Core77

Outside-the-Box Design: The Barbican's Unusual Bathroom Sinks

Rain Noe

The design of the Barbican Estates, London's residential Brutalist masterpiece, was finalized in 1959. Many of the apartments had bathrooms where the toilet was in its own little room, separated from the sink and bathtub. (This is an arrangement you often see in Japan.)

But in the 1960s, as construction began, the housing codes changed. Any room that contained a toilet now had to have its own sink. As-designed, there was simply no room to add a conventional sink to the separate toilet rooms. It fell to German architect Michael Hohmann to solve the problem.

Hohmann collaborated with Twyfords, a British sink manufacturer, and their in-house designer Munroe Blair on a radical design that would fit within the space. Because of the sink's unusual shape, it reportedly took six months for the firm to perfect the unusual mold and firing conditions required to create the porcelain sink within the tight tolerances.

Today the Barbican basin, as it's known, has become something of an icon, and an example of outside-of-the-box design thinking. It was also long-lived; it remained in production for over 50 years.

Brilliant Portable 3D-Printed Chess Set for Tradespeople

Rain Noe

Daniel Hubert, a 3D designer who posts his .stl files on Printables, may be a genius. At a hardware store, he encountered sets of security bits (for driving tamper-proof fasteners) in both black and silver.

Where we see specialty bits, Hubert saw chess pieces:

He then 3D printed this:

The files for his Screwdriver Bits Chess are here.

Japanese Snack Packaging Goes Black & White, Due to Iran War

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Butterfly effect: Among the things that currently aren't getting shipped through the Strait of Hormuz is naphtha, a crude oil derivative that's used in colored inks. As a result Calbee, the Frito-Lay of Japan, has announced they're switching their chip packaging to black and white.

"This measure is intended to help maintain a stable supply of products," the company writes, noting that the color change "will not affect product quality." (Which means, I guess, that they don't actually use the colored ink in the chips themselves.)

Tragically, the change also means that their potato pitchman must be removed from the graphic; apparently he doesn't translate well to black and white. It also appears he was responsible for 5g of the overall package weight.

DEOS Architecture's Chunky Old-Growth Oak Seating

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There's something really charming about these chunky, sort of art-totem Miorita furniture pieces.

It's also shocking that they're made out of gigantic pieces of old-growth Oak, which are scarce in America; but DEOS Architecture, the firm that created the pieces, is based in Moldova. Romania still has large tracts of old-growth forest, with some stands reportedly being 300-400 years old. So these pieces appeal to me partially for the primitive, designer-as-child form, and primarily out of raw material envy.

DEOS is producing them in a limited run only, for €1,000 ($1,180) a pop.

Their making-of vid:

Making the Invisible Visible

Amish Patel

For the last thirty years, venture capital has largely been shaped by a software worldview. The model was simple enough: write a check, help a company scale fast, chase the hockey stick, and win through speed. That framework made sense in a world where software was supposed to eat everything.

But that is not the world we are entering now.

What's emerging instead is a much more complex and consequential arena: the infusion of intelligence into the physical world. Manufacturing. Healthcare. Energy. Robotics. Supply chains. Industrial systems. Real infrastructure. This is where some of the biggest opportunities now sit. And this is also where the traditional venture model starts to show its limits.

Physical innovation does not move at software speed. It takes longer. It costs more. It requires coordination across far more variables. You are not just moving ones and zeros around. You are working through factories, deployment, regulation, hardware constraints, research institutions, supply chains, and real-world adoption. That journey is harder, lonelier, and far less forgiving than the old venture playbook ever accounted for.

That is why what Eclipse is doing deserves attention. The headline is easy to misunderstand. Another billion dollars raised for physical AI is interesting, but that is not the real signal. The real signal is that a massive chunk of that capital is being allocated not just to investing, but to building. It suggests that even major institutions now recognize that writing checks is not enough. If you want to transform the physical world, you need a model that is more operational, more collaborative, and more deeply involved in execution.

