How do you get people to stop wasting water? Appeal to their aesthetic and moral sensibilities. Sukle, a Denver-based advertising agency, did just that with a series of billboards that made use of sticky notes, colored pencils, aluminum cans, clay, and LEGOS, among other materials, to remind people to only use what they need. 

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."

There's no question that reforestation is a critical component to combating climate change, but the manual labor and cost are frequently-cited deterrents to getting it done. Two Brazilian brothers may have found a solution to the problem. Their biodegradable planter protects seeds and saplings from ants and helps keep them adequately watered, enabling the baby plants to grow into the giants that people think of when they hear "rainforest".

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.

Almost no one can agree on what the perfect temperature is, and when you're in an office, it becomes very apparent. Good thing a team at the University of Maryland may have introduced the perfect solution. They developed a new fabric that both allows heat to leave the garment and locks it in, depending on the body's temperature. It could be the perfect solution for not only athletes and bickering coworkers, but also the elderly and babies who require constant comfort.

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. 

Neri Oxman is at the forefront science, design, and academic celebrity. A winner of the National Design Award and a pioneering force at MIT's Mediated Matter Lab, Oxman is known the world over for her unique creative vision on how the natural world and the built environments of the future will coalesce. Deep dive into her predictions for a new biophilic future in this 2018 interview with Oxman in Dwell magazine. 

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. 

Ceramicists make it look so easy — with only gentle pushing, folding, and sculpting they can mold a mound of clay into something delicate and functional. Now, thanks to continued innovation in 3D printing, even the casual hobbyist can make their own ceramic pieces at home. Cerambot uses real clay, making it a more eco-friendly 3D printer, and can print with pinpoint accuracy. 

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. 

Architecture and urban planning have been proven to be incredibly useful tools in combatting the negative effects of climate change on the city level. Could design thinking be the answer to mitigating the epidemic of loneliness in our urban centers, as well? PhD researcher Tanzil Shafique set out to discover if it was possible with his M.Arch students at the Melbourne School of Design and the answer is a resounding yes (view student work here). 

Istanbul’s newest airport, aptly called “Istanbul New Airport,” partially opened this past October and aims for complete functionality by the end of the year. It boasts historically-inspired architecture (for example the control tower is inspired by Turkey’s national flower, the Tulip), 22 LEED-certified buildings, a slew of child play areas, holistic “wellness” centers, and a size larger than Manhattan. No word on baggage claim efficacy.

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. 

Noise is all around us, whether we like it or not. We're only now beginning to understand the detrimental effects loud sounds can have on our health. Luckily, we can mitigate those effects with design thinking.

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. 

Scientists at Northwestern University and San Diego State University may have unraveled the mysteries of the Black Widow's super-strong web. MRI and NMR imaging revealed the molecular structure of the glands that make the spider's silk, which could be extrapolated to synthetically reproduce this stronger-than-steel material at scale. Everything from bridges to bulletproof vests could one day be impervious thanks to one of the world's deadliest spiders.

Bjarke Ingels Group and Italian lighting brand Artemide have teamed up to produce a lamp that can provide indoor plants with the kind of light they need to survive. The Gople lamps use Artemide's patented RWB lighting system to diffuse red, blue, or white light to encourage the plants to photosynthesize or bloom. The lamps come in a white crystal, transparent silver, and transparent bronze finish.

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.

Innovation is the name of the game at SANDOW, as evidenced by the brand’s latest collaboration with Grammy Award–winning musician and New York Times bestselling author Questlove (not to mention Interior Design's Innovation channel, too). The venture, called CREATIVE HOUSE, aims to unite a diverse mix of artists, designers, inventors, and innovators to inspire, connect, and ideate all kinds of new brands and products. Further details will be announced in January 2019, but Questlove provided a snapshot of the project at this year’s Adobe MAX Creativity Conference.

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?

It’s full steam—er, electricity—ahead for autonomous vehicles. The hospitality industry expressed its excitement over this swiftly emerging tech at the 12th annual Radical Innovation Awards, selecting Steve Lee’s Autonomous Travel Suite as the grand prize winner. The Aprilli Design Studios's project won the jury and audience over with its sleek design, game-changing door-to-door service, and easy integration with future tech.

Leather has been the quintessential material of good taste and class for centuries, but its throne as status symbol is increasingly being usurped by high-tech consumer goods. In a bid to create the ultimate semiotic expression of the aspirational lifestyle, HP rolled out the Spectre Folio, a leather-bound convertible laptop. It remains to be seen how many people who don't resemble Patrick Bateman will actually purchase this $1,300 computer.

Electric, not gas. James Bond's preferred automotive brand moves into the future with the release of the Rapide E all-electric luxury sports car in 2019. The car will be powered by 5,600 lithium-ion 18650 format cylindrical cells and can go from 0-60 mph in under four seconds.