This year brought its fair share of over-the-top architecture projects. Top-of-the-list is Saudi Arabia's Shebara Resort, a net-zero facility with stainless steel pod villas.

In Brazil, this VIW Building is also for people that want to be near the water. The apartments all have in-balcony swimming pools.

In Albania, Dutch firm JA Joubert Architecture and local firm UNS Architects teamed up on this Zig-Zag resort. The idea was to work with challenging terrain, rather than against it, while providing spectacular views to guests.

And this year saw the debut of this retro-futuristic building in Los Angeles. The Tesla Diner is an eatery, entertainment complex and the world's largest Supercharging station.

Over in Milan stands San Siro, Italy's largest stadium. Fans access the structure via helical walkways, and when a match lets out, it looks as if the towers are rotating:

Of course, the biggest problem architecture could help solve has nothing to do with fancy resorts and buildings. As the global housing crisis continues, Boxabl unveiled their Baby Box, a $20,000 unfolding tiny home.

In the Netherlands, Rotterdam is planning to build floating neighborhoods in response to the housing crunch.

And in Texas, Icon is attempting to provide affordable housing with their 3D-printed homes.

The company is also 3D printing houses for the homeless.

Also in Texas, which seems to be a hotspot for 3D-printed structures, German company Peri 3D has 3D-printed a Starbucks.

Meanwhile, researchers continue to find ways to execute conventional construction more efficiently. Lotte Scheder-Bieschin, a PhD student of Architecture at ETH Zurich, designed a brilliant, reusable folding formwork system called the Unfold Form. It can be used to build vaulted concrete structures that use less concrete and far less steel than conventional structures.

Over in Myanmar, bamboo is a lot easier to come by than concrete. Yangon-based architecture firm Blue Temple developed an economical system for building houses by bundling together thin pieces of bamboo. The initiative is called Housing NOW.

And in sweltering India, architect Monish Siripurapu developed a passive cooling system for buildings called CoolAnt. It uses terracotta and water as low-tech air conditioning.

In China, a company called Ombra is building pergolas that are cooled by the sun. The roofs are covered in solar panels that power the HVAC.

In Austria, researchers at the Graz University of Technology are looking into alternative wall- and floor-installation (and de-installation) methods. Their ReCon Project proposes a hook-and-loop fastening system for wall and floor surfaces.

In Sweden, Kiruna Church is one of the country's largest wooden structures. It was also in danger of being swallowed up by the earth, thanks to nearby mining activity. Thus Dutch engineering firm Mammoet was hired to move the entire building, intact, to a new location.

Some architectural landmarks have sustained damage over the centuries, and others were never completed. Thus Dutch creative team Studio Drift collaborated with drone show company Drone Stories to visually complete structures like the Colosseum and the Sagrada Familia.

Lastly and sadly, Los Angeles lost a lot of homes this year during the wildfires. We looked at the architecture choices that allowed surviving houses to remain unscathed, even as the ones next door burned down.

Here's what we looked at this week:

The Cylindric UX1 is a handsome, designey USB-C charger from Sweden.

Montezuma's Triangular Toolboxes, designed for rough transport.

Roof's Djagger, a rear-entry motorcycle helmet that you don like a mask.

Industrial design firm Intenxiv designs a more elegant airport PRM vehicle.

Germain Verbrackel's split-torus Clock & Roll concept.

A Dutch furnituremaker's specialty production machine yields better quality, with less labor.

An Industrial Design student updates a design classic, and gets a production deal.

This beautiful Ridge line of wooden door handles is by Milan-based industrial designer Keiji Takeuchi.

This Lazy Lighting app makes projection mapping easy.

Ottagona, by architect Giulia Foscari, is a designey, compact gym-in-a-closet.

The MagCable, a magnetically self-coiling charging cable, is like an old-school retractile telephone cord.

The Loop Living Cocoon is a mushroom-based coffin grown in just seven days. Unlike regular coffins, it won't poison the soil.

Artmor's Aircrate: A reusable bubblewrap alternative where you provide the air.

Specialty tools: Häfele's long range cabinet feet leveler is easier on the back.

These are Häfele's adjustable feet for cabinets.

They allow tradespeople to easily get cabinets level on uneven floors, by simply turning the threaded spindles.

If they can reach them, that is. As you can imagine, during a cabinetry install, the feet on the front are easy to get to.

But the ones in the back, not so much.

Thus Häfele also sells this Axilo tool, sized to reach those pesky rear feet.

The tool can be powered by a hand driver or a drill.

