Author Archives: Ida Torres

BIG’s Tirana Proposal Adds Homes Without Walling Off the Park

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The scalloped terraces of Fountain Plaza Tirana look a little like a stack of clouds that forgot to drift away. Underneath, slender columns leave room for people to walk through the building’s footprint. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, the competition-winning proposal for Tirana, Albania, tackles a practical problem: how to add homes, workplaces, and hotel space to a central city site without shutting the public out of the landscape.

The site sits in Rinia Park, where the project would replace the existing Taiwan complex. BIG’s answer is to lift much of the building above the ground, letting the park continue beneath and around it. I like that the starting point is a pedestrian’s route rather than a building’s front door. You shouldn’t need a room reservation or an office badge to benefit from a major addition to your neighborhood.

Designer: Bjarke Ingels Group

The competition result was announced on October 1, 2026, and the scheme is still a proposal. Its most persuasive promise depends on what happens at ground level. A rendering can show a generous path through trees. Delivering that generosity means carrying it through the less photogenic decisions about entrances, circulation, and how the public areas will operate. Those details deserve as much attention as the skyline.

Visually, the stacked, rounded terraces give the building a softer outline than a conventional rectangular tower. The published design describes a translucent facade, with upper floors set back to admit daylight to the covered auditorium and provide room for planting. Those setbacks have a useful purpose beyond making the silhouette interesting: they are intended to bring light into a space that otherwise risks feeling buried beneath a very large roof.

The proposed open-access library, community facilities, and covered public auditorium make that lower level more compelling. They give people reasons to spend time here beyond admiring the architecture or passing through on their way elsewhere. To me, a library is a particularly welcome inclusion. It suggests a quieter kind of public life alongside the gatherings and events, with room for someone who simply wants somewhere to read for a while.

Water is also doing more than decorating the proposal. BIG describes a closed-loop system that would capture, store, and reuse rainwater for irrigation, with the aims of reducing flooding and creating a cooler microclimate. Those are the architect’s stated intentions, not demonstrated results. Still, the logic is appealing: the landscape’s water supply becomes part of the project’s planning rather than a separate concern tucked behind the fountains.

The studio also proposes preserving the historic fountain and connecting the park to the Lana River through gardens, plazas, water features, and gathering spaces. Keeping the fountain feels like a thoughtful choice. A recognizable feature can help a dramatically different building retain a relationship with its surroundings. I’d rather see a familiar landmark given a continuing role than treated as an inconvenience to a clean architectural image.

The proposal considers pedestrianizing an adjacent road and extending the park toward neighboring areas, too. These remain possibilities, not confirmed street changes. They would give the open ground level a stronger purpose: a route beneath the building is more useful if it connects to somewhere people can comfortably continue walking. Otherwise, the generous opening risks becoming an isolated gesture.

There is a sensible caution in the jury’s response. Alongside its praise, it recommended collaboration between the developers, government, and city to maintain the park. That sounds less exciting than floating terraces, but it belongs in the conversation. Planting, water systems, and shared facilities all need ongoing care. I’d want that responsibility settled as carefully as the building’s form, so the public spaces remain inviting after the opening celebrations.

Fountain Plaza Tirana has an eye-catching silhouette, but I’m more interested in the everyday freedom it proposes underneath. Someone taking a shortcut, stopping to read, or meeting a friend should be able to enjoy the place without becoming a customer. If that openness survives the journey from competition entry to built project, the space beneath the terraces could be its most worthwhile architectural achievement.

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CHEKT’s Chessboard Refuses to Hide Its Layered Design

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The carrying handle on Jess Wiseman’s CHEKT board is the detail that makes the design click for me. Chessboards have an awkward domestic life: leave one out and it claims a chunk of your table; put it away and playing becomes another thing to unpack. CHEKT’s board design considers that friction through a clear enclosure with a handle, while giving the familiar checkerboard a visual personality closer to a desk accessory than a formal game set.

It also addresses a smaller, relatable problem: choosing a board usually means committing to one look. The supplied images show four transparent shells with different graphic treatments, suggesting a way to change the board’s appearance without replacing the underlying object. That’s a more interesting proposition than another beautifully finished slab. I like objects that leave room for your taste to change, especially when they’re likely to spend as much time sitting around as being used.

