AI on laptops has created a new kind of battery problem. The promise of on-device AI processing, where the work stays local rather than routing through a cloud server, is genuinely useful for anyone handling sensitive data. But running a neural processing unit alongside everything else a laptop already juggles accelerates battery wear in ways that weren’t as much of a concern three years ago. The battery that comes with a new laptop today degrades faster than the hardware around it.
Most manufacturers solve this by designing the battery to be inaccessible. The result is that when a battery eventually loses capacity, it’s either a service center visit or a new laptop. Dynabook’s 2026 fall and winter lineup takes a different position by making the battery user-replaceable in two of its Panther Lake models, the 14-inch XP9/XP7 and the 13.3-inch X9/X7. A sliding panel lets owners swap it themselves without tools or a technician.
The reasoning is spelled out plainly in the press release: heavy AI use accelerates battery degradation, and forcing users to choose between repair costs and a full replacement creates unnecessary financial pressure and waste. A replacement battery sold separately as an optional accessory means the rest of the hardware, which is still perfectly functional, gets to stay in use longer. It’s a longevity argument that happens to line up with right-to-repair expectations at the same time.
The XP9/XP7, a 14-inch Copilot+ PC, comes in at 999 g, while the X9/X7 at 13.3 inches checks in at 948 g. Both run Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 Panther Lake processors. The X9/X7 claims up to 17 hours of video playback and up to 32.5 hours at idle, which is a considerable buffer for a machine that doubles as an on-device AI workstation. Both models pass MIL-STD-810H military-grade durability testing.
Connectivity is genuinely comprehensive for an ultra-light design. Thunderbolt 4 and USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports sit on both sides of the chassis, alongside HDMI output, a LAN port, and a microSD card slot. That’s a full professional port layout without a dongle in sight, which matters for anyone who has spent time hunting for the right adapter in a conference room. Dolby Atmos handles audio on both models.
The on-device AI processing is the capability that sits behind the user-replaceable battery feature in a practical sense. Running local AI keeps private and sensitive data from leaving the machine, which the press release frames as a concrete advantage over cloud-dependent workflows. The AI privacy assist feature also detects attempts to view the screen from unintended angles, adding a physical layer to what would otherwise be a software-only privacy story.
For those who want the same 13.3-inch form factor at the lowest possible weight, the G9 comes in at 899 g with the same Panther Lake processor and MIL-STD-810H certification. It doesn’t include the user-replaceable battery design, but it undercuts the X9/X7’s weight by nearly 50 g, which matters when the laptop travels daily. All models launched in Japan on August 7, with no global availability confirmed yet.
Productive brainstorming rarely stays in one room. Teams move between floors, commandeer empty meeting rooms, or pull chairs into an open corner when a whiteboard becomes available. The problem is that the tools that make those sessions work, the markers, sticky notes, and papers, rarely travel with the people. So you set up, leave to gather supplies, and whatever momentum was building quietly evaporates.
The Bulb is a portable cork stool designed for exactly that problem. It combines a seat with a built-in storage compartment that holds everything a brainstorming session needs, from markers and sticky notes to papers and notebooks. Bring the stool to the session, and the supplies arrive with it. The workspace assembles wherever the work actually needs to happen, without a second trip back to a supply drawer.
The name earns its meaning when you look down at the stool from above. The silhouette is that of a lightbulb: the wide, rounded seat forms the bulb itself, while the elongated storage compartment extends below to complete the base. It’s the kind of concept that rewards a moment of recognition, where the symbolism arrives quietly after the form does, without the design needing to announce it.
Cork makes a very specific kind of sense as the material here. It’s naturally lightweight, which matters when people are carrying stools between rooms or across an open office floor. The texture and warm sandy color also keep it from reading as institutional furniture. The body is meant to be CNC-milled from compressed cork blocks using a robotic arm, which gives the organic, curved form its precision without traditional joinery or assembly hardware.
The interior of the storage compartment is lined in deep blue cork, making the cavity immediately identifiable against the natural exterior. The opening holds markers, sticky notes, papers, and notebooks securely enough to carry while walking. It also functions as the carry handle: the curved indentation along the stool’s side fits a hand comfortably, so the stool and its contents travel together in a single grip.
