with us."

That's a great-looking bridge!

CW&T's Tiny, Functional Folding Scissors

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These Little Scissors, by Brooklyn-based design studio CW&T, are the company's latest "forever object." The diminutive tool weighs just 24g (0.85 oz). The handles are machined titanium, while the blades are VG-10 (a Japanese variant of stainless steel used in high-end cutlery).

CW&T's goal was to design something "Sized to comfortably cut, and fold to be little."

The included pouch is by Portland-based product design firm Gnuhr, which specializes in technical apparel.

These are limited to 300 units, which consist of both left- and right-handed versions, and run $160.

Rolls-Royce's Self-Leveling Wheel Center Caps

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Companies like to control their branding, and here's an extreme example. These are Rolls‑Royce wheel center caps, which have the logo on them.

Inside these caps are bearings and a counterweight. Thus whether the wheels are stationary or spinning, the logo always stays level:

The company invented these and started rolling them out with the Phantom VII, in the early 2000s. (You can imagine that prior to this, the company's fussy art directors would have to jack the car up and rotate the wheels manually during photo shoots.)

Strange Mobility: The Halfbike Pro, a Compact Bicycle with No Seat

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When Bulgarian architect Martin Angelov moved into a small apartment, storing his road bike became a hassle. He subsequently designed the Halfbike, a strange-looking bicycle with no seat:

Demand was there, and Angelov got the Halfbike into production following a successful Kickstarter. That was over a decade ago, and the bike has since gone through four iterations. The latest is the Halfbike Pro, which is made of aluminum and folds in half for storage:

The company says the bike provides a fun workout that feels like "Running on air." It's also a bit like skiing, in that you carve to turn. They also claim the standing position promotes deeper breathing and improves circulation.

Here's what it looks like in action:

These run $1,300.

Table Legs that Use Spring Tension Rather than Joinery

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These Oak Shock Absorber tables are by Austrian furniture company RIOF. The legs-to-table joinery method is highly unusual:

They include two little L-shaped pieces that you use to spread the legs for installation:

With our spring-loaded leg system, we've solved one of the oldest challenges in furniture making: how to connect a tabletop and legs securely without using glue or metal screws? Our answer lies in nature itself. We utilize the spring force of partially split wood to create a strong, purely mechanical connection.

This is what makes the strut system special:

- Monomaterial: A detachable connection that holds together solely through the physical properties of the wood.

- Volume-optimized: The table legs and the associated assembly tools are inserted directly into the underside of the tabletop. This saves space during transport and conserves resources.

- High quality: We combine a solid oak or walnut tabletop with oak table legs – a wood that is particularly elastic and tough.

- Thoughtful design: A flush-milled crossbar on the table leg prevents the wood from splitting further than is necessary for the spring effect.

A Silicone Gewgaw That Turns Water Bottles into Dog Bowls

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Here's a clever use of materials, for those who take their dogs on hikes. This silicone gewgaw snaps onto any water bottle, allowing you to turn it into a drinking vessel for your pooch:

The product is sold by Korean e-tailer Gaenim.

Daily Objects' Node and Loft, a Flexible Wireless Charging System

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This wireless charging system is by British industrial design firm Layer. The idea is to provide attractive, flexible wireless charging to multiple devices, using just a single power cord. It consists of a two- or three-port dock called Loft, and different Node modules can be plugged into the ports, allowing you to charge phones, earbuds or the Apple Watch.

A Portable Lamp is also part of the line-up, and plugs directly into the ports.

The Nodes, by the way, don't need to remain attached to the dock to deliver charge; they have their own internal batteries, and can be moved around independent of the dock to deliver juice wherever you need it.

"Charging your tech is one of the most repeated interactions in daily life, yet the products that enable it are often treated as background objects," writes Layer founder Benjamin Hubert. "With Node and Loft, we wanted to bring clarity, flexibility and character to that experience and create a family of products to the fore, that work beautifully, feel intuitive to use, and establish a distinctive visual language for Daily Objects."

Daily Objects, the client, is an Indian accessories brand. For now, Node and Loft have been launched in their home market, but not yet in the U.S.

In Chinese Amusement Parks, a Safer Version of the Human Cannonball Trick

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In Chinese indoor amusement parks, they have a twist on trampolines. It translates to something like "jump air bags," and they evoke the "human cannonballs" of old:

Those are the same thing that stuntpeople use to break falls. It's a clever repurposing of what's essentially just a giant plastic tarp.

A Nifty, More Functional Alternative to the Countertop Access Flap

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At cafes and bars, a portion of the countertop often flips up to provide a pass-through for workers. Common though this solution is, it has a flaw: People tend to place objects on horizontal surfaces, and the flap must be cleared of objects before you can raise it.

