Office Kiss
Arnoud van den HeuvelNeo was here. By Kristof Wickman, Tyler Peterson, and Shaun Owens-Agase, November 2004. Source: oodagroup.com | Related: Warp Your Room | Learning to Build Superman's House | …
Search results for Office Garden
Make the World Your Office
Megan Ray NicholsImagine being able to enter your office through a digital representation of reality. It sounds crazy, but it’s possible with augmented and virtual reality.
Caravan Garden
Arnoud van den HeuvelLet's do a quick poll here. What would you rather own if you could choose between a car or a garden? Kevin van Braak combined both symbols of freedom and domesticity into this …
Experimental Office: No Chairs, No Desks
Koert van MensvoortTo counter the sitting dogma, design firm RAAAF and artist Barbara Visser created a dynamic office concept, entirely based on movement and leaning.
Why urban gardens are crucial for conserving bees and butterflies
NextNature.netAs humans have industrialised farming to feed a growing global population, pollinators – animals vital for plant reproduction – have seen their food supply decline. In the UK, …
The Office of the Future on Four Wheels
Alejandro AlvarezNissan created the e-NV200 workspace: an electrical van with zero emissions that is packed with everything you need to work efficiently.
Guerilla Gardening in Paris
Ruben BaartParis passed a new law that not only allows locals to plant their own urban garden around the city, but also encourages them in doing so.
The Evolutionary History of Office Chairs
Allison GuyOn the shortlist for the year's strangest book title , Jonathan Olivares' A Taxonomy of Office Chairs charts the "evolution" of chairs from the 1840s to the present day. The …
Packet garden
Dr NaturalPacket Garden is an experimental artwork that seeks to provide an alternative and accessible approach to visualizing daily internet use. Plants are also grown for each protocol …
Stratospheric Sky Garden with Proto Life
Alessia AndreottiA sky garden of cacti and artificial life forms floating a hundred thousand feet above the Earth's surface.
Office Rebellion
Arnoud van den HeuvelThese peculiar illustrations are part of a sixteen-page pamphlet produced to put inside the postage-paid, business-reply envelopes that come with junk mail offers. Every envelope …
Sunflowers – electric gardening
Koert van MensvoortA retail lot in Austin, Texas recently sprouted a field of solar photovoltaic sunflowers that soak up the sun’s rays to provide shade while generating a steady stream of …
Office Grass
Dr NaturalThese grass squares are designed to give a natural touch to the office or home by placing them freely or according to feng-shui. Inspired by Frank loyed Wright’s Fallingwater and …
Antenna roofgarden
Koert van MensvoortDon't ask me what the purpose is of having your roof crowded with antennas. Solar energy roof-gardens I could understand, but antenna roof-gardens just seem hopelessly old …
Let's Build a Garden on Mars
Koert van MensvoortOne would need a gardening robot, fitted plant species and some kind of dome structure for the plants to grow in.
A Garden Raised by Television
Arnoud van den HeuvelThis installation is called Feed and raises ferns that can survive under conditions of extreme lighting. The television screens provide light to the plants, which grow …
Mobile garden
SaraNo green area's in your neighborhood? Well, this mobile community garden might be a solution. You can take it to your office, park it on a suburban industrial zone, pick your …
The Sleeping Garden
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkHow to design an expierience of retrieving in nature in the middle of Holland's second-biggest city? Design a park, built entirely from used railway sleepers. That was the basic …
The peoples gardens
Rolf CoppensVolkstuintjes (or peoples gardens) might be a typical Dutch / European tradition, offering gardening space in urban environments in which people don't have their own gardens. It's …
Wii Gardening
Koert van MensvoortFor people who live small... Via Gizmodo . Related: Game on , Games become jobs , Boomeranged Metaphors , Simulating old nature on next nature . Thanks Jurrian.
Digital Trashcan in a Physical Office
Koert van MensvoortThe Swedish design group Front brings the principle of the digital computerdesktop trashcan back to the physical world. When your trashcan basket is full it bulges outward. When …
Next Nature lecture: Gardening Complexity
Koert van MensvoortNo, the peculiar image above was not created by an in vitro fertilized child from the combined DNA of Escher, Mondrian and Pollock, but rather by 21th century designer Remco van …
Dubai Employs First Robotic Police Officer
Julie ReindlThe first robotic officer will soon report for duty in Dubai.
