Originally developed by NASA, Green Wheel is a conceptual revolutionary rotary hydroponic system designed to provide fresh herbs for space travellers. Now, industrial designer Libero Rutilo has successfully transformed the concept into a prominent rotary garden for residential use. But there’s more to Green Wheel than just pleasing aesthetics – it’s an eco-friendly device with great advantages.

The Green Wheel is an exceptional convenience given the fact that the most people don’t have gardens, and therefore have no ability to grow agricultural products. With this accessory it is possible to produce an array of different herbs in your own apartment. The simple design of Green Wheel makes it easy to use. The device consists of solid round structure with the engine, pump system and water supply cleverly hidden inside. Vases and cover vases are positioned in the perforated inner wheel. With coco fiber placed in each vase, support for plants and it’s roots is guaranteed. Finally, the device features a LED light source in the center of the wheel, which provides the necessary illumination. Furthermore, a personalized app lets you control the intensity of illumination, temperature of the light and water level -from either your smart phone or tablet.

Although nowadays plastic toys are the most purchased and certainly the cheapest way to entertain children, there’s still someone who believes that creating handmade “alternative” toys is possible. This reality is called FLOWERS, a Japanese studio, funded by Iso Togawa and Mido Togawa, based in Yakushima, an idyllic island south of the  Kagoshima prefecture. FLOWERS designs not only toys but also accessories, stationery, tableware and artworks, everything shaped with the various kinds of wood of Yakushima.

KARUMA is an amazing handmade wooden toy that seems to have a story to tell. KARUMA which is the Japanese word for “car”, is designed and made directly by the owner of FLOWERS and comes with a hand carved car body and one/two passengers with a big and happy smile. Be sure that when you purchase a KARUMA, no one looking at it will ever claim to have the same toy! In fact, KARUMA, being handmade with four different types of wood harvested in Yakushima, will never find its twin. Your KARUMA could be a one piece made either with camphor or sandalwood, either with mountain cherry or wheel tree and then finished with a clear coat from Osmo Color, which meets the European safety requirements. The cute drivers, Hanako and Taro, are made with European peach and then also covered with the Osmo Color clear coat. Only the wheels and highlights are made of unfinished maple.

The funny thing is that the figures are not fixed to the car (more fun for the kids!), but they are loosely fit so they cheerfully bounce as the car travels along imaginary journeys.

KARUMA is something that children can hold onto for long time and maybe pass it on to the next generations. It’s the toy that can inspire your children, making it full of stories and memories.

The wait for the SenseMotion Insignia 2 line is over: to celebrate their Red Dot Design Award, won in March 2012 thanks to the sophisticated Tiani, the Swedish brand LELO has developed this special Design Edition, incredible version of the basic tools, marked by a careful attention for innovative materials, technologies, shapes and colors.

This is the apex of a winning path that the company has covered so far: founded in 2003, in Stockholm, by engineer Filip Sedic and industrial designers Carl Magnusson and Eric Kalen, this intimate lifestyle company has immediately imposed its presence in the market of personal massagers for its stated belief in the principles of high quality, luxury, innovation and design, main drivers of its competitive advantage, which soon lead to a strategy of massive expansion in the businesses of lingerie, cosmetics, bedroom accessories, among all the others.

LELO’s key distinguishing factor has always been its non-traditional approach to the design and manufacturing process, the integration between appearance and safety, between superior quality and pioneering ideations: Insigna 2 line perfectly summarizes this conceptual approach to the creative process. The collection, aimed at satisfying a wide range of needs in the bedroom and even outdoors, is composed of three waterproof, remote-controlled massagers for couples that totally re-define the essence of pleasure and transpose it into a brand new dimension. Not to mention, the intimate luxury of having these pieces in 24K gold and stainless steel for those who seek ultimate pleasures.
Tiani 2 is a couples’ massager to be worn by women during intercourse, able to provide extra stimulation to both partners. On the other hand, Oden 2 is an innovative couples’ flexible ring offering men increased stamina and women intense external stimulation. Finally, Lyla 2 is an egg-shaped massager, wearable internally and controllable at distance: this small and apparently discreet masterpiece will provide couples with the exciting sensation of taking play anywhere.

The design of these pieces of art is pretty unique: Smooth body-safe FDA-approved silicone  and Shiny ABS  are the primary materials used. At the same time, the extreme simplicity and naturalness of the curves give these high tech gadgets a touch of class and elegance: superlative

“Humans shouldn’t have all the fun”. This is the introductroy phrase to the new design concept by Aruliden – a glass fishscape. The New York based design firm has created the glass bowl for the Turkish manufacturing company Gaia & Gino. While the exterior of the product is classic, the inside glass material forms a mountainous landscape. When some water is added, the reflections of light put an accent to the topographical details of the rocky bottom, made of hand-blown glass.

