Top 10 automotive trends of 2022

Posted on 23/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

We’ve been seeing a torrential and exciting downpour of automotive designs at Yanko Design. Each automotive was innovative, bringing to us something we had never seen nor experienced before. From killer speed to dashing good looks, to impenetrable safety standards, every automotive we featured at YD broke some design barrier for us, and hopefully, they did the same for you as well. Hence, we’ve curated a collection of automotive designs that we feel were the best of the lot! From an Akira superbike with Cyberpunk 2077 futurism to Honda’s insane electric pickup truck concept – each of these drool-worthy automobiles is mercilessly pushing the boundaries of the automotive industry! Automotive enthusiasts will be itching to get their hands on them, and take them for a spin on the streets!

1. The Ridgeline EV Concept

The Ridgeline EV concept comes from the mind of California-based Rene Garcia, a concept designer at ILM who’s previously worked on The Mandalorian, Thor: Ragnarok, The Avengers, and the Transformers anthology. Garcia began designing the vehicle as a Dakar rally truck, but gradual iterations slowly turned it into a conceptual pickup truck for Honda. Designed to handle pretty much anything you can throw at it, the EV comes with its own winch-hook on the front, a frunk behind it, suicide-style rear doors that give you access to the car’s spacious interiors, and an expandable truck-bed on the back that even comes equipped with tools and emergency medical kits.

2. Akira&Ducati

The aggressive Akira bike here gets the donor bike’s trellis frame with the extra framework to support the rider on long journeys, a jet-inspired cockpit draped in carbon elements, and an L-Twin internal combustion engine with a set of turbochargers for more power delivery. The massive spherical Pirelli P-ZERO tires and the colossal front air intakes give it the Cyberpunk-worthy appeal. And rightly so, as Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga Akira inspired the Cyberpunk 2077 Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X – the fastest bike in the open-world action-adventure game.

3. The Lamborghini Huracán STO

When subtlety was being handed out, the Lamborghini Huracán STO was at the back of the line napping. Actually no, that’s not true. It had snuck away from the queue and darted to a nearby race track to get an injection of steroids and a full race car cosmetic makeover. Because that’s what this car is all about. Loud to look at and loud at 8500 revs. It’s basically a street-legal race car. With its ultra-low sleek profile, huge air intakes, massive rear wing, and screaming V10 engine, this model is the most eye-opening Huracán and best handling yet. Descended from the DNA of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo one-make series—hence the ‘STO’ name that stands for Super Trofeo Omologata (Italian for Homologation)—this hypercar is more tailored to track use than city driving. Much more.

4. BMW iX Flow Concept

This is one of the most eye-catchy things seen at the Omicron inflicted show in Las Vegas this year. BMW calls it the iX Flow Concept and although it seems like any other iX crossover prototype, what it has got is something straight out of a Transformers movie plot. A futuristic car that can blend right into its surroundings to go invisible magically! Well, that is a far-fetched dream for now, as the EV for now uses E Ink technology (much like the Amazon Kindle series’ display) to put forth a hypnotic show of color-changing skin. The implementation is in its infancy stage right now, as the iX Flow Concept can switch between the hues of white, dark gray, and black only.

5. Titaa

Titaa is a dual-purpose, electric vehicle that can transform from a two-wheel e-bike into a self-balancing unicycle. While riding manual unicycles might be too much of a learning curve for most, self-balancing, electric unicycles sound more like something we could all get behind. Titaa, a unicycle with just those sorts of mechanics, conceptualized by Husky Design is a dual-purpose, modular vehicle that can transform from a bicycle into a self-balancing unicycle. Getting to know our cities through different modes of transportation brings us to sights and places we previously hadn’t known existed. Titaa is the type of electric bike you’d see zooming down the wooden planks of Santa Monica pier or up the cobblestone avenues of Paris.

6. Polestar

Dubbed Polestar, Kang Sik Park envisioned their futuristic automobile dressed in an optic white aluminum-like facade, which is accented with strips of sleek black metal for a refined touch. Symmetrical on all sides, the exterior of Polestar is used to represent connectivity and the coming together of humans for a shared interest. Hover blades slide out from the vehicle’s roof to lift Polestar off the ground into the air. Additionally, Park equipped Polestar with progressive technology such as GPS and facial recognition to help modernize the airborne vehicle.

7. Apple Car Concept

This 360-degree movable autonomous car has a door that flings open to reveal a cocoon-like cockpit with two comfortable seats. Since it is designed from Apple’s perspective, it has a nice sheen and a clean finish. The renders suggest the nice reclining structure of the pod will house occupants comfortably whether on the city street or on the expressway. The two-seat pod for Apple foresees a future where such vehicles will be self-driving from pillar to post carrying and dropping off passengers and quietly moving back to their defined parking spot like a decent Roomba in the house.

8. The Citroën La météo

This Citroën concept got me excited with its weather-changing idea. Yes, an autonomous pod car that creates the kind of weather on the inside to your liking. Christened the Citroën La météo (Weather Project) the focus of the designers is on encapsulating the two riders in the ambient weather they’d prefer on any given day, even though the weather on the outside is completely opposite. The inside cabin of this compact pod-like four-wheeler creates the visual and sensory atmosphere to trick you into a completely different realm. So, you could be driving to your destination in the chilly winter of London while feeling and seeing the warmth of the spring New York sun on the inside!

9. The Hyundai EGG

Christened the Hyundai EGG, this compact off-roading capable set of wheels is a mix of a buggy and compact hatchback. Alejandro wanted to take a detour from the conventional automotive designs that mostly focus on luxury and comfort. The ideation took him down the path of crafting a reliable electric mini pickup car that has a better mileage even at higher speeds while en route to the neighboring city. The efficiency of the EGG’s electric drivetrain permits the car to maintain good range even when treading the off-roading trails. Since vision and blind spots can be a real problem while driving in treacherous and unfavorable weather conditions, the designer lends the Hyundai EGG a 360-degree panoramic windshield for clear visibility for a safer drive.

10. The Bax Moto MK3

Dubbed the Bax Moto MK3, the motorbike is highlighted by the sleek flowing silhouette of the exposed mechanical parts, giving it a very muscular feel. The headlights and the front section edges forward – sort of intimidating the onlooker, giving me the ultimate Batcycle vibe the first time I glanced at it. The double-sided long swing arm gives the crime-fighting ride a low-slung position as the leaning forward position of the rider means it can be driven at break-neck speeds. Bax Moto MK3 is draped in an all-black finish with hints of gray to add contrast and depth.Funiq. The instrument cluster and the wheels carry the same grungy feel spiced up by the subtle lines that are apparent on the fuel tank are as well. This in a way signifies the spirit of speed and motion. Another peculiar addition to the bike is the offset headlight with the pair of fog lights – giving it a very unique sense of styling.