Designer: Jess Wiseman

Underneath those shells, CHEKT has an eight-by-eight grid of black and pale peach forms. Rounded corners soften the geometry, and the raised surfaces make it look almost like an oversized keyboard. Circular details occupy the middle area, while square forms dominate elsewhere. The images don’t establish what those individual components do mechanically, so I wouldn’t call them buttons or switches. Visually, though, they give the board depth and rhythm that a printed checkerboard doesn’t have.

The clear outer enclosure makes those layers visible rather than hiding them behind a finished exterior. Small orange details along the edges interrupt the black-and-peach palette, and the slim, silver-colored handle gives the whole thing a faint briefcase quality. It’s playful without relying on a novelty shape. Sitting on a desk beside an orange mushroom lamp in one image, the board looks quite comfortable sharing space with objects chosen for their appearance.

The shell graphics are where the design becomes especially expressive. One uses yellow outlines around the squares, another introduces dark diagonal hatching, and a third has red, dot-built chess-piece illustrations. The fourth features large blue circles and angular linework. They offer different degrees of visual busyness, which matters. A graphic you enjoy looking at across the room might be less welcome when you’re trying to read a complicated position. I’d probably start with the quieter option.

One image shows a hand wiping drawn red arrows from the illustrated shell. That suggests a useful secondary role as a surface for working through moves, explaining a position, or marking an idea before clearing it away. It’s an appealing detail for casual learning because the discussion can happen directly over the board. The specific writing tools and surface compatibility aren’t established here, but the pictured interaction gives the transparent layer a purpose beyond changing the color scheme.

That ability to annotate is arguably more compelling than making a chessboard resemble a collectible gadget. You can imagine two people tracing a possible move rather than trying to explain everything through gestures. It wouldn’t replace learning the rules or recognizing positions, but it could make that conversation easier to follow. For me, this is where the graphic design starts earning its place: the surface becomes something you can use, not merely something to admire.

The packaging carries the same attitude. Oversized yellow CHEKT lettering, blue corner accents, chess-piece drawings, and diagrams of the layered board give the boxes a lively, almost hobby-kit character. The shell package explicitly labels its contents as a set of four, making the customization idea legible before anything is opened. I appreciate that clarity. Attractive packaging is more persuasive when it helps explain what the object is, rather than asking the branding to do all the work.

I’d still want to know how the shells attach, how easily their surfaces scratch, and whether the added graphics complicate play. Those answers would determine whether CHEKT feels practical rather than merely photogenic. But the design’s appeal is already clear: it gives a familiar game a place in a less formal room, with an appearance that doesn’t have to be permanent. A chessboard you can carry, customize, and potentially draw on offers several reasons to take it off the shelf.

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Pokémon Beats Pill Adds Charms Without Raising the Price

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2026 is the year when Trainers everywhere celebrate Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, so we expected a lot of new merchandise, themed events, and collaborations with other well-known brands. We’ve seen footwear and apparel rollouts with adidas and PUMA, LEGO sets, even a partnership with the European Space Agency, and food collaborations like Pokémon-themed Hershey’s Kisses. If you’re looking for audio equipment featuring your favorite monster, you’re in luck with this newly announced collaboration.

The Pokémon Beats Pill is a Bluetooth speaker announced by audio brand Beats in partnership with The Pokémon Company International. It features two familiar Pokémon characters, the ubiquitous Pikachu and the more mysterious Mimikyu. It brings the bright yellow and minimalist gray associated with these characters to a portable speaker with what Beats calls its signature sound. Both Beats collectors and Pokémon Trainers may want to have this special-edition collaboration to bring their music and other audio content to life.

Designers: Beats x Pokémon

The speaker’s design is a contrast between the electric yellow most identified with Pikachu and a grayscale interpretation of Mimikyu, with the latter hiding beneath a cloth that resembles the former. More than just attaching a logo to the Bluetooth speaker, this is a character-driven design. Both Pokémon appear on the grille, while the speaker itself remains compact and elongated like other Beats Pill devices.

