When you’re visiting car exhibit shows, you expect to see nothing but cars on display. The brands have to figure out how to make it a bit more exciting and innovative since looking at cars can become repetitive and if you’re not really a car enthusiast, it can get boring. But when you’re displaying a car at an art and design exhibition, then you can expect a more non-traditional way to look at the vehicle.
Designer: Marjan van Aubel
An installation to celebrate the Lexus LF-ZC Battery Electric Vehicle Concept Car is now on display at the Miami Art & Design Week. The “sculpture” is called “8 Minutes and 20 Seconds” which is the time it takes for light to reach earth. So instead of the usual car display, what you get is a self-illuminating 3D skeleton of the concept car itself. It’s made from organic transparent photovoltaic (POV) sheets and is powered by solar energy. Each cell gives off a spectrum of color and movement and they are transparent to give off the maximum effect of light and patterns.
The EV Skateboard, which is where the engine will be located, is highlighted with an LED panel. It is the main feature of the car so this is where eyes will be drawn. Depending on where you’re standing, you’ll get a different perspective of the sculpture. There are also motion sensors which will let the car respond to those walking around, triggering a ripple through the LED light panels. You will also hear bamboo chimes since the concept car uses bamboo materials as well.
Every 10 minutes, you’ll get a crescendo of sound and light patterns. Since the sculpture is located in a garden setting, the color temperature also shifts along with the natural circadian rhythms of its surroundings. It’s a pretty interesting thing to see this in person and to experience a different kind of display for cars, even if it’s still just a concept car.
Lamps are not an uncommon sight in homes, ranging from big chandeliers to small desk lamps. Regardless of their size or design, they all serve the same purpose of not only bringing light but also adding to an area’s ambiance. Given the setting for most of these lamps, it’s really no surprise that the majority of them use electricity for safety and efficiency. There is, however, a certain charm to watching a dancing fire that can brighten up your surroundings while also offering warmth and comfort. Lighting a fire indoors is, of course, an unwise and dangerous thing to do for many reasons, unless you have this one-of-a-kind brass box that lets enjoy a small yet enchanting flame, whether outdoors or indoors, and never have to worry about the dangerous fumes you might inhale.
Designer: BRASSCENE
Click Here to Buy Now: $203$239 (15% off at checkout). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!
Although there’s no getting away from the fact that fire burns, fireplaces that use gas or fuel bring their own set of risks, mostly from the smoke, odors, and fumes they produce. Fortunately, there is such a fuel called bioethanol, which is ethanol or ethyl alcohol made from plant-based raw materials, so it doesn’t produce dangerous monoxide while it fuels the flame. That’s exactly the kind of fuel this distinctive fireplace uses, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. While the fuel is a marvel of science, the fireplace itself is a work of art.
Brasscene, a portmanteau of “brass” and “scene,” brings a beautiful bioethanol fireplace whose origin sounds so far removed from the rest of its kind. More than just metalwork, the craftsmanship that goes into forming this eye-catching vessel is the same expertise that’s used in making musical instruments like trumpets and horns. The same precision machining, brazing, and polishing techniques that make these beautiful products are employed to create an equally enchanting accessory for your home.
The brass bioethanol fireplace’s luxurious exterior adds glamour anywhere you put the box-shaped lamp, whether on a dining table or on a patio. Its stainless steel tank in the middle provides a safe receptacle for the bioethanol fuel that you simply pour inside and light up. It’s as simple as that, no complicated setup required. Glass barriers keep the flame from dancing too wildly, always making it go up, while a matching brass lid is all you need to extinguish the fire by covering the tank. It doesn’t get any simpler than this.
The choice of brass material is genius and creative, as it develops its own unique appearance as it ages, giving it a character that grows old with you. The end result is a beautifully hand-crafted design that can already bring joy and delight just from its presence. And, once the flames start to dance, you will be dazzled by the natural play of light, shadows, and reflections, creating a unique atmosphere that no electric lamp or LED bulb can ever reproduce.
Click Here to Buy Now: $203$239 (15% off at checkout). Hurry, deal ends in 48 hours!
Water-based architecture is not about boats, yachts, or ships, or at least not just about them. We’re seeing some designers experiment with bringing all kinds of floating structures that residents and tourists can enjoy while basking in breathtaking views. A Copenhagen-based studio is teaming up with the local municipality to bring these unique concepts to life and show different possibilities for this kind of architecture.
