urban
Design
SCAD Urban Camper for the Homeless (Or, Um, Campers)
5:40AM Matt Buchanan | At NY Design Week 2008, Savannah College of Art and Design students showed off a couple of cool concepts they developed with the Growing Hope of Union Mission for homeless people. The neatest (and most practical) one is the Urban Camper, designed for homeless living on the street. It’s basically a cheap fold-out lounge chair with a built-in mini tent that easily folds up into a backpack—sort of like an upgraded sleeping bag. Since you’re up off the ground it’d be great for camping trips or anywhere you have your back dig into the ground would suck balls. [core77] More »
Gadgets
Urban Miners in Japan Find Precious Metals in Discarded Gadgets
9:00AM Jason Chen | China isn’t the only nation dismantling used electronics to get at the gold, copper and silver inside. This trend, called “urban mining”, is even more profitable in the current market where precious metals are trading close to their all-time high. For example, a ton of ore from a gold mine gives about 5 grams of gold, but a ton of mobile phones gives 150 grams of gold. Why would Japan be into this trend? Because their country has few natural resources outside of perverted old dudes, but if they stack up all the mobile phones owned by their citizens, they could probably make a pile as big as Mt. Fuji. [Yahoo News] More »
Design
GRL Documentary Switches Us Onto Electronic Street Art
6:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | Never heard of the Graffiti Research Lab? Well, if we tell you they were wrongly suspected of being involved in the Boston LED Mooninite mess, and their self-declared mission statement is to be “dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, pranksters, artists and protestors with open source tools for urban communication” do you have more of a clue? A documentary is due out soon on the work of these technology-mad urban artists, and the video shows a few snippets from it. It’s pretty fascinating. We’re tempted to strap some magnets, batteries and LEDs together and start decorating boring urban steel things with glowing throwies right away. The film premieres at MoMA in New York on May 4th. [BoingBoingTV] More »
Phones
Is It A GirlPurse? Is It A ManBag? No, Silly, It’s an Urban Performer Unit
10:32PM Addy Dugdale | Hello, I’m a sexy lady who has been Swarovski-encrusted by my PR people in order to publicise something called the Urban Performer Unit. It’s basically a handbag with a little pocket for your iPod which enables you to control your music from the outside of your bag. Nice idea, don’t you think? There is, however, one slightly disturbing thing about this Austrian-designed purse: More »
Design
Urban Skiff Portable Boat Makes Sense to Someone, But Not Me
7:10AM Benny Goldman | City dwellers who can’t shake their love for the Great Outdoors will find excitement in the “Urban Skiff”. It’s a portable boat that goes from duffle bag to sad, wilted-looking dinghy in just eight impossible easy steps. Now all you need is a space in your cramped apartment to store a boat-sized bag, means to transport it, and water to set sail in. Personally, you’d have a better chance of finding my body at the bottom of the East River before you found me carrying this thing over there. A shot of the setup process, after the jump. More »
Vehicles
Stackable Cars Solve Urban Transportation Problems By Sharing
7:50AM Jason Chen | The City Car, a design from the MIT Media Lab, is a stackable, foldable car concept that hopes to alleviate the urban traffic jams we waste so much of our lives in. These cars—which are supposed to be rentable near major transportation hubs such as airports and train stations—solve the last mile of public transportation by giving folks a small, low-cost way to drop their vehicles altogether. The cars themselves are supposed to be incredibly agile, being able to turn on the spot and drive sideways to parallel park. Only time can tell whether this will be more or less successful than the Segway. [Technology Review via CarLounge] More »