According to Beats, this is also the first Pill release that comes with charms. Trainers who like collecting accessories get the iconic Poké Ball, Pikachu-inspired lightning bolts, and the equally recognizable Beats “b.” The color-matched gray carry lanyard is removable, so there’s a practical carrying accessory alongside the collectible details. It also comes with interactive packaging, which Beats says includes a movable piece, plus special-edition stickers. The exact packaging mechanism isn’t explained in detail on the collaboration page.

The familiar shape has a practical side, too. Its 20-degree upward tilt is designed to direct sound toward your ears when it sits on a table, while the soft-grip silicone backing is intended to make it easier to hold. At 8.6 inches long and 24 ounces, it’s portable enough for a bag, although not pocket-sized. Keeping the existing Pill shape also means the Pokémon treatment doesn’t turn it into a bulky character figurine that needs its own dedicated space.

Specs-wise, the speaker has a bespoke acoustic system that Beats says delivers room-filling sound and deep bass for your favorite tunes, podcasts, or audiobooks. It offers up to 24 hours of battery life and has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. That battery figure is a manufacturer claim, not a guarantee for every listening session. You can also charge a compatible phone from the speaker via USB-C, using some of its battery in the process.

You can listen over Bluetooth or plug in a compatible device via USB-C for high-resolution lossless audio. The wired connection matters here; lossless playback isn’t being promised over Bluetooth. You can even pair two Beats Pills together in Amplify Mode or Stereo Mode. The former synchronizes playback across both speakers, while the latter separates the left and right channels. You’ll need a second Pill for either option.

The speaker also supports both iOS and Android devices, so you don’t need an iPhone to use it. One-touch pairing and supported device-location features add to its everyday usefulness. It can also serve as a speakerphone, letting you take calls through the paired speaker rather than reaching for your phone every time. The Pokémon Beats Pill is scheduled to become available in the United States for $149.99 on October 15, 2026, at 8 a.m. PDT, through Apple and Target online and at select Target stores.

For Pokémon fans, the appeal is having a collectible that doesn’t have to stay on a shelf. The collaboration’s announced changes focus on appearance, accessories, and packaging, rather than a Pokémon-specific audio upgrade. If you already own a Pill, the reason to choose this one is mainly the character treatment. For someone looking for a portable speaker, though, Pikachu and Mimikyu give a familiar everyday device some personality.

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An Angled Public Bench for Hanging Out Without the Coffee Tab

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A bench can give you a place to sit and still make talking surprisingly awkward. Line up two people facing the street, and conversation requires a sideways turn. Add a third, and someone starts leaning around the person in the middle. Free to Face, a public seating project by Lim Junwoo and Hayoung Kang, addresses that everyday mismatch between having somewhere to sit and having somewhere to spend time together.

The designers also frame the project around a larger concern: conversation becoming tied to consumption. Meeting over coffee is lovely, but buying a drink shouldn’t be the entry fee for sitting down with a friend. Free to Face proposes seating that gives people room to gather without a transaction attached. I like that ambition. It makes a modest, understandable request of public space: accommodate people who aren’t necessarily on their way somewhere else.

Designers: Lim Junwoo and Hayoung Kang

Its clearest design move is visible from above. Instead of a straight bench, the seating follows a shallow, angular bend, with round platforms punctuating the ends and middle. People sitting along the two arms can angle toward each other rather than share a single forward-facing view. The arrangement leaves an open area between them, giving conversation a physical center without enclosing the group or turning the furniture into a miniature booth.

That distinction matters to me. A seating arrangement can invite eye contact without making it compulsory. Free to Face’s photographs show people talking across the bend, but the backless layout also leaves room to choose another orientation. I’d rather have furniture that offers a social possibility than furniture that seems to assign everyone a role. A stranger sitting nearby shouldn’t automatically become your conversation partner, and a public bench shouldn’t feel like an icebreaker exercise.

The different surface heights make the project more interesting than its footprint alone suggests. The supplied description presents those levels as options for choosing a sitting position, with unused areas doubling as places for bags or food. In the photographs, one person occupies a raised circular platform while others sit lower. Elsewhere, a tote rests beside its owner. These are fixed surfaces, not an advertised height-adjustment mechanism, so the flexibility comes from how people occupy the structure.

Those little landing spots feel especially useful. A basic bench leaves your lunch, laptop, and bag competing with your lap or the seat beside you. Here, the circular surfaces provide alternatives, and the images demonstrate a shared meal arranged around the middle platform. I’m particularly fond of that use because it makes the social premise concrete. Two people splitting fries need somewhere to put the fries. Design doesn’t always need a more elaborate explanation than that.