That practicality extends to how quickly a session can actually get started. One person can carry a stool at arm’s length without effort, and someone with a reasonable reach can manage two at once. A small team can have seating and supplies in place within moments of deciding where to gather, removing one of the more underappreciated obstacles from any impromptu collaborative session.
Cork also makes a credible case beyond its weight advantage. The material is harvested by stripping bark from the tree rather than cutting it down, allowing the tree to regenerate and be harvested again roughly every nine years. The Bulb isn’t trying to replace permanent office furniture or redefine how meeting rooms work. It’s a more modest proposal: a seat that assumes the people sitting on it want to get something done, and brings along the things they’ll need to do it.
The sustainable home goods market has a specific credibility problem. Products marketed as eco-conscious often get there through incremental adjustments, reducing a percentage of virgin plastic, switching to a recyclable box, or sourcing from a slightly shorter supply chain. The result is a kind of sustainability theater that satisfies certification requirements without fundamentally changing either what objects are made from or how they find their way into a home.
Artefilo approaches that question differently. Based in Edam in the Netherlands, the independent design atelier makes contemporary home objects from materials most manufacturers wouldn’t consider: elephant grass combined with recycled plastic, reclaimed wood fibres, brick dust, and salvaged hospital cabinetry. Each piece is made locally in small batches, and the materials are chosen with the specific intention of giving discarded resources a renewed place in a living space.
The choice of Edam isn’t incidental. The city has a long tradition of ceramics craftsmanship, and Artefilo draws on that heritage without replicating it, taking the spirit of making by hand and applying it to a different material palette. Elephant grass combined with recycled plastic, for example, produces a surface that reads as handmade pottery without the environmental cost of extracting virgin clay or new plastic.
The rest of the material list is equally unexpected. Reclaimed wood fibres and brick dust bring texture and warmth to objects that might otherwise feel too composed, while recycled hospital cabinets contribute rigidity and durability that wouldn’t be obvious from the source. Finding these materials requires locating waste streams that industry hasn’t already claimed, then working out what form they can credibly take in a domestic setting.
Making in small batches has real consequences for what the objects can be. It means pieces that are genuinely one-of-a-kind, because material conditions are never exactly repeatable from one batch to the next. Brick dust carries different tones from different sources; reclaimed wood fibres vary in density and grain. That variability isn’t a flaw in the production model; it’s built into it deliberately.
The underlying premise is that objects shape the atmosphere of a space, not dramatically, but persistently. Something placed on a windowsill or bookshelf gets seen many times a day, and that repetition adds up. Artefilo’s design philosophy treats each piece as something that participates in the daily texture of a home rather than simply occupying it. The materials reinforce that, each carrying a visible trace of its previous life.
The atelier distributes through its own online store and through a local stockist in Edam. The collection is small, deliberately so, and the material sourcing means it isn’t trying to scale into something it isn’t. For a design category that often talks about slowing down without quite managing it, Artefilo appears to have structured itself around that idea from the ground up.
Water scarcity and urban heat are two separate crises that public infrastructure rarely addresses together. Most public spaces are designed primarily for social use, with sustainability features treated as additions bolted on during planning approvals. The result is civic furniture that looks environmentally conscious on paper but often functions in ways that keep each system largely isolated from the others.
The Solar Rain Funnels propose a different model. Each funnel-shaped structure is a prefabricated, modular unit made from galvanized steel that collects rainwater, generates solar electricity, and provides shaded public seating, all from the same form. Rather than treating harvesting and gathering as separate programs, the design bundles them into a single object that does each job without architectural compromise.
The form does most of the work. Each funnel is wide at the top and narrows toward the base, which means its surface naturally directs rainfall inward and downward into collection channels. Solar cells line the top edge, capturing sunlight from the same surface that intercepts rain. A bench is mounted around the perimeter at the base, completing the third function without requiring a separate structure.
What’s collected below the surface matters as much as what happens above it. Rainwater storage containers, or diversion channels connecting to off-site containment, are installed under the plaza to hold water for later community use. The solar electricity powers the pump that moves water from storage and lights the funnels after dark. Excess power feeds into the local grid, and on-site batteries let visitors charge devices.
The prefabricated and modular nature of the design means installation doesn’t require building a new structure from scratch each time. Each funnel arrives at the site in pre-made sections that bolt together, and any number of units can be arranged into any configuration the site allows. In the reference proposal, seven funnels are arranged in a grid over a plaza, with drought-tolerant garden plantings filling the spaces between them.