Miniature Sensor Network for the Office
Koert van Mensvoort"Have you seen my stapler? No, but just look it up on Google home office maps ." CSIRO Researchers have developed miniature sensors that track lab equipment, coffee mugs and …
Gardening on the Roof of a Bus
Alessia AndreottiA cheeky experiment to reduce CO2 results in a highly mobile garden.
eTree – Electric Gardening
Alessia AndreottiAn eco-sculpture that looks like a tree. Its foliage is made of solar panels able to produce energy.
Digital Stock Market Garden
KarlThe Ticker Garden is a stand-alone data visualization application that monitors a stock portfolio. Different flowers represent the real-time performance of selected stocks via the …
Just right for the garden: Mini-Cow
Koert van MensvoortRising supermarket prices are persuading hundreds of families to turn their back gardens into mini-ranches stocked with miniature cattle. For between £200 and £2,000, people can …
Visit the Garden of Eden
NextNature.netDiscover the Next Nature Habitat VR and explore four future environments we might live in someday.
Work Remotely in VR Nature
Julie ReindlBreakroom is a VR app that lets you fill your daily working tasks in a simulated nature surrounding, enhancing productivity and mental balance.
Chat with Plants in the Botanical Garden
Camille CharluetExploring methods to better connect people to the natural world, Waag Society, in collaboration with the Dutch Botanical Gardens Association, have developed an app that allows visitors to talk with plants.
Self control freak organizes his garden
Koert van MensvoortOur friend the Self Control Freak is organizing his garden. Hover over the image above to help him get his wilderness under control.
Fellow Day 2017: Next Habitat
Ruben BaartLast week, our NNN fellows gathered to discuss the Next Habitat; how will we work in the future? And how does this affect our personal lives?
e-Paper
Arnoud van den HeuvelWill our mobile devices look like this in two years time? This is an example-application of the featherweight QVGA (320x240 pixels) active-matrix display: Phillips e-paper . (It …
Bookshelves of the Ancients
Koert van MensvoortDecaying trees turn into decaying books and shelves.
Meet Emma: Your colleague of the future comes with a warning
Freya HutchingsEmma is in poor health. She has painful varicose veins, stress-related eczema, puffy skin, a grey complexion, red eyes and a hunch-back. She is an imagined office worker of the …
Dynamic Exoskeleton Chair
Svetlana MironcikaAn exoskeleton chair that allows the body to move freely.
OOMouse versus Magic Mouse
Arnoud van den HeuvelRecently were introduced, the OOMouse ... ...and the Magic Mouse . Both tools are developed to browse the ones and zeros more easily. It almost seems unfair to compare them, so I …
Next Nature Movie #2: Being There
Koert van MensvoortThe main character in ‘Being There’ (1979) is a simple-minded gardener named Chance, played brilliantly by Peter Sellars, who has spent all his life as a servant in the Washington …
The Presidential Harvest
Arnoud van den Heuvel" Eat the View " is a campaign to plant healthy, edible landscapes in high-impact, high visibility places, whether it's the "First Lawn" or the lawn in front of your child's …
The Human Hamster Wheel Desk
Alessia AndreottiThe Human Hamster Wheel Desk is the latest result of workspace evolution. Office work has domesticated us!
Man charged for shooting his lawn-mower
Koert van MensvoortA 56-year-old man from the Midwestern US state of Wisconsin has been arrested after shooting his lawn mower in his garden because it would not start. The man was charged by police …
We Are Weaker Than Our Ancestors
Alessia AndreottiHuman fitness has decreased so significantly that even the strongest of us would consider ancient men to have a supernatural force.
AI & VR Impact on Architects and Engineers
Megan Ray NicholsFuture workspace, human interaction and unique experiences: here’s how artificial intelligence and VR impact on architects and engineers.