Visually, Free to Face has a pale lavender finish, broad flat supports, and exposed structural geometry. The circular tops soften an otherwise angular assembly. A fabrication photograph shows the metal structure before finishing, although the supplied material doesn’t identify its alloy or coating specification. I like that the form remains readable: you can follow the bench’s bend, identify the raised surfaces, and understand several possible uses without consulting an instruction panel.

The studio setting does leave practical questions unanswered. The photographs establish a full-size physical build, not how it performs through rain, summer heat, or years of public use. Back support, comfortable seat heights, and room for someone using a wheelchair would all deserve attention before installation. I wouldn’t dismiss the design for lacking that documentation, but I also wouldn’t treat a staged lunch as proof of comfort or accessibility. Its strongest evidence is the arrangement itself, demonstrated through several uses.

One photograph shows a woman using a laptop alone, which is a welcome detail for a project about connection. Free public space needs to accommodate solitude, too. Sitting quietly shouldn’t count as using social furniture incorrectly. Free to Face appeals to me because its extra surfaces and angled layout offer choices beyond sitting in a row. I’d be happy to see more benches make that effort, especially if they let people linger without needing to order another coffee.

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Freitag’s Luxury Bags Reuse Truck Tarps Without Hiding Wear

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Hoarders, I mean collectors, like me have a bag problem. Whenever I see an interestingly designed bag or an event where there are free tote bags, I can’t help but get one for myself, even though I know I have a cabinet full of barely used ones. Sometimes I think about the ecological footprint of all these bags that I own. So I tell myself my next bag purchase will be a bag made from reused materials (and that I should probably give away some of these bags that I’m not using).

Well, if I had $600 to spare, I might have found my next bag purchase. The updated Reference collection from Swiss bag brand Freitag uses upcycled truck tarpaulins as its main material, with more carefully selected colors and textures. The bags are still minimalist in design, but they have individual marks, textures, and patina, adding to the lived-in look of these items made from repurposed materials.

Designer: Freitag

The redesigned collection has four models, each with important, practical details. The tarps are sourced throughout Europe, and the bags are then produced in small batches by European production partners. Aside from the tarpaulins, the interiors also use recycled polyester.

Elly is a compact essentials bag that has a magnetic closure, a zippered inner compartment for your valuables, and an adjustable shoulder strap. It can be carried by hand, on the shoulder, or crossbody. With a 1.5-liter capacity, it’s the smallest option, for days when you only need the basics.

Bates, meanwhile, is a bigger bag that is listed as fitting a 13-inch laptop. It has a zippered main compartment under a tarp flap and a three-position magnetic closure for adjustable volume. A wide shoulder strap and an additional crossbody strap give you carrying options, while inner pockets and a key docking loop help organize smaller items.

Nan is for those who prefer smaller handbags that can be carried by hand, over the elbow, or on the shoulder. It has a baguette-style design, a rear slip pocket, and a zippered main compartment. Its four-liter capacity offers more space than Elly without going up to Bates’s size.

The biggest one in the collection is Mazie, a large tote that can change shape and volume by folding its sides inward. Its capacity ranges from 26 to 40 liters, and it comes with a detachable mini-pouch. That means smaller valuables don’t have to disappear into the bottom.

Since these are made from used tarps, you can expect scratches, wrinkles, scuffs, and variations. These are traces of the material’s previous life, rather than wear added just for appearances. The collection’s design language uses trapezoidal silhouettes and outward-folded side seams, creating a consistent look across all four items. The shapes give them a family resemblance without making every bag look identical.

One of the more interesting details is the magnetic clasp with punched Freitag branding. Product designer Anne Bachmann found inspiration in an adjustment hook for heavy-duty shelving at the company’s Zurich-Oerlikon factory. It’s a small connection to the bags’ industrial origins, even as their shapes move away from the look of a traditional messenger bag.

Every bag also comes with a repair kit made from the same individual tarp. The pouch contains a piece of lining and sewing thread and is designed to be taken apart for repairs. Remove the contents, and it can also hold cards or keys. For me, including matching repair materials is a more convincing detail than simply asking buyers to think of a bag as sustainable.