That plaza arrangement gives visitors something more useful than just shade. The overhead canopy formed by the funnel array blocks enough direct sunlight to make the space comfortable in hot, arid conditions, which is significant given that the concept is intended for communities experiencing water stress. Gardens planted with low-water-consuming species fill the gaps between funnels, making the plaza functional as a green space even in dry climates.
Size is treated as a variable rather than a fixed specification, because the concept anticipates installation across different kinds of sites. A smaller cluster of funnels might serve a neighborhood corner or transit stop, while a larger array could anchor a civic plaza or regional park. The galvanized steel construction and bolted assembly make each installation relatively straightforward to adapt, scale, and transport to wherever it’s needed most.
The concept is currently unbuilt, but what distinguishes it from other multi-function proposals is that each function follows directly from the form rather than being added to it. The wide, concave top collects rain. The exposed edge holds solar cells. The shaded base provides seating. Nothing requires the structure to be shaped any differently to perform those jobs, which is the kind of efficiency that makes a proposal feel plausible.
Music festivals spend a lot of money on stages. Big rigs, elaborate lighting systems, branded tents that block your view of the mountains. And then someone comes along with 4-meter timber beams, an orange safety net, and a sheet of reflective construction foil, and quietly outdoes all of it.
The Gabonsa Pavilion is exactly that kind of project. Designed and built by architecture students from Hochschule Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences, in collaboration with Innsbruck-based collectives Gans Anders and Bonanza, this 16-square-meter structure showed up at the Gabonsa Music Festival in Innsbruck, Austria, and became the most interesting thing on the grounds. Not because it was the biggest or the most polished, but because it was genuinely, almost stubbornly, thoughtful.
Designer: Hochschule Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences
The festival itself is held at the Rossau Recreation Centre, a former municipal landfill site that the collectives have been working to reactivate as a public space through cultural events. That context matters. You’re not designing for a pristine meadow or a curated urban plaza. You’re working with land that carries industrial history, that still has a certain transience to it. The students leaned into that instead of fighting it.
The pavilion is hard to place in a single category. The architects describe it as a hybrid structure at the intersection of furniture, installation, and architecture, and that’s probably the most accurate way to put it. It’s terraced and positioned on a small hill between the festival’s main stage and workshop area, so it functions as a seating landscape, a gathering point, a vantage spot, and a visual landmark, all at once. On paper, that sounds like a design student brief. In practice, it actually works.
What makes it interesting isn’t the scale. It’s the material logic. The whole thing is built from 4-meter timber beams connected with screw joints, no adhesives, no cast connections, nothing that would prevent you from taking it apart later. Most of the timber was cut only where structurally necessary, meaning the beams can be reused after the festival in nearly their original form. For a student project, that level of discipline around circular construction is impressive. It’s one thing to talk about sustainability in a presentation. It’s another to build it into the fasteners.
The materials push it further. A semicircular element clad in reflective construction foil catches the sky and the surrounding mountain landscape, turning an ordinary building wrap into something that genuinely earns its place on the site. A canopy made from aluminium vapour barrier creates shade. Hanging beneath that canopy is an orange construction safety net, repurposed as a hammock. Red-painted bracing elements make the structure legible, turning the engineering into part of the aesthetic. None of these are precious materials. They’re the kind of things you’d find on any construction site. But here they’ve been treated with enough intention that they read as deliberate design, not improvisation.
I think that’s what distinguishes student work at this level: the willingness to be modest about means without being modest about ideas. The Gabonsa Pavilion is not trying to be a statement pavilion. It’s not angling for an architecture prize or an Instagram moment. It’s trying to do a specific job well, serve people at a festival, occupy a complicated site with some grace, and leave without making a mess of it. That’s a harder design brief than it sounds.
The project also says something worth noting about the current direction of temporary architecture. Festival infrastructure has long defaulted to either the spectacular (giant LED structures with five-figure budgets) or the disposable (generic tents and fencing that treat space as neutral background noise). The Gabonsa Pavilion proposes a third option: something careful, context-aware, and genuinely reusable. Whether that becomes a model or remains an exception probably depends on whether the people commissioning festival spaces start asking different questions. For now, 16 square meters of timber, foil, and net made one Innsbruck landfill feel worth sitting in. That’s not nothing.
