Dave Parrack

If you've ever felt the need to take a photograph of yourself and your friends from an elevated position then you may have tried the "throw your camera in the air while it snaps away at you from above" method. Now there's an app titled ThrowMeApp that's designed to make this approach a little more hit and a bit less miss. Unfortunately the app can't overcome the biggest risk of employing this method: if you fail to catch your smartphone before gravity sneaks it past your outreached hand, it could wind up being a pretty expensive photo.  Read More

A traditional Chinese medicine cabinet features numerous deep drawers, all of the same dimensions. It's a piece of furniture that has remained unchanged for centuries thanks to the form being perfectly suited to its function. By applying some mathematical magic to the core design of the Chinese medicine cabinet, design studio Utopia has created Fibonacci Cabinet.  Read More

The rate at which children grow, especially from being new-born to the age of around six-years-old, is scary. One day they're a helpless ball of flesh and bones, the next they're walking, talking, and starting school. This means that new parents have to continually buy new things for their child that may only last them a matter of months. While a bicycle may not be top of the agenda at such a young age, for a child to learn to ride one means buying several different models over the course of just a few years as they first learn, and then master, the art. Which is what led Noelia Vallano Alvaro to design B'kid: one bike designed to last a child from the age of two right through to the age of six.  Read More

There are currently 37 bridges spanning the River Seine in Paris, but there must surely be room for one more; one that's rather different than the rest, that is perhaps inflatable and comprising three huge trampolines. Such a bridge may not be practical, but it would be fun, and no doubt become something of a tourist attraction in a city already blessed with an abundance of tourist attractions. Such a bridge exists, at least in the form of a concept design by Paris-based architectural studio Atelier Zündel Cristea.  Read More

Virtual reality has always felt like it's on the cusp of becoming huge, but it has never quite managed to gain the momentum needed to put it in the hands of the mainstream. But with the original Wii showing the way, and both PlayStation Move and Xbox Kinect following in its footsteps, the signs are that we're moving away from traditional gaming and towards a future dominated by alternative ways of interacting with virtual worlds. The final piece of the puzzle in bringing VR to the masses could be a simple and affordable method for allowing gamers to move around safely while they have headsets strapped to their faces. The WizDish aims to be just such a device.  Read More

Most of us don't live in houses large enough to accommodate standing sculptures, however much we may be taken by them. But creating a work of art that is also a piece of multi-functional furniture means more people could justify having such a piece in their homes. Paris-based Chinese designer Yuan Yuan has made such a union between art and function possible with The Cloud House.  Read More

In The Lord Of The Rings the Hobbits live in the Shire in their distinctive dwellings known as Hobbit Holes. They're really just homes built into hillsides, with banked earth sitting atop the basic structures. While the Hobbits are fictional creatures, their homes are not, as people have been taking up residence in similar dwellings for many years. And the idea has now taken a firm hold with those interested in working with rather than against the environment. In other words Hobbit Holes are real and, on this occasion at least, the Shire can be found in Switzerland.  Read More

Recent design graduate Lisa Marie Bengtsson believes many of us wash our clothes far more often than is necessary. And she may well be correct. Certainly, we're generally brought up to believe that clothes need to be washed after being worn for a certain length of time, whether they're actually dirty or not. It's hard to argue against underwear and other garments that are in direct contact with our bodies being washed very regularly, but what about other garments that merely act as extra outer layers? Perhaps the Bye Bye Laundry clothes hanger is the answer.  Read More