An urban park that embraces its desert environment
How many times have you seen a big old patch of lawn in the middle of Abu Dhabi and cringed?
Design
Qatar axes four of 12 solar-powered World Cup 2022 stadiums
Qatar plans to spend roughly $200 billion to prepare for the hundreds of thousands of fans who are expected to show up for the 2022 World Cup – a sum that appears to be four stadiums more than the Emirate can afford.
Retractable Mashrabiya sunscreens for secret Middle East media towers project
New York’s REX architecture studio has designed a pair of skinny media towers that feature ‘blooming’ Mashrabiya sunscreens that protect against excess solar gain. Mashrabiya is an old Arabian architectural practice to passively cool hot desert buildings.
Israeli designs fashion hats good enough to eat
An Israeli costume designer has created a series of hats that look good enough to eat, serving up 3-course millinery that pretty much covers soups to nuts. File this under “silver linings” – Maor Zabar cooked up his headpieces after being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease.
Paraplegic sea turtle lived without flippers for 4 years, then he got these
A turtle that washed up on a beach in Israel was found with his two left flippers dangling hopelessly by his side – they had been severed by sharp fishing lines. The Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Michmoret named him Freedom and kept him for four years.
Hyper-absorbent diapers made from jellyfish biodegrade in under 30 days
Until you have babies, the true awfulness of diapers doesn’t really set in. But ask the modern parent, who will buy up to 2,800 mostly non-biodegradable diapers in their baby’s first year. Then they will chuck most of them in the trash. Cine’al has at least one solution: hyper-absorbent diapers made with jellyfish.
Bamboo WarkaWater tower harvests potable water from air
On a recent trip to Ethiopia, Italian designer Arturo Vittori discovered how collecting water is both dangerous and time-consuming – especially for women and children. He thinks these water-trapping WarkaWater Towers will help.
HA Schult arrives in Israel with an army of 500 ‘Trash People’
German artist HA Schult has spent the last 18 years traveling around the world with his own army of ‘trash people.’ Like a modern version of China’s terra-cotta warriors, the exhibit recently landed in Israel.
World’s largest trash mural makes life in Syria a little less awful
Anyone who hasn’t been to Syria in the last few years can’t possibly grasp the full extent of the horrors Syrians have endured, but we do know it has been unspeakably hard. To take the edge off, a handful of artists in Damascus built what the Guinness Book of Records recently confirmed is the world’s […]
Floating Majlis meeting rooms made of recycled fishing nets in Dubai
Majlis are the boardrooms of the Arab world. A traditional ‘place of sitting’ often adorned with cushions on the floor, they are used to receive guests and exchange ideas. In the past, nomadic desert dwellers used special tents. Intercon takes a modern approach to this special meeting room with floating Majlis that are moved daily.
Safely swap your streetlight for a glowing tree?
Could the built environment take cues from Mother Nature? When Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde puzzled this, a light popped on in his head, a light created by genetically modified plant life! He imagined a self-illuminating streetscape (image above). He told Dezeen, “I mean, come on, it will be incredibly fascinating to have these energy-neutral but at the […]
The edible Ooho water bottle could save us from plastic
Plastic. No word assaults our sensibilities more. Plastic in the bellies of baby birds; plastic strangling marine animals; plastic leaching chemicals into our water supply. Plastic everywhere. But with Ooho, an edible water ‘bottle’ that just about anyone can make, we could get a handle on the plastic mess – at least a little one.
Powerful scrap sculptures depict life in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp
The nearly 10,000 Palestinian refugees packed into southern Beirut’s Shatila camp live in makeshift homes of corrugated tin, and many long to return to their homeland. In order to depict life in the camp, artist Abdulrahman Katanani used the only materials he had available to him – scraps.
See world’s largest collection of Bauhaus architecture from your desk
Tel Aviv has a lot to offer visitors, including the world’s largest collection of Bauhaus buildings. But for design lovers who are unable to travel to Israel, artist Avner Gicelter has just the thing – a wonderful series of colorful graphics that illustrate each historical gem. Inspired by José Guízar and his website ‘Windows of […]
Lady Gaga in a coffee filter dress
Lady Gaga – who refuses to be censored – was voluntarily “filtered” during her recent appearance on American TV talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live. Her gaganess showed up in a voluminous white dress, cape and matching hat that looked like bleached (and controversial!) karakul lambskin – but was actually sewn from coffee filters. Gaga’s frothy […]