Cambodian architecture firm Khoan + Partners designed something more functional for the Lagràce Café Koh Norea in Phnom Penh:

The Swerv: A Three-Wheeled Vehicle Designed Purely to Provide Thrills

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The mobility space focuses on moving people around for practical purposes. But as a student at Imperial College London's Dyson School of Design Engineering, Kerim Taskin designed a vehicle purely to provide a thrilling experience for the rider. His Swerv electric trike has a quite unusual riding position:

So what's the point of this? Taskin explains, and it sounds like more of a mental health aid than a vehicle:

Do you ever feel like your mind is going through a thick fog? Or like you just want your racing thoughts to stand still? Or maybe like the walls are closing in and your internal world is like a broken record, stuck on repeat.

The Swerv breaks you free from that by providing a pleasant, engaging and unique experience. It forces your brain to break free from its usual patterns by giving you such a unique experience that it doesn't know what else to do. Your mind becomes still, you feel instantly present and alert. Life energy rushing through your every cell. That combined with the sense of speed, feeling of flying, exhilaration of going head first and the small vibrations of the ride felt around your whole body, riders often break out in laughter and big smiles.

I often found myself sat at a laptop trying my hardest to complete assignments that were stressing me out from my university degree. My brain just didn't tick well enough to get the simplest tasks done. That's when I realised that there was an imbalance in my life. I was sat way too often at a desk trying to do tasks requiring a lot of focus. Eventually my brain felt depleted. Running and cycling helped but it took too long and too much discipline to be able to cross over from frustrated and stuck in my head to feeling relieved and being more in my body.

I realised I needed to boost my brains neuroplasticity, the ability of my brain to develop new connections and neurons. And I needed a fun and easy way of doing this pretty much on demand. I discovered from an online course that the #1 thing that boosts the brains neuroplasticity is for us to do things in new ways. Using my new found skills from my design engineering course at Imperial College London, I started my process of design for a tool that would help me to instantly feel alive, invigorated and refreshed.

I combined the design of the "Tron bike" from the movie "Tron" and a simple trike to sketch out the first ever Swerv. It took me three months to design and build and it did work. But my budget was really low and my time was limited so it was very rough around the edges, BUT IT WORKED! However I had tested the concept, it gave me the boost I was looking for, I validated the idea and as soon as I tried the first prototype I was completely HOOKED.

Now graduated, Taskin attracted enough investors to commercialize the design through his company, Sweren. For £25 (USD $33), you get a 30-minute riding session at the Preston Park Velodrome in Brighton. Reviewers have written "The adrenaline hit is insane," "Pure dopamine" and "My nervous system is still buzzing."

While it looks a bit dangerous to ride on roads, Sweren does sell a street-legal (in the UK) version of the trike for £4,990 (USD $6,587); an off-road version for £3,490 ($4,607); and a kid's version for £2,299 ($3,034).

Core77 Weekly Roundup (6-22-26 to 6-26-26)

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Here's what we looked at this week:

An aluminum lamp made using a hydraulic press, by industrial designer Omri Polishuk.

Wataru Kumano's Sauna Stool, created with a minimum of production steps.

Real Motors' stunning Project Ares electric motorcycle.

Butterfly doors for a house! By People's Architecture Office.

Great UX: Hazet's SmartCase portable tool organizers.

ArborTech's smart design for a handheld trenching tool re-thinks the blades.

Travoca's award-winning off-grid eCooler, by industrial designer Dave Gibson.

BMW unveils their striking M Concept Neue Klasse.

How smelly people were historically dealt with: Mass deodorizers from antiquity.

Soccer-inspired asymmetrical linking chairs, by industrial designer Peter Otto Vosding.

Design Professor Phil Renato's clever 3D-printed two-part wire bending jig.

Butterfly Doors for a House!

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People's Architecture Office is a Beijing-based firm that works across architecture, product design, art, and urbanism. As the name suggests, the firm believes that design should be for the masses, and they focus on social impact projects.

Hutongs are Beijing's traditional alleyway neighborhoods. They're a far cry from modern apartment towers, being low-rise structures packed with lower- and middle-income residents. PAO modified one such structure with this incredible butterfly door, which turns into a light-admitting awning:

"[It's] wonderful to witness @peoplesarchitecture's years of work," writes design curator Shirley Surya, who shot the video, "that enabled inhabitants to remain in the hutong fabric by integrating modern amenities and providing spatial options thru attractive/affordable/appropriate 'plug-in' solutions."