The post Top 10 automotive trends of 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 cabin trends of 2022

Posted on 23/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

Cabins have been a relaxing and quintessential getaway option for everyone for ages galore. They’re the ultimate safe haven in the midst of nature, if you simply want to get away from your hectic city lives, and unwind. If you want a simple and minimal vacation, that lets you truly connect with nature, without any of the materialistic luxuries most of us have gotten accustomed to, then a cabin retreat is the answer for you! And, we’ve curated some beautiful and super comfortable cabins that’ll be the perfect travel destination for you. From a tiny black cabin built from felled oak trees to a cabin that looks like a modern hobbit house – these mesmerizing and surreal cabins are the ultimate retreat, you’ve been searching for!

1. Hemmelig Room

Calling the bookworm’s oasis Hemmelig Room, or ‘secret room’ in Norwegian, Studio Padron built the entire tiny cabin from disused mature oak trees that were felled during the main home’s construction. From the outside, Hemmelig Room finds a geometric structure clad in blackened timber. Following the main home’s construction process, the felled oak trees were cut into large, rectangular log sections that were left to dry over several years before building Hemmelig Room. Inside, the blackened timber reveals the oak tree’s raw, polished form. From top to bottom, Studio Padron outfitted Hemmelig Room’s interior in nonuniform timber panels that merge with cavities to create bookshelves.

2. Road-Haus

Road-Haus is a 250sqf tiny cabin scaled down from a larger model designed by Wheelhaus, a tiny home company committed to modular and eco-friendly design practices. Set on providing the kind of experience he had growing up in log cabins constructed by his father, Jamie McKay developed Wheelhaus. More than a company that designs tiny homes, Wheelhaus remains committed to building modular log cabins with small carbon footprints that offer travelers and residents a true escape into the woods.

3. Slope House 2

This uniquely-shaped house is located on sloping land and gives major hobbit vibes but through the lens of modern architecture. The design consists of a surface that starts from the ground and extends and forms the shape and defines the interior space. In the interior space, a glass strip starts from the floor and extends to the ceiling to maintain a visual connection to the entire space in fourth dimensions from the interior space. On both sides of the entrance, the two trees combine with the volume and define the entrance space giving it a harmonious, fluid aesthetic that connects the exterior, interior, and the surrounding landscape!

4. Wauhaus

Taking cues from the treehouses that defined our childhoods, Hello Wood, an international architecture studio based in Budapest, designed Wauhaus. Perched above a sloping hillside in Hungary’s Zala County, Wauhaus is a tiny cabin inspired by children’s treehouses that depends on four stilts to remain aboveground. Envisioned to be a private workspace or remote holiday retreat, the 20sqm Wauhaus keeps a low profile and the charm in the details. Reinforced by triple screws, Wauhaus rises above the ground on four wooden beams of varying heights to form a unique silhouette and standing profile.

5. The Woodpecker Forest Cabin

This cabin is a beautiful two-floored unit with a small balcony on the upper floor that provides an elevated view of the forest. Large glass windows also ensure that the cabin’s interiors get enough light during the day while also letting you experience the forest’s grandeur to its fullest. However, the Woodpecker Forest Cabin’s most delightful feature is the sheltered patio that sits right under the stilted cabin. A perfect place to lounge during the day, host campfires during the night, or even park your car, this patio enhances the cabin’s ability to let you truly reconnect with nature.

6. Kiani’s Gisoom Cabin

Defined by north and south-facing facades that are formed entirely from glass, Kiani’s Gisoom Cabin was visualized so that these facades collect the most amount of natural sunlight and are oriented for the best views of the surrounding forest. The glass facades are also complete with an expansive set of eaves that offer some protection on days when the sunlight might be too bright. Following the eaves to the shingled facades, dark brick comprises Kiani’s sloping roofs to bring out a direct contrast to the light wood that makes up the cabin’s eaves and interior spaces.

7. The Smart Lucia

The Smart Lucia gives a whole new meaning to “living in a glass house,” though the glass, in this case, is far from the fragile material that the idiom implies. The glass here serves as more than just a safe viewing window into Finland’s majestic greenery. The thermal glass, along with glass and floor heating, will save you from frostbite during the country’s notoriously unforgiving winters. Then again, there might not be much to see during that season anyway, unless you’re the type that does enjoy frozen sceneries.

8. City Cabin

Situated in one of Seattle’s most established residential areas is the ‘City Cabin’. Jim Olson, the co-founder of the acclaimed architecture studio Olson Kundig, designed this urban retreat for a longtime friend who absolutely adored his cabin in Puget Sound. Jim had been working on this cabin since he was 18 years old, and she insisted that it should be the inspiration behind her upcoming home. She also wanted to capture the unfettered and gorgeous forested feel that lingered within and around the home.”The client wanted to feel like she was living in the wilderness when, in fact, her home is on a regular-size urban neighborhood lot,” Jim said. And, City Cabin is a true reflection of that!

9. La Pointe

Nestled within Canada’s Poisson Blanc Regional Park is a micro cabin named, ‘La Pointe’. Designed by Montreal-based L’Abri, La Pointe is a serene little cabin that provides shelter to the visitors of the park. The triangular-shaped structure is a rejuvenated reinterpretation of the typical A-frame chalets that became so popular in North America in the 1950s. The A-frame cottage-inspired cabin can house up to four individuals, while also helping them stay connected to the pure undiluted nature all around. “It was important for the designers to create a simple, almost sculptural structure that would provide functional and nature-oriented spaces,” said L’Abri. And, La Pointe is a true reflection of that.

10. Nido

Nido is a tiny cabin with a 100-square-foot floor plan to meet Finland’s zoning laws that do not require a building permit for houses with a floor plan between 96 and 128 square feet. The cabin comprises two levels and keeps a low profile exterior, with unstained wooden siding and white painted frame elements that tie the cabin together with a touch of elegant simplicity. A bare ramp walkway composed of wooden planks leads to the tiny cabin’s entrance and connects to the cabin’s side deck. Inside, angled, expansive windows drench both floors with natural sunlight and compliment the home’s natural wooden interior and soft hues of the Nordic-inspired color scheme found throughout the cabin.

The post Top 10 cabin trends of 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 DIY architecture trends of 2022

Posted on 19/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

There’s a new trend in architecture, and honestly, we completely approve of it – it’s DIY! Imagine building up and creating your own home or holiday cabin! How awesome would it be to lounge about and live in the fruit of your own efforts? And don’t worry these architectural designs don’t require too much of an effort either! These simple DIY structures are often flat-packed or come with a complete kit that helps you with the entire step-by-step process. This collection of DIY architecture proves not only how simple and economical this technique is, but also how much construction waste and unnecessary materials it cuts down on! From a DIY tiny home on wheels that is inspired by desert architecture to a DIY A-frame garage – I hope these innovative structures inspire you to take on your own DIY architectural project!

1. Lola

Lola is a tiny home on wheels that’s part of designer Mariah Hoffman’s larger multi-disciplinary design studio and brand Micro Modula, one that explores “home, place, and the self.” Over the span of five years, Hoffman gradually transformed an old utility trailer into a 156-square-foot mobile tiny home. Born out of a daydream to build her own home, Hoffman built Lola to “learn all the necessary skills for [her] personal and creative survival.” Particularly spurred by the essentialist edge of desert modernism, Hoffman turned to construction materials that aesthetically met the bill and also provided some functional elements for the home to brace the seasons as well as the local critters.