Designer: MAST
The first of three projects is a floating sauna and harbor bath where up to fifteen people will be able to have a relaxing time while looking at an aquatic view. They can even plunge directly into the harbor bath after sweating it up in the sauna. It uses eco-friendly materials like cross-laminated timber and wood fiber insulation. This floating sauna is also “portable” in a sense that it can be moved to different locations through a towboat. There is also a small changing room as well as storage facilities and a wooden deck with access to the harbor bath.
The Harbour Cliff is the first free-floating open bouldering gym in the world where visitors can swim to it and then try the different climbing routes within the structure. There are three slightly inverted ledges to do the different challenges, including a 14.8 foot climb where you need to do a particularly hard jump to be able to reach the final spot. It looks like something straight out of an alien invasion movie and I keep expecting a monster to emerge from the structure.
Lastly, if you don’t want to sweat it out in the sauna or do bouldering, you can head over to the Maldives to visit a floating villa. These villas are anchored in protected lagoon areas and have two bedrooms, bathrooms, a loving room, and even a courtyard garden and a roof terrace. As part of their eco-friendly design, they use solar cells, battery packs, on-board sewage treatment and watermakers.
The biggest problem we have with solar panels currently is what we call ‘lost potential’, or when a solar panel doesn’t capture energy because of something obstructing it. This could be shadows, dirt, or even the fact that sunbeams don’t hit the panel at the right angle and just bounce right off. TIPA solves almost all of those problems with an idea so ridiculously simple, I’m surprised nobody’s thought of this on a larger scale before. Designed as a 3D module rather than a flat 2D panel, TIPA basically traps sunlight inside it, forcing it to bounce off solar panels until it gets absorbed almost entirely. Using a chamber of mirrors, TIPA multiplies the effectiveness of a solar panel, quite like a parabolic mirror focuses light beams in a torch or a car headlamp. TIPA is small, modular, and can be used individually as a personal outdoor accessory or scaled up to charge an entire system of devices like your RV.
Designer: TIPA Design
Click Here to Buy Now: $63. Hurry, less than 72 hours left! Raised over $130,000.
The design of TIPA is borderline genius. Sunlight has a tendency to bounce off surfaces, making solar panels with glossy exteriors rather ineffective. Matte solar panels don’t just trap sunlight, they trap dirt too, making them difficult to wipe clean when they get dirty. It’s a strange catch-22 situation that TIPA’s design solves brilliantly. The device comes with a hexagonal ‘house’ shaped design, featuring a conical Fresnel lens roof that catches the sun, focusing it inside TIPA’s hollow design. On the inside, TIPA has six vertical solar panels, and a small faceted reflector plate at the bottom. Once a beam of sunlight goes into the TIPA’s interior compartment, it bounces around till it gets absorbed by each panel. Overall, this boosts TIPA’s ability to capture solar power by 300%, making it 3 times more effective than conventional solar-energy systems.
Each TIPA stands at just above 13 inches (331.2mm) and measures 15.2 inches (388mm) wide, making it a compact little powerhouse that’s literally house-shaped. Despite its size, the device outputs 45Wp (watt-peak) under the best circumstances, and can either be used individually, or stacked into modules to output anywhere up to 9kWp (enough to power a four-bedroom house 24×7. A single TIPA comes with 3 output ports – a 10W USB-A port, and two 100W USB-C ports to charge your gadgets. You can connect multiple TIPAs together using solar MC4 connectors to give you even more power for bigger gadgets like a laptop, projector, mini-fridge, etc. TIPA’s designed for the outdoors, which means it’s weather-proof, and can be carried along with your gadgets, or permanently affixed to the roof of your house or RV.
The technology holds quite a lot of promise, coming with extended support from global solar leaders as well as a solid £560,000 grant from the UK government. This new format renders a lot of problems with solar panels obsolete, increasing the efficiency of panels dramatically without needing you to ensure they’re clean and pointed at the sun directly. No matter where the sun’s located in the sky, the Fresnel roof on TIPA captures light and focuses it inwards, giving you consistent efficiency throughout the day. The solar panels themselves also boast a staggering 30-year lifespan, giving you a reliable source of power for decades no matter where you’re located or where you’re going. A single TIPA starts at £50 ($63), and you can scale up to a ‘festival pack’ of 5 TIPAS for £135 ($169) and further, going all the way up to a 200-pack that’s powerful enough to run a 4-bedroom house.