The company reckons the tool is not only easier on the installer's back, but offers an installlation time savings of 50%.

As we live our lives, we humans steadily pollute the planet. And when we die, we have our final opportunity to concentrate poison into the Earth. And boy do we make the most of it.

Your average casket is made out of wood, which biodegrades. But few funeral planners are opting for unfinished pine boxes. Instead we slather that casket in stains and polyurethane finishes, and fasten the joinery with polyvinyl acetate glue. We fill that casket with shiny synthetic textiles covering a thin foam mattress attached to plywood laminated with formaldehyde glue. We add a foam pillow, also covered in faux silk. Then we attach all of the metal hardware, and we lacquer or topcoat that stuff too.

Then the casket goes into the ground, and spends the next several decades slowly releasing its toxic payload into the soil, polluting any nearby groundwater sources. Outside of industrial sites, cemeteries contain some of the most polluted soils in any given community.

The problem is irreversible, but a Dutch company called Loop Biotech hopes to stop contributing to it. Headed up by architect Bob Hendrikx, who had been working with mycelium since his student days at TU Delft, the company produces mushroom-based coffins.

Their Loop Living Cocoon is grown in just seven days from mushrooms, with the mycelium being combined with upcycled hemp to strengthen the structure.

The coffins can be lined with moss rather than polyurethane foam. Once they go into the ground, the units begin breaking down after 30 to 45 days, and the mycelium releases beneficial nutrients into the soil.

They're also lightweight. Your average wooden coffin weighs around 200 lbs empty, whereas the Living Cocoon tips the scales around 60 lbs.

As for price, they run €1,500 to €2,000 (USD $1,600 to $2,150). Your average softwood coffin goes for less than that, but hardwood coffins can cost far more.

This is incredibly clever. An unknown developer has come up with an easy way to do projection mapping, using any projector (as long as it's got HDMI) and your smartphone or tablet. You do this by isolating different zones you'd like to project onto, and turning each of them into a separate channel:

Three channels not enough? Here he breaks it into nine:

Here's a demo where he shows you how to set it up:

The app is called Lazy Lighting. It runs $20 a year, or $130 for a lifetime subscription.

Paintings can be wrapped in bubble wrap to protect them in storage or during transit. And while bubble wrap is technically reusable, few bother to carefully cut it off and re-coil it, so it often becomes waste.

A Spanish company called Artmor has come up with a neater, reusable and more bespoke solution. Their Aircrate product comes in multiple sizes, and arrives to you like this:

You sleeve the piece, then inflate it with an compressor, a balloon pump or a manual pump:

You get a perfect fit—quickly, without using any tape—and the Aircrate can be reused. For art handlers, this saves time. For galleries and museums that rotate pieces in and out of storage, it saves cost and hassle.

Back in the days of corded landlines, everyone had a phone in the kitchen. It was desirable for the cord to be long, so users could still move around the kitchen as they chatted. Telephone manufacturers provided a built-in way to keep cords long, yet manageable:

Image: Al Butler

Those are called retractile cords, and they were made on purpose-built coiling production lines. First copper is drawn and annealed into wires. These wires are individually insulated (so they don't mix signals), then wrapped together in a plastic sleeve, either PVC or polyurethane. Next the cords, which are still straight at this point, are wrapped tightly around a long mandrel and baked in an oven, softening the plastic sleeve. The sleeve is cooled in place on the mandrel, having "learned" the helical shape it's in.

Payphone manufacturers, however, didn't have to worry about length, just durability.

Image: Tyler Criso

With the transition to cordless landlines, I'm thinking a lot of those coiling production lines went dormant. And with the subsequent transition to cell phones, a lot of coiling production lines were probably scrapped altogether.

While careful manufacturing attention was paid to corded telephone lines, cell phone charging cables have been treated as an afterthought; all design attention was focused on the phones themselves.

However, a Chinese charging accessories manufacturer called Skegic is paying attention, and has borrowed a trick from old-school coiled telephone cords. This is their MagCable, a 100W charging cable:

It's not made the same way that traditional retractile cords are. Instead, there are magnets integrated at specific intervals along the jacketing, causing the cord to self-coil when it's slack. Pretty smart design.

The MagCable is offered with three different connection options, and runs $25.

This Ottagono project, by Italian architect Giulia Foscari, aims to cram a home gym into a single piece of furniture.

Conceived as an autonomous architectural object, OTTAGONO appears as a monolithic column with an octagonal base. Its sculptural presence in the space conceals unexpected and surprising functionalities, encompassing diverse spatial programmes within its compact volume.

