Foldable Phones and Sustainable Packaging
- daisypope
- Mar 3, 2019
- 3 min read
Spring has sprung, and with it comes a week of innovative design... My picks include the latest foldable phone from Huawei, cosmetic packaging made from bacteria and temperature regulating fabric!
Huawei Mate X
The latest release in smartphone technology comes in the form of the Huawei Mate X. A flexible screen enables you to use the device as a phone and a tablet. The innovative design allows for multi tasking on one screen and lessens the need for multiple gadgets. Rather than carrying around your phone, tablet, laptop etc.. you can lighten the load with just one device. It boasts a wealth of standard smartphone features including dual camera and fingerprint recognition, however is likely to set you back a hefty £2000!... The announcement also comes days after Samsung release plans for their foldable phone, the Galaxy X. It is slightly smaller than the Huawei version, however comes with a £1500 price tag. It looks like 2019 with be the year of rival foldable phones. It will be interesting to see the cost of replacing a screen on a phone like this given the price of the device itself... And will be even more interesting to see what Apple release to rival the Asian tech companies. For more info check out https://www.dezeen.com/2019/02/25/huawei-folding-smartphone-mate-x/
Sustainable Cosmetic Packaging
In the quest to reduce single use plastics designer Elena Amato has created sustainable packaging from sheets of bacterial cellulose. The material is created using a mixture of water, bacteria and yeast which is then dried into a sheet. Additionally the material uses water as glue and natural pigments such as saffron are used for colour, eliminating the need for chemical glues and colourants. Elena's design is a great example of an innovative solution to the plastic packaging problem but could this be reproduced on a mass scale?... Similarly last week four designers from the Royal College of Art announced a new sustainable material they have created from discarded lobster shells. The material is created using a mix of vinegar and a bipolymer extracted from the shells. The designers created 4 manufacturing machines which allow the finished polymer to have varying properties so that it can be used in a range of applications including blister packaging and plant pots. For small scale projects both inventions are excellent examples of sustainable alternatives to plastics. But solving the single use plastic crisis? They probably don't have the mass production capabilities needed, but every advancement helps and raises awareness of the problem. For more information visit https://www.dezeen.com/2019/02/28/elena-amato-bacteria-packaging-design/
Temperature Regulating Fabric
Doesn't a smart material capable of warming you up and keeping you cool sound like the perfect solution for clothes in this uncertain spring weather?... Well we're in luck!.. Researchers at Maryland University have created a material that will do just that. Created from polymer fibres coated in carbon nanotubes this innovative material contracts when you are hot and expands to trap heat when you are cold. The pioneering material could change the world of sports wear forever - maybe you would only ever need one set of running gear rather than different winter and summer outfits. Although it is likely that one item of sports clothing made from this material could cost the same as your full sports wardrobe for the year. Also this week UnStudio and Monopol Colors have released a white paint that will reflect heat so city buildings will be kept cooler. This should lessen the need for air conditioning, therefore helping to reduce the negative environmental impact city buildings have. A light reflecting paint probably won't be vastly improve a city's environmental impact, but it could certainly help. For more information see
https://www.dezeen.com/2019/02/26/temperature-regulating-fabric-university-of-maryland/ and https://www.dezeen.com/2019/03/01/the-coolest-white-paint-unstudio-monopol-colors/
3D Printed Biodegradable House
3D printing is being used more frequently for a variety of new applications, but the 3D-printing technology company WASP have 3D printed a house. The house is printed using a mud mixture and is constructed with timber beams and a timber roof. The house is supposed to turn back to mud if unmaintained making it totally biodegradable. The crane WASP 3D printer creates vertical cavaties in the walls which are filled with rice husks for insulation. According to WASP
'The method is time efficient and cheap, taking just ten days to complete, with the mud mixture costing less than a thousand pounds to produce' (https://www.dezeen.com/2019/02/27/gaia-wasp-3d-printed-house-biodegradable-video/'
The biodegradable house seems like a great solution to combat the toxicity of building materials and the environmental impact of the ever increasing house building industry. It could also create perfect small, affordable dwellings in cities like London where house prices are increasingly unaffordable. However it would be interesting to know the logistics of creating the house using such a large piece of machinery and what environmental impact using it has. Perhaps the manufacturing of the house outweighs its biodegradability? For me information see https://www.dezeen.com/2019/02/27/gaia-wasp-3d-printed-house-biodegradable-video/
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