core77.com

Here's what we looked at this week:Industrial Facility designed this Powerbox mobile charging system for Herman Miller. How architects could help custom fab shops: Let them sell products from projects.Fantastic Industrial Design student work: Charlie Humble-Thomas asks "How long should objects last?" He pursu

These days an ID firm might be called on to design a system, rather than a product. Package Solutions is a company seeking to solve the problems of delivering packages to multi-resident buildings and student housing. They hired Formation Design Group to work out the solutions."The rapid growth of e-commerce has overwhelmed last mile package delivery, particularly in multifamily residential communities," the firm writes. "Formation worked with Package Solutions to streamline their user experience and commercialize their cutting edge package tracking technology."

I wear a face shield in the mornings. On a farm, when you're blasting out muck buckets with a hose, you only have to get liquid feces up your nose once before you seek solutions.The face shield I've got is the polycarbonate 3M kind that you'd wear if using a lathe. It's overkill, bulky and you can't get a baseball cap over it, which is annoying when it's sunny. So I was excited to come across the perfect solution, designed by Studio Weber + Associates, industrial designer Jeff Weber's shop in Minnesota. Called Shield-Hat, it was developed during the pandemic:

These MagPower Tables were designed by Carl Magnusson. The legs feature one USB-A and two USB-C ports.

In the 1950s, German manufacturer Hailo produced step trash cans.Nowadays trash cans (at least in Europe) are no longer standalone items in kitchens, but are hidden within cabinets. Keeping pace is Hailo's modern offering, the Libero. It's a super low-profile hands-free cabinet door opener consisting of a laser sensor and a motor:

This Help Universal Light is by German industrial designer Rupert Kopp. A sort of task lamp for everyday life, the graphic, playful shape is meant to encourage you to jury-rig it into places where you couldn't get an ordinary lamp.The dimmable LED puts out up to 1,900 lumens

Remember the package-design-egg-drop challenge they make (or made) ID students do? Civil Engineering students at the Technical University of Munich face a similar challenge, except the egg is their professor.In order to pass TUM's Design & Construction 2 course, student teams each have to design and build a bridge that spans a given distance and adheres to a height limitation. The catch is that they have to bring the bridge to site, broken down in a standard-size shipping box. They must assemble it within a time limit, and the bridge must not break during the test, which is when Timber and Building Construction professor Stefan Winter walks across it.

As European cities increasingly ban cars and trucks, delivery by bicycle is growing in popularity. But cargo bikes can only carry so much. That's why Cityshuttle, an urban mobility company, is taking a page from the trucking industry's book. Cityshuttle's ePack is essentially a tractor-trailer arrangement, except the tractor is a pedal-assist electric four-wheeler. The corresponding trailer boasts 4 cubic meters (roughly 140 cubic feet) of cargo space.

Here's an unusual furniture niche: Powered behind-the-sofa consoles. Michigan-based builder Mitten State Woodworks specializes in them, offering depths as narrow as 3", and as wide as 11". The other dimensions are up to you and the size of your sofa. A built-in outlet provides two standard plugs and two USB-A ports. You can spec additional outlets.

"I struggled to work with my cats nearby," writes inventor Scott Salzman. "They interfered with my work, stepped on the keyboard, and interrupted business." Salzman then designed this Desk Nest Cat Bed: It's basically a monitor arm, a small pet bed, and a mating mount.