Interruptions
Rolf CoppensEvery ecology needs balance. So that's also true for the ecology of the office. The office is a ecology that is highly regulated: temperature, light, humidity, distance to other …
Digital trashcan
Rolf CoppensThe TEMPO is a fake product with a real idea. As I am really neat and eager to clean up my digital desk I tend to throw away too much files. This digital trashcan copies the stuff …
20 Pound Mouse Pointer
Koert van MensvoortThe recent discussion on boomeranged metaphors reminded me of this 20 pound mouse hand created a some years ago for a Paradise by the laptop light event on Next Nature. The …
Cursor Kite
Dr NaturalCursor Kite brings the desktop of your computer outdoors. Nerdy? Yep, but the youtube video of the mouse pointer exploring the beach is fun to watch. Related: Boomeranged …
Time pilots us...
Lizette ReitsmaYou step out of bed. Why? Because your alarm clock tells you it is time. A quick glance at the alarm clock tells you that you are still on schedule. First you take a shower and …
Animals Love Technology
Alessia AndreottiA macaque stole a tourist's iPhone and fiddled around with it like a human would.
This Robot will Grow Food in Your Backyard
Koert van MensvoortFarmBot Genesis is humanity's first open-source CNC farming machine designed for at-home automated food production.
Dumpster Fish the Future of Farming
Allison GuyCities have seen guerilla gardens, rooftop honey production, and fire escape chicken coops. Now, urban farmers may be adding aquaculture to the mix. Headed by ex-banker …
Rule #7: Respect Social Standards
NextNature.netAnthropomorphic products enter the human social space. Humans have the most complex social behavior of any organism on Earth. Anyone or anything trying to join in should be careful to do it right.
Tracking Employees' Body Functions to Improve Business Performance
Alessia AndreottiIn the quest for competitive advantage, companies adopt wearable biometric technologies to monitor employees and improve business results.
A Smart Top to Correct Body Posture
Ruben BaartFysioPal is a smart top made to support and enhance the upper-body and posture.
World's First 3D Printed Building
Margherita OlivoThe world's first 3D printed office building opens its doors in Dubai, paving the way for the building of the future.
Govert Flint on Enrichers
Ruben BaartNNN fellow Govert Flint discusses Enrichers in Frame magazine.
Apple Desk - Symbol of a digital lifestyle
Koert van MensvoortBehold the Apple Desk , created for all those Apple IPod style victims. Moreover this design is a wonderful illustration of the penetration of computing in everyday life; once the …
Fake for Real: Design for the Masses
Koert van MensvoortThe delicate armchair depicted at left is a Finnish design created in 1931-1932 by architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898-1976), who in Scandinavia is sometimes called the …
Fake for Real: Is that coffee you're drinking?
Koert van MensvoortCreating the perfect cup of espresso used to be an art form in itself. The beans had to be ground to exactly the right coarseness and the water pressure precisely controlled to …
Fake for Real: QWERTY, the Right Order
Koert van MensvoortDid you ever wonder why the letters on the keyboard are in the order they are? The reason for QWERTY goes way back. This order was chosen to reduce the probability that mechanical …
Friending, Ancient or Otherwise
By ALEX WRIGHT, Published in NY Times December 2, 2007 The growing popularity of social networking sites like Facebook , MySpace and Second Life has thrust many of us into a new …
Global Warming Mug
Arnoud van den HeuvelAl Gore would love one of these mugs; displaying what happens when the world heats up and oceans begin to rise. Via Shikake | See also: ScaryIdeas.com | Related posts: Design A …
Grand Dad typing an email on dead trees?
Koert van MensvoortWow, so what do we have here? Granddad is using some kind of mechanical apparatus to type an email which seems to be instantly printed! Now that's our peculiar image the week.
PET project
Rolf Coppens"I love the idea of using liquid containers to make water animals. Contained/containing, trash/not-trash, like the jelly-fish or anemone: Living/non-living And I wanted some …
RedesignMe
Koert van MensvoortWe are all born in a world that has been designed already. Cars, dishwashers, dildo's, remote controls, ATM machines. Although these products are supposed to make life better, …
10 years Google
Mieke GerritzenThe good people of NextNature.net congratulate Google.com with its tenth anniversary. See also: Google 2084 , Google DNA , Google manhole , Googling in physical space , Google …
God Says No
Koert van MensvoortPeculiar object of the week. 'God Says No', made by Jirri Geller , via Trendbeheer .