On its summit, a lighting system transforms OTTAGONO into a light that shines upwards as a floor lamp, combining and merging, in a single object, a furniture design and a lighting system.

OTTAGONO contains all the necessary elements for a complete training session, including an integrated video system remotely connected to a full set of Technogym equipment and technologies that further enhances the training experience.

The design was commissioned by Cassina Custom Interiors, an Italian furniture company, and executed in collaboration with Technogym. It will be launched next year at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, in Antibes. (I wonder if that means all the rooms are getting them?)

This Ridge line of wooden door handles is by Milan-based industrial designer Keiji Takeuchi.

"The idea for this Ridge collection is rather simple. Usually, door handles must support two types of uses: being pulled or pushed to open the door. When people want to pull a handle, they want a generous and inviting surface that provides nice contact. On the other hand, when people push a handle to open the door, they want to have a large and reasonably flat surface so that it is easily pushed. I combined my answers for these two actions and connected them in the middle. As a result, a natural ridge appeared where two surfaces met."

In the case of the lever handles, two handles are cut from one block, so as to maximize the material yield.

These are in production by Aru, a Japanese brand formed exclusively to produce wooden door handles.

Below is a video where they describe their mission and show you their production process:

In 1953 Egon Eiermann, a German architect and proponent of functionalism, designed this no-frills desk for himself. His aim was to make it as minimalist as possible.

Eiermann was a professor at the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). Architecture students began producing the desk in the school's shop, for use around campus. The school continued producing the desk thru the 1950s and '60s.

The desk had never seen formal production, but in the 1990s, German furniture manufacturer Richard Lampert picked up the rights, and started selling the desk as the Eiermann 1. It did well on the market, and was recognized as a design classic.

In the 2020s, Tim Schütze was an Industrial Design student at the Berlin University of Arts. For his Masters project, he chose to give the Eiermann desk a modern upgrade: Making it a sit-stand desk.

To gain the height adjustability without tacking on a bulky motor, which would compromise Eiermann's intended aesthetic, Schütze devised a belt-drive mechanism that turned threaded spindles in the legs. He used 3D-printed components for the mechanism.

The user manually pulls on the belt to change the table's height.

After graduating, Schütze collaborated with Richard Lampert. The Eiermann M (for mechanical), as the update is called, is now in production.

You've undoubtedly seen those boxy, golf-cart-like vehicles that airports use to shuttle disabled passengers to the gate. Called Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM) vehicles, they've got the all the aesthetic value of a Willys Jeep.

Incheon International Airport, near Seoul, wanted better. They commissioned local company ThorDrive, an autonomous driving startup, to create a more elegant PRM. ThorDrive then worked with South Korean industrial design firm Intenxiv to produce this Air Ride, a fully autonomous vehicle.

"From the information desk to the boarding gate, people with disabilities can get on and off autonomously. Luggage loading and unloading areas are located close to the front and back to minimize the difficulty for passengers. And an unmanned kiosk provides easy access to boarding gate information. The rounded shape reduces the risk of injury in the event of a collision."

Incheon International Airport now runs an Air Ride unit in every building.

While many people associate AI in design with exaggerated concept art or viral surreal images, the reality for industrial designers in a professional setting is much more grounded. Today's tools quietly integrate intelligence and automation into daily workflows, helping professionals transition smoothly from concept to production.

Faced with faster cycles, tighter budgets, sustainability targets, and rising creative demands, industrial designers and engineers increasingly rely on these technologies—not just for futuristic efficiency, but as vital resources for staying competitive. Autodesk Fusion embeds automation directly into the design process, making AI a natural extension of creative exploration rather than a separate technical skill. Its intelligent workflows reduce repetitive work, speed iterations, and steer designers toward well-informed decisions. Let's explore some of the top automated and AI-powered tools Fusion has to offer.

Autodesk Fusion embeds automation directly into the design process, making AI a natural extension of creative exploration rather than a separate technical skill. Its intelligent workflows reduce repetitive work, speed iterations, and steer designers toward well-informed decisions. Let's explore some of the top automated and AI-powered tools Fusion has to offer.

Embracing intelligent design exploration with automated modeling

Automated modeling in Fusion allows designers to quickly generate multiple design alternatives from simple inputs like which surfaces to connect and which bodies to avoid. This AI-assisted feature accelerates the early stages of concept development, turning what once took hours of manual modeling into a dynamic, iterative process. Beyond speed, automated modeling enhances creativity. It helps designers explore smooth or sharp transitions between parts without detailed setup or manufacturing restrictions.