2. AirCrete Home

In the quest to find the perfect substitute many alternatives like foamcrete, papercrete, and hempcrete were created. Now we’ve got aircrete – a foamy mixture of air bubbles and cement which is cost-effective to produce, DIY-friendly, and has the essential safeguarding properties needed for construction. Hajjar Gibran had the idea to create AirCrete homes and DomeGaia brought it to life. The aircrete mixture is a lightweight and low-cost building block that is fireproof, water-resistant, insect-proof, and serves to insulate the structure. AirCrete reduces construction costs by 10 times and is an easy material to work with for single-story homes.

3. The Den Garage

The Den Garage is a DIY garage floor plan from Den Outdoors that allows owners to build their own garage while following Den Outdoors’s blueprints. Presented in three different packages, Den Outdoors has available floor plans for two-car and three-car garages. The two-car garage spans 650 square feet while the three-car garage stretches a little further, covering a total of 950 square feet. Similar to the company’s collection of cabin designs, the garages maintain that same classic A-frame structure that exudes rustic energy without compromising the structure’s geometric, contemporary appeal. Adding to the garage’s modern look, Den Outdoors outfitted each garage floor plan with weather-resistant, floor-to-ceiling windows for owners to show off their cars without fear of the elements getting to them.

4. The Zome Building Kit

You don’t have to be an architect to want to build a bamboo structure of your own thank to the ‘Zome building kit’ by Giant Grass! The studio has made a DIY kit that is basically a larger-than-life LEGO project which can live in your backyard or be scaled up to create a community space. The ‘zome’ is a flexible space that can be used by children to hang out in the backyard, like a gazebo for you to entertain guests in, a greenhouse for seedlings, a creative space in the office, a quiet space for yoga at home, or a glamping tent – it can be anything you want it to be. This DIY kit is perfect for those who want to live sustainability and enjoy working on projects which result in a productive reward. The kit comes with all accessories needed – 350 precision-made bamboo strips, nuts, bolts, and an installation guide to make the 3m x 3m ‘zome’.

5. System 00

Backcountry Hut Company released a collection of DIY A-frame cabin kits that allows buyers to build their own cabins without construction permits and little to no heavy machinery. Each cabin ‘system,’ comes prefabricated in a flat-pack layout that can be assembled either by amateur or professional builders depending on the model. System 00 is described as Backcountry’s “essentialist A-frame shelter.” Stocked with only the essentials, System 00 measures 10’x10’ and was designed to welcome living spaces such as a single bedroom with room for one sleeping bunk, a meditation studio for yoga, or an open space for working on art.

6. EconOdome

Dubbed as EconOdome, each structure’s frame and triangle panel kits come pre-cut and partially assembled with detailed instructions – so better than IKEA and you get a whole home instead of just a couch! EconOdome homes are built similarly to conventional homes involving a foundation and the main floor. Once that is in place, the vertical walls and roof is added in. There are 130 triangular roofing elements that connect to form the dome which has 10 equal sides. To minimize waste, parts in the DIY kit are cut to fit precisely with no additional work required on that end. The wood also comes with pre-drilled holes for stainless steel screws and caps to make assembling it super easy.

7. Nathalie and Greg Kupfer’s Micro-cabin

Nathalie and Greg Kupfer’s micro-cabin is built from repurposed waste findings and secondhand furnishings, outfitted with rainwater collection sites and solar systems for off-grid living. Retired industrial designer and former paramedic, Nathalie and Greg Kupfer began work on their off-grid micro-cabin in Canmore, Alberta after receiving a plot of ranch land and a decrepit shed from two neighbors. Following the cabin’s fortuitous beginnings, the Kupfer’s conceived a layout for their snug, solar-powered, 97-square-foot micro cabin built from recycled and repurposed outfittings, amounting to a total net cost of only $50.

8. The Kabinka Cabin

A Hungarian company called Hello Wood has designed a tiny minimalist cabin that you can assemble yourself for creative space solutions or just an escape from your living room. The prefabricated cabins start at $10,200 and have been crafted in a way that anyone can put together, it is truly the ultimate DIY project. With the tiny home market ‘growing’ rapidly, the Kabinka cabin is positioned to be like IKEA furniture – easy to assemble with an aesthetic that is loved by most. The Kabinka cabin comes in four sizes that range between 129 and 215 square feet.

9. Den

Setting up camp has never looked so good and it setting up a minimal glamping cabin just got a whole lot easier thanks to Den! The cabin design studio has a range of flat-packed DIY-style kits that let you assemble your own A-frame cabin in a few days. The average size is 115-square-foot (10.68-square-meter) with models that are larger and smaller depending on what you are looking for. Once assembled, you can see the slanted wooden walls and a floor-to-ceiling triangular window just like how we drew a picture of a cabin as children. The space is minimal and can be transformed into a cozy getaway, a yoga studio, or a creative retreat! The prefab pieces for the cabin are made in New York and come with pre-drilled holes, all wooden structural parts that lock together, bolts, and even door hardware.

10. Yakafu’s flagship DIY bakery

Kostas Chatzigiannis Architecture completed a Yakafu’s flagship DIY bakery in Anji, China. The brightly colored structure is bold and instantly attracts attention! Adults and children can learn how to bake pastries and bread in the double-storey building which is highlighed by terrazo surfaces and metallic detailing. DIY has never been so graphic and intriguing!

The post Top 10 DIY architecture trends of 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 LEGO trends of 2022

Posted on 18/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

Remember when we spent our summer vacations and free time after school fiddling around with LEGO blocks, and sometimes painfully stepping on them with our feet? Fun times, right? But, LEGO is no more considered child’s play! Master builders, artists, and LEGO enthusiasts all over the world are creating impressive LEGO builds that’ll blow your minds away. They are a result of their hours of dedication, attention to detail, hard work, and creativity. They can be considered works of art, and I love scrolling through these creations, admiring them, and feeling an intense surge of satisfaction at their perfection. And, we’ve curated the best of the lot for you to drool and go gaga over!

1. The LEGO Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE

Using over 100,000 LEGO pieces, designer Ekow Nimako imagines the Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE a Ghanaian metropolis 1000 years in the future. This artwork is the centerpiece for his exhibition titled Building Black Civilizations and showcases details like nothing you have ever seen before, almost reminiscent of the Game of Thrones title sequence!

2. Planterior

Planterior keeps the shape and size of a traditional bulletin board and integrates a gardening system into its structure to bring greenery to any workspace. Describing Planterior’s inspiration in their own words, Dasol notes, “Due to the influence of fine dust and COVID-19, people, who do not have the opportunity to access plants outdoors, are increasingly putting plants into their homes…Home gardening and plant territories are gaining vitality [as a result].”

3. The LEGO DeLorean

Designed and built by LEGO creator Mr. Platinum using 2800 LEGO Technic pieces, this absolutely delightful mini replica of the DMC DeLorean from Back To The Future comes complete with a detailed exterior as well as interior, functioning doors, glowing lights, and a Bluetooth controller that lets you remotely drive the little car around! The LEGO DeLorean is a stunning MOC (My Own Creation) that boasts of functioning headlights and taillights, glowing pipes around the car’s periphery as well as on the inside, motorized doors that open on command to reveal the detailed interiors, and for good measure, repositionable tires that become horizontal to resemble the car flying through space and time.