Homo Desktopus
Koert van MensvoortA future physical anthropologist who knows nothing about the human race and would dig up a contemporary desktop computer, might conclude homo desktopus must have been the user of …
Human Nature as Pathology
Koert van MensvoortModern society seems to have transformed human nature into a pathology. Our emotions are controlled by drugs. We are forced to operate within a narrow bandwith of what are …
Old nature compared
Arnoud van den HeuvelThe comparison graphics are a bit dull after a while, but I think this video illustrates how people deal with the forces of Next Nature; If we want to understand why managers, …
Comeback of the 'Ugly' Fruits
Koert van MensvoortPerhaps in the long run, historians will consider this as the official end of modernity as we knew it: The comeback of the wonky cucumber, abnormally bent banana, and comedy …
Growth economy hits the ceiling?
Koert van MensvoortWe have lived for 200 years in a growth economy . That's more than a lifetime, so it is no surprise people tend to think of economy as infinitely growing. Herman Daly , who …
Inbox Victory
Rolf CoppensHave you ever been in the situation where you spend days trying answer all of your email only to accomplish your goal and have no one to share in your victory? All you want is a …
Millions of gadgets unused in Britain
Koert van MensvoortGadgets! You love them when you buy them, but what happens next? Over half of Brits have abandoned gadgets because they don't know how to use them properly. Seventy-one per cent …
Robot costume
Koert van MensvoortTiger meets tiger. Apparently some of the owners of a vacuum cleaning robot feel the need to 'costumize' their device. We are now awaiting the witty bio-robotics company that …
Tangible hologram projector
Koert van MensvoortUsing ultrasound technology, researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a holographic projector that displays three-dimensional virtual objects you can feel with your …
The Robot Versus the Sign
Arnoud van den HeuvelQuote Eric Horvitz : "After finishing my doctoral work, I returned to Stanford Medical School to finish up the MD part of my MD/PhD. During one of my last clinical rotations, I …
Windows XP Revisited
Arnoud van den HeuvelThe most distributed image ever is being phased out. What remains is a hill in Sonoma Valley, California. Charles O’Rear used to pass that hill almost daily between his home in …
Are Mushrooms the New Plastic?
Koert van MensvoortMushroom based plastics? Designer Eben Bayer must have eaten too much of the wondrous chanterelles perhaps? No seriously, the man is turning his vision into a reality with an …
Beehive Europe
Koert van MensvoortPeculiar image of the week. Via Radarvirtuel , where you can see them fly in real time.
Beware of the Virtual Squirrels
Koert van MensvoortKasey McMahon and Derek Doublin demonstrate the tension between people and their environment through the eyes of its non-human inhabitants. Beware of the Virtual Squirrels ! The …
Bird + Subwoofer
Michael KluverThe Bell Isle Zoo is one of the examples of the decay of the once great city of Detroit. Situated on an island in the Fleming Channel, the zoo was shut down years ago because of …
Design Fiction – Medical Bill of the Future
Koert van MensvoortAccording to this fictitious future medical bill almost every part of the human body will be repairable in 2028. Gut bacteria replacement, Bone tissue growth for skull repair, …
Hamster Powered Mobile Phonecharger
Michael KluverWe would call this a sustainable technology if only the average pet's carbon footprint wouldn't be comparable to that of an SUV .
