"There is a long standing tradition for the small retreat in architecture," writes Norwegian architecture firm Rever & Drage, introducing their Cabin Nordmarka project. "Historically this kind of building has served as a shelter whilst doing other recreational activities such as hiking, hunting or fishing. Since the days of Thoreau's Walden however, the small retreat, or bolthole, has also been a goal in itself. Typically to escape the stresses of everyday life. For the modern city dweller this may well be a permanent urge."

"This small cabin in Nordmarka, Oslo's immediate wilderness, fits well within the tradition of boltholes. It contains the most necessary features, but not much more. It is easy to keep clean and easy to maintain. It is light and open, but also intimate and cosy. Beyond the cosiness and the strictly practical, the effort has been mainly focused on the qualities of the site, including a serious commitment to the main view with sunset, woods and lakes."

"In addition to the restricted size of the building, the environmental impact on the site is further reduced by the foundation technique. By the use of steel bolts inserted into the bedrock, the foundation is limited to six small drilled holes. This means that, if wanted, the cabin can easily be removed and the site can be as good as fully restored with minimum effort."

"The cabin is placed just next to an older cabin, about the same size as the new one. Together the two form an angled courtyard which opens towards the sun and the main views to the southwest. A remake and enlargement of the old cabin was considered, but the client wanted to preserve the quality of the old one both in expression and material, and a remake-project was therefore abandoned. Instead the cabins are used in tandem, where the new one has all the modern facilities, such as water and electricity and the old one provides additional room for living and sleeping (in even more rudimentary conditions), when needed."

"It was important for the client to keep the old fashioned 1930s charm in the main outdoor area. The new cabin has therefore windows in this facade that relate to the windows of the old cabin. At the same time the client wanted to have an undisturbed view towards the sunset. To avoid conflict between these two goals a bench is placed in front of the open glass corner, concealing the latter from the outdoor area. The bench also contains a steel support for the roof, such that the view from within can be even less disturbed by avoiding a support in the glass corner."

"The interior has a simple but functional concept with levels going up and around the central area. From the roughest floor by the entrance a step goes up to the living area. Two steps further up is the recreational area combined with a sleeping area for the adults and then at the top of the ladder is the play- and sleeping area for the children. Bathroom and storage is placed in the remaining area underneath the respective levels."

I was wondering how the heck they framed that window...

...and imagined something complicated; turns out they kept it almost shockingly simple.

Even still, I imagine getting it just right gave the contractor some grey hairs.

Underground bike storage systems, like those seen in Japan, are amazing. But they obviously require a massive amount of excavation and construction.

A Swiss company called V-Locker has designed an easier-to-implement solution. The company has developed tower modules containing bike lockers that travel upwards in a paternoster-like arrangement.

Depending on the size of the tower, these can hold 6, 8, 12 or 20 bikes per unit, within a minimal footprint; 4.5 square meters, or 48 square feet, is all that's required.

A single door at the bottom is where riders can access the lockers (via app, of course). As a bonus, riders can also store their backpacks and helmets in the lockers, which are of course weatherproof.

The towers themselves are modular, making installation straightforward. The pieces are trucked to the site and stacked with a crane.

The exterior designs are customizable, in order to comply with any given municipality's visual regulations or tastes.

This is no mere concept, by the way; there are currently six of these located through Switzerland and seven in Germany, with more to come.

The design and engineering for these was done by consultancy Meyer-Hayoz.

Russian artist Canyaon skewers both sneaker culture and the aesthetics of various subcultures with his absurdist footwear concepts:

Nike Grapes

Adidas Neighborhood Watchers

ESports Custom

Mercedes-Benz Sneakers

There's a ton more on his Instagram.

An old-school construction trick used in Japan, the Swiss Alps, and probably other places, is to hold roofing down using heavy rocks.

UK-based design/research/building firm Material Cultures used this technique, as well as timber framing, in building this Rock Hut for client Grizedale Arts:

"The timber frame was built using green larch: a locally sourced, fast growing softwood milled at Graythwaite Estate sawmill, pegged together with oak dowels hewn from locally forested oak."

