Snøhetta’s Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Looks Like It Was Carved From the Badlands Themselves

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Some buildings sit on a landscape, and then there are buildings that seem to belong to it. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, designed by Oslo and New York-based studio Snøhetta, is firmly the latter. Rising from the dramatic terrain of Medora, North Dakota — just outside the boundaries of Theodore Roosevelt National Park — the structure feels less like architecture imposed on the land and more like something the Badlands quietly exhaled.

Snøhetta won the international design competition for the project in 2020, and it is easy to understand why. The firm has long demonstrated a rare ability to make monumental buildings feel humble, from the Oslo Opera House, where the roof doubles as a public plaza, to the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York. With TRPL, the challenge was different: how do you honor a president whose greatest legacy was the preservation of wild land, without contradicting that legacy with your building?

Designer: Snøhetta

Their answer was to look at the geology beneath their feet. The Badlands are a study in layered time — striated buttes, eroded canyons, and sedimentary formations that read like pages of a very old book. The library’s form echoes this language directly. The building’s curving silhouette mirrors the surrounding ridgelines, and its material palette draws from the warm ochres and earth tones of the regional rock. From certain angles, the structure practically dissolves into the horizon.

The interior logic follows the same idea. Visitors move through the building in a sequence meant to mirror Roosevelt’s own relationship with the West — arriving from the cultivated, ordered world and gradually moving deeper into something wilder and more elemental. The spatial progression is deliberate, cinematic, and designed to make the surrounding landscape the dominant feature at every turn. Windows are positioned not just for light but for framing: a specific butte, a stretch of prairie, a sky that goes on longer than feels reasonable.

Beyond the architecture, TRPL is positioned to become the first net-zero presidential library in the United States. Solar energy, geothermal systems, and a building envelope optimized for the extreme temperature swings of North Dakota all contribute to that goal. The commitment feels right for a library honoring a man who signed into protection of over 230 million acres of public land.

What Snøhetta has designed here is not a monument to power. It is something quieter and, ultimately, more resonant: a building that asks you to look past it, toward the land Roosevelt spent his life trying to protect. In a genre prone to grandeur for its own sake, that restraint is the most radical design choice of all.

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The Fortune Teller Just Got an AI Upgrade and It Knows Too Much

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Remember the movie Big? Tom Hanks, the carnival Zoltar machine, a kid who just wanted to grow up overnight. That film had a way of making wish-granting feel both magical and slightly unsettling, because the machine didn’t really know you. It just read the room and gave you what you asked for. Now, almost four decades later, Australian art and technology studio ENESS has built something that does the same thing but with significantly more data points, and the result is one of the more thought-provoking design pieces to come out of the 2026 festival circuit.

HP*ATM, which stands for Human Psyche AI Teller Machine, debuted at Illuminate Adelaide 2026 as part of an exhibition called Automation Bias. It looks exactly like what you’d expect from an old ATM, boxy and vintage, with colored buttons and a telephone handset forming part of the interface. But instead of dispensing cash, it dispenses something far more personal: a psychological reading based on your face, your palm, and a series of choices you make in the moment. ENESS founder Nimrod Weis drew direct inspiration from the Zoltar machine in Big, and the connection makes complete sense once you’re standing in front of it.

Designer: ENESS

The premise is deceptively simple. You walk up, you consent (the screen literally asks, which is already more than most apps do), and the machine reads you. It analyzes your face and your palm, processes your button selections, and produces what the studio calls a “lyrical psychological reading.” You get a portrait of yourself, filtered through AI. And maybe that portrait is accurate. Maybe it’s not. But the more interesting question is: does it even matter? The moment you step up and say yes, you’ve already told the machine something about yourself.

That’s exactly the territory ENESS is navigating here, and they do it in a way that feels playful rather than preachy. The installation isn’t trying to scare you about AI. It’s asking you to notice something you’re already doing in your daily life, handing over intimate data to systems that claim to understand you, often without the ceremony of a formal machine with colored buttons formally asking for your consent. The irony is that HP*ATM might be the most transparent AI interaction many people have ever had, because at least it’s honest about what it’s doing.

There’s a layer of humor baked into the whole thing, which is very much part of ENESS’ design language. The vintage ATM aesthetic is a deliberate choice. Weis has said the installation is meant to remind visitors that current AI systems might eventually look as dated as cash machines and landline phones. That’s a point worth sitting with. The technologies we currently regard with either reverence or a low-grade anxiety tend to look a lot less intimidating in hindsight, and ENESS is nudging you toward that perspective while you’re still in the middle of it all.