Hay Baling Fun
Dr NaturalIt is a widespread belief that, contrary to people living in urban areas, farmers have a strong connection with 'nature'. One seriously starts to doubt that after watching this …
Keep it cool with the Bio-Robot Fridge
Koert van MensvoortThe Bio Robot fridge is a speculative product that uses a non sticky, odourless gel to envelope stored food as individual pods. The idea is that the gel cools by absorbing heat …
Mind Expanding Lead
Florian Conradi and Michelle ChristensenThese pencils release allegedly mind-expanding aromas, letting you 'smell your way to smartness while you write'. According to the creators , the fragrance is encapsulated using …
NoteBookBook
Koert van MensvoortThis skeuomorph "BookBook" should be an appropriate present for grandparents as well as neo-nostalgic youngsters. Sold at TwelveSouth for $80. Would be an easy remake, though, if …
Search Stories
TimoOnce upon a time humans told stories by painting on cave walls, showing plays in an amphitheater, pressing text on paper and shining light trough pieces of film. Today we tell our …
A Savannah Inside the Dumpster
Allison GuyFor most of us, obtaining food is easy. We go to the grocery store, where fruits are labeled and meats arranged by species. We go to a restaurant, sit, and wait for our food to …
Flap to Freedom
René RiegerIt works like this. Position yourself with a friend in front of a battery hen and flap your arms as fast as you can when the music sets in. The harder you flap the faster your …
Games become punishment: Gold farming in prison
Allison GuyRemember the gold farmers in China who put in eye-straining hours to earn virtual money in World of Warcraft? Gold farming has now made the leap to the country's corrupt penal …
Mushrooms in the Mokum
Allison GuyMediamatic is hosting a pop-up urban mushroom farm in the middle of Amsterdam. Rows and rows of shiitake, oyster, and the elusive almond-flavored Agaricus subrufescens are …
Progressive Nostalgic Message Service
Koert van MensvoortDigital pigeon post its private, peaceful, none-polluting and secure. Peculiar image of the week. Via Rising Tensions . Thanks Marco .
Why Handwriting Must Die
Koert van MensvoortAssociate professor Anne Trubek argues that handwriting will soon be history , because writing words by hand is a technology that's just too slow for our times, and our minds. A …
Time Between Emergence and Design
carolinenevejanPreviously, experiences of time emerged from nature as given – offering seasons, the rhythm of humans, plants and animals. Nowadays, people integrate nature-time, body-time, inner-time, clock-time, and global 24/7 systems-time. Human beings, in past, current and next natures, have to deal with emergence and design of time in order to survive.
Evolution Goes On
Koert van MensvoortSurely, some day smart phones want to find out where they come from too, no? Nextnatural comic on the origins of a next species by Dave Coverly .
How People spend their Day
Koert van MensvoortThe layers in this visualization represent an average of how thousands of Americans spent their day
Nano Product: Nansense
NextNature.netFor years, people have relied on harsh drugs and irritating alarms to control when they sleep and when they wake. Now, the Nansense wristwatch offers an all-natural way to …
Salad Dress
Koert van MensvoortPush your organic-sustainable-veggie-lifestyle in the overdrive with the Salad Dress.
Transfer Your Window!
Jaap ArtsImagine you buy a special kind of window which you can place on your wall wherever you want, enabling you to get different views, not always looking at the same tree or house of your neighbors.
Furniture Bondage
Koert van MensvoortHow the objects in our environment, which are supposed to serve us, at the same time also domesticate us.
Google Wants to Tattoo a Phone Onto Your Throat
Jonathon MarkowskiGoogle has just submitted a patent for lie-detecting throat tattoo that can also make calls.
Have We Passed "Peak Automobile"?
Jonathon MarkowskiYou’ve heard about peak oil, but what about peak automobile?
The Smart Desk: Exercise While Working
Alessia AndreottiA "breathing" desk that reminds you to change positions throughout the day.
Truly Honest Branding
Stephen PerryViktor Hertz put a painfully honest (and funny) spin on corporate logos.
Does Handwriting Matter Anymore?
Alessia AndreottiThe personal touch of pen and ink VERSUS the efficiency and productivity of digital word processors.
Humans Need Not Apply
Koert van MensvoortWarning, this video on the impact of automation on human labor might cause you to re-plot you professional career.
Need to Unplug? There is an App for that
Koert van MensvoortAt times it seems we serve our technology as much as it serves us. The OFFTIME App wants to save us from our own devices.
Grow your Dinner in a Kitchen Insect Farm
Koert van MensvoortThe Kitchen Insect Farm enables people to grow their own protein source (read: larvae) at home.