"Eliminating the need for concrete footings, the structure sits on a dry-stone wall plinth, built under the guidance of John Atkinson using a technique which is ubiquitous across the Lake District for everything from farm walls to fine houses."

"Uplift on the eaves of the structure is resisted by a series of boulders from the quarry at Broughton Moor chained to the rafters, and embedded into the earth banks either side of the structure."

"A gate of irregular timber was provided by renowned oak swill craftsman Owen Jones MBE."

"In its simplest form the act of building could be thought of as a gathering up of different elements of the landscape, or the orchestration of the movement and configuration of material from one place to another. This project explores how an understanding of material context and historic technologies can play a role in contemporary building as move towards a post-carbon future."

The project was undertaken in collaboration with architect Takeshi Hayatsu, engineering firm Price & Myers, traditional oak craftsman Owen Jones and farmer/master stone wall builder John Atkinson.

Jørn Utzon is the Danish architect best known for designing the Sydney Opera House. That was a 16-year ordeal, beginning with winning a design competition in 1957, then being unpleasantly confronted with engineering challenges, ballooning costs and politically-motivated personal attacks. So vicious were the latter that Utzon left Australia in 1966, vowing never to return. He kept his promise, refused to attend the structure's eventual opening in 1973, and never got to see the completed Opera House in person.

Image: Bjarte Sorensen - CC BY-SA 3.0

While that's all been documented, less well known is that prior to Utzon's introduction to the complexities of international architecture, he actually designed a whimsical piece of furniture. He had been prototyping a sort of pre-metabolist stool in the 1950s, prior to getting swept up in the Opera House maelstrom.

The stool was never realized, but Fritz Hansen has announced they've now put the Utzon Stool into production, after six-plus decades.

"Utzon approached furniture design by applying the same principles that defined his architecture, a synthesis of diverse references and what he called additive architecture, multiple configurations using a limited number of prefabricated components," says Marie-Louise Høstbo, Fritz Hansen's Creative Design Director. "In the stool, the modular principle is evident in the repetitive shapes of the steam-bent legs. Utzon often used maritime references and the spheres of the seat recall marine fenders along with his love of nature and its recurring forms."

"The wooden spheres echo wooden models that Utzon made for some of his projects, the most famous of which is the spherical solution for the sails of the Sydney Opera House roof. The protruding mushroomlike forms also evoke the playful side of Utzon."

Made of beech with brass accents, the stool runs $1,500.

In order to manufacture the clothes we wear, things have to be pulled out of the ground. Plants for fibers, petroleum for technical fabrics. But a startup called Human Material Loop has a more sustainable idea: To create textiles out of human hair.

"Every day, hundreds of tonnes of hair clippings are thrown out," the company writes, on a section of their website addressing hair salon owners. "All the while, the textile industry is in dire need of a more sustainable, repurposed textile source. We have a solution for both – transforming your hair waste into textile fibers. Because ultimately, your hair clippings are just raw material in the wrong place."

The company reckons that human hair isn't just abundant, but the right material to make clothes out of:

"Human hair…possesses incredible durability and strength (one ponytail could hold two elephants). Like wool or alpaca, it's composed largely of keratin protein fibers, making it natural, thermal, biodegradable and moisture-regulating, sans the cruelty or allergic reactions."

The company claims they can turn hair into knits and weaves that are hypoallergenic, heat-retentive and antibacterial.

They also say they've produced a sweater, a "tweed-like blazer" and a parka insulated with human hair for testing. Currently they're gathering hair from salons in the Netherlands (where they're based), Belgium and Luxembourg.

It's a fascinating idea, assuming it works. And while they say they can dye the textiles they create, they don't mention from what specific source color of hair; I wonder if they can turn black hair into different colors. China and India have 3 billion people between them, and the continent of Africa another 1.2 billion; those populations have predominantly black hair and add up to more than half the planet's population. The hair textures of those populations are also distinct from that of the Low Countries from which the company has been sourcing their trial hair.

