Tag Archives: The Portal

Called the Portal, this $5000 toilet in the woods looks like a spaceship out of a sci-fi movie

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Jupe has completely revamped and transformed the concept of a public toilet with ‘The Portal’. Designed to be a sci-fi bathroom, the Portal is placed in the middle of the wilderness, completely elevating your outdoor bathroom experience. The Jupe team includes former Tesla and SpaceX designers and they’re quite excited to release their latest shiny porta potty.

Designer: Jupe

The Portal basically comprises of a luxurious box-shaped toilet that mimics a spaceship. Once you enter it, you are welcomed by a clean all-white interior, giving you the impression of being in heaven or any other ethereal place, when you’re sitting on the pot. It also features 200 watts of solar panels, a battery, and an inverter that supports stadium-like lighting and an always-on fan to eliminate odors. The solar panels are meant to be placed near the Portal, or in any position where the sun directly strikes their surface.

A key feature that Jupe focused on was ‘spaciousness’. I know, how spacious can a porta potty really be, but Jupe really did expand the area within the Portal. It has at least three times the interior volume of the usual portable toilet. This is also owing to the natural skylight that the designers have slid onto the roof. The Sky Portal carving on the ceiling transforms the sky into a beautiful canvas, creating an immersive optical illusion, and providing stunning views of the sky to the users. It also brings an ample amount of light into the compact space.

“A full-length mirrored window opens up panoramic, yet private, views of mother nature. A retractable-privacy shade draws down when you’re feeling shy,” said the designers. So, there is a window blind that users can roll down if they’re not in the mood to gaze at nature, and want to go about their business in private.

The toilet also detects when a user steps in. The second someone enters the Portal, a LED track lighting that runs along the ceiling, instantly turns on. Bright warm light and house plants are placed inside the toilet, to give it a cozy and homely feeling. A circular-waste transformation technology is also being integrated which will transform human waste into fertilizer. The Portal toilets will be available for sale in early 2023!

The post Called the Portal, this $5000 toilet in the woods looks like a spaceship out of a sci-fi movie first appeared on Yanko Design.

This portal will transport you anywhere in the world without Dr Strange’s ring!

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The city of Lithuania created a ‘portal’ into another city 600 kilometres away.

We’re slowly turning the corner on the pandemic that has put our lives on pause over a year, but many places still have border restrictions that are keeping loved ones apart and making our travel itch worse. The city of Vilnius, Lithuania, is aiming at helping connect people across countries together by using technology. Meet the Portal, a Dr. Strange-ish window into another world!

Designed by engineers at the Creativity and Innovation Centre (LinkMenu fabrikas) at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, this ‘portal’ connects Lithuania to Poland and makes 600 kilometers look like something you can jump over. The massive circular installation works as a two-way video conferencing platform, offering a virtual portal into different locations. The portals both have large screens and cameras that broadcast live images between the two cities— a kind of digital bridge, according to its creators— meant to encourage people to “rethink the meaning of unity.”

“Humanity is facing many potentially deadly challenges; be it social polarization, climate change, or economic issues. However, if we look closely, it’s not a lack of brilliant scientists, activists, leaders, knowledge, or technology causing these challenges. It’s tribalism, a lack of empathy and a narrow perception of the world, which is often limited to our national borders,” says Benediktas Gylys, President of the Benediktas Gylys Foundation and who Go Vilnius credits as the “initiator” of the portal idea.

The Portal was 5 years in the making, and seeing it come alive as we reach the tail-end of the pandemic is the poetic launch any product designer would love for their work. “From design and 3D modeling to digital content development and logistic challenges – a project like this requires a broad and multifunctional team,” said Adas Meskenas, director of LinkMenu fabrikas. “Meaningful projects like this one are born when diverse people succeed in working together and achieving synchronicity.” It reminds us of the portals in Avengers Endgame that brought back all the superheroes for a final victory against Thanos (something we wish this Portal could conjure too!). Is it corny? Maybe a little, but at the end of the day, it’s an example of how technology makes the world smaller, closer, and more connected!

Designers: Engineers at the Creativity and Innovation Centre (LinkMenu fabrikas) at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University— aka Vilnius Tech.