Tag Archives: James Dyson

This concrete bench collects rainwater for plants that are a part of the seating!

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Concrete jungle is not just something Alicia Keys sang once, cities are becoming more paved with every passing day leaving scarce patches of greenery. Having concrete structures everywhere is not appealing to the eye but at the same time makes it harder for cities to use rainwater because they don’t have surfaces to absorb it. This makes it harder for them to maintain natural public spaces and green starts turning to gray. To solve this problem, Barbara Standaert made the Waterbench – it is exactly what you think. The design combines a bench, a rainwater barrel, and a planter into one to restore some greenery into the urban landscape.

Rainwater is used in public spaces to create self-sufficient green. The permanent water supply always guarantees a dry seat, even in rainy weather, requires hardly any maintenance, and ensures a permanent green touch in the city.

The rainwater naturally seeps through the porous concrete cover and is collected in a water-tight concrete reservoir where the plants find their water and food. The water is naturally absorbed and transported to the plants by a nylon cord. The Waterbench Rainwater buffer + water reservoir for plants Cover made of permeable concrete Collection trough in architectonic concrete water reservoir: +/- 280 liters.

Length 250 cm, Width 174 cm, Height 45 cm Weight: +/- 1,300 kg for the collection tray, +/- 1,100 kg for the cover. It is available in grey, other shades possible upon request. Overflow, allowing water to escape if the tank is full. The element rests on rubber stands, allowing excess water to run off. Another advantage of the Waterbench is the option to ‘plant’ the bench with little prior effort, in line with the particular needs of the environment.

Starting with the design question “How can we restore natural processes and give back some green to our urbanized landscape?” – I started researching what is being done today to direct rainwater to nature. Porous rainwater pipes were one example. The material fascinated me. I brought it to the surface to show what it did to the audience. After this, the function to combine the material and water storage with greenery was quickly made. During my studies I made the prototype all by myself. I carved out the some mold by using my football shoes. I filled the mold in cooperation with a concrete manufacturer and transported the (way too heavy) concrete block in a rented van. One day before the jury, I still had to apply the porous top layer… After I graduated I found a manufacturer who is now producing the market suitable Waterbench.

Designer: Barbara Standaert

This wind-powered bicycle light is set to transform the way we utilize sustainable, reusable energy!

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Designed to be the world’s first wind-powered bicycle light, Vento was created to reinvent the ways we use and produce energy.

In recent years, we’ve had our sights set on renewable energy sources. From tidal turbines that can generate electricity for thousands of homes to small-scale green roofs that host solar panels to power up bus stops, renewable energy is the future and designers are taking note. Aimed to be the world’s first bicycle light to use wind energy for power, Vento from student designer Andy Bestenheider is currently in its prototyping phase, gearing up for a working model by the end of summer 2021.

Inspired by his desire “to reinvent the ways we use and produce energy,” on small-scale levels, Vento is not merely a bicycle light, as Bestenheider describes, but “a power plant, a way to question energy consumption, and an object to connect like-minded individuals. Vento is a mindset.” Composed of four main components, Vento is like a miniature wind turbine. Constructed from recycled plexiglass and aluminum, Vento’s microturbine harvests wind energy while the bicycle is in motion. Then, the energy is converted into electricity through electromagnetic induction that takes place in the turbine’s generator. The bicycle light’s battery then stores this energy and the LED bulb generates light. While moving in your bike, the wind is always whipping past you, so the light will always work when needed. Positioned conveniently right between the handlebars, Vento also features on/off and blinking switches for day use.

Following some sketching and multiple ideations, Bestenheider then moved onto 3D-print modeling before working towards a final working prototype.

In close collaboration with a fellow engineering student, Bestenheider conducted interviews with cyclists and friends to understand the feasibility of Vento. After finalizing a 3D-printed model, Bestenheider and his engineer friend worked together to strike a balance between efficiency, cost, and durability, reaching a final product that equips the light with a working circuit with a twice as large turbine. Built to be entirely self-sufficient, Vento was designed to start the conversation around renewable energy sourcing.