4. The LEGO Sun Earth Moon Orrery

The LEGO Sun Earth Moon Orrery is a stunningly detailed little kinetic machine that doesn’t just replicate the movement of the earth and moon around the sun, it also factors in the earth’s axial tilt, tracks moon phases, demonstrate solar and lunar eclipses, and aims at being as astronomically accurate as possible. Made from a staggering 2303 pieces, the Sun Earth Moon Orrery uses 70 Technic gears to allow the cosmic bodies to move realistically and can either be manually controlled using a hand crank or electrically via an RC motor.

5. LEGO Animal Sculptures

Mitsuru Nikaido, a Kurashiki-based artist, makes sculptures of different animal species from LEGO building blocks. When constructing his sculptures, the Japanese LEGO enthusiast tends towards a cyberpunk aesthetic and gray-scale color palette to highlight his signature style. His varied collection includes LEGO sculptures of walruses, Huntsman spiders, crayfish, cicadas, triceratops, beetles, shoebills, and even microscopic water bears.

6. The LEGO Sony PlayStation 5 replica

The LEGO Sony PlayStation 5 replica is the brainchild of LEGO Master Builder Rolling Bricks, who submitted their project to the LEGO Ideas forum – a crowd-sourced initiative by LEGO to help creators make new designs with LEGO’s vast catalog of bricks. If accepted and appreciated by the LEGO Ideas community, the project gets the green signal from LEGO executives and turns from a fan-made design to a LEGO kit that people can actually buy off shelves and online stores. With 489 votes from the LEGO community, the PS5 replica still requires roughly 9,500 votes to be considered by the LEGO officials, although from the looks of it, it’s pretty easy to build one on your own, with a few simple brick shapes!

7. The LEGO M 1000 RR

The sizeable LEGO interpretation of the M 1000 RR measures a little under 18 inches long and 10 inches tall. The set is made up of 1,920 individual LEGO pieces which in itself will be a satisfying exercise to put together. This LEGO Technic set – the largest ever bike set – will be nirvana for model building enthusiasts and biking affectionate owing to the extent of realism that’s mirrored. There are functional intricate components, including the 4 piston engine, three-speed gearbox, steering wheel, upside-down fork with the rear swingarm suspension, and the dashboard with three display options. That’s further honed by the red, white and blue color scheme and iconic BMW branding, gold-colored drive chain, paddock stand, and a pit board for the genuine racing flair.

8. LEGO Homeware Collection

This entire collection is crafted from FSC-certified red oak, and each product is available in two variants – a soaped oak and a dark stained oak finish. Every product is almost a recreation of the original LEGO brick design. They’re like super-sized LEGO with light and dark alter egos! They are designed to scale and follow the original brick dimensions, hence they can even be stacked! The products mimick quite a few of the iconic LEGO elements – from the single stud to other easily recognizable pieces. And of course, all the items have been embellished with the iconic LEGO lettering! The full collection consists of a Wall Hanger Set (set of three), a picture frame, a book rack, two Desk Drawer options – 2×2 and 2×4.

9. The LEGO Ideas Antique Cash Register

Built to absolute stunning detail, the LEGO Ideas Antique Cash Register models itself directly on the National Cash Register Model 452 – a popular cashier’s machine from the 19th Century, designed and developed in Ohio at the start of the era of retail businesses. The LEGO variant, however, is the brainchild of a Master Builder who goes by the name of dimexart, and uses a whopping 2055 pieces to come together.

10. The LEGO Imperial Light Cruiser

The latest LEGO sets include the Moff Gideon’s Imperial Light Cruiser (which I’m surely going to add to the collection), Imperial Armored Marauder, and the bounty hunter Boba Fett’s Starship. The highlight of them all is the Imperial Light Cruiser (75315) which comes with a bridge (doubles as a handle for flying action), large spring-loaded shooters, and dual mini TIE Fighters. How could the LEGO set not have the main leads – that’s why it also comes with The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda minifigures along with the infamous villain Moff Gideon, Fennec Shand, Cara Dune, and the Dark Tropper too.

The post Top 10 LEGO trends of 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 LEGO trends of 2022

Posted on 18/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

1. The LEGO Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE

2. Planterior

3. The LEGO DeLorean

4. The LEGO Sun Earth Moon Orrery

5. LEGO Animal Sculptures

6. The LEGO Sony PlayStation 5 replica

7. The LEGO M 1000 RR

8. LEGO Homeware Collection

9. The LEGO Ideas Antique Cash Register

10. The LEGO Imperial Light Cruiser

The post Top 10 LEGO trends of 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 kitchen appliance trends of 2022

Posted on 17/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

Before the pandemic took place, cooking was a chore I completely avoided! But now, I honestly find it quite therapeutic! The pandemic, and all the free time that came along with it, somehow awakened my inner chef! I’m sure a lot of other inner chefs were brought to life as well. And with the third wave slowly encroaching upon the world, it may be time to deep dive into cooking once again! Especially with the right kitchen tools and appliances, cooking can be a fun and effortless process. The right products can reduce your prep time in half, make the little cooking tasks much easier, and help you with tedious and complicated techniques. This collection of kitchen appliances promises to transform cooking from a Herculean feat to an approachable and enjoyable process! Let your inner chef take over with the help of these innovative and nifty designs!

1. The Reencle

Designed to effectively compost and break down food waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer, the Reencle is a compact, quiet, odor-free kitchen appliance that puts your food waste to good use; although that shouldn’t give you an excuse to waste more food! Hoping to put that waste into good use so it doesn’t end up in a landfill creating tonnes of CO2 and Methane as it decomposes, the Reencle is an at-home solution that helps efficiently break down food in a way that turns it into a rich compost that benefits the planet instead of harming it. Microorganisms inside the Reencle’s inner chamber break the food down in roughly 24 hours, creating a compost that can be used in gardens, backyards, indoor planters, or even be disposed of, so it doesn’t harm the environment.

2. Carnerie

Turner designed Carnerie – a conceptual device that will let you grow your own meat in the future! Cultured meat is the process of growing meat from cells extracted from animals. Many experts believe that cultured meat offers us the opportunity to produce meat with significantly reduced environmental impacts and without slaughtering animals. The technology is being rapidly developed across the world and is beginning to be introduced to some high-end restaurants but there has been discussion about whether one day we may be able to grow our own meat from animal cells in our own kitchens. Carnerie is a ‘grow your own meat’ device for around twenty years in the future. It is controlled by an app, whereby the user is able to order cell capsules from local farms in order to grow a variety of different types of meat. This conceptual, speculative project is designed to help us visualize what this future scenario could be like and whether it’s a future that we would buy into.

