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A company called FlyFrames makes sunglasses with no arms, or temples, as they're formally called. To seat the glasses on your face, they've gone back into the past to the pince-nez design, which essentially puts a butterfly clamp between the lenses. The company claims they're comfortable to wear for long periods, won't fall off even if you have oily skin or a sm

This Combat All-Terrain Dirt E-bike is by Avvenire, a Canadian manufacturer of light EVs. It takes the all-terrain part seriously—it comes with a Snow Kit that lets you convert the bike into a snowmobile. The company says the conversion process is easy and takes less than an hour.

The Core77 Design Awards Speculative Design category features future-oriented projects, whether physically or digitally produced, designed for the purpose of cultural commentary, intervention, or exploration, or created as speculative design for a client or educational institution. Examples include alternative structures, device prototypes for social needs, hypothetical wearable implants.Jury lead Wang and designer Huang's process for the 2024 Dat

A company called Max Space is developing an inflatable space station, as a way to fit the entire thing within a single rocket launch.Here on Earth, Luxembourg-based architecture firm 2001 TBSI envisioned something similar, that could be fitted atop a towable trailer. It's called the Esch 22 Space Station. Built as an exhibition for the city of Esch's 2022 stint as a European Capital of Culture, the experimental structure unfolds its two wings to accomm

Metal 3D printing is currently dominated by powder-based techniques like SLM (Selective Laser Melting). These processes yield incredibly precise parts, but the build times are slow. Furthermore, dealing with the powder increases manufacturing complexity: Whenever the powder is transported, loaded into the machine, or cleaned up afterwards, rigorous steps must be followed to prevent the loose spread of powder. (The powders are flammable and present an explosion risk, and can also cause respiratory issues for workers.) Following all of these steps adds cost, time, and risk.A Spain-based company called Meltio has developed a new metal 3D printing technology that does away with powder-based hassles. Rather than powder, Meltio's feedstock is metal wire, which is easy to handle on spools. The wire is fed into a point where three to six low-power diod

An inventor named Jason reportedly witnessed his mother and wife struggling to remove full garbage bags from a garbage can. He subsequently developed this Pulli Bin, which features a front that opens:The doors contain a locking mechanism; opening the lid all of the way unlocks them, allowing you to pull the bag out of the front.

There's an automotive design feature that came out in the '90s, called "window indexing" or "automatic window drop." It was applied to German cars with frameless doors; I remember seeing it in a BMW. The idea is that once you close the door, the window automatically scooches up a few millimeters, tightening its seal within a channel in the roof. When you open the door, the window automatically drops out of the channel.Intriguingly, a similar idea, with a much less hi-tech execution, has been applied to garage doors by a company called ThermoTraks. Garage doors are typically the leakiest part of the house, leaving gaps around the edges that air can flow through.

Knife designer Joe Caswell designed this Provoke First Responder knife, designed for EMTs working in close quarters.Caswell has extended his mastery of mechanisms to a new product in the line, the Provoke X:

Tooling a mold to produce large parts is expensive. Companies making composite architectural panels, fiberglass boat hulls, automotive panels, etc. have to sell tens of thousands of units to recoup the cost. Furthermore, once that mold is cut, manufacturers don't just throw them away; the gigantic mold halves are placed in storage, which brings an additional cost. And when the design needs to be tweaked or updated, well, now you're paying for another mold.A Danish company called Adapa has turned this model on its head. Adapa has created an "adaptive mold," which is a grid of vertically-oriented actuators that support a membrane above. Each actuator moves in

Here's what we looked at this week:L.A. fires claim Gregory Ain's Park Planned Homes, one of America's first Modernist neighborhoods.Telo Trucks' micro EV pickup truck will offer solar charging options. (Just don't get too excited about the range.) Why a Tacoma and certain houses survi