Click Here to Buy Now: $63. Hurry, less than 72 hours left! Raised over $130,000.
Moonside’s new MagLight battery pack won’t just supercharge your smartphone… it’ll supercharge your photography game too.
I’ve honestly always wondered why nobody designed a smartphone case or a MagSafe accessory that had a built-in ring light for elevated selfies and smartphone photos. The flash on your phone is the worst possible light-source for great, natural-looking, well-lit photographs, and the idea of separately carrying a light around hasn’t particularly made sense to me either. It seems like the folks at Moonside were pretty much on the same page, leading to the genesis of the MagLight – arguably the world’s first MagSafe power bank with a built-in RGB light strip that you can remotely customize. A 4000mAh battery powers the lights as well as charges your phone, and the dynamic LED strips can be used with both your primary or front-facing camera, giving you dramatically better photos in low-light conditions. Moreover, for Android users, the MagLight comes with its own magnetic stickers that attach to any smartphone, making them MagSafe compatible.
Designer: ZK Wong
Click Here to Buy Now: $75$119 (37% off). Hurry, only 9/50 left!
Lighting seems to be the one thing Moonside does incredibly well, although with the MagLight, they’re firmly placing themselves in the tech accessory domain too. The MagLight isn’t like any of the other lights they’ve made. The company’s had a strong focus on indoor ambient lights up until now, and as a Moonside Lighthouse owner myself (bought it two years ago), it’s easily my favorite bedside accessory ever… but with the MagLight, Moonside wants to make their vivid lighting solutions more portable.
The MagLight looks just like Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack, but houses 67 LEDs split into front and back areas for all-around lighting. Snap the battery pack on and your iPhone’s camera gets a stellar companion in the form of bright custom lighting (680 lumens) that you can use in a variety of creative ways. A primary ring light faces outwards, upgrading photos taken from your phone’s main camera, but rotate the MagLight 90° and a small LED strip on the inside faces you, letting you click well-lit selfies too. Moreover, you could just pop the MagLight off and use it as a standalone lighting unit that works remarkably better than your phone’s godawful flash.
Snaps to Any Metal Surfaces – Armed with strong N52 neodymium magnets.
Dynamic Color Zone & Effect – The 67 LEDs can be controlled in a variety of ways.
High Brightness & Color Accuracy – With customizable color temperature and brightness settings, this device puts the power of lighting control in your hands.
Front & Back Lighting – The World’s first camera light that features dual-sided lighting.
Animated Lighting Effects – Customize your own lighting effects to suit your specific needs.
Group Lighting Effects – Synchronize multiple MagLights to create captivating group lighting effects.
The 67 LEDs can be controlled in a variety of ways. Moonside’s app allows you to individually address each LED, adjusting the overall brightness and choosing from 16 million colors, or from the different themes and patterns available on the app. Traditionally, the lights can be used in warm and cool white settings for better selfies (i.e. like a flash, but more natural and soft), or in vibrant colors for more artistic vivid photos. You can use the lights for long-exposure light painting if you’re a more advanced photographer, or even have the lights blinking/changing to music for a concert-like feeling wherever you are. And you can still charge your phone on the side. Moreover, the MagLight has an identity beyond being a phone accessory too. It can be used as a torch or ambient light at home, and Moonside even offers smart-home integrations that let you use your MagLight as a smart lamp whenever you need.
Wireless Charger Power Bank – This wireless charger of MagLight is compatible with both MagSafe and Qi2 and can output a reliable 15W of power.
Ultimately, the MagLight is also a really good power bank. Measuring just 14mm (0.5 inches) and armed with strong N52 neodymium magnets, the MagLight snaps onto the back of your MagSafe iPhone (or any other phone with a magnetic ring attachment) and instantly begins wirelessly charging it. The Qi2-compatible charger outputs a solid 15W of power, while a 4000mAh Li-ion battery gives your smartphone battery a full charge… or gives the LED lamps a stunning 6 hours of use even at 80% LED brightness.
MagFlip – Not only does it serve as a phone stand, but it also transforms your MagLight into a smart lamp.
As a bedside smart lamp.