Eclipse is not alone in making this bet. SOSV, through its HAX program, has built one of the most active hardware-focused investment operations in the world, running founders through a hands-on development process inside a fully equipped facility with machine tools, engineering labs, and on-staff technical experts. Monozukuri Ventures, whose name draws from the Japanese concept of "the art of making things," pairs early investment with prototyping know-how and manufacturing expertise rather than treating those as the founder's problem to solve alone. These are not incubators in the traditional sense. They are something closer to operating partners with capital attached.

The category is still being named. Venture. Studio. Incubator. Accelerator. Fund. Holding company. Operator network. None of those labels fully captures what is emerging. The point is not the label. The point is the mechanism.

The mechanism reflects a simple reality: physical innovation requires a different kind of institutional support than software ever did. In software, a small team can sometimes brute-force its way from idea to product. In physical tech, that is much harder. The path demands what might be called a fellowship model: the right operators, the right institutions, the right supply-chain experience, the right technical and commercial guidance, brought together at the right time. It takes collaboration, not just capital.

That first stretch, between a validated idea and a product actually deployed in the world, is where most of the real work happens. Everyone loves the breakthrough moment. The actual journey from "I have a vision" to "this is running in the real world and changing an industry" is rarely a solo act, and it is almost never funded well by a check and a board seat.

This is beginning to reshape how the investment landscape is organized. At the top, you have mega-institutional ambitions, the JP Morgan and Bezos-scale bets on reindustrialization and physical infrastructure. Then you have firms like Eclipse, moving beyond traditional venture toward a more operator-infused model aimed at large industrial problems. There are earlier-stage players as well, working from the ground up: more 0-to-1 in orientation, more translational, more directly focused on helping researchers and founders navigate that brutal first stretch. At Conduit, that is where we have focused our work.

The thesis across all of these efforts is not that founders need less ambition. They need more. They need the willingness to pursue big, important, disruptive problems. But that ambition must be paired with operational discipline and a support structure that understands what physical-world execution actually demands.

The people building at the intersection of machine intelligence and physical reality need more than encouragement and a term sheet. They need access to operators who have done it before, to factories and labs and institutional relationships, to manufacturing insight and strategic guidance that make hard things possible. There are now firms organized specifically to provide that, catering to specific verticals: robotics, energy, defense, medtech, industrial automation. The model is maturing.

The old venture model was built for software. The next innovation stack will be built for the physical world. And not by capital alone.

About the Author: Amish Patel leads Conduit Venture Labs, a venture studio dedicated to building and backing companies that merge software intelligence with the physical world. By leveraging expertise in operational execution, product design, and venture capital, the studio transforms innovative technologies into impactful products and businesses. Amish's background includes leadership roles in product and design within consumer and medical technology, with a passion for blending design, behavior science, and engineering to build trusted, widely adopted solutions.

Production Minimalism: Vestre's June Bench

Rain Noe

This June bench, by street furniture brand Vestre, takes minimalist production seriously. It consists of just two steel end pieces that define the overall form, while pre-cut lumber does most of the heavy lifting.

There's also an armrest version, where the steel endpieces become significantly more complicated.

Designed by the trio Espen Voll, Tore Borgersen and Michael Olofsson, JUNE was developed to meet the need for a seating solution in more classic or transitional settings – especially in projects where a modernist look may be seen as too bold or out of place. The goal was to create a quiet, inclusive design that would feel at home in European cities, American parks and heritage contexts, while staying true to Vestre's design DNA.

The form balances softness and structure; oval tubes meet round legs to create a gentle, elegant silhouette. High-back and low-back options allow for flexibility and comfort, while easy to assemble modular connections enable endless layout options and quicker installation times.

Vestre offers the benches in over 200 different powder-coated colors.

Luxury…Towel Rods

Rain Noe

How rich are you, really, if you're still hanging your bath towels on metal rods? Like some plebe. Fear not: Soon you'll be able to hang them on Murano glass towel rods, handcrafted in Venice, no two alike. "Each glass cane in the series is unique," writes 6:AM Glassworks, the Milan-based design brand.

The raw, hard-edged stainless steel brackets seem totally out of place to me, but the company says they're "merging industrial elements with traditional Murano glass to create contemporary, functional hanging pieces."

Your towels will have to wait to be pampered. These aren't yet in production, but are "coming soon."