Freitag’s listed US prices are $460 for Elly, $660 for Bates, $530 for Nan, and $620 for Mazie. So my hypothetical $600 budget wouldn’t quite cover every option.

Of course, buying another bag won’t magically solve my bag problem. The real test would be whether I actually use it instead of letting it join the others in that cabinet. Maybe I should clear some space first.

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KUXIU D5 Charges 3 Devices Without Taking Over Your Desk

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There are a lot of people who have more than two devices that constantly need charging throughout the day. Our workspaces are littered with different charging cables, power adapters, and all kinds of charging paraphernalia, aside from our usual work stuff. The advent of wireless chargers has been a welcome development for those whose devices support them and who don’t want their desks littered with all sorts of things. Having something that can charge more than your phone and looks good while doing it is also a bonus.

The KUXIU D5 Qi2.2 25W 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station is one of those devices that I’d welcome to my desk, and it now comes in burgundy as well. It’s a functional device for charging your compatible smartphone, Apple Watch, and earbuds, but it’s also well-designed enough that you won’t want to hide it when you’re not charging anything. It also has a real-time display of charging information, so you won’t have to guess whether your devices are receiving power.

Brand: KUXIU

One of the nice things about this wireless charger, aside from the fact that you can charge three devices at once, is that you’ll be able to see things like input voltage, current, and power on the display. It also shows the individual charging status of your smartphone, Apple Watch, and earbuds if you’re charging them all at the same time. You can even turn that same display into a desk clock if you want to check the time somewhere other than your phone or laptop screen. You just have to connect the charger to your phone via Bluetooth to sync the time. The display even has animated expressions to keep you company as you work.

The phone platform where you place your device as it charges can sit flat or tilt upward, depending on how you want to use it. It also means it can serve as a viewing stand in case you still need to look at your phone while it’s charging. The watch charging module, meanwhile, extends from the side and can also be retracted when not in use. Just press and hold the touch button to activate the motorized mechanism, so the dock won’t be a permanent protrusion when it isn’t needed.

The wireless charging station also has an active cooling fan, which KUXIU says is designed to reduce charging temperatures and help prevent heat-related slowdowns. You can also turn the fan off manually, which gives you a choice about running it on your desk or nightstand. That doesn’t mean it can guarantee that your devices will never overheat. Apple notes that an iPhone’s software may limit charging above 80% if the battery gets too warm.

On the charging side, KUXIU lists up to 25W for compatible phones, with separate 5W outputs for the Apple Watch and earbuds. The important phrase here is “up to”: your phone needs to support that charging rate, so older devices won’t automatically get the full 25W. The watch module is specifically for Apple Watch, rather than a universal smartwatch charger. Your earbuds will also need a wireless-charging case, so it’s worth checking your everyday devices before buying.

The burgundy color is a nice change from the usual black or white charging accessories, and the gold-toned side accent gives the little station some contrast. Its body measures about 2.91 by 2.95 by 4.25 inches, making its base roughly three inches square. KUXIU also includes a 45W power adapter and a one-meter charging cable, so you won’t have to go looking for a suitable adapter before you can put it to work.

For me, the appeal is having a place for those three devices without having three separate chargers taking over the desk. I’d still want to keep the display useful rather than distracting, but being able to see what’s charging and tuck the watch dock away makes this a more thoughtful desktop companion.

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Wedge Coffee Dripper Brews Without Resting on Your Mug’s Rim

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Because I like to experiment with my coffee (for myself for now and not for others), I have a lot of different coffee tools at home. But that also means I have a lot of different sizes of mugs and tumblers. Not all of them fit or are perfect for some of the tools that I use. Coffee drippers are one of the easiest tools to use, but sometimes I don’t want the dripper itself to rest on the rim of the cup or mug that I’m using. It would be nice to have something that is easily adjustable, and that’s where this coffee set from Japan comes in.

The Wedge Coffee Dripper Set by Totetsu Ironworks not only looks great on your kitchen counter but also gives you the freedom to adjust the height of the dripper itself. It has a wedge-operated height adjustment mechanism that lets you make room for different vessels beneath the cone, within the stand’s available clearance.