3. GoodHome’s Trash Bins

GoodHome’s trash bins are comprised of three different sections that help make sorting trash simple. While each household can assign different types of waste for each bin, a typical household would allot one for recyclables, regular trash, and then food waste for compost. To provide enough storage capacity while maintaining a compact size, GoodHome merged those three different compartments to create a one-stop-shop for all of your trash needs. The different modules can also be configured to meet your spatial needs. Each trash bin is made from stainless steel for a simple, modern look that’s also impact-resistant to maximize the product’s shelf life. Then, when it’s time to take out the trash, users can lift the bin’s internal container to gain access to the garbage bag’s liner.

4. Balance

Balance, a plant cultivator designed by Designer Dot, is designed for those of us who’d like access to a personal supply of fresh produce at home without the hassle of tending to a garden day-in, day-out. When creating Balance, the team at Designer Dot sought to conceptualize an at-home plant cultivator that’s compact enough to fit into any modern kitchen and inconspicuous in its minimalist design to adapt to any interior design scheme. Balance comes with pull-out drawers that contain pods and sprout cavities for produce and crops to germinate from and grow. The drawers themselves can be removed to allow ceiling height for taller plants to grow, which users can swap in and out for different plants accordingly.

5. Cook Nook

Non-electric toaster and oven combos have struck their brilliance with the outdoorsy, the gas-powered Cook Nook presents an added advantage with a stove. There is so much one can do with the non-electric toaster, stove, and oven combo. It can be used for making toasts, roasting chicken, baking cake and even preparing a meal when electricity isn’t a luxury. So, when stepping into the wilderness, a portable and lightweight gas-operated toaster, oven, the stove is the icing on the cake since it opens up possibilities for a great treat for a large family or friends gathering with the choice of pizzas, cookies, and other delicious.

6. Hoto

Zheng’s smart kitchen scale, Hoto, is minimal by design, adorned with not much more than stainless steel controls and a polished, reflective sheen. The scale scales back on the number of controls and buttons, consolidating every control into one interactive knob that functions as the scale’s, power sensor, weight dial, and net-zero button. In addition to the appliance’s interactive control switch, Hoto comes with an accompanying social media app that allows other Hoto users to share their recipes and pre-measured weight parameters.

7. The ONE BRUSH

Designed to look less like something you’d pick up from Target and more like a design-driven object from Alessi, the ONE BRUSH conveniently combines modern aesthetics with research-driven functionality and adds a dash of sustainable thinking. The brush sports a thick, well-weighted design that looks less plastic and more premium, as it sits magnetically attached to the side of your kitchen sink. The ergonomic grip makes it comfortable to hold, while the tilted bristles give you the right gripping angle to easily soap and scrub your dishes.

8. OXO’s Cookie Press

Much better than any cookie-cutter you’ll ever use, OXO’s Cookie Press doesn’t cut cookies, it pumps or extrudes them. The Cookie Press is a hand-operated cookie-pumping machine that relies on a stainless-steel die to push out intricately formed cookies with speed and consistency. Just load the die-disc of your choice into the Cookie Press’s base and fill the cylinder with cookie dough (your dough needs to be neither too wet nor too dry) and attach the pumping handle on top and you’re ready to go!

9. Lapitec Chef

The induction cooking system is seamless and very easy to operate. All you have to do is place the Lapitec Chef silicone mat on your worktop to activate the touch controls and switch on the system. The mat is key, without it the induction unit and controls will be inactive and the worktop is like any other kitchen counter only distinguished only by small engravings that align with the mat’s controls. Lapitec Chef allows for easy cleaning and storage so the counter can be used for other activities like preparing food, plating dishes, and hosting social occasions. Interestingly, Lapitec is a 100% sintered stone and it is also non-porous, non-absorbent as well as resistant to chemicals which makes it ideal for both indoor and outdoor kitchens. You can choose to have either two or four cooking rings for your induction system.

10. MY Idra bottle

The bottle’s clever design focuses on three really important elements/innovations. For starters, the MY Idra bottle is entirely plastics-free and is designed to last forever even with constant use. On the outside, the MY Idra comes with a double-layered stainless steel and glass construction. The 18/8 stainless steel enclosure houses the unpurified water, which trickles through the MY Idra’s filter, dripping gradually into and filling up the transparent glass cup below. The second and most noteworthy bit of innovation lies in MY Idra’s filter, a unique, everlasting little porous ceramic puck that can both filter as well as mineralize the water.

The post Top 10 kitchen appliance trends of 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 tiny home trends of 2022

Posted on 15/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

2022 is here, and it has brought with it some exciting new tiny home designs! Sustainability has been running on everybody’s mind. Ever since the pandemic shook up our world, we’re trying to incorporate sustainability into every aspect of our life, including our homes! And, with everyone aspiring toward’s eco-friendly and mindful ways of living, tiny homes have completely taken over the world of architecture and cemented their place as sustainable, minimal, and economical micro-living setups. What started off as a cute little trend is now turning into a serious option for home spaces. They are a space-saving and eco-friendly living solution that reduces the load on Mother Earth! They’re simple and minimal alternatives to the imposing and materialistic homes that seem to have taken over. And, we’ve curated a wide range of micro-home setups that totally grabbed our attention in 2021! From an AI-enabled prefab tiny home to a bilevel tiny cabin that comes with a 100-square-foot floor plan – there’s a tiny home out there for everyone!

1. Cube One

Low-cost, prefabricated, and ready to live in homes are all the rage right now! And tiny home builder Nestron has jumped on the bandwagon with their latest AI-enabled home ‘Cube One’. Cube One is a 156 square foot home perfect for all kinds of residents – from single youngsters to large families. The value for money home has been equipped with built-in furnishings, voice-controlled tech, and a galvanized steel shell that not only lends it a sci-fi feel but also protects it from extreme temperatures and natural disasters. Starting at $30,000, the Cube One can be shipped to any location in the world, and will be ready for you to move into from the moment it arrives!

2. Nido

3. Planedennig

Planedennig, which translates to ‘little planet’ in Breton, was designed and built for Gaël and Eflamm, a mother and her young son, to have a place for living and for play. Defined by its colorful joinery that punctuates the exterior, Planedennig’s outer facade keeps a cedar finish that helps calm the playful energy. Measuring a total length of only six feet, Planedennig has a unique layout that makes the most of the tiny home’s interior volume.

4. Portable Cabin

Designed as a prefabricated tiny home comprised of two disused freight containers, Portable Cabin is a 55m2 mobile home and office located in Poznan, Poland. Situated above a small creek, Wiercinski Studio’s Portable Cabin was prefabricated offsite before landing in the lush gardens of Poznan’s Szelagowski Park. There, Wiercinski designed the interior of Portable Cabin within just one day. From the outside, Portable Cabin boasts its factory-made profile, with discreet army green facades made from trapezoidal sheet metal. Trading camouflage green for bright, sun-soaked interiors, the living spaces of Portable Cabin are framed by birch plywood panels.

5. Wai House

This modern architectural concept is designed to be built in New Zealand and focuses on collecting water and using it sustainably. The house itself is constructed with sustainable materials, cedarwood is used for the exterior cladding and the interiors use concrete with recycled plastic instead of sand. It has an almost Japandi-inspired aesthetic which is elegant enough on its own without taking away from the environment it is in. It is designed to collect and store rainwater for use with systems in place that funnel it to the kitchen, bathroom, and outdoor greenery. Since it is just a concept, there is potential for it to become even more sustainable by adding solar panels for energy efficiency.

