Hailing from Finland, the Karoo Adventure is a camping trailer that has received careful design attention. The Karoo design team's goal was to produce an extraordinarily lightweight, efficient trailer with features that the user can flexibly rearrange for different goals. Let's start with the weight. The thinking here is simple: The heavier your trailer,...

These Knight RNR kicks are foam slip-ons "inspired by the lines and angles of race cars." They're by L.A.-based FCTRY LAb, the footwear company co-founded by veteran designer Omar Bailey, who formerly headed up the Yeezy Innovation Lab. Available in white, black, red, blue or green, the kicks run $150 and are available.Unavailable is the company's...

NYC-based architecture firm BKSK designed this unusual rain screen, composed of repeating terra cotta elements, for a building at 470 Columbus Avenue. "The design for a new 9-story mixed-use residential and retail building at 470 Columbus features a modern interpretation of traditional district typology on Manhattan's Upper West Side. With Architecture...

Italian industrial designer Joe Colombo loved smoking and drinking. In the early 1960s, he designed something that would make it easier for him to do both simultaneously: Cleaned-up versions of Colombo's Smoke Glasses are still in production, by Italian crystal manufacturer Arnolfo di Cambio.Should this post be seen as an endorsement of either habit,...

A few years ago, I was hired for a project that went nowhere. A family living out of a trailer on a deeply rural property had inherited some money. They wanted to build a proper house. The contractor and I headed out to assess the site.Their driveway was in horrific shape: Dirt, nearly three-quarters of a mile long, narrow, winding, hilly and badly...

A company called Steps Material bills themselves as "a one-stop material selection platform for architectural designers." Based in Guangdong, they apparently have access to some unusual composites, like this "Bamboo Charcoal Fiber Board" that resembles stainless steel: "It is made of bamboo charcoal base material, resin and polymer materials, and is...