The art of growing grasshoppers
Ruben BaartGrasshoppers are a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to meat protein. Could the ability to grow them in your kitchen make them more appealing? Watch the video below and …
The First Artificial Intelligent Lawyer
Mathilde NakkenThere is an artificial intelligent robot called ROSS that is taking over the work of thousands of lawyers. Working non-stop, reading faster then any human attorney can do.
Designer Govert Flint applies motion to everyday life
Ingmar NieuweboerInterview with Govert Flint, designer, architect and self-taught artist.
Lunar Insurrection Vol.2: Harvest Moon
Daniel FragaLunar Insurrection is a group of architects that explores the creative possibilities of the moon as a potential territory for human activity and inhabitation. In Vol.2 , their …
More Babies for Italy
Ruben BaartThe Italian government just launched a campaign to raise awareness for falling birthrates and encourage family planning.
Web Training Collar
Ruben BaartJasper van Loenen developed a wearable that sends a corrective electrostatic shock to its wearer when visiting an unprotected website.
AI Defeats Human at Go
Ruben BaartGo world champion Ke Jie has lost two games of 'Go' against Google's DeepMind AI system AlphaGo.
What You Should Know About Artificial Intelligence Changing Jobs
Megan Ray NicholsIt should come as no surprise that artificial intelligence naturally extends into the way we work. Let's look at how AI changes the way we relate to work.
Become an Emoji Translator
Ruben BaartEmoji translator wanted! London firm is looking for an emoji translator, take the test to find out if you're good enough.
Priests Bless Server Rooms
Ruben BaartSanctifying servers with knowledge and power from digital demons.
Design Your Own Vegetables
Ruben BaartWith her project Future Food Formula, food designer Chloé Rutzerveld is looking for innovative methods to design vegetables.
A Floating Gym in Paris
Ruben BaartThis floating gym harnesses human energy to sail down the Seine River in Paris.
HUBOT: Meet the Organ Designer
NextNature.netAs an organ designer, you develop genetic algorithms from which organs are grown to perfectly fit the recipient’s body, but also to meet the personal wishes of the patient.
Jobs for Caretakers - Robots at Work #1
Mathilde NakkenThis is post number one of our serie 'Robots at Work'. In this episode we present you five jobs for caretakers, the ones that work with their hearts.
Jobs for Creators - Robots at Work #2
Mathilde NakkenHave a look at our series Robots at Work! In this episode we present you five jobs for creators, the ones that build with their hands.
Jobs for Facilitators - Robots at Work #3
Mathilde NakkenThis is post number three of our serie 'Robots at Work'. In this episode we present you five jobs for facilitators, the ones who love to work with technology.
Jobs for the Extraordinary-Robots at Work #5
Mathilde NakkenThis is post number five of our serie 'Robots at Work'. In this last episode we present you five jobs for the extraordinary, the ones who won't let themselves be categorized.
How to Train Your Robot
Alejandro AlvarezHumans and robots can work together to maximize the potential of both and boost productivity to new levels.
Here’s what manufacturing enhanced with virtual reality will look like
Megan Ray NicholsRobots are coming for our jobs. Virtual reality is coming to make the jobs that remain easier to accomplish. All of the world’s manufacturing sectors are in the process of …
Games become jobs: Looking through the eye of the submarine with an X-Box controller
Kelly StreekstraSubmarines feature a special device called a periscope that allows people inside the submarine to see what's going on above water. Controlling such an eye requires hours of …
Five (un)mundane things to do at Dutch Design Week 2019
Freya HutchingsLining up plans for Dutch Design Week ? Once more, 2600 designers gather in over 120 locations during 450 events. So whether you're a local, new in town, or just passing through, …
Work with us!
We are a network of makers, thinkers, educators and supporters. With members in 44 countries, we are the international network for anyone interested in the debate on our future – …
Tree Shapers
Arnoud van den HeuvelPeter Cook and Becky Northey are tree shapers. Their designs are so ten years ago ; but still worth a post. Materials used: water, sunlight, soil... and a sprout planted in 1998 …
Leaf Thermometer
Marco van BeersDesigner Hideyuki Kumagai must have been inspired by the seasonal colors of nature when he designed this thermometer. Stick the leaves to your window, or make a bush at your …
Next Paradise
Koert van MensvoortTo celebrate the 500 year anniversary for Hieronymus Bosch, Studio Smack made a contemporary interpretation of 'The Garden Of Earthly Delights'.