The act of not participating also becomes part of the artwork, and that’s where the piece gets genuinely interesting. If you walk up and decide not to engage, that choice still belongs to the installation. The machine doesn’t require you to perform for it, but it does invite you to think about why you’d hesitate. Why would you say no to an AI reading your face when you’ve already handed that same data to your phone, your laptop camera, and roughly half the apps you downloaded last year without bothering to read the terms? The answer probably says more about you than the machine ever could. The question isn’t rhetorical. It’s just honest.

HP*ATM runs through August 30, 2026, at FutureJuice in Adelaide, Australia. If you happen to be near it, stepping up to that machine and choosing yes or no is probably more thought-provoking than most things you’ll do on your phone that day. And if you’re not in Adelaide, the work still travels with you, because the questions it raises don’t stay in the gallery. They follow you home.

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This 4-Player LEGO Chessboard Turns The Game Into Strategic Chaos

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Four-player chess is not some internet-era gimmick dreamed up for group game nights. Variants of it have existed for centuries, from Indian Chaturaji played with dice, to Victorian England’s fascination with elaborate cross-shaped boards designed specifically to seat four rivals at once. The format never quite dethroned standard chess in popularity, mostly because building a proper four-sided board was always a pain, and because the rules needed serious rethinking to keep games from spiraling into total mayhem. It is a format that rewards ambition and punishes anyone who tries to wing it.

That is precisely the gap LEGO Ideas creator CozyBuildingBlocks7126 decided to fill, with a physical, brick-built four-player chessboard that revives the format for a new generation of players, dice optional. The design leans into a cross-shaped layout, four full armies in distinct colors, and, most interestingly, a scoring system engineered specifically to make four-way chess feel less like chaos and more like calculated risk. It is a smart, tactile answer to a format that has always deserved better hardware.

Designer: CozyBuildingBlocks7126

The board itself is the first thing that grabs you, a cross-shaped slab built from 852 pieces and measuring a generous 51.2 by 51.2 centimeters, large enough to comfortably seat four full armies without anyone’s rooks bumping elbows. Blue, yellow, green, and red pieces line up along their respective arms of the cross, and the notched corners where each arm meets the central board are a genuinely clever piece of structural design, letting four ranks sit flush against each other without any awkward diagonal overlap. It reads almost like a plus sign built out of chessboard, which is exactly the kind of geometric problem-solving that separates a thoughtful MOC (my own creation) from a simple recolor job.

My favorite detail, though, is the scoring system, because this is where the design stops being a novelty and starts being a genuine strategic rethink. Pawns promote at the eighth rank instead of the fourteenth, landing them mid-board rather than at the enemy’s doorstep. Bishops are worth five points instead of three, queens born from promoted pawns are quietly capped at just one point, and a checkmate alone is worth a hefty twenty points. Captured kings leave their armies “dead” on the board, meaning their pieces can still be captured but no longer award points to whoever takes them. The result is a game where getting checkmated does not necessarily mean losing, since a well-timed capture can vault you into first or second place even after your king falls. That is a wonderfully devious wrinkle for a build that could have coasted on novelty alone.

The set is still early in its LEGO Ideas run, sitting at 105 supporters with 424 days left on the clock to reach the first milestone of 1,000. It has a long runway ahead before the official 10,000-vote threshold that triggers a LEGO review, but for anyone who has ever wanted to drag chess off the screen and back onto a real table, four opponents included, this is a build worth rallying behind. You can head to the LEGO Ideas page and cast your vote here.

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This $79 Kids’ Wi-Fi Phone Brings Back the Ability to Slam Down a Receiver Like It’s 1995

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The landline died because of the wire, not because of the idea. A physical phone tethered to a wall socket made sense in 1985 and made increasingly less sense every year after, until entire households simply stopped bothering to replace them. Pinwheel’s new release makes the case that the object itself, the tactile handset, the dedicated cradle, the single purpose design, was worth keeping around long after the copper wiring became a liability. Strip out the jack and run the whole thing over Wi-Fi instead, and suddenly a nostalgia object becomes a genuinely practical piece of furniture again. That is the quiet design insight buried inside what looks, at first glance, like a novelty throwback.

Called Pinwheel Home, the device targets kids aged 5 to 10 who need a way to reach approved contacts without inheriting a full smartphone. It plugs into any outlet and pairs with Wi-Fi, meaning it can sit on a kitchen counter or a bedroom shelf without a technician ever showing up. Two versions exist, the smaller Home Spark at 68 dollars and the larger, more decorated Home Classic at 79 dollars, both sold directly through Pinwheel ahead of an Amazon release this fall. Parents control the whole experience through Pinwheel’s Caregiver Portal, approving every contact and setting the hours calls are allowed. The company already makes kid smartwatches, so this slots into a lineup built specifically around delaying smartphone ownership.

