Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Cleverly named after the Rook (Castle) in Chess, the Rook Home Fire Safety system dedicates itself to protecting the house from any fire hazard.

The Rook is made of four components, named after parts of a castle too. Just the way a kingdom works in synergy to keep itself protected from attacks, the four components of the Rook stay interconnected and work together to alert the user against fire, and help him/her fight a fire hazard. The Castle and the Watchtower detect CO levels and signs of smoke. When a threat is assessed, the Keep (kept at the bedside) sends out alerts. The Moat is a powder based fire-extinguisher, helping fight the fire threat.

Not only is the Rook Home Fire Safety system well articulated and named, it has a homogeneous design language too. All the four components have a soft yet reassuring design language. While the Castle, Watchtower, and Keep are white, allowing them to blend in with the decor, the Moat is a bright red, characteristic of a Fire Extinguisher, allowing it to be seen even in thick smoke. What do you think?

Designer: Martyn Billings

The Venturi Y concept is the latest way to speed across wide open spaces without any engine! Well, almost no engine. Like every sand yacht, it’s pushed by the wind. However, two compact electric motors eventually power the rear wheels for maneuvering. They also allow the vehicle to get back into the right trajectory to have the sail perfectly exposed to the wind.

The cockpit and the sail are supported as one element in the form of a carbon-fiber monohull. It’s sharp and extremely aerodynamic to slice through the same air that’s propelling it. The rear wheels have a specific profile to adapt the friction surface depending of the speed and how hard the ground is. The inclination of these two wheels is also variable.

Designer: Robinson Mancaux

Google did create the first wearable with the Google Glass, but honestly with its $1500 price tag, it sounded like a failure at the get go. Google also has a tendency to fumble with hardware. Their Project Ara met a sad end last year too. However, Intel picked up on the Glass project where Google left off, with its Recon Jet smart eyewear. Much like the Glass, but with much more style and a lot of refinement, the Recon Jet has the aesthetic of a modern Bluetooth earpiece, but sits in front of your eye. It isn’t really an AR or VR device, but it puts a small screen in front of your eye, feeding you information from a small corner… so that you can still see everything around you. I’d like to call this Partial VR.

The Jet works in sync with your mobile phone. Built for athletes, by athletes, the headset is perfect for monitoring stats or navigating… And it costs one third the price of a Google Glass!

Designer: Recon Instruments

BUY IT HERE: $349.00 $499.00

Light meets bubble in this artistic installation! Sonic Light Bubble is a living, breathing interactive installation that responds with light and sound when approached and touched. This giant synthetic “organism” attempts to humanize lighting-based public art and attracts passers by to engage and interact with it.

Showcased by Studio ENESS at White Night, a twelve hour light and art festival in Melbourne, Australia, the Sonic Light Bubble is a six meter diameter, clear, inflatable structure, dotted with an array of addressable LED disks shining inside and out. These custom disks act as a volumetric video screen providing mesmerizing 360 degree visual delights, day and night. Simultaneously, sounds are also reacting to the visitors on the outside. If I had to live MY life in a bubble, I’d most certainly pick this one!

Designer: Studio ENESS

Designed for the Chinese market in the year 2030, the Panlong autonomous vehicle draws inspiration from Yin and Yang! This far-out, futuristic concept provides riders with an escape from the rush of urban life in the city.

Inside, riders are positioned in such a way they can kick-back, relax, and unwind while they face each other and converse… or simply close their eyes and rest until they reach their destination. Its organic, non-standard interiors make it look different and instantly engage your curiosity. Outside, a camera shutter style door makes getting in and out possible even in tight spaces, and allows the design to nest with other like models when not in service.

The absolutely radical concept even goes as far as harnessing solar energy to power itself! Impressive!

Designer: Edgar Andrés Sarmiento & Aditya Mantha

How is it that with all the water we have around us, we’re still short of the damn thing! It’s high time we started designing responsibly, don’t you think? The Hydr does that by essentially cutting out a large portion of the hand shower to not just make it look interesting, but to essentially save up on water too.

The donut/torus shape of the Hydr’s hand shower is not just a visually interesting detail, it also helps cut water flow by half. Plus, it makes for easy docking on the Hydr’s wall mounted stand. This interaction essentially triggers on and off the water flow, so when Hydr is lifted upwards, the flow begins. The minute you put it back down, the water flow automatically stops.

Hydr’s stand comes with a water temperature control knob that perfectly fits the negative of the Hydr shower, thus visually completing the design. It also has an illuminating water drop on its top surface that lights up to tell you that you’ve consumed more water than necessary. If you’re in a place where you pay for water for domestic use, the Hydr may just be more than a resource saver. It may help you save money too!

Designer: Giulio Dupuy-Urisari

If your bicycle helmet has lights on it, does that make it a ‘head-light’? What if the lights act as tail lights for your bike? Does it still remain a head-tail-light?? I’m genuinely confused here! However, I’m also pretty impressed by the Smart Helmet for bikers!

While most bike tail-light/indicator design concepts are attachments that snap to your bike, or to your backpack, the Smart Helmet puts it in the most appropriate place. The helmet. The Smart Helmet is foolproof. It works like a charm, helping the biker see and be seen even when he or she isn’t on the bike. It also encourages a rider to wear the helmet more often, and hey. That can only be a good thing. Am I right?

Designer: Sherif Magdy abdel-aziz Elbeialy