Designer: Dai Furuwatari

The mechanism to adjust your dripper is not trying to hide itself. It’s part of the beauty of the set, and the arrangement looks pretty straightforward in the maker’s photos. The support ring connects to a collar around the vertical post, and the wedge itself is beside it. Releasing the wedge allows you to reposition the support, while inserting it secures the assembly at the selected height. The cone rests in a circular support above the base, so it doesn’t need to sit on your cup’s rim. The small wedge gives the otherwise simple frame a detail worth noticing.

The cone is made from stainless steel, while the stand uses iron. Both are finished with baked-on Japanese lacquer, known as urushi, which gives the set its dark-brown appearance. In the photos, the cone has a warmer brown tone, with the support looking darker and more textured. The open space underneath the cone is part of the silhouette, and the entire frame is minimalist but adds a certain personality to your coffee counter, so you don’t need to hide it away when it’s not in use. The flat base and slender upright keep the structure visually simple without concealing how it works.

For someone with a collection of different cups, separating the dripper from the receiving vessel is the useful part. The maker shows the set positioned over a glass coffee server, with space between its opening and the cone. You’re adjusting the support to accommodate what’s underneath it rather than relying on the vessel’s rim. That doesn’t mean every tall tumbler will fit, though; the maker doesn’t publish the maximum usable clearance.

The cone also lifts out of the support ring, as shown in the disassembled product photo, so you can handle it separately when cleaning. And although the dripper is stainless steel, this isn’t a filter-free mesh brewer. The maker’s setup uses a paper filter inside the cone. It’s worth keeping that distinction in mind if you’re looking to move away from paper filters entirely.

The lacquer finish does come with some care instructions. Totetsu recommends washing the dripper with dish soap and a soft sponge, avoiding metal scouring pads or other abrasive tools that could scratch the surface. The stand should be wiped with a damp cloth and dried immediately. The maker also recommends periodically applying oil or beeswax to the iron. That’s a little more upkeep to consider if you prefer coffee equipment that requires very little attention between brews.

For me, the appeal would be having another way to arrange my coffee setup without choosing a mug just because it fits a particular dripper. I wouldn’t expect an adjustable stand alone to make my coffee taste better, but I do like the idea of a tool whose workings are visible. The question is whether that flexibility earns another piece of equipment a place on my already busy counter.

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Casio’s Baby Molly Watch Becomes a Bag Charm Without Tools

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While smartwatches have become familiar wearables over the past few years, there’s still an audience out there for analog and digital watches. Character watches in particular appeal to fans of either the watch brand or the collaboration, or both. POP MART has a lineup of characters featured in plushies, blind boxes, pendants, and other collectibles. One of its signature characters is Molly, and if you’d like her on your wrist or your bag, this new collaboration between Casio and POP MART might earn a spot on your Christmas wish list.

The Casio BABY-G x Baby Molly BGD-10KPM-7 is a new collaboration between the two brands, featuring the baby version of Molly, Baby Molly. Aside from letting you wear her character artwork on your wrist, you can also turn this digital watch into a bag charm if that is more your fit of the day. The watch and the accessories that come with it are packed with playful character details that collectors and fans of cute things will appreciate.

Collaboration: Casio x POP MART

The Molly character was created by artist Kenny Wong back in 2006. Baby Molly shows her as a child, complete with blue eyes and chubby cheeks. With this watch, she’s heading off to kindergarten with her equally cute feline best friend, Baby Tabby. The white band depicts the pair on their way to school. The bezel is bright yellow to represent her hair, while activating the light reveals her signature bright blue eyes on the LCD. The LED itself is white; it’s the eyes that appear blue. The case back is engraved with the MOLLY 20th-anniversary logo, adding another detail for longtime fans to appreciate.

There’s also a small surprise tucked away beneath the band. Removing it reveals a graphic resembling Baby Molly’s kindergarten name tag. It’s a nice little detail for the owner to discover, especially since changing how you carry the watch brings it into view.

If you prefer having it as a bag accessory, all you have to do is remove the bezel and pass-through band, then place the center case into the pink custom holder. Both parts can be removed without tools. You can then attach it to your bag, purse, or belt loop, as long as you can access it when you want to know what time it is. The display still works in the holder, so the charm remains a functioning watch.