It will be interesting to see what different varieties can be produced from different populations' hair types (unless it's all the same after the lab process).

These curious looking vintage "road glasses" were made by Kasper & Richter, a German manufacturer of precision instruments. They were designed for driving in bad weather, in the days when enclosed cars were a novelty. I am so curious to try a pair on to see what can actually be seen.

"These glasses with specially arranged viewing slits enable unobstructed vision while preventing rain from entering," writes retailer FORMost. "The sophisticated design is reminiscent of steam punk and bionics. No matter where you go, you will attract attention."

That is certainly true, as seen in these images below: An alternate vendor is selling a similar product branded with the company name, though I'd have guessed they were knockoffs. In any case they're not exactly low-profile.

In mid-20th-century Europe, Margerete Jahny belonged to a rare demographic of industrial designer: She was an East German female. And according to design historian Günter Höhne, she was the first East German industrial designer, of any gender, with a university education.

The German Democratic Republic, as East Germany was ironically called, had a Central Institute of Design (later called the Office for Industrial Design) that oversaw all ID-related matters in the GDR. In the 1960s, the Institute tasked Jahny and fellow designer Erich Müller with designing a set of tableware for use in GDR canteens.

Jahny, who had worked in a restaurant as a child, understood the needs of servers; indeed she had already designed a coffee service system as a student, while studying at the Dresden University of Fine Arts. She dusted off her old designs, which consisted of stackable coffee cups, a creamer, a coffee pot with a no-drip spout, and a lid that could fit all three objects. All were to be made of ceramics, a material Jahny had gained familiarity with while working in a ceramics factory.

Image: Von Christos Vittoratos - CC BY-SA 3.0

Müller refined the design of the lid, which required tight production tolerances to stay in place. He engineered it to stay put even when the coffee pot was held at a sharp angle, no small feat for a ceramic pressure fit.

The objects were well-designed and useful. A person could easily stack and carry multiple cups, and the coffee pot could be poured one-handed without needing the other hand to hold the lid on. The Rational line, as the objects were called, went into production in 1969 and was soon ubiquitous throughout the GDR.

Image: Von Christos Vittoratos - CC BY-SA 3.0

Though the Rational cups and pots came to populate every public institution, canteen, hotel and restaurant in the GDR, Jahny and Müller of course never received any recognition; in fact GDR leadership reportedly derided the designs as "functionalist," that term being a pejorative as it was associated with the Bauhaus and those evil West Germans.

Instead the objects became associated with the name "Mitropa." That organization, which ran the trains, train station restaurants and gas stations in the GDR, had their name branded on the objects.

Image: Von Softeis - CC BY-SA 3.0

The Rational line remained in production throughout the '70s and '80s (though it was added to by designers other than Jahny and Müller).

After the Berlin Wall came down, production was halted forever. Today you can still find some preserved Rational pieces on secondhand sites—though they're often branded, as this one is, "Mitropa" cups or pots.

Swiss toymaker Naef has been manufacturing this Cella toy since 1967.

It was designed by German polymath Peer Klahsen, whose career has included stints in carpentry, furniture design, fine art, architecture and writing. "He has a brilliant mind with an excellent mathematical-geometric understanding and spatial sense," writes Naef.

The 10 x 10 x 10cm cube consists of one small cube and eight nesting components that can be endlessly reconfigured:

The pieces are made of Maple. In addition to blue, it comes in grey, red and its natural color.

Though designed as a toy, it is a bit pricey for kids; it runs 208 Swiss Francs, USD $231.

Previously we looked at Astrolab's FLEX, a vehicle with no design predecessor. Intended for lunar exploration, the utilitarian two-person vehicle was designed for NASA.