Designer: Andy Bestenheider

This ergonomic washing machine design helps save our oceans by filtering out microplastics!

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Martina Mancini’s Ocean washing system is as sustainable as it is ergonomic, with special filters that recycle out microplastics and hidden adaptive features for intuitive and accessible operation.

Each time we wash a load of laundry, microfibers detach from our favorite polyester and acrylic clothes and end up in wastewater. Contributing close to 35% of the microplastics found in our oceans, washing machines are due for a sustainability cleanup. Designer Martina Mancini was recently recognized by The James Dyson Award for her work in developing an ergonomic washing machine called Ocean that filters out microplastics and recirculates the water used between cycles.

With Ocean, Mancini set out to develop a washing machine that’s friendly to the environment and ergonomic for most users. The Ocean is designed like preexisting washing machines, equipped with a basket, drum, and display control panel, to ensure familiarity during use. Once the clothes are placed inside Ocean’s drum and basket, users can start their wash cycle by selecting one on the machine’s front display panel. From there, water flows into the drum from a centrifugal pump that’s connected to a purification filter to prepare the water for recirculation once the cycle is complete.

The post-cycle water purification process first passes through a stainless steel sieve grid and then a polyester filter sponge to remove larger microplastics. Following that, the water surges into a pipe that’s connected to the machine’s centrifugal pump, which propels the water against a hollow fiber membrane through a tangential filtration process. Once the filtration process makes its rounds, the water is purified by an Ozonator before recirculating for future use. Ensuring that Ocean is as ergonomic as it is sustainable, Mancini designed the washing machine so that users can remove the machine’s filters on their own before obtaining a new one from an offsite factory. There, company workers will remove and recycle the microplastics to give them a new life.

Given that the hardware required to construct Ocean would be bulky, Mancini knew the washing machine would reach a higher height than those already on the market. Working with a bigger machine allowed Mancini to incorporate more ergonomic features, including an adjustable table located beneath the drum, where users can prepare their laundry before and following washing cycles.

Designer: Martina Mancini

This sustainable floating pod converts seawater into drinking water through a natural desalination process!

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WaterPod is a sustainable floating pod that turns seawater into drinking water through a natural desalination process.

97% of the earth’s water is found in its oceans, yet in its primary state, ocean water is unsuitable for human needs like drinking and cleaning. Since sustainable designs that rely on alternative energy production have been on the rise in response to environmental concerns, we’re closer than ever to scaling down macro desalination plants for individual use. One team of designers was recently recognized by The James Dyson Award for their desalination pod concept called WaterPod that turns seawater into drinkable water through an array of sustainable features.

WaterPod operates as a self-cleaning solar desalination system that absorbs seawater via underwater wicks, inspired by mangrove trees, which then passes through a condensation and evaporation process to remove the salt particles from the seawater. Just like mangrove trees, WaterPod’s underwater wicks fill the pod with seawater until its water levels reach the pod’s black fabric dome. Inside the dome, seawater undergoes evaporation as water vapors gradually flow from the transparent covering and collect in WaterPod’s storage compartment. Then, users can pump drinking water from the storage compartment’s recess. While the desalination process takes place, the WaterPod remains floating atop the water in a similar fashion to a conventional buoy. WaterPod’s top lid is filled with expanded polyurethane foam for thermal insulation and flotation enhancement while a cement base offers buoyancy stability.

The team of designers behind WaterPod developed the concept in response to a lack of clean, drinking water in Sandakan, Malaysia. Noticing the seafaring community’s reliance on the sea, the team of designers wanted to develop a means for individuals to have access to clean drinking water, no matter the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean. WaterPod is a modern solution that takes cues from the surrounding environment to bring drinking water to those who depend on it most.

Designers: Bennie Beh Hue May, Yap Chun Yoon, & Loo Xin Yang

This transparent display for captions designed for the DHH community makes sure facial expressions aren’t missed!

