While this design of desk doesn't provide much flexibility for room layout, it is a good example of doing more with less. Made of rosewood and chromed steel, the vintage furniture site reselling it describes it as a wall desk from 1970s France. Although France was not a resource-poor environment, this design of desk, created with more humble materials and a simpler drawer, would make sense in one that was (for instance, a school in a developing nation). While you'd need battens and fasteners, or L-brackets, to secure the desks to the walls, that cost could be outweighed by the savings on ..read more

For the record I think this is a terrible, terrible idea. Sadly I think it's one that a subset of Americans will love, particularly those who suffer from package theft. The PaintCam is a night-vision-equipped security camera that uses facial recognition and "deters intruders with paintball markers," write the developers, OZ-IT. When it spots someone it doesn't recognize, it issues verbal instructions to skedaddle via its speaker. If the intruder chooses to stick around, it fires a paintball at them. Alternatively, you can load it with tear gas projectiles. I'm not kidding, that's what the comp ..read more

Designed by Carlos Jimenez during his internship at NormannCopenhagen and codesigned with the Danish designer Simon Legald, Junto is a collection of carafe and cups that captivates with its traditional charm, revitalized through contemporary approaches. One piece of the collection in particular stands out, and that is the botijo. The design upholds the characteristic elements of the traditional botijo while infusing it with a unique and revitalized aesthetic. As Carlos states "When looking at the pieces from Junto collection people can easily recognize elements and details from traditional po ..read more

Industrial designer Kenji Takeuchi curated "Walking Sticks & Canes," a research exhibition currently running at the Triennale Milano. Takeuchi asked 17 fellow designers to re-imagine the titular object, considering the following: "[The first walking stick] must have been one of those primitive objects that people made on the spot as needed. As time passed, it evolved in step with social changes and cultural developments, naturally taking on different purposes and meanings. At some point, it became a symbol of power and authority or religious status and later an icon of fashion and wealth ..read more

DeWalt's $33 manual Carbon Fiber Composite Staple Gun is made out of the stuff, and thus weighs 50% less. It's actually 2-in-1 tool as it can also fire brad nails. As for design features, it's got a little windows on either side of the nose, so you can see when you're running low on staples/nails. There's also a belt/pocket clip at the back, which can be placed on either side, to accommodate both lefties and righties. The tool is also bottom-loading, rather than slide-loaded (i.e. you pull the slide out, invert the tool, drop the staples straight into an opening in the bottom of the tool ..read more

This PSF1, by Taiwanese manufacturer BESV, is an e-bike that's easy on the eyes. Conveniently, it folds down for transport or apartment storage. An LCD display indicates your speed, range, battery life, and which of the four assistance modes you're in. It's powered by a 250W motor in the rear hub, which can get you up to 20 mph. The triangular battery housing pops off for recharging, so you don't have to move the entire bike over to the outlet. It takes 6 hours to top off the 378Wh battery, which can deliver up to 95km (59 miles) of range. The aluminum bike weighs 18.3kg (40.3 lb ..read more

This wall hook, which was manufactured at least as far back as 1908, is designed to be installed without the use of tools. Though pre-drilling might make it easier, the lower hook is used for leverage to screw it into place, and the wire is of a thick enough gauge to not get bent out of whack. It's such an elegant piece of manufacturing, made of a single length of wire rod, put through its paces on a bender, then threaded. The original designer is impossible to track down; it seems no one ever (properly) locked up the copyright, and versions of this were produced by multiple companies in the ..read more

Leif Jørgensen is the Danish architect/furniture designer who designed that Loop Stand for Hay. While that piece involved a trio of welds, Jørgensen asks more of the welder for his more recent LJ Spider Chair, produced for his own brand: It's one of those pieces that's simple and complicated at the same time. I count no less than 34 rods! I'd love to see the jigs used in getting one of these together. The chair is available in two finishes, Galvanized Steel and Green, and runs €504 (USD $537) and €530 (USD $565), respectively ..read more

When it comes to kitchen items, certain objects will last forever, like a cast iron frying pan. Other things get chewed up and need eventual replacement, like cutting boards. But if you want a cutting board that falls in the former category, here's your chance. This Siki cutting board, up on Kickstarter right now, is made out of freaking titanium. This seems insane to me; whether you're slicing or chopping, your knife can't hold a keen edge when it's contacting metal, and I'd think you'd need to re-sharpen constantly. (The campaign writes: "Titanium…has a hardness that is about one-third of t ..read more

This unusual-looking cup was designed by Dr. Mark Weislogel, a former NASA research scientist and expert in fluid dynamics. It has the unusual provenance of having been prototyped not on Earth, but in space. As the story goes, Dr. Weislogel learned that Donald Pettit, an astronaut doing experiments with fluids on the International Space Station in 2008, was getting sick of drinking out of the pouch-and-straw arrangement astronauts use. Weislogel sent Pettit diagrams of something that could possibly be cobbled together on the ISS, using available materials. Using Mylar sheeting and tape, Petti ..read more