The Week in Design: Buckminster Fuller Headphones and Algorithmic Chairs

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never move from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over their creations, nevertheless.

The good audiophiles at Teague invoke Bucky Fuller and his wacky neologisms, and a designer builds skeletal chairs with the help of computer algorithms. Paper-thin lamps go energy-neutral with the help of wind power, and the toaster gets transformed into a flexible sheet. Read on to see our design picks for the week after the break.

20/20 Headphones by Dana Krieger for Teague

Seeing as these headphones have made an appearance on every major design blog this week, we couldn't exactly ignore them. But are we jerks for not immediately wetting our pants at first sight? The 20/20 Headphones, designed by Dana Krieger for Teague, incorporate design granddaddy Buckminster Fuller's concept of tensegrity. Basically, the wires and rods on the sides of the headphones balance compression and stress (or prestress) to provide strength and a fair amount of flexibility. Teague notes that this concept flies in the face of old-school 'phones, whose "pivots squeak and rattle as they struggle to accommodate listeners." In the interest of full disclosure, we've never really had that problem with any of our audio gear, nor has any of it broken due to our constantly swelling skulls. FastCoDesign claims that a "tensegrity structure easily expands and contracts back into place as fluidly as possible -- making for a comfortable, just-right fit." Until we see a prototype, we're not sold on that just yet -- but we will admit that the 20/20s are gorgeous. Judge for yourself after you see the concept video here.

Structural Ornament by Malgorzata Mozolewska

Speaking of tension, Malgorzata Mozolewska's concept chairs couldn't exist without it. (Well, they don't quite exist yet, but the designer is apparently looking into getting them 3-D printed.) 'Structural Ornament' is a furniture series created with the help of customized algorithmic software that finds the areas of each chair that bear the most weight. The hollow scaffolding balances the purely decorative elements -- like the flourishes on the back of an armchair -- with the structural ones; the thicker, more latticework-heavy areas bear more stress, while the thinner areas are more ornamental. As FastCoDesign notes, getting this chair made would be next to impossible if it weren't for the advent of 3-D printing. As soon as Mozolewska prints a prototype, though, we're darting straight off to the showroom.

Paper Light by Wen Jie Zheng

Ah, yes. We hear you saying, "But I've seen this before!" As Yanko Design points out, the Paper Light by Wen Jie Zheng bears a striking similarity to Hyun Jin Yoon and Eun Hak Lee's Pocket Light. But the Pocket Light was powered by a battery, and Zheng's light harnesses kinetic energy. As it hangs near an open window, the light sways and revolves in the wind, gathering magnetic force and generating its own power. Energy is then stored in accumulator cells for use at night, while a ceiling-mounted deflector helps to disperse the tiny, flat bulb's luminance. Sure, a wind-driven light would only be useful in temperate climates or seasons, and we can't be sure of the quality of light it produces -- but we love the idea.

Halo Super-flexible Toaster by Burcu Bag, Amalia Monica and Vinay Raj Somashekar

We'll admit that we're never very intrigued by sleek concepts for new kitchen gadgets. It's not that we don't love culinary tech, but many of the concepts we come across are designed by, well, designers -- not chefs. And that makes a huge difference when it comes to usability. Because who better knows how a device would fare in the kitchen? But we're curious about the Halo Super-Flexible Toaster, a folding mat with an an embedded heating element that wraps around your toast. We actually don't think it would work; with no space between the bread and the heating element, your bread would probably steam before it begins to crisp. But it could be useful for, say, wrapping around a whole fish, or browning a pork tenderloin. Excellent idea, wrong application.

Faceless LED Watch by Hironao Tsuboi

Hironao Tsuboi's Faceless LED watch is exactly what it sounds like -- a classic metal band with no display. Subtle gaps between the band's links allow narrow LEDs to shine through, displaying the time but not much else. However, as we've said time and again, wristwatches have sort of lost their functional appeal, and have transformed into largely ornamental accessories. Who needs a watch when you have cell phones, computers, cable boxes, outdoor displays and all of our electrical modcons? That being said, if we needed to wear a watch, we'd take a serious look at the Faceless LED.

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