Pick up a used tennis ball and you’re holding an object that had a lifespan shorter than most houseplants. In professional matches, tennis balls get swapped out every seven to nine games, roughly thirty minutes of play, then they’re gone. For the recreational player, they last a few sessions before losing pressure, turning soft, and finding their way to a bin. From there, it’s a one-way trip to a landfill, where they’ll spend the next 400 years doing nothing useful except releasing methane. Around 400 million of them are produced every year, and only about 1% ever get recycled. That number sits with you after a while.
Soroosh Riazi Isfahani, a designer from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, has been sitting with it too, and his response is SLICE, a project currently entered into the James Dyson Award 2026. The concept: take used tennis balls and turn them into footwear. Not by grinding them down or melting them into something unrecognizable, but by actually cutting the ball into sections, using a custom guide to ensure precision, and then working those pieces into a shoe. The rubber and the felt stay intact. The material keeps its identity.
Designer: Soroosh Riazi Isfahani
That distinction matters more than it might seem. Most sustainable design approaches rely on breaking materials down into raw components before rebuilding them. It works, but it also requires energy, processing, and usually some loss of material quality along the way. SLICE skips that step entirely. The ball is sliced, shaped, and reassembled into something wearable. It’s a different kind of thinking, one that asks not “how do we recycle this?” but “what is this material already capable of being?”
Isfahani actually started in the more conventional place. His early process involved shredding used tennis balls and blending the material with natural rubber to create an outsole. It’s a reasonable approach and one plenty of designers have explored in the sustainability space. But he moved away from it, and understanding why he moved away from it is the more interesting part of the project. Shredding destroys what makes the ball structurally interesting: the layers, the bounce, the felt surface that has its own tactile quality. Cutting preserves all of that. The final shoe doesn’t just use the material; it respects it.
I’ll be honest that upcycling in fashion and footwear can sometimes feel performative. The “made from recycled materials” label has become so ubiquitous that it barely registers anymore. Brands slap it on shoes made from shredded ocean plastic and call it a day, and most of us accept it without looking too hard at what that actually means or whether the product will last. SLICE feels different because the sustainability logic is baked into the design method itself. You can’t separate the concept from the material. The tennis ball isn’t a marketing footnote; it’s the whole point.
The James Dyson Award has a history of surfacing ideas that sit at the intersection of elegant problem-solving and real-world urgency. What makes SLICE a compelling entry isn’t just that it finds a use for waste, it’s that it finds a use that genuinely fits. Tennis ball rubber is durable. The felt is grippy. These are properties that belong in a shoe, and yet for decades we’ve been throwing them into the ground and waiting four centuries for them to disappear.
The footwear industry is one of the more difficult spaces to make sustainable at scale, partly because shoes are complex objects and partly because the systems for recovering and reprocessing them are still underdeveloped. A project like SLICE doesn’t solve all of that. But it demonstrates a design logic that could scale if the right people decide to take it seriously. One custom cutting guide, one used tennis ball, one pair of shoes that didn’t have to extract anything new from the planet. For a ball that gets thirty minutes of professional play, that feels like a more fitting ending.
Every morning, millions of people brew their coffee, toss the grounds, and move on. It’s such a routine act of disposal that few of us stop to think about where all that spent coffee actually goes. MOFT apparently did think about it, and the result is one of the more genuinely interesting design stories to come out of the tech accessories space in recent memory.
The MOFT MOVAS-E Coffee Collection is a new line of accessories built from a bio-based leather crafted from recycled coffee grounds. MOFT combined spent coffee grounds with waterborne bio-based polyurethane to create what they’re calling a new generation of bio-based leather. The material replaces both conventional leather and traditional synthetic alternatives, which makes the origin story feel less like a marketing angle and more like an actual shift in how the brand approaches materials.
MOFT has already built a strong reputation for thoughtful material choices. Their MOVAS vegan leather line has been a staple in the premium accessories space for a while now, known for that soft, slightly textured finish that feels surprisingly luxurious on a phone MagSafe stand. The MOVAS-E Coffee Collection takes that established foundation and adds a genuine layer of purpose to it, pushing the material story well beyond aesthetics and into something more intentional.
