A designers' dilemma: The story of Stuff

This short film was made in 2007, and is still very relevant today. Even more relevant, i would say, with our collective cellphone addicition (the Iphone came out somewhere around the time this movie was made)(feels ancient, right?).

What to do as a designer?
Should we stop creating stuff altogether or is it our responsibility to keep designing, but do it smarter and make a difference?
Is that even possible?
Can we make a difference by adding more stuff?

More about this and more video's can be found on thestoryofstuff.org.
Feel free to share your thoughts.

Urban Agriculture - this looks like a pretty good idea

Food Farm Tower - design and visualization by ABF Lab
via Designboom

I spotted this on Designboom a little while ago. Seems like a pretty great idea.
Read all about the design by French Design Studio ABF Lab in this article on Designboom.

Food Farm Tower - design and visualization by ABF Lab
via Designboom

North of The Bridge at the meeting place for ideas - Form/Design Center

photograph by Christian Beiwinkel via Wikipedia

Last (and only) time we visited Malmö it was February, and it was rather cold and a bit dreary. Nothing at all like the photograph above, which i picked from Wikipedia.

Anyway, our very energetic local tour-guide friend didn't care for frozen toes and happily led us to all design hotspots in the city. One of the best things on the tour was drinking a nice and hot cup of coffee in a design center with shop located in an ancient building, to be entered through a courtyard: Form/Design Center.

Photograph via Lillatorg

Form/Design Center is not actually a shop per se, but an exhibition-/meetingspace, run by 'Svensk Form' (The Swedish Association of Craft and Design). Like they state on the Form/Design website: "Form/Design Center is a meeting place for ideas and projects in the field of design and architecture"
There are regular exhibitions, a programme of lectures, workshops and seminars. All with the goal to "engage and educate about design and show its importance in our surroundings and our everyday life".

And in this center there's also room for a café where they serve the best coffee and tea and you can spend hours going through the vast collection of international and Swedish books and magazines dedicated to design.
Since you're all full of design-inspiration by that time, it would only be fitting you get to take a little design home with you: Enter the Butik.

photograph by Form/Design Center

And here, in this bulwark (yes that's a word, i checked) of Swedish and Scandinavian design, you can now buy Waterworks.
Truthfully: this is making us pretty proud.

FORM/DESIGN CENTER
Lilla torg 9
211 34 Malmö
www.formdesigncenter.com

These treehouses by Jedediah Corwyn Voltz

Treehouse by Jedediah Corwyn Voltz
photograph courtesy of monglo.tumblr (Jedediah Corwyn Voltz)

The tiny scrapwood Jedediah Corwyn Voltz had left-over after Stop-Motion modelling projects, lead to these little fantasy-dwellings. Read more about it in this article by Designboom, or check out Jedediah Corwyn Voltz's website (for more 2D-projects) or Tumblr (for more of this).

Treehouse by Jedediah Corwyn Voltz
photographs courtesy of monglo.tumblr (Jedediah Corwyn Voltz)

Martino Design - Innovation and style in the midst of Medieval beauty

photograph via Wikipedia

Ah, Bologna, historical city of music and study in Italy. I visited the city once, 11 years ago, and remember archways, medieval squares, cobble stones and courtyards.

And in the midst of all that ancient beauty in an old Jewish neighbourhood, you can find Martino Design: a store dedicated to sustainable interior design, style and innovation. 

We're proud and happy Martino Design is the first Italian store to sell Waterworks.
Here are a few photographs Martino Design kindly sent us from Waterworks in their store.

For more information, check out Martino Designs' website and Facebook page, or this blogpost by UrbanMirrors about the designstore, and make sure to visit the shop next time you're in Bologna.

MARTINO DESIGN
Via Canonica 1/a
40126 Bologna
www.martinodesign.it

Click here for a full list of shops selling House of Thol products.
Photographs in this blogpost via Martino Design.