MagPod – A sleek aluminum MagSafe-compatible adapter that comes with an adjustable tripod designed for your MagLight and MagSafe phone.
The idea of a MagLight is just a winner by virtue of the fact that it’s a product with a very strong need that nobody really fulfilled. The power bank is great, but adding a light to it is just *chef’s kiss*. Moonside also sells a bunch of accessories for the MagLight, like the MagFlip, a fold-out stand that you can sandwich between your phone and the MagLight and use as a kickstand for your device (or even use with just the MagLight as a stand for the light). For the more creatively inclined, the MagPod is a tripod that attaches between the MagLight and your iPhone, giving you the perfect stable setup for photos, videos, and livestreams. The MagLight starts at a sizeably discounted HK$610 ($78 USD) for limited early bird buyers, or you could grab the creative bundle for HK$810 ($103 USD) which also includes the MagPod and MagFlip accessories. The MagLight ships globally starting in October, and comes with a 1-year warranty.
Click Here to Buy Now: $75$119 (37% off). Hurry, only 9/50 left!
Why slide into someone’s DMs when you could quite literally ‘light up their life’? Aqara’s IFA 2023 showcase includes a slew of products, but its most noteworthy is a Matter-enabled ceiling light that features a glowing outer ring that lights up when you get a notification. Now, it’s important to note that the light’s outer ring doesn’t necessarily connect to apps on your phone (although an update would enable this), but rather to other smart devices around your house. In theory, the individually addressable outer LED ring could shine to let you know if there’s a leak in the bathroom, if the door’s open, or if there’s a pest/intruder in your backyard. The central disc of the Ceiling Light T1M features a range of 16 million different colors, and can be used as your conventional smart home light for lighting your space, setting the mood, or just working as a night lamp while you do a midnight fridge raid.
Aqara, known for its Zigbee-supported products, claims that its ceiling light has low power consumption during idle periods and is compatible with Matter-over-bridge. Although pricing and availability details have not been disclosed by Aqara, the light’s unique feature of an independently addressable ring sets it apart from other smart ceiling lights like those in the Hue lineup.
Designer: Aqara
As a part of its IFA 2023 lineup, the company has also unveiled the Camera E1, a new indoor security camera that boasts a 2K resolution and supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. While it may not be Matter-enabled, this pan and tilt camera is still compatible with various smart home platforms such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. It comes equipped with AI-powered features like person detection and tracking, and offers multiple storage options including microSD cards, cloud storage, and network-attached storage (NAS).
There’s also the Matter-over-Thread smart lock — an efficient smart lock that eliminates the need for lock replacement. The Smart Lock U200, Aqara mentions, seamlessly operates with your existing cylinders, saving you the hassle of drilling or door modifications. This advanced innovation offers various unlocking methods, including Aqara’s NFC card (or an NFC-enabled device), fingerprint verification, and PIN codes. While the exact product availability is undisclosed, Aqara plans to launch it on Kickstarter later this year.
Nestled in the hustling bustling city of Ho Chi Minh City is a recently completed home called the ‘Secret Garden’. Designed by the Vietnamese studio ROOM+ Design & Build, the townhouse aims to provide its residents with a much-needed break from the hectic city life. The home features a stunning and light-filled garden at its center. The four-level home attempts to intertwine contemporary design with the beauty of nature. It offers a four-person family a tranquil and unique safe haven, that is almost like a protected cocoon in the city.
Pros:
Features a rooftop garden and plenty of greenery
The home is lit with an abundance of natural light
Cons:
The garden and numerous plants can be difficult to manage and maintain
Designer: ROOM + Design & Build
The Secret Garden is situated on an awkward irregular plot that’s been tucked away in between two alleyways and a couple of other buildings. The location was a bit of a challenge for the architects, but the end result is quite spectacular. The home spans over four stories, and the home’s exterior, windows, and rooftop are adorned with plants. The studio aimed to maximize natural ventilation and daylight throughout the entire residence. The layout of the home is arranged around the inner garden, which also includes a high-end hydraulic elevator and stairs. This section is topped off with a skylight, which allows natural light to stream throughout the day.