The collection includes products like a laptop Carry Sleeve, all finished in warm, coffee-toned colorways that look like they were pulled straight from a specialty café mood board. The tones are earthy and rich without veering into something overly minimal or clinical. If you’ve ever wished your tech accessories matched the aesthetic of a beautifully lit coffee shop corner, MOFT seems to have designed this one with exactly that feeling in mind. The tagline for the collection is “Brewed for Flow,” and it’s hard to argue with that framing.
The packaging is also part of the story. MOFT went with a frosted, minimalist design they describe as food-safe, durable, and fully recyclable. It’s the kind of packaging decision that often goes unnoticed by most buyers, but it signals that the sustainability angle here isn’t just surface-level. When a brand puts the same thought into the box as the product inside, that’s usually a sign the commitment runs deeper than a trend cycle.
I’ll be honest: the sustainable materials conversation in tech accessories can feel exhausting. Every other brand is slapping the word “eco” on something and calling it a revolution. MOFT’s approach feels different, not because they’ve reinvented the wheel, but because the product doesn’t sacrifice anything to get there. The MOVAS-E Coffee Bio-Leather still delivers the same premium tactile quality that made their original MOVAS line popular. It’s stain-resistant, smooth, and has that matte finish that photographs well without ever looking cheap. The material carries its origins gracefully.
The timing of this collection feels culturally right, too. Coffee has become more than a beverage. It’s an aesthetic, a lifestyle marker, a ritual that people build their mornings around. The idea that your phone stand or laptop sleeve could be a physical extension of that daily ritual is a small but clever act of brand storytelling. It doesn’t feel forced. It feels like a natural fit for the kind of person who already gravitates toward MOFT: someone who pays attention to the things they carry.
Whether or not bio-based leather made from coffee grounds becomes a broader standard for tech accessories, MOFT is asking the right questions here. What do we do with the waste streams already woven into our daily lives? How do we make sustainable choices feel desirable rather than merely dutiful? The MOVAS-E Coffee Collection doesn’t answer everything, but it’s a compelling and well-designed start.
If you’ve been looking for a reason to upgrade your tech carry, this collection offers one that goes a little deeper than color options. It’s the kind of purchase that earns a second look, and a story that’s surprisingly easy to tell when someone asks where you got your case.
Traditional cooling methods are gaining fresh attention as homeowners and designers search for environmentally responsible alternatives to energy-intensive air conditioning. Among these, clay coolers have emerged as a practical and elegant solution rooted in centuries-old craftsmanship. Their ability to cool naturally without relying on electricity aligns perfectly with the growing demand for sustainable living and climate-responsive design.
Today, architects are integrating these timeless cooling systems into modern homes. By combining natural materials, passive cooling principles, and thoughtful aesthetics, clay coolers are rediscovering solutions that have stood the test of time.
1. The Timeless Science Behind Clay Cooling
Clay coolers function through the principle of evaporative cooling, one of the oldest and most effective natural cooling techniques. The porous clay absorbs water, and as the moisture gradually evaporates, it draws heat from the surrounding air, lowering the temperature without consuming electricity. This process creates a gentle cooling effect that feels comfortable. Unlike conventional air conditioners that depend on compressors and refrigerants, clay coolers work in harmony with natural environmental conditions.
Their simple engineering offer an energy-efficient solution that remains highly relevant for contemporary architecture.
MALU is a thoughtfully designed personal cooling system that transforms the ancient principle of evaporative cooling into a contemporary home product. Created by Austrian designer Katja Posch, the compact cooler features a porous terracotta cylinder supported by a handcrafted wooden frame and topped with a circular wooden water tray. Measuring 700 millimetres tall and 280 millimetres wide, MALU is designed to function as both a cooling device and a sculptural furniture piece. Its minimalist form, warm earthy materials, and refined craftsmanship allow it to blend seamlessly into modern interiors while offering an environmentally conscious alternative to conventional cooling appliances.
Water poured into the wooden tray gradually filters through the 8-millimetre-thick terracotta body, where natural evaporation cools the surrounding air before it is released through slim horizontal vents. An optional low-energy fan housed within the wooden base enhances airflow, while the cooler remains effective even in passive mode. Constructed from repairable, recyclable terracotta and wood, MALU is designed for durability and long-term use.
