Everlane and Adidas may be soaking up all the literal limelight right now for their forays into sustainable sneakers, but they'll soon by joined by Keds. The casual sneaker company will unveil a new collection built on a collaboration with textile company Ace & Jig, featuring shoes made entirely from scraps of waste material. The collection exemplifies Keds two-pronged approach to sustainable footwear, prioritizing ethical materials over trends. 

In Fuji City, Japan, Tezuka Architects have built what is quite possibly one of the cutest and most wholesome nursery schools, ever. The Muku Nursery is comprised of a series of round timber structures that when viewed from above look like bubbles or parasols. Inside, the rooms are open and are drenched in natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the structures. 

Can design help solve the global water crisis? If so, how? That was the prompt given to designers by A/D/O by Mini and Jane Wither Studio for the Water Futures Design Challenge. Over 2,000 designs from over 30 countries were submitted, and on April 4th the winning projects were debuted. Read on to learn more about the winners and cast a vote for your favorite project. 

Interface Lead Product Designer Kari Pei's latest collection, Simple Abstraction, translates Gerhardt Richter’s painterly language into a carpet collection that highlights just how thin the border between art and design really is.

It may sound fantastical, even Wonka-esque, but future urban citizens will navigate their cities not by foot, but by a multi-directional elevator system called MULTI. First proposed in 2014, MULTI could use magnetic levitation technology to move multiple cabins of people up, down, and sideways in "hanging cities" of the future. These hanging cities, says squareone's Design Director Kostas Poulopoulos, will create "a three-dimensional mega-grid that combines towers and multi-story horizontal sectors into a 24-hour urban hub for live, work, and play."

The lobster has played many roles in society over the years: prisoners' food, millionaires' food, and now, the latest and greatest single-plastic alternative material. It seems that a polymer found in their exoskeletons, chitin, can be used to great biodegradable and recyeable bioplastics. A team of designers at the Royal College of Art discovered this and developed several machines that can render seafood waste into a usable single-use item. They have named their project Shellworks.

Sidewalk Labs has revealed some of the concept renderings for Quayside, the Alphabet-helmed smart city development project in Toronto, and it certainly looks like a city of the future. The predominant construction material is timber and the overall design skews towards modularity. There will also be a built-in recycling and composting system that could divert 80% of the district's waste from the landfill. If all goes according to plan and approval is given, Sidewalk Labs estimates Quayside could be up and running within five to six years. Still, the project has attracted a significant amount of controversy due to high levels of secrecy surrounding the contract signed between Alphabet and Waterfront Toronto, as well as concerns over furtive data-gathering apparatuses built into the neighborhood's infrastructure. 

According to Circular Ocean, some 705,000 tons of fishing gear are lost or discarded in the ocean every year. That's a lot of virgin nylon, a strong and durable material, floating uselessly in the ocean and even worse, strangling thousands of whales, sea lions, and other marine animals. Once the problem became apparent, a whole industry popped up around gathering these discarded fish nets and transforming them into viable new products. Internationally-renowned design firm Snøhetta joined the competition at the 2019 Stockholm Design Week with their S-1500 chair, which is made of recycled fishing gear and repurposed steel. Because it uses locally sourced recyclable materials, the S-1500 has one of the lowest carbon footprints on the market. 

Innovation. It's a huge word, laden with diverse meanings, hopes, fears, and confusion for people living in the 21st century. For designers and those involved in the design industry, the question of innovation penetrates both the way business is done and the future development of the built environment and products. At the inaugural Innovation Conference, held by Interior Design in partnership with Interface flooring, ten luminaries from a varied assortment of industries took the stage at NeueHouse to expound on what innovation looks like today. 

Mycelium, the underground "root" part of fungi, is having a moment in the design industry. It's been shown to be stronger than concrete pound for pound and fully biodegradable, making it a compelling material for construction. Lighting designer Nir Meiri took a different approach, instead choosing to highlight the beauty of mycelium in a series of tabletop lamps. Produced in partnership with Biohm, the lamps' light source is in the base and illuminates the naturally-derived shade from below, casting this unusual but beautiful material in a soft glow. 

Veganism may not be the ideal diet to mitigate the effects of climate change—there's another diet for that—but its emphasis on compassionate treatment of animals could be the start of a new paradigm in interior design. Case in point, the world's first vegan hotel suite, created by Bompas & Parr for Hilton's London Bankside property, exclusively uses plant-based products and completely eliminates any use of wool, leather, or feathers. The suite makes extensive use of Piñatex, a faux-leather material made of pineapple leaves, as well as cotton in the carpeting. 

At CES 2019, LG unveiled the world's first rollable TV, which is comprised of just two parts: a super slim OLED screen and a base with built-in soundbar. When not in use, the TV descends into the base and winds around a spool, becoming a piece of unobtrusive furniture. Sure to please both techies and those who strictly adhere to the "a place for everything, and everything in its place" mantra, LG's game-changing product will go on sale later this year. 

Plants are great house decor, but ever want to kick it up a notch? Enter Studio REM’s “Nebl,” an Archiproducts Design Award winning terrarium-lite that looks like a cross between a snow globe and specimen jar. The Nebls keep your plants warm during cold months, while making them look much more expensive than they are. 

Tired of solar glare? Sick of air pollution? London-based EcoLogicStudio is working on an algae-powered “living curtain” that’ll help with both issues. Housing colonies of micro algae, the curtain harnesses their photosynthetic processes, capturing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen in the process. EcoLogicStudio hopes that their curtains can be integrated into new buildings, or simply draped over existing ones, helping make cities a little cleaner and futuristic looking. 

Medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and chipboard may soon find themselves replaced by a new, biodegradable product—and good riddance, too! These commonly used materials are not recyclable and are full of toxic chemicals like formaldehyde. Instead, London-based designer team Chip[s] Board proposes using waste potato peelings combined with fibers from bamboo, hops, wood or more potatoes for furniture construction. Not only will this remove MDF and chipboard from landfills, but it could also reduce food waste, another major environmental and social problem. 

No stranger to existential living, Rotterdam has emerged as a design hotbed for dealing with rising seas. The Dutch have famously existed as a waterlogged population for centuries. Now, the country has incorporated their new climate change-related aquatic peril into an economic and development opportunity, channeling funds into neighborhood and urban development that doubles as flood management. For the Dutch, surviving floods is a national identity—only time will tell if that eventually goes global. 

Sports gear company Vollebak recently unveiled the "100 year pant," a water-and-fireproof pair that promises to outlive you. Inspired by astronaut gear and military technology, the pants are much lighter and generally more comfortable than previous incarnations of armor-gear. Well suited for firefighters, stuntmen, and soldiers, most of their features are superfluous to most – but if you die testing their flame resistance, at least you'll go out with your pants on.  

Flex space is a well-known component of the modern open office, but that concept has now transitioned over to the transportation sector. The Dutch National Railway Company's new series of flexible and modular trains, designed by Dutch firm Mecanoo and Gispen, offers passengers different seating configurations to use as an office, lounge, and socialization spaces. While still in conceptual stages, it's possible that this concept could change the face of transportation in the future. 

Natoora, a sustainable supplier of fruits and veggies to some of London's most prestigious chefs, recently opened a brick-and-mortar shop that feels very similar to another retailer of posh, eco-friendly goods. The fresh produce store was designed in collaboration by architect Noé Golomb and cabinet maker FincH, whose work includes five fit-outs for Aesop stores. All of the food items are locally sourced and are kept in their natural state with no plastic packaging.

The holidays are almost upon us, so it's time to start thinking of passive-aggressive gag gifts for your favorite studio frenemy. Type designers Hoefler & Co. have the perfect present to gift pedantic colleagues and design snobs: the Typographic Ticket Book. Modeled after the much-maligned traffic cops' ticket book, everything from improper font choice, to egregious colors, to unironic use of novelty typeface is included on the surprisingly authentic-looking ticket. 

Tomorrow's french fries may be just as fattening and delicious as they are today, but their packaging may feel very different. A trio of Italian designers devised a form of packaging, called Peel Saver, made from recycled potato skins. Aimed at reducing waste from food truck and other cheap eats places, Peel Saver is cheap to produce and fully biodegradable. 

To say that open offices may not have been the productivity godsend they were touted to be is a bit of an understatement. It seems everyone—from the common office worker to journalists to big-name designers—has conceded that these workplaces cater more to distraction than to productivity. Luckily, those challenges may soon be erased by Panasonic's WearSpace, a futuristic headgear that resembles horse blinders and promises a 60% reduction in the wearer's peripheral vision.

The legalization of marijuana is taking North America by storm. What started in Colorado has expanded to nine U.S. states and the entirety of Canada, meaning that a whole host of new means and methods for enjoying a legal high will start to hit the mainstream market. The Otto by banana bros., a minimalist-looking machine that literally rolls joints for the user, is one such option. What a time to be alive!

An acronym for architecture for health in vulnerable environments, ARCHIVE Global believes design can help combat disease. A recent pilot project confirms the belief. In 2014, the nonprofit launched Health From the Ground Up, an initiative to improve conditions for the disadvantaged in Southeast Asia. Upon learning that thousands of Bangladeshi children die due to parasites harbored in the dirt floors often used in their homes, the team focused on a single basic element: new flooring material. They chose poured concrete, not only easy to maintain and less likely to transmit disease but also able to be installed by local masons. A month after installation in 10 homes, post-construction surveys revealed no new infections in the children living there.

In John Carpenter's iconic film They Live, protagonist John Nada dons a pair of innocuous sunglasses and discovers a horrifying reality: the world has been taken over by aliens who keep their identities and intentions secret by subliminally controlling the human population through mass media. Now, that same idea has been taken to its opposite extreme by engineer Scott Blew and artist Ivan Cash in the form of IRL Glasses. These seemingly ordinary sunglasses use Steelcase's Casper screen-blocking film to completely black out all screens. If the glasses from They Live revealed a nightmare to the wearer, IRL Glasses may deliver a dream. 

You've heard of professional cuddlers, you've heard of waifu pillows, now get ready for the Mannequin! This stunted (or is it dismembered?) humanoid cushion features extra-long arms, a plush torso, and what looks like a cauterized neck that somehow combine into a comforting presence for millennials caught in the spiral of urban loneliness. Designed by Aseptic Studios, the Mannequin's neck can be used to correct posture and its arms can guard against heat expelled by laptops. With those perks, why even bother going on Tinder?

Homes built to the Passive House standard have been gaining popularity in recent years, and with the UN's latest dire warning about climate change, that popularity may see a bona fide boom. For people looking to do their part for the planet, German company Lofts to Go offers a solution: the Coodo, a prefab structure that adheres to this rigorous environmental standard. The units can be used as both residential and commercial spaces, and developments are in place to take the Coodo completely off the grid.