Designer: Pinwheel

That oversized handset is not just a styling choice, it is the entire emotional payload of the product. Somewhere in the last two decades, ending a phone call turned into touching a red icon on glass, a gesture with all the drama of dismissing a notification. Home Classic hands a kid an actual weighted receiver and an actual spring loaded cradle, and the moment a call ends, physics takes over. Slam it down hard enough after telling a sibling they are wrong about something, and the whole base rattles. Rest it gently after a call with grandma, and it clicks shut soft as a whisper. That range, from petty dramatic slam to quiet contented click, is a form of emotional expression a swipe gesture has never once offered a five year old, and Pinwheel built the entire handset geometry around making that range possible.

Calling another Pinwheel Home device is free, routed through the company’s own Circle network using a short internal code instead of a standard phone number. Reaching an actual mobile number, like a grandparent’s cell phone, requires a subscription, either 6.99 dollars monthly for a real 10-digit number and five approved contacts, or 9.99 dollars monthly to remove that contact ceiling. Emergency calling stays free no matter what plan a family is on, which is the one place Pinwheel clearly refused to charge across. Home Classic’s stickers might be the hook that gets a kid excited, but the free-versus-paid split is the part parents will actually feel every month.

Pinwheel has already teased three-way calling and tighter integration with its kids’ smartwatches, hinting that a child’s number and approved contacts could eventually follow them from the countertop straight onto their wrist as they get older. That continuity is the real long game here, not the retro shell. A phone that lets a kid slam down a receiver like they mean it sounds like a gimmick, until you realize it might be the only piece of hardware left teaching an entire generation how satisfying hanging up used to feel.

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This 205-HP handcrafted hyperbike looks like it rode straight out of a Sci-Fi movie

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Diamond Atelier has side stepped the traditional custom motorcycle scene with the DA#22 ULTRON, a one-of-a-kind machine that the Munich-based workshop describes as the world’s first hyperbike. Publicly revealed at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the road-legal prototype is designed to narrow down the gap between high-performance superbikes and exclusive hypercars.

Rather than modifying an existing motorcycle with premium components, Diamond Atelier began the project by creating a completely new design language before engineering the mechanical package around it. Powering the DA#22 is KTM’s proven 1,301cc LC8 V-twin engine sourced from the 1290 Super Duke. Tuned to produce more than 205 horsepower, the engine delivers performance that places the motorcycle firmly in superbike territory.

Designer: Diamond Atelier

Complementing the potent powertrain is a specially developed suspension package from Wilbers, featuring a TYPE 46 RR front fork inspired by World Superbike technology and a bespoke rear shock tailored specifically for the compact layout of the project. Every major component was selected to ensure that the motorcycle remains serviceable despite its unconventional packaging. The most striking feature of the DA#22 is undoubtedly its handcrafted aluminum bodywork. Every panel was individually shaped by Marvin Diehl of KRT Framework over a period exceeding 800 hours.

Instead of exposing the motorcycle’s mechanical components like a conventional naked bike, the sculpted aluminum shell forms a seamless surface with dramatically shortened proportions, a floating tail section, hidden electronics, and a cockpit concealed beneath a recessed glass panel. The design gives the motorcycle an unmistakable silhouette that looks unlike any current production model. Diamond Atelier also incorporated advanced manufacturing techniques throughout the project. Several key components, including the titanium exhaust system and the upper triple clamp, were produced using 3D printing by Aconity3D. Formula 1-inspired switchgear, an illuminated clutch cover with a glass inspection window, and precision-machined controls supplied by specialist partners further reinforce the machine’s premium engineering.

Even the upper triple clamp features a genuine diamond mounted in sterling silver, serving as a subtle reference to the company’s name rather than a purely decorative addition. Perhaps the most innovative element is the motorcycle’s unique electroluminescent paint. Developed exclusively for the prototype by Alex Bloch of Stilbruch Lack, the special coating emits a deep red glow when an electrical current is applied, allowing the bodywork itself to become the light source without relying on external LEDs. According to Diamond Atelier, only a single liter of this custom paint formulation was ever produced, and the entire batch was used on the DA#22, ensuring the finish can never be exactly replicated.

Although the DA#22 remains a prototype, Diamond Atelier sees it as the beginning of an ultra-exclusive series that explores new possibilities in motorcycle design. Combining handcrafted coachbuilding techniques and extreme performance, the bike a fresh interpretation of what a flagship motorcycle can be. Rather than simply chasing speed or luxury alone, it demonstrates how engineering, craftsmanship, and design can come together to create an entirely new category.

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