Automating precision with sketch constraints

Sketch constraints are the foundation of parametric design, defining how geometry behaves when dimensions change. Fusion's AI-powered automated sketch constraint system intelligently detects relationships—such as horizontal, vertical, or tangent alignments—and applies them as you sketch. This transforms what used to be a meticulous manual step into a guided process that ensures every line, curve, and point behaves predictably during edits. By automatically managing geometric relationships, AutoConstrain helps preserve design intent while making models easier to refine and scale.

Unlocking more design options with generative design

Generative design in Fusion takes automation one step further by enabling designers to explore solutions beyond what's humanly possible to manually model. By defining goals, materials, and constraints, designers can generate thousands of design alternatives that balance performance, cost, and manufacturability. Whether optimizing a lightweight component or evaluating different manufacturing methods like CNC machining or additive manufacturing, generative design helps find the most efficient path from concept to production-ready geometry. The result is not only faster innovation but also products that perform better and use fewer resources.

"Complicated parts are hard to engineer, and they can take years to develop. But using generative design in Fusion, you can put multiple functions into one part, iterate, prototype, and it's just a matter of weeks for a final product." —Robin Shute, Founder, Shute Dynamics

Fastener replacement

Fastener replacement tools use Autodesk AI to automatically detect and update fastener sizes across your design when requirements change. You can edit individual fasteners or entire groups in one step, ensuring all dimensions, joints, and Bill of Materials stay consistent and compliant.

Faster documentation with automated drawing

Technical drawings are still vital for communicating design intent, yet they often delay projects due to manual creation. Autodesk Fusion's automated drawings feature, powered by AI, dramatically streamlines this process. The tool automatically generates 2D drawings from 3D models. It automatically creates standard orthographic and isometric views, applying dimensions, and inserting annotations. By eliminating tedious setup and reducing opportunities for error, drawing automation allows teams to produce manufacturing-ready documentation in minutes instead of hours, improving throughput and consistency across design teams.

"From automated drawings to automated modeling, generative design, we use all these tools to really speed up our workflow." —Ed Barlow, Head of Engineering, Photocentric

Amplify your creativity with automation and AI

The future of industrial design belongs to those who embrace automation and AI not as replacements for creativity, but as tools that amplify it. By incorporating scalable automation across modeling, sketching, and documentation, Fusion empowers engineers and product designers to collaborate effortlessly, accelerate development, and deliver their products with confidence. Experimenting with these features today means staying ahead of the curve tomorrow. Now's your chance to deliver smarter products with fewer iterations and more confidence in every design decision.

Try Autodesk Fusion today.

In general, I'm not a fan of the neat-but-difficult-to-read-timepiece genre that industrial designers seem to love so much. But this one caught my eye. This Clock & Roll concept is by paradigm, a/k/a French industrial designer Germain Verbrackel.

"Had fun," Verbrackel writes, "creating that aluminum, torus-shaped clock with two independent rings that glide on bearings, set in motion by external rollers."

Verbrackel designed the concept for a Render Weekly challenge.

DM Living is a family-run furniture business in Holland. They're no stranger to producing large dining and conference tables, and built this custom rig to make those jobs easier:

That's their tafeldraaier ("table turner"), which allows one worker to do the work of two.

"We can now perfectly finish every leaf from all sides--the bottom of each piece receives the same care as the top. [The table turner allows for] tighter spraying, consistent quality and less lifting for our team."

This Cylindric UX1 is by Cords, a Swedish design and technology company. Their mission is to "create products that make electricity a natural, integrated part of interiors," rather than the snake's nests that most of us live with.

The 165W USB-C charger can put out 100W per port, and can charge four devices at once.

It features a durable braided cord.

Most importantly, it looks like something you'd actually want to put on your desk.

Five colors are on offer, and the units run around $100.

All motorcycle helmets are donned the same way: You pull them over your head, then buckle it tight with a chinstrap. But French motorcycle helmet manufacturer Roof has a different idea. They've recently unveiled this Djagger prototype, which makes the donning experience more like putting on a mask than a hat:

No idea how the thing works, but as you can see there are cables involved:

The company says their occipital opening system offers a range of UX benefits: "No more uncomfortable fitting, no more systematic opening or closing a chinstrap buckle, no need to remove your glasses or your gloves."