2. A Sustainable Alternative to Energy-Intensive Cooling
As global temperatures continue to rise, reducing energy consumption has become a priority for both homeowners and the construction industry. Clay coolers provide an environmentally friendly alternative by eliminating the need for electricity during operation and minimizing carbon emissions. Crafted from natural clay, they are biodegradable, locally sourced, and require significantly less energy to manufacture than conventional cooling appliances.
Their production also supports traditional pottery communities, preserving valuable artisanal skills while encouraging sustainable local economies. By choosing clay coolers, homeowners reduce their environmental footprint with a cooling solution that balances ecological responsibility with everyday comfort and long-term sustainability.
Designed by Simon Pavy in collaboration with the global design agency Entreautre, the low-tech terracotta cooler offers a sustainable alternative to conventional air conditioning by combining traditional cooling methods with advanced fabrication techniques. The product is built around a porous terracotta vessel filled with water, using the natural process of evaporative cooling to lower surrounding air temperatures. Inspired by centuries-old cooling practices from the Middle East, India, and Egypt, the cooler channels warm air through precisely designed openings, where contact with the moist terracotta surface naturally cools the airflow. Its elegant geometric form improves cooling efficiency through carefully engineered airflow dynamics.
To maximize performance, the designers employed ceramic 3D printing to create complex, organic forms that increase the interaction between air and the wet terracotta surface. Developed using Grasshopper and Rhino 3D, the parametric design allowed precise control over thickness, porosity, and airflow for optimal cooling. The prototype was produced using a specialized terracotta 3D printer created by Dutch artist Olivier van Herpt, enabling intricate ceramic fabrication impossible through conventional methods
3. Modern Designs for Contemporary Interiors
Modern interpretations of clay coolers extend far beyond their traditional appearance, making them suitable for today’s refined interiors. Designers are experimenting with sculptural forms, textured finishes, earthy colors, and modular designs that complement contemporary architectural styles. Instead of hiding these cooling systems, homeowners display them as functional art pieces that celebrate craftsmanship and natural materials.
Whether placed in living rooms, courtyards, balconies, or open-plan homes, clay coolers contribute to a warm and organic design language. Their combination of beauty and performance reflects a growing appreciation for products that merge sustainability, cultural heritage, and sophisticated interior aesthetics.
Ant Studio’s Beehive, designed by architect Monish Kumar Siripurapu, is an innovative evaporative cooling system that reinterprets traditional earthen cooling methods for modern, energy-conscious environments. Developed in response to rising urban heat conditions, the system uses porous terracotta modules arranged in a honeycomb-inspired structure. Water is absorbed into the clay and slowly evaporates, naturally reducing surrounding air temperature without electricity or chemical refrigerants. Drawing from cooling practices used in ancient India, Egypt, and other hot climates, the Beehive merges cultural intelligence with contemporary architectural thinking.
Made entirely from terracotta, the Beehive is a zero-plastic, zero-emission system that also supports air purification through moisture-driven biofilm formation on its surface. The design is modular, repairable, and adaptable to different site conditions, making it suitable for factories and high-heat work environments.
4. Healthier Indoor Environments Through Natural Cooling
Beyond reducing energy consumption, clay coolers contribute to healthier indoor living conditions by providing gentle, naturally humidified cooling. Unlike conventional air conditioners that often dry indoor air and require chemical refrigerants, clay coolers maintain a more balanced indoor atmosphere through natural evaporation. This can create greater comfort in dry climates while reducing dependence on mechanically cooled environments.
Their quiet operation also minimizes noise pollution, promoting a calmer and more relaxing home environment. When combined with cross ventilation, shaded openings, and other passive design strategies, clay coolers help create interiors that prioritize environmental sustainability and occupant well-being.
Nature assigns a role to every organism, even those humans often dismiss as pests. Scavengers return waste to ecological cycles, while termites despite damaging human structures build complex mound systems that regulate airflow and maintain stable internal temperatures. This hidden intelligence in termite architecture inspired TerraMound, a cooling system designed by Rameshwari Jonnalagedda. By studying how these structures achieve passive ventilation, the project translates biological efficiency into a human-centered approach to sustainable cooling that responds intelligently to rising temperatures without excessive energy use.