Next Nature gift guide 2019
NextNature.netWhether you're in need of a holiday gift for your techie spouse or tech-adverse grandpa, the truth is, your loved ones deserve better than a generic gift card. Now we understand …
I'm feeling lucky
Dr NaturalA 21-leaf clover discovered on June 3 by Iwate prefecture farmer Shigeo Obara has shattered the Guinness world record for most leaves on a clover stem ( Trifolium repens L. ). The …
Hamster Shredder
Arnoud van den HeuvelTom Ballhatchet introduces mice and hamsters into the officegarden. tomballhatchet.com
Information Decoration: Our Environment as an Information Carrier
Koert van MensvoortPicture this: it's 40,000 years ago, and you are an early Homo sapiens. You are standing on the savanna. Look around you. What do you see? No billboards, no traffic signs, no …
Bananawall
Koert van MensvoortWho would not need a bananawall in their officegarden? This modular freestanding, indoor/outdoor bananawall system was designed by Stefan Sagmeister . It is made of 7200 banana's. …
BlobWall
Dr NaturalWho would not need a blobwall in their officegarden? This modular freestanding, indoor/outdoor wall system was designed by Greg Lynn . It is made of a low-density, recyclable, and …
Ceci n'est pas une fleur
Koert van MensvoortRemember the classical dadaist fountain of Marcel Duchamp – who placed an urinal inside an art gallery and proclaimed it was Art? San Fransisco based artist Clark Sorensen takes …
Where the Green Grass Grows
Arnoud van den HeuvelIt grows freshly in your windowsill; a lawn to linger. By hyock.com | Related: Grass Wheel | Office Grass | Caravan Garden | Parking
Wearable Urban Farms
Paul StoutjesdijkGot no space for a farm? Just shrink one and turn it into jewelry!
Floating Underwater Self-Sufficient City
Francesca BarchiesiAsian architects of AT Design Office want to build an incredible floating underwater metropolis that is also self-sufficient.
Professions Of The Future
Francesca BarchiesiAs technology evolves, what today seems like science fiction may be the job market of tomorrow: 11 professions of the future.
First Second Life Millionaire announced
Koert van MensvoortAnshe Chung is an avatar, or onscreen graphic character, created by a Chinese-born language teacher living near Frankfurt, Germany has proclaimed herself the first second life …
Online Oxygen
Koert van Mensvoort600 million people worldwide are beginning to see online access as an absolute necessity. From airports to living rooms to roof gardens to classrooms to city parks, People want …
Park Buildings
Koert van MensvoortSeoul Commune 2026: Reconfiguring Towers in the Park, by the Korean office for architecture Mass Studies. I think in the future... buildings will grow.
Park-card
Rolf CoppensBusiness card slash micro-terrain by Tur & Partner, landscape architects. It's a portable garden: impregnated with seeds, in the photosynthetic presence of sunlight and water, the …
Plant Sensors
Koert van MensvoortOne day you will step into the garden to look at the flowers - and the flowers will look back at you. Rich Fletcher, Nikolai Slavov, and Hiroshi Ishii from MIT Tangible Media …
The World is not a Desktop
Mark Weiser (originally written for ACM Interactions ). What is the metaphor for the computer of the future? The intelligent agent? The television (multimedia)? The 3-D graphics …
Contour door
Arnoud van den HeuvelSilly inventions like these make me wonder why man continuously seeks interaction with the things surrounding him. Should buildings or offices be allowed to talk? "This door was …
An American Self-Portrait
Koert van MensvoortIn his new series Running the Numbers , photographer Chris Jordan looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific …
CrackBerry addicts are suing their Employers
Dr NaturalNo self-respecting manager would be without a BlackBerry. But now these handheld gadgets, which provide workaholics with constant email updates, are being blamed for chronic …
Delete-Key-Eraser
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkRemember no-tech? Back in the days, we would ocassionally write down things with a pencil on paper. If we made a mistake, we would rub something that looks like an delete button …
First A4 colour e-paper unfurled
Koert van MensvoortPhilips presented an A4-sized colour electronic paper . A paper-thin and bendable viewing panel. "This represents the next generation in display technology," Chung In-Jae, chief …
NAT Designing Nature - Exhibition & Debate
NAT, designing nature is about the interface where nature and culture, biology and design intertwine. An exhibition that is a cross between an exotic Garden of Eden and an illegal …
Natural light
Arnoud van den HeuvelProducts by 100%... to make the light in your house/office feel more natural. 100per.com
Wooden computing: Soo Natural
Dr NaturalFor the nostalgic office workers. Buy them here , or here .