Commenters on their Instagram voiced concern about the helmet possibly being difficult for a first responder to remove, in the case of an accident. The company's response:

"Just remove the screws on both sides of the side shell, then the front shell can open by tilting up upwards, then the face and airways of the user are completely exposed while the head and the neck remains stable inside the rear shell. So, the helmet could be opened very quickly without any pressure to the neck of the user!"

Would a first responder know to do that?

The Djagger appears to be headed for production, though the company hadn't released details at press time.

Like a lot of rural areas, Montezuma, Kansas has rough backcountry roads. Toolboxes in trucks that are driving these roads bounce around, scrambling their contents. Thirty years ago, an unknown maintenance engineer in the area grew tired of this, and designed a toolbox that would not only keep the tools in place during rough transport, but would also present them ergonomically once on-site.

The result is these Triangle Toolboxes, produced by manufacturer Montezuma. The triangular cross-section presents the tools in a stadium seating format, and the angle of the locking lid keeps the contents in place, even as you weather potholes.

The company offers a broad range of sizes and styles, with top-handled units for lighter tools, and side-handled units for heavier stuff.

They also offer units with a single drawer on the bottom, riding on ball-bearing slides…

…as well as licensed, DeWalt-branded models.

And for in-shop use, the company manufacturers companion rolling carts with drawers.

A perhaps unintended bonus of the form factor: No one will leave their coffee cup on top of it.

The units are made of aluminum or steel, and prices run from around $100 to around $850, depending on size, material and options.

Here's what we looked at this week:

A designey divot tool from Formawerx and Discommon Goods.

Nike Hydraulics' sleek mid-century design for an adjustable drafting table.

A portable, drill-powered oscillating tool blade sharpener.

This Nimble Prosthetic Fin for amputee swimmers is by industrial designer Alberto Essesi.

João Teixeira's simple, alluring, bent plywood Tokyo Bench.

Engineer Tej Grewal shares his settings for 3D printing transparent objects out of PETG.

An architecture firm's wishful solar-powered motorcycle concept.
In Switzerland, the world's largest glue-up?

Architect Didi Lenz's PIXEL: Milk-crate-like modular furniture for working adults.

What the milk crate is to college-aged kids furnishing dorms or homes, the PIXEL is to adults doing work. Designed by Austrian architect Didi Lenz, it's a plywood cube (roughly 36cm / 14 3/8" cubed) that can be used as a standalone storage object, or stacked like milk crates to build benches, cabinets, tables, seating, et cetera.

"PIXEL isn't furniture," Lenz insists. "PIXEL is a flexible module that can serve various functions in space for everyone. A high table for a workshop, a desk for students, a shelving system for a store, a bar for a party. Anything's possible with inspiration and improvisation. This is exactly what PIXEL is made for – it's an all-purpose tool at times of constant change."

Accessories include lids, trays, tops, wheeled bases, seat cushions, shelving racks, organizer inserts and a whiteboard holder.

PIXEL is in production by Austrian office furniture manufacturer Bene, where Lenz is an Innovation Ambassador.

Furnituremakers among you undoubtedly remember your most difficult glue-up: A countertop, bench or tabletop of unwieldy dimensions. Well, you probably won't complain again, after seeing what these folks are doing. Swiss timber company Huesser Holzleimbau, which specializes in creating glue-lam beams, recently won a contract to manufacture two burly beams for a bridge.

Twenty-eight employees (including people from the office called onto the shop floor to pitch in) worked together on the most massive glue-up I've ever seen:

Once all of the separate glue-ups were put together, the resultant part was 27.3 m (90 ft) long, with a width and height of 1320 x 1360 mm (52 x 54 in). Counting the steel brackets embedded into the beam, it weighs 24.1 tonnes (53,130 lbs)! And they made two of them.

Located in Obersaxen, Switzerland, the Lochlitobel Bridge was erected last month to span a gorge.

As for why they made it out of wood and not steel, it was actually faster and required less logistics to make it out of wood. Glue-lam beams have 1.5 to 3 times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel, and could thus be fabricated offsite, trucked to the site and hoisted into place with less equipment than would have been required with heavy steel.

"During the entire construction period, no auxiliary bridges would have been possible, and there would have been virtually no convenient detour options," writes the Canton of Graubunden, where the bridge is located. "To minimize traffic restrictions, the two wooden load-bearing girders, each weighing 25 tons and over 27 meters long, were prefabricated and then installed on site with millimeter precision. This process ensured high quality and, from the dismantling of the old bridge to the commissioning of the new one, a road closure of only eight weeks."