TerraMound operates on two principles and that is maximizing surface area and enabling porosity. Its geometry replicates the internal networks of termite mounds, increasing air contact through a surface-area-to-volume ratio. Produced using clay-based 3D printing, it forms intricate porous structures impossible to handcraft. A water reservoir at the top releases moisture through terracotta, while a base fan draws air upward, intensifying evaporative cooling and creating a functional, sculptural biomimetic system.
5. The Future of Climate-Responsive Home Design
The renewed interest in clay coolers reflects a broader movement toward climate-responsive architecture that values passive design over energy-intensive systems. Architects are increasingly pairing clay cooling with courtyards, green roofs, thermal mass walls, rainwater harvesting, and natural ventilation to create homes that remain comfortable while consuming fewer resources. These integrated strategies show that sustainable architecture does not always require advanced technology, but often benefits from revisiting proven traditional practices.
As cities confront rising temperatures and environmental pressures, clay coolers represent a meaningful intersection of heritage, innovation, and ecological responsibility, offering a timeless solution for resilient modern homes.
The Nave Air Conditioning System is a low-tech cooling product that uses terracotta’s natural evaporative properties to regulate indoor temperatures without electricity or complex electronics. It is designed as a passive climate solution where water stored inside a porous clay structure gradually seeps through the walls and evaporates on the surface. This process absorbs heat from the surrounding air, helping cool both the material and the room. With zero emissions and no power requirement, Nave offers a sustainable alternative to conventional air conditioning systems, especially for hot climates and off-grid or low-energy spaces.
The product is available in floor-standing and wall-mounted modular forms, allowing flexible placement in homes and interiors. Once filled with water, it begins working immediately as the moisture moves through the terracotta body and evaporates naturally. Its porous structure and patterned grill design enhance airflow and surface cooling efficiency. Beyond functionality, it also acts as a sculptural interior element, integrating passive cooling technology into everyday living spaces.
As climate-conscious design continues to evolve, clay coolers bridge tradition and innovation with remarkable simplicity. They offer an elegant, low-impact approach to creating comfortable, energy-efficient, and environmentally responsible living spaces.
We have been talking about wave energy for decades. It shows up in climate briefings, TED talks, and renewable energy roadmaps with the same promising but perpetually tentative language: potential, emerging, coming soon. So when a company actually delivers a milestone that moves it out of the “maybe someday” category, it deserves more than a passing mention in a news ticker.
CorPower Ocean, a Swedish cleantech company, just did exactly that. Their C4 wave energy converter became the first of its kind to earn a full DNV Prototype Certificate, the most rigorous safety certification in offshore energy. DNV, for those unfamiliar, is the Norwegian firm whose standards essentially underpin the modern offshore wind industry. Getting their stamp of approval is not a ribbon-cutting ceremony. It’s proof of work.
Designer: CorPower Ocean
The C4 itself is a striking piece of engineering. It’s a 100-ton buoy, roughly the height of a four-storey building, and it converts ocean swells into electricity using a mechanism inspired by the pumping principle of the human heart. The company calls it WaveSpring technology, and the idea is that the device resonates with the natural rhythm of incoming waves rather than fighting against them. That design philosophy results in a device that can generate five times more electricity per tonne than any other known wave technology, more than 10 megawatt-hours per tonne. For a sector that has always struggled with the cost-versus-output equation, that number is significant.
What makes the DNV certification particularly meaningful is how difficult it was to earn. The process took seven years and covered everything from concept development and structural analysis to manufacturing, storm survivability, and real ocean performance. The C4 was deployed off the coast of Aguçadoura in northern Portugal in late 2023, and it weathered four major storms during that period, including waves reaching 18.5 metres in height. It didn’t just survive. It resumed exporting power to the grid after each one.
I think about that a lot because it’s the part of wave energy that rarely gets enough credit. The ocean is brutal. Most renewable energy infrastructure, whether solar panels or wind turbines, operates in relatively predictable conditions. Wave energy converters have to function in one of the most hostile environments on the planet, and the failure rate in this space historically has been high. The fact that the C4 emerged from the Atlantic with its certification intact says a great deal about the maturity of the technology.