New York Design Week Is Here, May 14–20

Core Jr

Each year for one week in May New York becomes one of the most design-saturated cities on earth. NYCxDESIGN Festival runs May 14–20, and whether you're a trade professional, a design tourist, or just someone who likes to wander into interesting spaces, there's no shortage of reasons to leave the house.

Dozens of events are spread out across Manhattan and Brooklyn, with programming ranging from major trade fairs to intimate gallery exhibitions, talks, tours and workshops.

We're looking forward to the SHINE exhibition, NYCxDESIGN's official festival exhibition, running the full week at The Seaport. Curated and designed by Harry Allen, SHINE brings together 70 designers presenting original light objects that explore craft, technology, personal expression, and function. Below is Blade, the entry from Brooklyn-based designer Scott Henderson.

Blade, designed by Scott Henderson

Another interesting event is Future Now-Art of the Possible, an all-day conference exploring "AI's rapidly expanding influence across the full spectrum of design." This is a ticketed conference, taking place on Tuesday May 19, with presenters from MIT, Google, IBM, SVA and more.

ICFF at the Javits Center, May 17–19

The week is anchored by The International Contemporary Furniture Fair, North America's leading contemporary design fair, and for three days it transforms the Javits Center into the continent's most concentrated meeting point for designers, brands, and buyers. This year's edition carries the theme "Common Ground: A Global Dialogue on Design and Shared Values," positioning ICFF not just as a trade fair but as a cultural platform that reflects today's challenges around global exchange, sustainability, and shared purpose.

The 2026 fair includes Wanted, the always-interesting segment focused on emerging designers and studios, including their Schools Showcase, featuring student work from more than 20 schools from around the world.

Dumbo Design Day

Across the river in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn you will find dozens of architecture and design studios, independent design shops and a beautiful park under the Brooklyn Bridge with stunning Manhattan skyline views. On May 20th many of them will be hosting open studio tours, where visitors can get an inside look at the process, tools and people working in this vibrant creative community. Plus a fun party to close out your Design Week activities. Check the DUMBO web site for full list of participating open studios and RSVP to the closing party here.

The full NYCxDESIGN program is navigable via the official website and app at nycxdesign.org. For ICFF registration and logistics, head to icff.com. DeZeen also has a full guide to NYxDesign on their website.

A Clever Add-On Spout for Camping Vessels

Rain Noe

This clever little gizmo is an add-on spout, for camping vessels that lack one. It's made out of lacquered Beech, and was created by Taiwanese craftsman Child Wood Lee.

They're sold through online vendor Pinkoi and run about USD $80 to $90, depending on which animal shape (shark, whale, goose) you opt for.

David Chipperfield Design's Plywood Bathtub

Rain Noe

When it comes to high-end bathtubs, you've got your enamel-coated steel or cast iron, or stone. Wood is reserved for Japanese-style soaking tubs. But now David Chipperfield Design, the industrial design arm of the UK's David Chipperfield Architects, has created this Tambre tub out of Okumè plywood. (Okumè is an African hardwood used to make high-end marine-grade plywood.)

eThe material's warm tone and fine grain give the object a restrained presence, while its construction, based on flat, assembled elements, remains clearly legible. All technical components are contained within the body of the tub, allowing the exterior to remain uninterrupted. At each junction, solid wood inserts soften the transitions and reinforce the continuity of the volume.

Recently unveiled at Milan, the Tambre is going into production by Italian bathroom brand Agape.

Alessandro Stabile's Beautiful Areo Chair for Kristalia

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The iconic Thonet chair, designed in the 1850s, never really had a spiritual successor. Michael Thonet's mastery of both material (Beech) and production process (steam bending, then placing in cast iron molds to hold tight curves), yielded something both easy to manufacture and easy on the eyes.

In the following century, Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer made tubular-frame chairs out of steel. But while these were considered classics in their own right, the production technology at the time simply couldn't match Thonet's extreme bends. The 20th century chairs, though designed 60-plus years after Thonet's, seem primitive in comparison.