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See-Through Captions is a simple, understated solution for the DHH community that uses a transparent subtitle display screen to project conversations with ASR technology and incorporate facial expressions to bridge communication gaps between DHH and hearing individuals.

While there are some adaptive designs that aim to help those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH), most of them rely too heavily on subtitles and audio, losing out on physical gestures and facial expressions. Some products are designed to convert sign language to text, some AI robots are meant to replace hearing dogs, and then there’s even a wearable device that translates sign language into speech. Awarded by James Dyson with Japan’s highest award, a team of designers from Digital Nature Group developed a new solution for bridging communication gaps between hearing and hard-of-hearing folks called See-Through Captions.

Developed for those who are deaf or experience varying levels of hearing loss, See-Through Captions was designed by a team of hearing and deaf individuals and tested in real-life situations to ensure its effectiveness. See-Through Captions is essentially a transparent projector that converts audio to subtitles and displays those conversations on its two-way screen. Since most pre-existing related products only focus on translating audio to subtitles, Digital Nature Group gave See-Through Captions a transparent screen to guarantee that users’ facial expressions and physical gestures aren’t missed. In addition to the incorporation of physical expression, Digital Nature Group improved its automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology to optimize real-time captioning and ensure an accurate relay of communication.

The See-Through Captions product comes in two different physical forms, stationary and portable, so the ASR technology can be applied across different interactions. In developing See-Through Captions, Digital Nature Group demonstrated different prototypes in a museum setting. In the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, See-Through Captions was used in its stationary form at the museum’s front desk as well as its portable form on guided tours. Following its demonstration, Digital Nature Group decided some improvements could be made to the size and amount of text displayed on the portable product. Overall, See-Through Captions is a simple, understated solution for the DHH community that incorporates facial expression as well as accurate ASR technology to bridge communication gaps between DHH and hearing individuals.

Designer: Digital Nature Group

On a transparent screen, ASR technology converts audio to subtitles in real time. 

The transparent screen allows DHH individuals to maintain eye contact while engaging with hearing people. 

The portable form of See-Through Captions is handheld and can be applied in social settings such as guided tours and offsite meetings. 

After using prototypes in real-life situations, Digital Nature Group is improving the amount and visibility of text on the screen. 

This herb garden was designed with smart monitoring tech & fits inside your kitchen cabinet to save space!

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We have all killed a plant or two let’s just admit it. Gardening isn’t for everyone but it is sure nice to have fresh herbs to add to your meals. Imagine making a bomb pizza and realizing you don’t have basil (gasps!). To avoid such catastrophes even those of us without green thumbs do our best to keep herbs in our kitchen. The only drawback is that having five small pots takes up a lot of counter space and also can attract bugs. Leaving herbs out on the window is not an option because they won’t survive extreme weather and maybe birds will get to it before you do. But this herb garden design takes care of all these minor inconveniences while making sure your plants thrive!

The design lets you have access to fresh greenery 365 days a year without sacrificing any counter space or causing a mess. It is compact and works wonderfully for small urban apartments or big suburban houses. What makes this herb garden unique its compactness because it makes it invisible in your kitchen space. Designer Igor Abakumov drew inspiration from his own life experience for this. “My mom is a real culinary virtuoso and she often complains about the lack of specific greens in the store. And then I got the idea to design a home garden that will be built into the kitchen and will delight with greenery all year round,” he explains.

Simply named Home Garden, this nifty design is basically a herb drawer that is built into the kitchen. It comes with an integrated smart system that monitors the moisture and temperature of plants, as well as their freshness and readiness for use. It is 2021, so of course, all of this can be adjusted directly from your phone. Home Garden is one of the entries for the James Dyson Awards 2021.

Designer: Igor Abakumov

This vacuum cleaner works silently by simply rotating a knob and doesn’t need electricity!