The notion that stands behind the design is that of transforming the most basic home items into beautiful icons. A fishbowl is a decorative element that puts an emphasis to the surroundings of a room. The classical fishbowl serves its purpose in its form but is not very desirable on its own. With its glass sculpture, Aruliden blends form and function to create a modern update of the traditional product.

The intent of the designer was to create an aesthetic habitat worthy of the admiration of both the pet and its owner. The Golden Fish would surely not notice the difference between a jar and the sensual swoop of a molded glass aquarium. Still, Aruliden has managed to turn a neglected object into an artistic glass sculpture with an interior mountain range.

Some may have turned their lights off on Earth Day, April 22nd. Phillips, however, took it a notch further by launching a next generation energy-saving light bulb. Back in 2011, the cutting edge bulb won the Netherlands based lighting giant a good $10 million from the L Prize, a technology competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The new product is officially released at the price of $60, yet immediately reduced to $50, with the promise that soon it will cost no more than $30. One may say it’s a sensible investment; the L Prize bulb is supposed to be brighter than the good old 60-watt incandescent, yet it only consumes 10 watts. It comes with a 30000 hours rated average life span, which means you could very well be using it for over a decade, meanwhile saving on electricity bills.

The bulb is mercury-free and it is designed to give out warm white omni-directional light. The three neon yellow sections are in fact “remote phosphor” which disappears when energized. The remote phosphor technology is used to convert non-white light to white light. The new bulb employs three blue and three red LEDs, thus improving the color rendering and quality of light.

Dots studio is a design studio located in Bangkok, Thailand, with the intent to offer a full product design service, blending the knowledge coming from the field of marketing to the one coming from design. In order to  fulfil this objective and to always have a broader view on any project,  their team is also composed by various specialized professional profiles such as designers, communication designers, interiors and strategists.

Their design approach is based on the use of experimentation of various materials, such as metal and wood, to push the objects beyond their own limits, both conceptually and functionally, and to create a new design dialect. This is always done successfully, keeping the clients and their needs at the center of the project, to understand and offer them tangible and effective solutions.

Among the projects presented at Salone Satellite 2012 there is the I-Team Collection, created from polyurethane foam and wood, two materials able to create an amazing contrast between the softness of the foam and the elegance of the wood, giving a new appeal to outdoor furniture. Another project is the Lips Chair, a chair with an unconventional lips-design, result of an experimental cutting technique that tries to associate different moods to different trimming lines. Last but not least, there is the Plywood Bike, a bike made almost entirely of plywood, known to be an eco-friendly material for its recycling capabilities.

OOO My Design is a Spanish design studio based in Valencia and it has a team of talented young designers like Vanesa Moreno, Gustavo Reboredo, Louis Sicard, and Nenad Katic. They have recently worked together on the Gval chair which is a multifunctional piece that has the option of being a chair, a chair with a footrest, a chair with a footrest and a stool, two chairs, or a chair and two stools.

The shape of it and, in particular, the texture, made of alternating sheets of plywood is inspired by the pattern of tree rings that are linked also with the concept of memory, as each ring usually marks the period of one year in the life of a tree. Clean and minimalistic lines, the choice of the plywood and the possibility to adapt it to the ever-changing needs of people make this a unique piece of furniture, finding the perfect balance between design and functionality. These features have also allowed the studio to won the first prize of the category Making Chairs of the international competition Art On Chairs, awarded by the Paredes Center of Furniture Design.

Bulgari and its watches (as well as its jewellery collection, of course) will never deceive us. Their new model, the Daniel Roth Grande Sonnerie Quantieme Perpetual watch is a real masterpiece. Bulgari compares this chef d’oeuvre to a musical instrument; each year 433,580 notes in the course of 35,040 activations will automatically be played, to chime on the top the carillon Westminster melody.  The complexity of the mechanism, with its twenty different functions, as well as the work behind every single detail of the watch, enhance the elegance and the sophistication of this model.
It is already considered as being part of the very selective circle of the 10 most complicated wrist watches ever presented. Compared to a Grande Sonnerie watch, this model is additionally offering a perpetual calendar as well as a Tourbillon.
This watch is beautiful from every perspective, every corner and every side.  Everything is crafted within the Bulgari’s Haute Horlogerie Manufacture in Le Sentier.
Bulgari and its pieces really define time as magnificent.