Present-day, Italian industrial designer Alessandro Stabile has designed a tubular-frame chair that harnesses production mastery in the service of yielding a beautiful organic form. Here is his Areo chair:

Behind Areo's apparent lightness lies a rigorous mechanical process. The tubular frame is shaped through CNC cold bending technology, capable of executing continuous curves with millimetre precision. After the robotic forming phase, every structural joint is manually welded to ensure maximum mechanical strength.

The ergonomics of the chair are the result of hundreds of tests and refinements. Even the production scraps generated during development are fully recycled and reintroduced into the manufacturing cycle, reducing waste to zero. Technology, craftsmanship, and engineering working together to shape comfort.

The newly-designed Areo is going into production by Italian furniture brand Kristalia.

Core77 Weekly Roundup (5-4-26 to 5-8-26)

Rain Noe

Here's what we looked at this week:

A tensegrity-based side table made out of pipes.

An airline pilot's disappearing staircase references work.

MVE-Collection: An architect and designer make furniture out of construction site waste.

More defensive urban design: Venice's anti-public-peeing architecture features.

These beautiful FSB 1292 door handles are by Foster + Partners Industrial Design.

Billi, by industrial design firm BKID, is a pickup-truck-style service robot. It's launching this year.

How to make your own camping cutlery: Industrial designer Mario Tsai's Chopsticks Maker.

Industrial designer with a sense of humor: Alberto Essesi's "Oops" lamp.

Tyme, by industrial designer Agustin Papadopulos, is a fold-to-assemble spiritual successor to Braun's AB 20 clock.

Industrial Design student work: A collapsible touring bicycle with 3D-printed components.

A 1970s West German industrial design trend: When bathroom scales were leather-clad.

A Mid-Century Modern classic: Hans J. Wegner's daybed with hidden storage.

Grabo finds yet another market for their portable suction cups: Riggers.

Herb Studio's concrete weed grinder.

A Concrete Weed Grinder

Rain Noe

For the weed smoker seeking a more tactile grinding experience: This Sphere Grinder, by German weed paraphernalia company Herb Studio, is made out of concrete. It's begging to be handled.

Inside is an anodized aluminum grinder, and a neodymium magnetic closure.

It's roughly four inches in diameter and weighs 2.2 lbs; a non-slip silicone base means it won't mar surfaces.

These run $100, and come in two colors.

Grabo Finds Yet Another Market for Their Portable Suction Cups: Riggers

Rain Noe

Rigging is the art and science of hanging equipment, like lighting or cameras, for film or stage production. It involves erecting sturdy supports and mechanically attaching equipment to them, which sounds low-tech. But it's a field that technology is having a major advancement on. First Pipe Lighting changed the game with their inflatable, lightweight LED lights, which offer a massive amount of lumens with minimal rigging.

Now Grabo, a company that makes portable suction tools used by the construction industry, has drawn the attention of riggers. Grabo's eponymous product provides a convenient handle for lifting heavy, flat things like plywood sheets, stone pavers and glass:

Now the company shrewdly offers a universal Attachment Plate that features a variety of threaded ports. As the company surmised, this enabled those with unmet needs to find new uses (and thus a bigger market) for their tool.

Cinematographer Wiki Feng was filming a commercial that required overhead lighting. But the apartment setting would not accommodate the wall spreader (overhead bars that span from wall to wall) on which to hang his lighting. He thus used a Grabo with the Attachment Plate:

"The strength and reliability of these electric suction cups, [which] can be triggered automatically or manually to maintain its pressure, is insane. These also are so gentle with the surfaces you work with."

While the construction market is large enough to maintain a good business, Grabo's Attachment Plate will open up entirely new markets for them.

A Mid-Century Modern Classic: Hans J. Wegner's Daybed with Hidden Storage

Rain Noe

Hans J. Wegner designed this GE-258 Daybed in the 1950s.

Made of Beech, it featured a large rear shelf behind the backrests. This was to provide a storage space for bedding beneath it. The shelf was hinged in two places, allowing the backrest to pivot out of the way, revealing the full extent of the sleeping surface.

It makes a little more sense seen in video:

The GE-258 was produced by Danish manufacturer Getama, and had a long production run stretching into the 1960s. The piece is sought after today, and sturdy enough that there are plenty of surviving examples on reseller sites.