6. Lola

Over the span of five years, Hoffman gradually transformed an old utility trailer into a 156-square-foot mobile tiny home. Born out of a daydream to build her own home, Hoffman built Lola to “learn all the necessary skills for [her] personal and creative survival.” Particularly spurred by the essentialist edge of desert modernism, Hoffman turned to construction materials that aesthetically met the bill and also provided some functional elements for the home to brace the seasons as well as the local critters.

7. 2nd Home

2nd Home is a series of tiny homes planned and built by Japanese startup SANU with minimal building material to immerse travelers in the wonder of nature for a quick respite from the hustle of city living. In planning and constructing the collection of honeycomb timber cabins, SANU ensured a lightweight, replicable design using only a small number of building materials to get the job done. Each 2nd Home cabin is built prefabricated from 100% Japanese cedar and fastened to the site by six piles, which hardly impact the preexisting landscape.

8. Permanent Camping II

Defined by two distinct towers and movable copper-clad awnings, Permanent Camping II is a sustainable tiny home designed and constructed by Casey Brown Architects. Situated at the base of a gently sloping hill, Permanent Camping II is a prefabricated tiny house located only 500 meters away from the main house on a homestead in New South Wales, Australia. Designed and developed by Casey Brown Architecture, Permanent Camping II is a tiny house stripped-back to become a “retreat with ‘everything you need and nothing you don’t need’ with the demands of living distilled to the bare essentials.”

9. VMD

VMD (Vivienda Minima de Descanso) from STUDIOROCA is a line of prefabricated tiny homes built from disused shipping containers in Mexico, with an interior equipped with off-grid capabilities and simple luxuries. STUDIOROCA designed the line of prefabricated homes to provide a “no-fuss, low-cost building solution,” outfitting the exterior and interior with environmentally friendly materials and smart home automation systems. Tracing the interior’s open layout, each one-bedroom shipping container provides an open-plan kitchenette, a dining area, and living space on one end, then a bathroom and storage space can be found in the middle, whereas the bedroom finds privacy on its own end.

10. IKEA Japan’s Tiny Home Campaign

IKEA Japan launched a Tiny Homes campaign that finds a 10sqm apartment in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district to make full use of its floor plan through space-saving furniture and a vertical layout. In the Shinjuku district, IKEA’s 10sqm apartment is organized vertically to make use of the floor plan’s lofty heights and furnished with an array of various space-saving furniture. Dividing the apartment into two levels, residents are greeted by the entryway, kitchenette, bathroom, and laundry machine. Bringing residents to the apartment’s sleeping mezzanine area, a step ladder connects the first level to the second. Throughout the home, storage pieces like the IVAR storage system and SKÅDIS shelf unit outfit the apartment’s desk to make full use out of the home’s working area.

The post Top 10 tiny home trends of 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 earbuds designs of 2022 that are even better than the Apple AirPods 3

Posted on 14/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

I love a good pair of earbuds! In fact, I really can’t function without my personal earbuds. Once my earbuds are in, the rest of the world is out! I deep dive into the world of my favorite tunes, away from real-world problems, happy in my own little audio bubble! Hence, owning a pair of innovative and perfect earbuds is an absolute necessity for me, and I’m sure that’s the case for most of the music lovers out there as well! Quite a few of us are Team AirPods all the way. But hey! Let’s remember that great earbuds go beyond Apple as well. And this nifty list includes all of them! This collection of exciting designs has a pair of earbuds for everyone! From earbuds that magnetically hang like a necklace to the world’s first TWS earbuds that actually protect your hearing – these earbuds provide unique design solutions and are a must-have for audiophiles!

1. Koishi

Named Koishi, after the Japanese word for Pebble, the TWS Earphones come with a soft, pebble-inspired form that’s beautiful to look at, comfortable to store in pockets, and can even be stacked one above another as Zen Stones. They come in three stone-inspired colors and even sport a slightly mottled stone texture. Running right through the case is a light strip that helps let you know when the earbuds are charging, or when they’re low on charge. However, it also visually guides you to instinctively know where the earphones are, so you can glance at the case and pull the earbuds out without fiddling to find them.

2. The Porsche Design PDT60 TWS Earphones

With a sleek aluminum exterior that offers a stunning visual upgrade to most plastic-body earbuds, the Porsche Design PDT60 TWS Earphones aim at creating an experience that’s as good in the visual department as it is at handling audio. Porsche Design’s repertoire features a whole host of hi-end audio gear, although the PDT60 is easily the smallest in that bunch, fitting snugly into your ear to deliver immersive, balanced audio directly into your head. The earphones come with the Porsche Design logo emblazoned on their front and sit in a case that’s partly matte metal too, with the same PD monogram embossed on the case’s sliding leather lid.

3. The dBuds U

Coming from the folks at EarLabs, the dBud U builds on their catalog of products designed to protect hearing. Its mission is a pretty strong and unique one – to give you the TWS experience while focusing on ear health – something I’ve personally been quite passionate about since I developed tinnitus. Sure, they’re like most TWS earbuds in the way they work, but they also provide an extra blanket of features that ensure that you can block out unwanted sounds that may affect your focus, your listening experience, or your hearing abilities in the long run. Additionally, they’re also designed to augment certain sounds like voices of those around you – perhaps a coworker informing you of a meeting, a barista calling your name, or your partner asking you where to order takeout from.

4. The Hakii Ice

Meet the Hakii Ice. You’ve probably never heard of them, although once you see them, chances are you won’t ever forget them. With perhaps the most memorable design in the earbuds category, the Hakii Ice sport a double shot molded case design that looks almost like the earphones are preserved in a block of ice. The outer transparent layer and the textured inner layer create an interplay of light and shade, with a touch of refraction, that makes the Ice earphones look incredibly awe-striking. In a world filled with TWS earbud cases that look like floss cases, the Hakii Ice looks like an ornament.

5. The Logitech Zone Truly Wireless

Meet the Logitech Zone Truly Wireless – earbuds designed and calibrated for work and business. The earbuds can be paired with your laptop as well as your smartphone so you can go about your day from either device, whether it’s watching training videos or listening to music while you work, answering calls, or even attending online meetings. They’re designed to work seamlessly with common calling applications across most platforms and operating systems and are certified by Microsoft for Teams and Skype for Business, by Google for Meet, and by Zoom.

6. The Edifier NeoBuds Pro

What’s really ironic is that the Edifier NeoBuds Pro are the first TWS earphones to come Hi-Res certified, a standard developed by Sony itself – a brand that’s very much in the TWS earbud race! Edifier’s own TWS earphones really push the boundaries with the adoption of the LHDC codec (to rival Sony’s LDAC codec), offering higher-quality streaming over a Bluetooth connection, even compared to Apple’s own AAC. Simply put, the NeoBuds Pro makes a pretty remarkable claim, although the LHDC codec is currently adopted by a number of brands in Asia, but isn’t entirely widespread.