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Vacuuming can seem like a big task but this clever non-electric vacuum cleaner works by your small actions! OMIT doesn’t compare in power to a traditional vacuum cleaner, but works silently and is handy – something we all wish we could say about our Karen coworkers! The best part about OMIT is that it requires NO electricity, making it a perfect off-the-grid and sustainable essential.

The designer thought of this idea while living with flatmates because he couldn’t use the noisy vacuum cleaner during weekdays. “I realized that about 70% of users can use vacuum cleaner only on the weekends, because of noise and trouble with cables. Even rechargeable ones, can forgotten to recharge. However, more than 80% of people use it for house cleaning. Furthermore, I found that before electric vacuum cleaners, manual vacuum cleaners were used in the 19th century. I thought that vacuum cleaners can be less noisy and more handy by omitting electricity,” said Morita on what inspired him to make OMIT.

This compact vacuum works by turning the knob several times and the force is transmitted to the suction fan while increasing the number of turns by a special mechanism. OMIT requires 5 turns of the knob to work for 10 seconds. So in order to make enough suction power, the mechanism works with several key elements. First is the planetary gear which increases the number of turns from 1 to 600. However, the gear needs to have huge force to turn. In order to create this huge force, the mechanism has a torque spring as the second key element. It not only transmits rotation power, but it also accumulates rotation power which in turn makes OMIT work longer. The third key element is the needle bearing that only rotates in one direction and transmits the force of the torque spring to the planetary gear steadily. The dust that is collected goes into a washable container which is easy to clean and maintain. The design features a new suction mechanism which makes it is possible to arrange all components linearly.

OMIT uses the Free Wheel Principle in its mechanism where pulling a string makes a wheel spin constantly with the centrifugal force of the wheel. However, the action of pulling the string can make the nozzle position unstable and the action is physically hard to keep suction power long enough. The key was to figure out how to control the air direction. “In order to make spinning more easy and stable, I added torque spring and planetary gear. The combination makes small action translate to big number of spins. When I found the principle, I designed the optimal component layout which defined the minimal shape,” explains Morita.

Not using electricity challenges the traditional handheld vacuum cleaners. OMIT could be a new typology within cleaning products – more powerful than the broom while using fewer resources than the vacuum cleaner! Even its form is different from its counterparts because the appearance comes from the functional aspect and usability itself, it is minimal yet powerful and solves the issue of noise + electricity consumpotion. OMIT is ideal for cleaning small spaces such as kitchens and desktops as well as car interiors – in fact, this might just motivate you to clean those nooks more often!

Designer: Hiroyuki Morita

This electricity-free cooler is made using traditional Malaysian clay modelling techniques!

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Sometimes the ways of the past inform modern solutions better than any hi-tech, futuristic design ever could. Generally considered Malaysia’s ‘most famous secret,’ Labu Sayong is a traditional water pitcher that forms a natural cooling system through the use of ground material like earth clay. While we live in the modern world with access to units like fans and air conditioners, some have easier access to those units than others. Sustainable cooling methods like the one that comes from Labu Sayong offer insight into providing cooling systems for everyone. Kuan Weiking and Theodore Garvindeo Seah were recently recognized by The James Dyson Award group for Kuno, a sustainable, miniature refrigerator that requires zero electricity for operation.

Kuan and Seah recognized the urgency felt around keeping perishable food items cool in hot and dry climates with limited access to electricity. With over 16% of the world’s population, approximately 192 million people, without access to electricity, Kuno was designed for those in need of a cooling system requiring zero electrical power. Furthermore, Kuno was designed to help reduce our larger carbon footprint that led us to the problem of limited electricity in the first place. Designed using traditional clay-making methods and natural resources, Kuno solves modern needs through local ancient practices. Kuno’s zero-electricity cooling is achieved by utilizing double-wall potting. Sand fills the area in between the two clay pots, which is then watered in order to create a cooling effect by removing latent heat through evaporation. The sand’s cooling effect works in tandem with Kuno’s outer clay wall, which is kept porous so that it can draw additional latent heat from the inner chamber. Simply, the evaporation of water between the two pots draws heat away from the inner chamber, which stores perishable food items like fruits and vegetables. In order to keep the sand moist Kuno comes equipped with a soil planter which, when watered, distributes cool water to the sand, drawing more heat away from the inner chamber, maintaining the evaporation cycle for continued use.

