Design WOO

The 100% Design Exhibitions are a great time to mingle with the cream of the Design Industry and I really had a great time covering the Tokyo Edition. The theme this year was “Love Green” and the Exhibitors did a great job interpreting and weaving in the sentiments into their designs. The theme was well reflected in products made using alternative energy sources and natural materials. In short everything looked green too, I mean the color green!
Let’s kick off this coverage with the Cube Exhibition, which is a brand new addition to the 100% Tokyo. This nook actually showcased works of young designers who brought to life the Love Green Concept.

TOHO-Leo Corp and plant designer Harumi Suwa of Atelier Yukiyanagi worked with forty-five talented designers to recreate the green-magic! The dominant installation was this 2.2 m-squared cube that with a planted green façade. This Vertical Garden included beauties like Calathea and Peperomia.

Many Exhibitors brought out their innovations and sparked debates on the real fundamentalism of Eco or Green Concepts.

In the next coverage expect the 100% Café by Subway!

Pine Beetle Wood Gate by Judson Beaumont

Dumbbell Flower Vase by Satoru Okazawa & Takako Chinoda

“Grass” Chair by Kaori Yamamoto

Trigona-swing by Mie Matsubara

TRC (Transparent Reflective Chair) by Tomoaki Yoneta

“Plane” Bedside Table by Oyadica Studio

Ryoku-Kagu by Hiroya Kajiura

“Frame” by Shinichiro Nakai

Drip-drop by Keisuke Hirata & Tomomi Seki

Bolt Stool by Takumi Ichihara

Sanagi by Taichi Fujita

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How would you like fairly capable text editor that nonetheless sports a minimalist, uncluttered interface? This about sums this program up. It sets out to combine some good features with a Firefox-like experience (Tabs, search/replace/go-to-line bars, crash recovery, and the ability to save and load entire sessions and multiple documents simultaneously). More notes below:

• Tabs: honestly, an indispensable feature. Although I will say that the tabbed interface looks better in the Visa environment (screenshot above) than in XP.
• Syntax highlighting: for INI, XML, HTML, PHP, & Java. Also gives you the ability to change the color scheme for each of the supported languages (see image to the right).
• Firefox-style search/replace: find-as-you-type. See the top screenshot above.
• Go-to-line bars: another indispensable feature.
• Session management: if you work with a number of documents at once, and would like to get all of them loaded simultaneously, Caderno allows you to load/save a group of documents at once.
• Unicode support.
• Crash recovery.

The verdict: the internet is not lacking for excellent freeware text editors to replace Notepad. Two of my personal favorites are PSPad and Notepad++, packed choc-full of features and options to satisfy every audience. However, I will say that many text-editors, probably as a consequence of being the primary tools of the trade for developers and programmers are becoming a tad too complicated and/or feature intensive, at least for the most of us who are either not programmers or would prefer a clean, straightforward interface. If this describes you then you will probably like this program. Recommended.

Version Tested: 1.08

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 1.46 megs)

As modern life is becoming more dependent on technology, we need a number of gadgets to put our work in order, which often leaves no space for leisure at our workspace. If you too are one of those who gathers clutter while working on your workstation, designer David Turpin has come up with a functional gadget that promises to remove the mess from your desk. The multifunctional desktop device by the French designer is an ideal piece for compact work as well as leisure space, which apart from being a clock and a calculator also works as a MP3 player, radio and so on, making your workspace neat and tidy, without hampering your work. You may switch over between different functions by simply pressing on top of the all-in-one device.

Inspired by the gestural language depicting the use of the phone, the color rings by BCK design team, including Javier Bertani, Ezequiel Castro and Vera Kade, are an accessory for your mobile phones that apart from making your chatter more natural and comfortable also turns your flamboyant fashion accessory in to a functional device. The color rings are intended to be worn in the thumb and little finger that works as a microphone and headset, while connecting wirelessly to your mobile phone. All you need to do is to point your thumb and little finger towards your ear and mouth respectively to make or receive a call, thanks to the built-in distance sensors.

Departing from the standard isolated, vertical apartment towers, the Interlace by Ole Scheeren of OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) Scheeren is a large-scale residential complex in Singapore that gives a whole new meaning to communal spaces, while maintaining lush green surroundings. Stacking the 31 apartment blocks one on top of the other in a hexagonal arrangement, the complex accommodates 1,040 apartments, communal spaces, roof gardens, terraces and balconies, while maintaining the privacy of individual apartment units through the generous spacing of the building blocks and far-ranging views. Stretching between Kent Ridge, Telok Blangah Hill and Mount Faber Parks, the Interlace is designed to make use of natural energy sources, such as sun, wind and micro-climate conditions and low-impact passive energy strategies, allowing the residents to reduce their carbon footprints and adapt a sustainable lifestyle.