Poke-free protective packaging!

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Nature put all its effort into making sure the durian was the least consumable fruit ever. It comes with an outer layer of spikes that make it difficult to carry and handle, and its smell is so pungent and overpowering, most hotels in Malaysia have a strict rule against guests bringing durians into their premises. However, it’s still one of the most loved fruits in the region, often referred to as the “king of fruits”.

How does one buy and carry the durian then? It tears through most plastic bags (“duri” means spiky in the Malay language) and can often hurt palms when carried by hand. Designers from Wenzhou College developed a bag especially for carrying the Durian safely. Its construction involves a mesh of paper balls that create a perfect container for the spiky durian. The bag comes as a flat mat into which the durian is placed. The edges are folded over to make sure the durian isn’t exposed from any side, and handles on the top allow people to then carry the bag conventionally or even hold it against their body or place it on their lap without getting virtually perforated by the fruit’s spiky outer layer!

Designers: Qiu Liwei, Shi Xiaoming, Li Jiawei, Jiang Lei & Shao Jian.

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Taking the Dust out of Industrial!

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My design college was right beside a large cement warehouse. I’d usually keep my hostel windows shut because even though the warehouse was a kilometer away, the dust would carry itself to the campus, through the windows, and form a coating over all my things. I imagine construction sites are much worse… making it quite dangerous for the people working there (studies show inhaling too much dust can increase changes of lung ailments including cancer). The Solar Dusting Fence isn’t just a collection of random words. It replaces the tarp scaffolding you see on buildings under construction. This new tarp is lined with flexible solar panels that connect themselves to a motor. The solar panels are mounted on hollow pipes with perforations on either side. These pipes suck in dust particles from the work-site as well as the outside, making sure you’re inhaling air that’s relatively cleaner. Neat, no? I’m also reminded of the artist in Beijing who used a vacuum cleaner to suck in atmospheric dust to make a brick. Imagine if this system allowed construction sites to make their own bricks too! Wouldn’t that just be awesome?!

Designers: Huang Tao, Shi Xiaoming, Qiu Liwei, Shen Lihua and Liu Guona.

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Gotta Catch ‘Em All!

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The Fruit collecting net needs no explanation. Even the image is self explanatory. Fruits can fall at the most random, unpredictable times, and when they fall to the ground, they can get damaged or covered with bugs/germs. The Fruit collecting net is an elegant solution to this problem that allows fruits to be harvested without being damaged.

The Fruit Collecting Net is a Red Dot Award winning design for the year 2015.

Designers: Qiu Liwei, Shen Lihua, Li Yu, Shi Xiaoming and Liu Guona.

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