Now, CorPower is looking at the next phase: the VianaWave project, which would become the world’s first 10-megawatt commercial wave farm, also off the coast of Portugal, targeted for around 2029 to 2030. A project in Scotland is also in the works. The DNV certification is crucial here not just for optics but for practical reasons. It reduces technology risk in the eyes of investors, insurers, and project financiers who have historically been reluctant to back wave energy ventures. Bankability has always been the bottleneck, and this certification directly addresses that.
Wave energy won’t replace solar or wind. Nobody is suggesting that. But it has something those two sources don’t: it’s consistent. Waves roll in day and night, regardless of cloud cover or calm weather. As a complement to variable renewables, that kind of reliability carries real weight. The ocean covers 71 percent of the planet’s surface, and the commercially available wave energy potential sits at around 500 gigawatts, roughly 10 percent of global electricity consumption. That’s not a footnote resource.
The C4 is not a finished product. CorPower is already developing its next iteration, the C5, alongside the rollout of the current technology. But as a proof of concept that has cleared the toughest bar the industry has, it marks something real: wave energy is no longer hypothetical. The certification doesn’t just validate a buoy. It validates years of work spent turning an elegant idea into something the ocean itself has agreed to cooperate with.
Keeping houseplants alive has become something of a modern ambition, especially for those living in smaller spaces where a bit of greenery goes a long way. The problem is that most people have a complicated relationship with plant care. Forgetting to water on time, struggling with repotting, and watching plants suffer because the pot can’t keep pace can make the whole experience feel more discouraging than rewarding.
That’s what HELIX was designed to address. Created by Andrew Flynn, former industrial design lead at Dyson and the mind behind the Airwrap, Corrale, and Airstraight, HELIX is what POTR describes as the world’s first self-watering pot that physically grows alongside your plant. Its origami-inspired form isn’t purely decorative; the folds are the functional mechanism that lets the pot expand as roots develop.
At the heart of HELIX is a capillary wicking system tucked into the base. Fill the 300 ml reservoir, and a wick draws moisture steadily upward into the soil, letting the plant absorb exactly what it needs. The result is consistent hydration for up to two weeks between refills, meaning you’re no longer guessing whether you’ve overwatered, underwatered, or simply forgot entirely.
What really sets HELIX apart is what happens when a plant outgrows its space. Rather than pulling it out, cleaning up the mess, and starting over in a bigger container, you simply twist the pot open and add fresh compost around the root ball. The structure expands from 7cm to 16cm tall, accommodating up to 2 litres of soil without disturbing the roots.
For those who want to start from scratch, the Sprout Plate turns HELIX into a seed-starting setup. It sits inside the pot and works with the self-watering reservoir to keep seeds consistently moist, which is exactly what herbs like basil, mint, coriander, and parsley need to get going. As the seedlings grow taller, the pot simply expands around them, no transplanting required.
The Sprig Plate handles something slightly different. It’s designed for propagating cuttings, holding them above the water reservoir so stems can develop roots before being moved into soil. It works well for popular houseplants like pothos, monstera, and Chinese money plants, and the smart part is that once those roots have taken hold, the same HELIX pot expands to become their permanent home.
Then there are climbing plants, which have their own needs entirely. The Expanding Trellis plugs into the soil and can be extended upward in layers as the plant grows, with stems clipped into the folded origami structure for support. It borrows from the same geometric design language as the pot, turning something aesthetic into a functional vertical guide for climbers like pothos, hoya, or jasmine.
What makes HELIX even more interesting is that its hexagonal footprint lets multiple pots sit flush against each other without awkward gaps. Line up several on a counter or windowsill, each growing a different herb or microgreen, and you end up with a surprisingly coherent indoor herb garden that you can keep adding to. It’s a modular setup that scales with your appetite for growing.
The sustainability angle is woven into the design rather than tacked on as an afterthought. HELIX ships completely flat, which cuts both packaging volume and transport emissions compared to conventional rigid planters. It’s made entirely from recycled polypropylene, a waste plastic that often ends up in landfill, and uses roughly 70% less material than a comparable concrete or ceramic pot, making the eco credentials feel genuinely earned.
Plant care has always been about patience and attention, but it’s rarely been about the pot itself. HELIX shifts that dynamic by asking what a container could look like if it were as invested in a plant’s progress as the person tending to it. Whether you’re growing something you plan to eat, something to look at, or something you simply don’t want to kill, that’s a compelling thought.
