From this year’s NeoCon World’s Trade Fair, in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart: Nearly 200 photos of the best in workplace furniture, lighting, textiles, technology, and more. Read more…

The race for the ultimate classroom computer has been on for a while. One Laptop Per Child was the celebrity frontrunner, of course, but its creators ran into some trouble and had to scrap their dual-screen OLPC XO-2 design. Meanwhile, Intel has had its eye on classrooms in emerging markets since 2007 with its low-cost Classmate PC series. And now a new kid has joined the class, at this month’s Wall Street Journal D8 conference in California. Everybody, say hi to Kno.

Kno (left) is a dual-screen e-reader textbook replacement that also allows students to take notes, access multimedia content, and generally interact with their study material in ways that are impossible with the outmoded paper textbook. The device has two 14-inch screens, each about half an inch thick, that are large enough to allow students to view full textbook pages without scrolling. At 5.5 pounds, it is much heavier than two iPads, but it will also be cheaper (less than $1,000). I’m particularly charmed by one little design detail: the borders around the screens are asymmetrical, so the Kno actually has inner margins and outer margins, just like a textbook. Plus, it carefully avoids the kiddie colors and oversize rounded edges that have become the hallmark of classroom computers. Read more…

Murray Moss and Franklin Getchell at Moss were so excited with their latest exhibition, Poetic License, that I asked Franklin to send over some pics. The show, which celebrates rule breaking, envelope pushing, and taking chances—everything a designer should be doing—showcases works that push the boundaries of what’s been done before in a variety of media. You’ll see some launches by young European designers like Michael Anastassiades, Mathias Bengtsson, Finn Magee, and Oskar Zieta, as well as work by standbys like the Campana brothers, Michele De Lucchi, and Patrick Jouin. The show opens May 16, and is a nice kick-off to ICFF. And if you miss the show this weekend, it’s open until June 26. Read more…

In a story in yesterday’s T The New York Times Style Magazine, Guy Trebay sits down with the 93-year-old furniture designer Irving Harper—and kindly gives credit to Metropolis for first uncovering Harper’s behind-the-scenes role in creating some of the most recognizable icons in midcentury furniture design. Click here to read the full text of Paul Makovsky’s original story on Harper, “Vintage Modern,” from the June 2001 issue.

Upon first encountering the new chair and bench prototypes from the Dutch design duo Tejo Remy and René Veenhuizen, of Atelier Remy & Veenhuizen, you’d be forgiven for not immediately registering the furniture’s material. From a distance, the objects appear to be inflated. Are they vinyl? Plastic? Then again, they could be leather; they look malleable and seamed and just a bit overstuffed in places. It’s only on closer inspection that you see the telltale pocking on the surface that can only mean one thing: The chairs and benches are fabricated of concrete. Poured into plastic molds and structured with steel, these pieces read one thing (light, airy) and are another entirely (cement and metal). Read more…

What is happening in the murky video clip to your left? To be honest, I’m not entirely certain. All I can tell you for sure is that this is a preview of the new work by Joris Laarman Lab to be exhibited at Friedman Benda Gallery, in New York, beginning Friday.

Laarman is the young Dutch designer best known for creating the Bone Chair and Bone Chaise, among other bone furniture. For those limited-edition pieces, he used computer algorithms and a trademarked CAD casting method to mimic the growing patterns of bones in bizarre-looking aluminum or polyurethane seats.

His new work includes the Half Life Lamp, which again tries to imitate a biological process in a manufacturing setting. This is a case where it may be best to let the designer speak for himself. Here’s an excerpt from a statement by Laarman:

This lamp Half life – it is half made of living organism and half made of non living material recently died. It was born on February 23 in a Dutch tissue culture laboratory. On the video Half life radiated brightly when it was in healthy conditions. The cells responsible for the emission of light in the hood of the lamp originally stem from a Chinese hamster. In 1957 these CHO cells were isolated from a hamster’s ovary and kept alive as a cell culture for research purposes. In the 1990s this cell line was enriched with the fire fly’s luciferase gene. Ever since than these hamster cells glow in the dark in presence of luciferine. According to present state of knowledge in the life science the development of bioluminescence systems in living organisms occurred naturally about 20 or 30 times in evolution. Well known examples of bioluminescence are found in bacteria, fire flies, and jelly fish.

So the above video illustrates this bioluminescence. And the final result? Read more…

A bit belated, perhaps, but here it is: your guide to the gifts guaranteed to impress the design devotees and architecture aficionados in your life, organized into four convenient categories:

For Kids, or Kids at Heart
Workaholic Chic
Books (and One DVD)
For the Proverbial “Person Who Has It All”

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For Kids, or Kids at Heart

Muji’s City Stencil Set lets youngsters construct their own elaborate cityscape with world monuments from New York, Paris, London, and Tokyo. It’s $14.75 at the Muji USA online store. Pairs nicely with the appropriately named 36 Color Pencils in Tube ($16.75).
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Technically, these Frank Lloyd Wright Lego sets are intended for children, but no doubt many architecture-minded adults would love nothing more than to spend a few hours putting together their own miniature Guggenheim ($39.99; ages 10+) or Fallingwater ($99.99; ages 16+). Note: these sets are currently on back order at Lego.com, but ShopWright.org has them in stock as of Dec. 8.

Read more…

In a slide show posted on the Life Web site—yes, Life; it lives on despite ceasing regular publication in 2007—BoingBoing co-founder Mark Frauenfelder writes about Raymond Loewy’s inimitable body of work, which includes iconic designs for Coke, Lucky Strike, Greyhound, and Studebaker. “His signature, streamlined sensibility combined a feeling of luxury with practicality, novelty with familiarity, and boldness with elegance,” Frauenfelder writes. He also takes a look at a couple of classic Loewy designs that have since been tinkered with—not surprisingly, to disastrous effect. Check out the complete slide show here.

Related: Last March, in “The Children of Raymond Loewy,” Deyan Sudjic wrote about the “curious lineage” that exists between the dapper Frenchman and today’s design stars.

Relate.

Yves Behar seems determined to push below-the-belt product innovation these days. Last August he launched a new line of eco-friendly underwear; now he’s teamed up with the adult-toy company Jimmyjane to create an ergonomic vibrator called the Form 2. The compact design features two flexible vibrating “ears” that move independently, for an effect dubbed “sensation in stereo.” Scandalized? For what it’s worth, Behar notes in a recent press release that the Form 2—nicknamed Little Perky—conceals “a number of engineering, material and manufacturing breakthroughs.” And there are further breakthroughs on the way: Behar and Jimmyjane will be unveiling Forms 3 and 4 next March and May, respectively.

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Related: In 2007, Jade Chang plumbed Behar’s story-driven approach to industrial design for “All About Yves.”

In 1939 a young woman named Marie opened a hair salon in Randers, Denmark. Money was tight so she asked her husband, Holger, a metalsmith, to help furnish the store. One of his resulting creations—a sturdy stainless-steel trash can with a rubber foot pedal—caught the eye of locals and, before long, Holger was filling commissions all over central Denmark.

Fast forward seven decades: Read more…