There are original stickers featuring Baby Molly and Baby Tabby that you can use to decorate the holder for the maximalist in you. Casio recommends keeping decorations off the watch itself and notes that stickers can peel or leave adhesive residue. It comes in special packaging featuring both characters, which gives collectors another piece of artwork to enjoy.

Aside from all these cute things, the watch is still BABY-G through and through. According to Casio, it is shock-resistant, has 10-bar water resistance, and offers approximately three years of battery life. It has all the usual digital watch functions, including world time across 29 time zones and 30 cities, a stopwatch, a countdown timer, five daily alarms, and LED illumination. The resin case measures 42.8 × 39 × 14.7 mm, and the watch weighs 33 grams. Mineral glass protects the display, and the supplied band fits wrists measuring 125–180 mm.

The watch-to-charm idea isn’t new to this collaboration. Casio introduced the original BGD-10K in May 2024, so the Baby Molly edition builds on an existing design. Here, the character artwork and eye reveal give that familiar setup its own personality.

Casio lists a November 2026 release in Japan at ¥16,500, including Japanese tax. U.S. pricing and availability aren’t specified in that listing, so American fans may need to wait for more information before making definite holiday shopping plans.

The appeal is having a collectible you can actually use, with a choice of where to wear it. A bag charm may take a little more effort to check than a wristwatch, but if your wrist is already occupied, Baby Molly still has somewhere to go.

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A Bamboo Music Center Spans Up to 49 Feet Without Columns

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A column in the middle of a music hall means someone has to look around it. That’s a practical problem to solve before worrying about how dramatic the ceiling looks. At the Maestro Ilaiyaraaja Centre for Music Learning and Research in Chennai, India, Ekarth Studio uses bamboo vaults to create spans of up to 49 feet without interior columns. The structure makes room for people to gather, while giving them a roof worth looking up at.

The completed, 10,000-square-foot center at IIT Madras addresses another challenge: bringing music education, research, rehearsal, and recording into one setting. Named for composer Ilaiyaraaja, it belongs to the university’s “Music for All” initiative, whose research interests include acoustics, artificial intelligence, sound synthesis, and instrument design. That’s an unusually broad assignment for a music building. It needs places for focused work, but also room for different disciplines to meet without every encounter becoming a scheduled appointment.

Designer: Ekarth Studio

The roofs give those activities a recognizable home. Ekarth Studio drew their geometry from Bel Patra, the three-part leaf associated with Lord Shiva. Interconnected vaults translate that reference into canopies that rise, dip, and extend over the spaces below. I like that the inspiration has a specific cultural origin. A music center with a curving roof could easily attract a vague explanation about sound waves, but this one has a more deliberate starting point.

Those curves also involve some serious assembly. The studio describes a structural system combining round bamboo culms, bundled splits, and bundled sticks. Flat bamboo splits are gathered together to form the primary spine beams, rather than relying on a single solid member. Arches reach nearly 30 feet high. The useful distinction is that bamboo carries the roof and establishes its shape. Calling it a decorative finish would miss the most interesting decision in the project.

Leaving that construction exposed gives the interiors their character. Ekarth’s material palette includes treated bamboo, lime-based finishes, earthen surfaces, natural-fiber roofing, and handcrafted bamboo weaving. The studio also leaves the bamboo’s connections visible. I’m drawn to buildings that let you follow how they were assembled. Here, the repetition of individual pieces gives the large roof forms a finer scale, so the architecture offers more to examine than its outline from a distance.

The exterior photographs show roof edges sweeping outward above bamboo lattice screens, with trees close to the pavilions. The small, regular openings in those screens contrast with the broad curves overhead. They make the enclosure look less abrupt than a blank wall would. Ekarth’s plan connects classrooms and other spaces with courtyards and shaded outdoor areas, giving the center an architectural relationship with its surroundings that goes beyond putting landscaping around a finished building.

The people who assembled it deserve attention, too. According to the studio’s account, artisans split, bent, bundled, and joined the bamboo primarily with basic carpentry tools, while structural engineering adapted those processes for an institutional building. Ekarth reports an 11-month construction period with limited use of heavy machinery. That timeline is noteworthy, but I’d give equal billing to the craft. Its contribution remains legible in the finished architecture rather than disappearing behind another surface.

