Tag Archives: Draper

This tiny home features a bedroom loft and fold-out deck to balance comfort with adventure!

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The Draper is a tiny home from Colorado-based RV company, Land Ark that features a mudroom, clerestory windows, and versatile interior design elements to find a balance between adventurous spontaneity and homelike comfort.

If you’re interested in tiny homes, chances are you’re itching for a getaway. Across the world, tiny homes have become the minimalist solution for those of us looking to downsize and relocate in the meantime. While some are built into the landscape they rise above, other tiny homes are wheeled to their new locations.

The Draper, a new tiny home from Colorado-based RV company, Land Ark finds a minimalist, yet adventurous spirit through a balance of Scandinavian-approached interior design elements and thoughtfully modern exterior features.

From the outside, the Draper exudes mystery with black corrugated steel cladding on all sides. Shaped almost like a reversed trapezoid, the Draper unfurls its all-black exterior to reveal a Cumaru fold-down deck constructed from renewable Brazilian hardwood. When unfolded, the Cumaru deck provides the Draper with a cozier appearance that immediately asserts the RV as a homey oasis designed to get away from the humdrum of everyday life.

Entering the tiny home from the deck’s sliding, floor-to-ceiling twin doors, residents are welcomed by the home’s kitchen and dining area. The dining area, which doubles as a living room, has a built-In, U-Shaped sofa that transforms into a queen-sized sleeper sofa where guests can sleep.

Wrapped around the entirety of the interior space, white-washed pinewood gleams with natural sunlight and brightens the inside to provide a warm, golden glow against the black steel when seen from the outside.

Entering Draper from the opposite end, guests can shake off their boots in the tiny home’s mudroom. Outfitted with amenities such as washer and dryer units and an entryway bench, the mudroom comes with plenty of closet space and built-in shelves to keep the rest of the home free of clutter.

Sleeping up to four people, the Draper features a bedroom loft that’s accessible via a custom-built oakwood ladder located on the opposite end of the dining area. Tracing the home’s upper walls and ceiling, recessed light fixtures, and clerestory windows brighten the home’s interior with pools of natural sunlight and lamplight.

Designer: Land Ark

During the day, the dining area features a spring table with telescopic tubing and a corner booth.

Come night, the dining area transforms into a queen-sized sleeping sofa for guests of Draper.

The post This tiny home features a bedroom loft and fold-out deck to balance comfort with adventure! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This cost + energy efficient mobile refrigerator reduces food contamination and waste in developing countries!

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In many developing countries, especially ones with a large population like India, people don’t have access or money to own basic home appliances. While you can still make do without a fan or a gas stove, a refrigerator is becoming increasingly essential as climate change causes temperatures which affect the harvest as well as the daily food that is perishable – think of how quickly your carton of milk or bag of lettuce goes bad! Sprout Studios and Draper have designed a mobile thermoelectric refrigerator (sponsored by the Gates foundation) for this demographic that doesn’t have an option of renting apartments that come with 5-star rated appliances.

This is a cost-efficient and low-energy consuming mobile refrigerator that aims to combat global refrigeration challenges, especially in tropical developing countries. India is the world’s largest milk producer so it is crucial to not let it perish during storage and transportation. A refrigerator is needed to keep milk from being contaminated with airborne diseases such as Listeria. This product by Sprout and Draper uses thermoelectric technology which is an innovative cooling system that allows villages in India to be able to store their milk overnight and transport it up to 15 miles to pasteurization facilities. The unit requires minimal power and has the added ability to operate from off-grid power sources making it vital for developing countries that have large fields in remote areas. The lack of infrastructure in countries like India (roads, electricity) makes it impossible to fund refrigeration at the point of production or refrigerated transport which is where cost and energy-efficient solutions like this can play a pivotal role.

The Mobile thermoelectric refrigerator has been engineered to be durable, rugged, and look innovative. The chassis of the refrigerator is constructed in a way that it allows the top-chilling unit to be removed while the bottom refrigeration unit is being transported. The chiller uses the water and heat transfer to cool the milk while excess warm water can be used for cleaning and bathing – and that is how it reduces the waste of resources too! The chassis is crafted from anodized aluminum to keep it lightweight and strong. It features an airless wheel system to avoid flats on rough terrain which also utilizes a regenerative hub that powers a battery to keep things cool while on the road. The multifunctional handle design makes it comfortable for the user to pull the refrigerator by hand while walking or even attach it to a bicycle or motorcycle for rapid transport.

“The pressing problems facing humankind and the planet are not well addressed by mass-market off-the-shelf products. Draper’s Global Challenges initiative applies our substantial engineering capabilities to solve these problems by looking beyond the technology to understand the problem space. The correct technology solution is rarely obvious. For example, designing the world’s most efficient refrigerator does nothing for those without reliable electricity,” says the team. Technology is great but can be greater when used to answer the questions of the unheard demographic.

Designers: Jordan Nollman, Jason Wilbur, Rich Orsini, Matt Bettencourt of Sprout Studios, and Robert de Saint Phalle for Draper.

This underwater drone scans the ocean for plastic micro-particles

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It’s always been my contention that to unlock a drone’s full potential, it should be equipped to do something humans can’t; like trove the ocean for something imperceivable to the human eye… plastic microparticles. The Draper is an award-winning autonomous drone that’s designed to swim through ocean waters, detecting and analyzing plastic particulate matter found in the water. “Draper’s AUV can detect and analyze invisible microplastics, and enable scientists to understand where they are originating from, where they are most prominent, and how to prevent them from contaminating our waters. When the AUV is deployed, it skims the top nine meters of the water where most microplastics are located, scanning for microplastics, testing for specific types, and ultimately relaying GPS coordinates into a heat map”, says Sprout, the studio behind Draper drone’s design.

The drone uses a pair of thrusters and rudders to control its navigation, while in-built proximity sensors and a GPS help the autonomous drone navigate through our vast oceans. The drone’s central processing unit sits in the mass at the front of the device, sucking water in from the front, testing it, and eliminating it from a rear exhaust, while the ring-detail around the drone houses its battery and electronics. Once the drone begins running low on batteries, it makes its journey to the nearest docking buoy that charges the device using wind-powered energy.

Designer: Sprout Studios for Draper

Blue Origin teams with spaceflight veterans to complete its lunar lander

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Blue Origin won't be alone in working on a crewed lunar lander that will (hopefully) participate in NASA's Artemis program. Jeff Bezos' outfit has unveiled a trio of partners that will help it complete the Human Landing System, all of which are spac...