Now NASA's announced they've selected an additional two companies to develop additional Lunar Terrain Vehicles for their upcoming Artemis V mission. These offerings, or at least the early renderings of them, look a bit more sci-fi than Astrolab's design. Here's Intuitive Machines' Moon RACER:

(Despite the name, it's not designed for high-speed competition; it's an acronym for Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover.)

The third LTV to get the green light is Lunar Outpost's Lunar Dawn vehicle:

While all three vehicles are being developed, just one will be awarded the funding for a demonstration mission. That's where they have to actually deliver the thing to the surface of the moon and "validate its performance and safety ahead of [the Artemis V mission]."

It's a pretty tall order, as you can see in the brief below. But whichever company makes the cut will get an additional chance to boost their profit:

"The LTV will be able to handle the extreme conditions at the Moon's South Pole and will feature advanced technologies for power management, autonomous driving, and state of the art communications and navigation systems. Crews will use the LTV to explore, transport scientific equipment, and collect samples of the lunar surface, much farther than they could on foot, enabling increased science returns.""Between Artemis missions, when crews are not on the Moon, the LTV will operate remotely to support NASA's scientific objectives as needed. Outside those times, the provider will have the ability to use their LTV for commercial lunar surface activities unrelated to NASA missions."

So far the only images we have are the renders above. I'll be very curious to see how these things are realized on the surface, as I assume they'll be shipped in pieces and assembled on the moon. Am also eager to see the eventual competing designs from China, India, Russia, et cetera. But we'll have to wait for a bit; Artemis V isn't scheduled to launch until 2030.

NASA posted this image as well, but has not attributed the design.

Asahikawa, Hokkaido has been a furniture-producing center for Japan for decades. The furniture industry produces a lot of wooden offcuts. How can you turn those offcuts into more revenue?

Since 1955, the Tomiya company has been producing these Kuma Bokko*, tiny carved bears made from otherwise useless scraps of wood. The grain is cleverly exploited to produce a contour-line-like effect, further accentuating the skilled hand-carving and burning.

Image: Shokunin

(*In Japanese, "kuma" means "bear." "Bokko," in the Hokkaido dialect, means "stick," "scrap," or "piece of a broken pole"—in other words, an offcut.)

"Due to the extreme delicacy of the work, it is very rare for the face and body to be perfectly finished, and it often happens that a bokko has various 'wounds,' sometimes light, sometimes severe," writes arts & crafts store Shokunin.

Image: Shokunin

"Kumo Bokko has a very particular grain, visible all over its body. The rings vary depending on the type of wood used and the part of the tree it was cut from, so no two are the same. There are also differences in the angles of the face and body, as well as variations in overall color."

Image: Shokunin

"In addition, craftsmen who paint eyes, noses, etc. are meant to finish the expression of each finished piece by examining the individual shapes and colors of the rings, so that even if the same parts are painted, Kuma Bokko after finishing will present slightly different expressions depending on their subtle positioning."

Image: Shokunin

"Each piece is a little different from the other and it's hard to choose your favorite, and I spent a lot of time choosing the one that spoke to me the most."

The "wounds" mentioned above are categorized with hilarious fidelity on the individual product descriptions on Tomiya's website, as with this guy:

"Due to various circumstances leading up to the completion, the growth rings on the soles of his right foot had to be removed. So we ended up with a partially barefoot Kuma Bokko."

Defect aside, he still managed to attract a mate and raise a child. The offspring did not inherit the foot defect.

This bathroom cabinetry is by Thomas Longuefosse, an ébéniste (cabinetmaker) based in the Basque Country.

Longuefosse has been taken by the art of kumiko, and practices it in his spare time.

"The Japanese have a very particular way of working," he writes, "and very different from ours. Their craftsmanship is often based on extremely simple gestures, similar and repeated all day long to perfection."

"The beauty of the works often lies in the repetition of the patterns, and in their perfect execution, obviously done by hand. There is a very hypnotizing side to doing this kind of thing. I'm light years away from perfection when it comes to this type of work, but if you don't try, you don't get anything."

Here's a snippet of the patience it takes to build pieces like these: