Translucent rotating walls pivot to transform the interior of this bookshop in Bejing by Chinese architecture firm LUO Studio. Located in the 479-square-metre basement space of a shopping mall in the Chinese capital, the Mumokuteki Concept Bookstore sells books as well as design objects, flowers, food and coffee. The shop occupies the mall’s former equipment room, which featured a disorderly […]

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has unveiled a toilet in Tokyo named A Walk in the Woods, which was designed to “to dispel the conventional image of public toilets”. The cedar-clad toilet is Kuma’s contribution to the Nippon Foundation‘s Tokyo Toiletproject, which has seen public toilets designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winners Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban and Fumihiko Maki in the city’s Shibuya area. Built to replace […]

Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the new headquarters building for Chinese electronics company OPPO will highlight energy-saving design and green landscaping. The company is currently one of the country’s largest smartphone manufacturers and has its sights set on an overarching vision of sustainability within the industry. Known as O-Tower, the HQ will be located in Hangzhou’s Future Sci-Tech City, […]

Vertigo-inducing swimming pools seem to be in fashion at the moment and following news of the Brooklyn Point tower’s infinity pool in New York City, London now boasts its own one-of-a-kind swimming pool, too. This one goes much further in its pursuit of thrills though, as it invites visitors to swim between two high-rise buildings in a clear acrylic box. […]

Pandora may be known for its classic slider charm bracelets, but the jewelry company just announced that it’s making a major change in terms of the diamonds it uses. Pandora will no longer source mined diamonds, instead only using lab-grown diamonds in its collections. The diamond mining industry is rife with environmental and ethical problems, and Pandora is the first […]

Noah Friedman, Arielle Crawford, Ed McCabe and Evan Boyd launched the new product last October. They had seen images of super-cautious travelers boarding airplanes in hazmat suits — understandable, but not a good look. So they partnered with a designer in New York City to make a travel-safe suit that was attractive, comfortable and effective. Being eco-conscious folks, it was […]

Shopping centres don’t have to “bright, white and shiny” according to AIM Architecture, which has transformed the Xintiandi mall in Shanghai by adding natural materials and plants. The previously underused atrium has been reimagined in the spirit of a garden plaza, with wooden surfaces, plants hanging down from the balconies and natural light filtering in from above. Architect Wendy Saunders, co-principal of […]

New York-based Garrison Architects has joined forces with sustainable developers South End Development to create what they believe to be the very first triple net-zero mixed-use project in the United States. Dubbed Seventy-Six, the sustainably ambitious project aims to achieve a zero-impact development that will generate 100 percent of its energy demand via renewable sources, treat and reuse 100 percent […]

Influential French architect Jean Nouvel has been very busy lately. Following the unveiling of ahotel inserted into a desert mountain, then a greenery filled oasis, his firm now plans a mixed-use development in Paris, France, that will offer a pleasant, greenery filled place to live and work, while incorporating sustainable design such as solar power and passive ventilation. The development, […]

International design firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel (ACPV) has unveiled designs for the Cascina Merlata Lot R7/2, a social housing complex that will function as a “city within the city” where residents can walk or ride their bicycles to everything they need for their daily lives. Created as part of the Cascina Merlata pedestrian-friendly masterplan that ACPV developed back in […]