The home also includes a courtyard entrance, which leads to an open living area and a kitchen. The upper floors house multiple bedrooms, which offer access to their own private terrace areas, and the rooftop terrace. The firm says as you enter the home, you will be pleasantly surprised by the secret garden that is scattered with a big acerola cherry tree, and various types of plants hiding in the further corner of the site. The garden allows daylight and cool breeze to enter into the heart of the home, while also managing to provide protection owing to the decorative hollow-brick walls.
“Moreover, as one uses either the elevator or the partly-opened staircase to go up to the top level, he or she would be surprised one more time by a wonderful rooftop garden with countless trees, planting, and flowers. These vibrant gardens give the occupants a relaxing and peaceful sanctuary right in the center of the busy city.” A smart combination of concave and convex surfaces, deep planters, and recessed glazing gives the home a sculptural appeal, transforming it into a peaceful oasis in an otherwise chaotic city.
Tapping into your body’s ability to relax with sound, and its natural intuition to wake up to sunrise, the Aura Smart Sleep Mask helps you relax, rest, and wake up fully rejuvenated by creating the perfect conditions your body needs. With a 100% blackout design, the sleep mask completely engulfs you in darkness no matter what time of the day it is or how illuminated your space is. Integrated speakers in the sides of the mask, and a warm LED beam placed in front of your eyes combine to create the perfect setup for sleep, meditation, and recharging. The speakers play a variety of sounds through the Aura app, from ASMR to relaxing soundscapes from nature around the world, while the LED light beam provides light therapy, recreating the effects of a sunrise so you wake up feeling fully recharged without grogginess.
Designers: Adrian Wong and W.H.
Click Here to Buy Now: $159$329 ($170 off). Hurry, only 10/474 left! Raised over $125,000.
Ads all over the internet will have you believe that medicines are the key to restful sleep. There’s a pill or a special tea brew or a multivitamin gummy for virtually everything… but the problem with those over-the-counter solutions is that your body probably doesn’t need them. All it needs are some changes to your environment. The Aura Smart Sleep Mask creates those changes with its clever design that completely blocks external light, and plays relaxing audio to help you drift off to sleep. The blackout design is remarkably effective, sealing any potential areas where light could leak in from. However, it does so without necessarily pressing a black pad against your eyes. The blackout design features an empty chamber around your eyes, allowing you to keep your eyes open and even blink while wearing the Aura. As someone who uses a similar zero-pressure blackout mask myself, I can testify that they’re incredibly comfortable and highly effective.
Step 1: Pair with Aura app & tailor your Dreamscape.
Step 2: Put on Aura.
Step 3: Enjoy your relaxation sessions with the optional light therapy.
Step 4: Experience total blackout & enter sleep nirvana.
The Aura Smart Mask pairs with Aura’s smartphone app (available on both Android and iOS devices), letting you select relaxing and meditative soundscapes, sound therapy routines, and guided meditations. The app also lets you configure the light strip, adding optional light therapy to your relaxation/sleep routine. The soft warm lights calm you down and gently coax your body into a state of wakefulness like a sunrise alarm instead of suddenly triggering you awake like an alarm clock.
The benefits of restful sleep are pretty much known to everyone. Good sleep helps recharge the brain, rebuild neural pathways, and improve mood, memory, and overall health and lifespan. However, good sleep can be induced naturally instead of through supplements – a practice that Aura hopes to inculcate. Wearing the Aura helps you enter a state of relaxation just by its soft fabric construction and its ability to completely envelop you in darkness, and the Aura app takes things further, letting you relax effectively, meditate without distractions, and have deeper REM sleep. The sleep mask is compact enough to carry on trips, can be worn on long journeys (especially those exhausting red-eye flights), and is accommodating enough to be worn while sleeping no matter whether you’re a back, side, or stomach sleeper.
Each Aura Smart Sleep Mask sports a soft, face-conforming design that weighs a mere 130 grams (4.5 ounces). A velcro strap helps securely attach the mask to your face, with a 3D memory foam eye cushion that cuts out light leakage and can be hand or machine-washed every few weeks. The headset comes with intuitive controls located on the top that let you power the device as well as adjust the volume, and a USB-C port lets you charge the Aura’s built-in battery, which lasts for a week on a full charge. You can grab your Aura Smart Sleep Mask for a discounted price of $159, and download the Aura app for free on iOS or Android devices.
Click Here to Buy Now: $159$329 ($170 off). Hurry, only 10/474 left! Raised over $125,000.