The world of design draws inspiration from every corner of the globe, from science-fiction cult fantasies to fishermen’s dinghies. In a world where so many designs are possible, only a handful might feel inspired by the trouble faced by poverty-stricken communities to create better solutions. Kuan Weiking, one of the designers of Kuno, says, “As a product designer, it is important that we look to design solutions that tackle societal challenges or problems — solutions that are both practical and widely accessible.” Kuan Weiking and Theodore Garvindeo Seah began with mind-mapping to identify how they best could help improve the livelihoods of those living without electricity. Then, through temperature testing, sustainability research, and pulling building material from exclusively natural, renewable resources, this team of student designers artfully created their own proven ideation of a very possible answer for an energy-efficient cooling system.

Designers: Kuan Weiking & Theodore Garvindeo Seah

JAMES DYSON award-winning window uses crop waste to capture UV light for renewable energy

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Sustainability is the next big movement when it comes to design, it is something every industry will have to apply and one of the most interesting parts of it is material exploration – what substitutes can we use or tweaks can we make to optimize our resources for the betterment of the climate? Fossil fuels continue to account for over 81% of global energy production according to the International Energy Agency and if we continue to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, global supplies of gas and oil will deplete by 2060.

To make sure we are prepared for change, we need to focus on accessible and effective renewable alternatives (like Quantum Dots). This year’s James Dyson Award winner in the sustainability category attempts to answer their question with an innovative solar energy-harvesting window made of recycled materials. The AuREUS system uses technology created from upcycled crop waste that helps walls/windows absorb stray UV light from sunlight and convert it to clean renewable electricity – absolute genius!

Designed by Carvey Ehren Maigue of Mapua University, these panels can be crafted into windows or walls which will harvest solar energy and convert it into electricity. Three things that made me instantly fall in love with this design are 1) clean renewable energy 2) using crop waste and 3) lower electricity bills. AuRUES was inspired by the phenomenon of the aurora lights which is a whimsical natural process that occurs when luminescent particles in the upper atmosphere absorb energy from UV and gamma radiation and emit it as visible light. The panels mimic this process by embedding similar luminescent particles in resin so that when the sunlight hits the panel it absorbs the UV and produces visible light. The light is then directed towards the edges of the panel where regular photovoltaic cells collect the energy to turn it into electricity. The colors of the luminescent particles come from dyes that were made from waste crops which makes this a closed-loop system.

The current renewable energy solutions can only generate electricity in the right environmental conditions. For example, solar panels can only capture and convert visible light into renewable energy and must be facing the sun to do so. Even solar farms need to be built horizontally which takes up space that could actually be used for cultivation or other resources. By using AuREUS, it eliminates the need to have certain conditions to harness solar energy which makes it more efficient and accommodating to various spaces.

“As a farmer, I see great potential in this technology to generate clean renewable energy. AuREUS System Technology conserves space using pre-existing structures, utilizes current resources and waste streams, and supports local agricultural communities,” says James Dyson. By harvesting UV radiation AuREUS opens a gateway to increase the potential of solar energy as conventional solar cells miss that part of the spectrum.

Apart from lowering costs, mitigating climate change, and supporting local agricultural communities, these panels will also reduce people’s exposure to radiation that can cause serious diseases and help in reducing the urban carbon footprint with sustainable architecture. “I want to create a better form of renewable energy that uses the world’s natural resources, is close to people’s lives, forging achievable paths and rallying towards a sustainable and regenerative future,” says Maigue. His invention is both future-looking and problem-solving for the present.

Designer: Carvey Ehren Maigue