7. The Timekettle M2

There are two main components to any conversation – talking to a person, and listening to the person talk to you. It’s only natural that earphones designed to facilitate conversation would embrace those two parts, right? The Timekettle M2, in that regard, isn’t your standard pair of TWS earbuds. Sure, they’re meant for listening to music and podcasts or giving commands to your phone’s voice AI, but their prime feature is the ability to foster a multi-lingual two-way conversation by allowing two people to wear one earphone each as the M2’s onboard translation engine seamlessly fills in the gaps. The earphone case’s design revolves around that very aspect, with a design that splits right in two, so you can hand one half over to someone you’re talking to, almost like you’re breaking bread with them.

8. Klipur

Designing an earbuds concept that eliminates the need for a charging carry case, Chris Thursfield conceptualized Klipur, a pair of earbuds that attach to one another when not in use. Conceptualized with an overnight charging method, Klipur can recharge during the night alongside our smartphones. When ready to leave, users can detach the earbuds from their charging case and attach them to one another for a compact carrying method, or throw them in their ears without worrying about where they left the charging case.

9. The Sirius Pro

The fact that these earbuds are designed to look like a prop out of Ghost in the Shell or Fallout isn’t entirely accidental… GravaStar’s known to make some absurdly futuristic products – you should check out their Mars and Venus Bluetooth speakers! The Sirius Pro follows that brand ethos by being unconventionally sci-fi while serving as pretty great earbuds too. They come with enhanced bass response, boast Environmental Noise Canceling, and actually have an incredibly low latency of 65ms that’s perfect for gaming. When not in use, they sit inside a rather unconventionally designed case, with a cutout running right through the middle and a bare-basics cage-like lid that secures the earbuds in place without concealing them.

10. Jade Culture Earphone Jue 20

Designed by Yibai Science & Technology from Shenzen, these are called the “Jade Culture Earphone Jue 20.” That’s a bit odd name but everything else about these conceptual wireless earbuds listed on iF Design Award 2020 is super cool. When not in use, the earbuds magnetically lock together to take the form of a necklace pendant that’s suspended by the tethering wire. Then again, when you want to listen to your favorite tunes, simply separate the pendant and get groovy. Picture this scenario – your buddy compliments, “This pendant looks so cool, bud”, and you’ll detach them and plug into your ears to their amazement, “It’s my pair of earbuds, mate!” Added bonus – you surely won’t lose one of the earbuds as there is no accidentally falling down- speaking to you AirPods!

The post Top 10 earbuds designs of 2022 that are even better than the Apple AirPods 3 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 prefab architecture trends of 2022

Posted on 12/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

Prefabricated architecture has been gaining a lot of popularity and momentum recently! It basically involves making buildings or building various components at a particular location, one that is better suited for construction, and then once completed, transporting it to the final site or location. Prefab architectural designs have a multitude of benefits – they keep costs down, ensure projects are more sustainable and efficient, and they also prioritize and pay attention to simplicity and modularity. And we have curated a collection of our favorite prefabricated designs for you – from an AI-enabled prefab tiny home to a prefab traditional farmhouse with a contemporary twist – these prefabricated designs are a part of an integral growing trend in modern architecture, and could be the future of it as well!

1. Cube One

2. The Friends Lab House

The Friends Lab House finds its veil with permeable black-stained Accoya timber batten screen cladding that hearkens back to the other blackened timber structures around the property. Just beyond the Friends Lab House, dense woodlands run parallel with the lengthy home, a subtle ode to the home’s sweeping surroundings. Describing the home’s initial plans, AMPS founder Alberto Marcos says, “A similar formal and color approach to the existing farm was used for the design of the new house, but reinterpreted in a thoroughly contemporary way, from structure to finishes and importantly, a very high level of energy efficiency.”

3. ARCspace

Meet ARCspace, a modular architecture firm that is constantly creating innovative designs and material development to do its part in curbing the emissions for their industry using sustainable, affordable, prefabricated homes. All structures are prefabricated for highly efficient and quick builds which reduce emissions and minimizes waste. ARCspace reports the buildings are “spec-built from the ground up in 40-60% less time and cost than traditional construction.” Residents can fully customize their tiny homes or even scale up to the size of traditional homes and have a huge range of interior design details to choose from including optional elements that provide off-grid power and water. Some homes feature self-contained atmospheric water generators called Hydropanels that are grid-independent and pull a few liters of drinking water out of the air each day.

4. The Amagansett Modular

Located in Amagansett’s East Hampton village, the Amagansett Modular is one of many modern homes that take disused shipping containers to construct modular houses with little waste. Considering the durable and inexpensive nature of shipping containers, they’re the ideal option for building prefabricated homes and MB Architecture is no stranger. Modeled after their circa-2008 insta_house, the Amagansett Modular home is a custom design for a family of four. While the insta_house is a scalable, prefabricated structure formed from four stacked shipping containers, the Amagansett Modular house takes on two additional shipping containers to meet the couple’s requirements.

5. Iniö

Iniö is a prefabricated log home from Pluspuu designed for a Switzerland-based Finnish couple who’d like a holiday retreat in their hometown of Heinola. Pluspuu knows log cabins better than we do. Based in Helsinki, the prefabricated log cabin design company constructs high-quality log houses and cabins alongside Pirkanmaa-based Ollikaisen Hirsirakenne Oy, a family-run cabin construction company with over 40 years’ worth of experience. For a Finnish couple who relocated to Switzerland, Pluspuu’s prefabricated Iniö log house came as the ideal home for holiday retreats in their hometown of Heinola.

6. Villa Timmerman

Defined by windows covered by over crossed grilles that form the shapes of diamonds and vertical beams, Villa Timmerman draws in ample sunlight from each side to create beautiful lattice shadows inside. The architects also note that “The grid was an experiment that proved to work well as extra protection against solar radiation on the façade and as a protective layer against the drifting rain on the west coast.” The villa’s location was in fact chosen so that sun would enter the house from at least one side at all hours of the day so that extra protection was necessary.

7. The Falcon House

Partly immersed in the surrounding woodlands, the Falcon House pokes through from the nearby forest with sharp angles and a geometric silhouette. Conceived to maximize the total living space and available views of the surrounding landscape, Koto flipped the Falcon House’s layout upside down. Nicknamed the Upside Down Home, Koto’s latest home is defined by two cuboid modules stacked almost perpendicularly together.

8. VMD

9. Exosteel

Exosteel comprises a group of modular steel homes that would be constructed using a 3D-printed construction system that supports and distributes all the functional elements of the building. Mask Architects co-founders Danilo Petta and Öznur Pınar Çer felt inspired by Costantino Nivola’s sculpture work, in particular a travertine sculpture called ‘La Madre.’ Punctuating the terrain of a sloping mountainside in Sardinia, Exosteel is comprised of heart-shaped, white homes with center ‘energy towers,’ oriented in the same way as the head on Nivola’s ‘La Madre.’

10. Hüga

Developed from the Danish word Hyggee, Hüga was conceptualized, designed, and built over a span of 24 months, during which Grandio’s team of designers were able to produce a 45 m2 residence with space for a bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen, and dining area. The final results are these hüga units that are built with reinforced concrete and designed for minimal maintenance as well as reducing your energy costs. These compact homes can withstand all climates and adverse conditions, including earthquakes, wildfires, and hurricanes. Hüga homes are also mobile and modular so much so that you can extend your house in plan in just one day. Weighing about 55-Tn, Hüga requires a team and machinery for transportation but can be placed according to the prospective resident’s preference.