A beautiful bamboo structure doesn’t, by itself, establish how well a recording room isolates sound or how comfortable the building stays throughout the year. Those are separate performance questions, and the published project descriptions don’t provide measurements that settle them. The same restraint applies to sustainability. Natural materials and a less machinery-intensive construction process are choices worth discussing, but they aren’t enough to calculate the building’s environmental footprint or long-term maintenance demands.

Even with those questions open, the design gives me a clear reason to pay attention. The central amphitheater-like gathering space puts rehearsal, performance, and collective learning beneath the same expressive structure. That feels like an appropriate investment for a music center: a memorable room whose defining gesture also keeps its floor open. The ceiling earns its visual complexity by leaving more usable space underneath, where the people and the music belong.

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FUSEBOOX’s Hidden Home Office Slides Away After Work

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Putting a laptop away doesn’t solve every problem with working from home. A video call still needs some privacy, and recording a voiceover beside the dishwasher is a negotiation nobody particularly wants. I like furniture that helps a room do more, but a folding desk only addresses half the issue. Sometimes the missing piece is a door.

FUSEBOOX, designed by Czech architect Vojtěch Kolínský of Prague studio Indivizual, proposes a home office that slides out when needed and retracts into the surrounding interior afterward. It’s a built-in acoustic workspace, presented at DesignBlok 2026, rather than another freestanding booth asking for permanent floor space. The problem it tackles is straightforward: finding somewhere to concentrate without dedicating an entire room to it.

Designer: Vojtěch Kolínský

The module has three positions. Open, it works as a desk within the larger room, so you can stay connected to whatever’s happening around you. Extended and closed, it becomes a private enclosure intended to reduce noise traveling in and out. Retracted, the workspace disappears behind its exterior panels. A custom-developed mechanism handles extension and retraction automatically, according to the maker. That’s a more useful distinction than simply calling it a disappearing desk.

In the supplied images, the interior looks invitingly domestic. Pale wood-grain surfaces, textured wall panels, a narrow shelf, and warm lighting surround a compact desk. The exhibition setup includes a microphone and a metronome, while another image shows a guitar mounted above the worktop. Those details suggest a space for practicing and making things, not merely surviving the next calendar invitation. I’d rather see that than a miniature corporate meeting room.

The acoustic ambition deserves a closer look. FUSEBOOX describes a multilayer construction with sealed contact edges that limits sound transmission, alongside treatment intended to control reflections and reverberation inside. In practical terms, keeping household noise out and reducing echo around a microphone are separate jobs, and the design aims to address both. The supplied release promises studio-quality sound, but provides no measured isolation figures or independent testing to establish that claim.

Ventilation and adjustable lighting are included, with the website specifying variable brightness and color temperature. These are sensible priorities for a small enclosed workspace. I’d want airflow and lighting considered alongside the moving panels, because a booth that looks good from the couch still has to make sense from the chair. The tall glazed side panels visible in the images also keep the enclosure from looking like an opaque cabinet.

The hidden position is the strongest part of the idea for me. Closing a laptop leaves the desk, cables, and unfinished work in view. Closing up an entire workspace could give the living room a more convincing end to the workday. That isn’t a promise of better productivity or instant relaxation. It’s a physical boundary you can see, which feels more useful than another reminder to log off.

Of course, the module doesn’t manufacture extra square footage. Its built-in portion still occupies space, and the extended enclosure needs clear floor area in front. A coffee table or an awkward circulation path could complicate the arrangement. I see it as borrowing space at different times, rather than making space disappear. That makes the surrounding room layout just as important as the mechanism.

FUSEBOOX is designed and made in the Czech Republic, with configurable layouts, materials, fittings, upholstery, and exterior finishes. The company plans to open preorders in January 2027; prices and detailed dimensions haven’t been published yet. Those omissions matter for anyone picturing it at home. A custom built-in belongs in a renovation conversation, and renters would need to discuss installation with their landlord.

I’m drawn to the restraint of the proposal. The images suggest you could finish the exterior to read as ordinary cabinetry, leaving the more elaborate engineering behind it. A home office doesn’t always need to announce itself from across the room. If the acoustics and installation prove convincing, FUSEBOOX could offer something genuinely useful: a place to work, followed by permission to stop looking at it.

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