gibbsy's Blog

Surfwear company Billabong is using a new material called ECO Supreme Suede for some of its boardshorts and swim suits. The exclusive material is eco-friendly made from recycled textiles and plastic soda bottles (rPET). The company says its cool new material doesn't sacrifice on quality.

Not so long ago, you didn’t even know the sex of your baby until the day of birth. Today, we’ll know just about everything there is to know -- especially now that expectant mums and dads can gaze upon their progeny with the help of Echographic images 4-D. Apparently, these are the best medical images available. Echographic imagery is not new, but it has not been widely used for this purpose.

The team behind the Danish pavilion at the World Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain consists of three Copenhagen-based firms — architects Spektrum Arkitekter, graphic agency Loop Associates and communications agency 2+1.

The Danish pavilion houses Círculos de Agua (Circles in the Water), an exhibition about sustainable living and lasting solutions that echoes the World Expo 2008 theme of water and sustainability. Círculos de Agua highlights Danish technologies that have started out small yet have the potential to affect global change. The underlying message is that everything we do spreads like ripples through water.

Unlimited credits are in the offing for whoever brought the majestic Al Green together with producers ?uestlove and James Poyser. Green’s new album, ‘Lay It Down’, is the best cut of soul you’re likely to hear all year. With guest spots featuring Anthony Hamilton and John Legend this is one very modern album and an absolutely essential addition to your Al Green collection.

Finisterre, a small 4 year old company based on the cliff tops of St Agnes, has won major national recognition at the Observer Ethical Awards for their ethical standards and dedication while building up a portfolio of outdoor clothing encompassing ground breaking R&D in fabric technology and a range of natural and recyclable fibres.

A Leeds University research team headed by Prof Burkinshaw has developed the Xeros washing machine that uses thousands of reusable plastic chips to remove and absorb dirt.

The little plastic chips clean clothes by pounding the dirt out of them. Some 20kg (45lbs) of chips are added to the machine along with one cup of water and detergent. The chips can be used for up to 100 cycles, or about 6 months of washing.

The machine uses just one cup of water per cycle which is less than 2% of the water – and energy – of a conventional model.

And, what do you do with those 20kg of plastic chips after six months? Will they disappear in 3 months just like the plastic bags?

A enlightening hole full of crap and trash won a $200,000 grant from the World Bank. More specifically, Lebônê Solutions is one of 16 winners in the World Bank’s Lighting Africa 2008 Development Competition for their work on implementing Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) to provide light to rural Africans that are currently stranded in the dark.

In most African countries, 95% of the population is living off-grid with no access to electricity. Lebone's solution is the implementation of a combination of highly efficient PLED lights powered by MFCs. These fuel cells run on animal and plant waste and naturally occurring soil microbes.

Ah the lengths people will go to for a great location and even greater views. “Separation Creek House” by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects takes cliff building to knew heights. Built on a forty-five degree incline, the property presented unparalleled challenges. ‘Most of the one hectare site was too steep to build on. Only a few hundred square metres offered space for a building,’ says architect Graham Burrows, one of three directors of the practice. ‘We wanted to create a dynamic sculptural object. But we also wanted to take advantage of the views,’ says Burrows. Perched on a base footprint of barely seven by nine metres, this tranquil looking house seems to blossom out of the hillside like a squared mushroom.

Not a lot can be done with concrete that has not already been done. Aside from some innovations in concrete strength, weight and lighting, concrete is what it is, hard and cheap.

Transparent House Studio is not ready to throw in the towel just yet, they just introduced a beautiful alternative to your basic sealed concrete flooring. “Concrete Art” is a beautiful way to enhance any room with pretty much any design you can think of. Contrasting the cold austerity of concrete, these floral designs are a great way to enhance any room. This design concept allows for the application of any pattern to the surface, either when pouring or afterwards when the concrete has set.

Jonas Samson, an innovative interior designer from the Netherlands, has created a new kind of wallpaper that also serves as a light source. Samson's wallpaper will enable us to use two-dimensional light sources instead of the 3D lighting fixtures currently in use around the world. The light emitting wallpaper can be turned on and off and is made of light emitting diodes (LEDs), which consume very little power and are relatively cheap.

Help is a new line of healthcare products designed by Richard Fine who was inspired when shopping for pain relievers for a headache. The experience only made his head hurt more: the ugly packaging screamed out slogans under the neon lights, adding to the confusion.

Fine’s response was to create simple packaging out of 100% recycled soft molded paper pulp, designed to be calming. The first two products are “help I have a headache” tablets and “help I’ve cut myself” bandages.

So now we know that 'help' is at hand!

11 - the beautiful game is GRO design and Tim modelmakers's new table football table scheduled to be exhibited during Milan Design Week (from April 16th - 21st, Via Forcella 8, Milan).

For many of us, table football is a game that is close to our hearts, holding cherished memories of our childhood and youth.

It's all in the wrist action apparently!

Record breaking attempt: Earthrace, will attempt to circumnavigate the globe running 100% biodiesel, and with a net zero carbon-footprint.

Demonstrating further commitment to the cause, the skipper Pete Bethune underwent liposuction and donated enough to produce 100ml of biofuel, while two other, larger volunteers also had the procedure, making a total of 10 litres of human fat. This in turn produced seven litres of biofuel, which could help the boat travel about 15km.

Utah Saints - "Something Good '08"
by tkf

Pleasantly surprised that Ministry of Sound decided to pick this up for a refurbishing.
The Utah Saints have pulled off some great some stuff in their career, and hopefully this brings them back on tour.

Gotta love this video, too. Not going to say much about it, but it's a small pleasure.

Florian Krautli’s magnetic curtains design is something that makes interior designers queasy.

The idea behind these curtains is to allow the owner to shape the curtains however desired, thus providing the perfect amount of light, separation and such. Then again, the magnetic curtains would eliminate any kind of smooth, swooping lines that curtains are accustomed to and that interior designers thrive off!

Onlymatt's house is going to full of these I heard.

We ventured down the rabbit hole of design and stumbled upon this interesting Wonderland inspiration called “Fungus Chair” by China’s Mad Hatters, MAD Design.

Architect Ma Yansong, designed this public seating area for MAD as part of a public art project at the Zhangjiang business park in Pudong, Shanghai.

By incorporating modern materials and an interlocking design, these mushroom seating solutions offer a twist on public park seating usually only seen by Alice herself, and after all, Ma Yansong is a fun-guy.

New Architecture in Concrete... ... from translucent blocks and photo-engraved building fronts to revolutionary materials that promise to change the rules of construction as we know them today. We all know that concrete can be concocted to look like many things, but who would have thought that the rock-solid substance could be a substitute for a window? As it turns out, a handful of academic and commercial researchers are not just dreaming of this, they’re busy making it happen. I've heard onlymatt is building his house with this stuff. Cool.