The post Top 10 prefab architecture trends of 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Top 10 gadgets – from projectors to TVs you need to keep yourself entertained in case of a lockdown

Posted on 11/01/2022 by Srishti Mitra

Just when we thought life was reaching a semblance of normalcy, the Omnicron variant slowly crept into our lives. It’s been slowly driving us back into the comforts of our home…although I don’t think the homebodies are really complaining. Could another lockdown be a possibility in the near future? We don’t know, but it’s better to always be prepared. Hence, we’ve curated a collection of innovative tech designs that’ll keep you thoroughly entertained as the pandemic moves on to the next level. From an FHD projector that lets you watch Netflix on a massive 200-inch display to a shapeshifting TV that turns into a virtual fireplace – these product designs are the futuristic and techy additions you need in your home to completely master any upcoming lockdown. Enjoy!

1. The Freestyle

In stark contrast to most projectors, the Freestyle comes in a sleek cylindrical form that looks like a mix of a spotlight and a smart speaker. In reality, that is almost exactly what it is, though it substitutes the spotlight for an LED projector. The Freestyle’s body can swing 180 degrees, making it trivial to place the projector anywhere and still get a good view. The projected image can go from 30 to up to 100 inches with a Full HD resolution. Despite the more compact size, the Samsung Freestyle is actually packed with features you’d see in bigger projectors. Those include autofocus and automatic keystone correction, both of which give the projector its advertised freedom.

2. The N1

The N1 can project sound waves at a certain amplitude or loudness, but it can also decide how loud the audio remains over a certain distance. By doing this, it can make the sound waves traveling to your ear loud, but make them soft the minute they cross your ear. Mounted on the top of the N1 are two cameras that track your face, locating the placement of your ears. It doesn’t matter if you have long hair, a thick beard, glasses, or even a face mask… the device can beam audio to your ears in real-time.

3. The 77W

The 77W’s display unit sits on a stone-textured base and comes with a wooden sleeve that can move up or down (as can the display itself). This allows the TV to assume 3 modes – a TV mode, a concealed mode, and a fireplace mode. The concealed mode allows the display to descend downwards into the wooden sleeve, hiding most of that black box behind a textured wooden panel… but the other two modes allow the 77W to truly shine… either as a high-definition television for watching the news, videos, sports, and entertainment content or as a fireplace that peeks from below the wooden panel, playing a looped high-definition video of burning logs and crackling flames.

4. The Jireno CUBE4

For under two Benjamins, the Jireno CUBE4 makes pretty lofty promises. Sure, it isn’t a 4K multimedia device, but then again, it delivers an absolute bang for its buck. The projector comes with a compact design that’s reminiscent of the Anker Nebula Mars 2, with its handle on top that lets you carry it around the place, so you can bring the party to your friends’ houses. Although it’s marketed as a portable projector, the one thing it lacks is an internal battery, so having a power-source nearby is a must. On the design front, the Cube4 has an all-aluminum body that, aside from giving the projector its premium aesthetic, also helps with heat dispersion, allowing the projector to stay cool at all times – a feature further reinforced by the CUBE4’s potent inner cooling system.

5. Iván Antón’s Apple TV 2021 Concept

Designer, Iván Antón has come up with an Apple TV 2021 concept, which comes with a wall plug built-in. Now that’s full marks for the compact build, but the practicality is debatable until we have something like this to use. Taking nothing away from the vision, I’m impressed with the concept of Apple TV’s ability to interact with Siri without the need for a remote. Furthermore, the new concept also integrates the MagSafe charger into the Apple TV unit, so the compatible remote can now be charged conveniently by sticking it to the back of the set-top box.

6. The Light Speaker

Designed with a multisensorial experience, the Light Speaker from Transparent appeals to your eyes as much as it does to your ears. Styled to look less like your conventional speaker with front-firing drivers or like the ubiquitous smart speaker with a cylindrical fabric clad, the Light Speaker champions a lantern-inspired design… and in true lantern fashion, also comes with a light on the inside that flickers as the speaker’s drivers vibrate, creating a hauntingly beautiful audiovisual allure. In its lamp-shaped avatar, the Light Speaker rubbishes the notion of what a Bluetooth speaker should look like. Taking on an appearance that looks aesthetic even when the lamp isn’t on, the Light Speaker is a compact little number that comes with a handle that can be detached if needed.

7. The HiBed

Equipped with a built-in 4K projector that can be synced with a series of devices to binge-watch movies/TV shows on a 70-inch retractable screen, the HiBed is the epitome of in-bed relaxation. A built-in surround sound system with invisible speakers makes the bed feel more like a movie theatre. For lazy bums like me actually traveling to a multiplex to watch a movie is totally out of the question now! Its intelligence makes it more than a bed, serving as a space you can escape to with music from any of your favorite sources! Oh, and did I forget to mention it comes along with Wifi?

8. The Chroma

VAVA makes a few really compelling arguments on behalf of its cutting-edge projector. For its compact size, the VAVA Chroma can project a display that measures anywhere between 80 inches to 150 inches diagonally. While most projectors require a dedicated spot and careful placement and orientation, the Chroma is an ultra-short-throw projector and can directly be placed against a blank wall, while it projects an image upwards onto the wall. As far as the image itself goes, the Chroma uses the world’s most advanced ALPD® 4.0 laser technology and a Red, Green, Blue Plus triple laser light source to produce a sharper 4K UHD image with HDR10, up to 106% Rec. 2020 color range, exceeding the color range of top movie theater projectors.

9. The Harman Kardon Turntable

The Harman Kardon turntable designed by URUSS Design carries a distinct retro-futuristic flair and unique form factor to keep music lovers more than interested. Just look at those internals inside a crystal-clear housing that encapsulates the mechanics of the record player in the most majestic manner. It’s like a celebration of the timeless record player era and the untouchable art of creating music. This piece of rare beauty stands in a corner on an equally impressive tripod – instantly attracting onlookers with a profound magnetism. For an instance, I too got drawn to the charismatic design of this record player that is in a league of its own. As the music plays, the record spinning inside is visible as elegantly as one could ever imagine!

10. The Collector

Codenamed the ‘Collector’, this futuristic vision from the mind of Liu Tianchen aims at bridging the worlds of electronic music and actual instrument-playing together. The rather slick-looking electronic drum kit features six adjustable pads and two pedals mounted on a folding frame. The kit comes with a folding stool too, and two drumsticks, giving you a near-authentic drumming experience. The difference, however, is in the fact that the Collector doesn’t rely on a pre-existing bank of drum sounds, but instead, gives the artist the flexibility to collect and build their own banks, either by purchasing samples online or making samples of their own. Then, working just like any good MIDI controller, the Collector lets you create beats using these samples in a way that closes the gap between actually jamming on a real-life drum kit, and just simply pressing buttons on a MIDI controller.

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