Fatigue Risk Management
Rolf Coppens"Through individual assessments, employee training and EnergyPods, MetroNaps can help you improve the safety of your workplace, the health of your employees and the productivity …
Green Roofs for Living
Arnoud van den HeuvelThis impression shows the ambitions of the city of Rotterdam for the coming decade. The city is supposed to have an image problem concerning its greenlife; as a big industrial …
Nature as a material
Rolf CoppensVery nice bench, designed to use plants as a building material. Buy them here
Plastic Flamingos Saved From Extinction
Koert van MensvoortDid you know there are more plastic flamingos in the USA than real ones? Plastic flamingos are widely considered to be the stereotypical example of lawn kitsch – the American's …
Zombie Spam – botnet resurrects from death
Koert van MensvoortComputerworld reports a big spam-spewing botnet, that was shut down a few weeks ago, has been resurrected and is again under the control of criminals. The "Srizbi" botnet returned …
A More Natural Typing Experience
Ruben DaasIntroducing the brand new, hand made, eco friendly, sweat absorbing, natural, healthy and most of all fashionable bamboo keyboard. It seems bamboo isn’t just for pandas anymore. …
Allergy-Free New York
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkWe recreate the landscape according to our image of nature and to match our needs and expectations. This also applies for the urban landscape. In the NY Times of last week, Thomas …
Steve Jobs 1955 -2011
Arnoud van den HeuvelSteve Jobs , former Apple CEO, passed away on Wednesday October 5th after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Technology conceived from his vision has changed the world …
Moss Table Powers Its Own Lamp
Allison GuyWhen moss photosynthesize, they release nutritious fats, carbs and proteins into their roots to feed colonies of helpful, symbiotic bacteria. In the process of breaking down these …
Totem Animals for the Anthropocene
Ted HeistmanInvasive species become the animal symbols for a man-made world.
The Evolution Of The Desk 1980 - 2014
Francesca BarchiesiObjects that normally used to surround us became more and more virtual, radically changing the aspect of our workplace.
Vertical Farms Growing In Giant Trees
Francesca BarchiesiUrban Skyfarm is a giant tree-shaped farm system for environmental improvement in food production and distribution.
The Designer who Grows Furniture
Hessel HoogerhuisGavin Munro is creating a farm where planted trees can be grown around braces and harvested as fully formed chairs, sculptures, lamps, and tables.
Growing Grass from Carpets
Ruben BaartMartin Roth brings Persian rugs to life with the cultivation of grass.
On the origin of the word processor
Huub EhlhardtWriting is recognised as one of mankind’s foremost inventions and the mechanization of writing is one of these developments that typify what is commonly regarded as the work of …
Furniture Futures
Eloïse Peredruk, Nellie FriedrichWondering how next natural furniture may change your way of life? Will we feed our lamps? Grow chairs? Talk with our tables?
Anybody else hear that ringing?
Koert van MensvoortAn actress in Atlanta, has tried to answer her phone to the thrrrrup, thrrrrup, thrrrrup of a truck bouncing down a pothole-pocked street. Others say they thought they heard …
Architecture of density
Rolf CoppensPictures taken by Michael Wolf in Hong Kong. See the whole series here .
Bioplastic
Koert van MensvoortBioplastics are a form of plastics derived from plant sources such as hemp oil, soy bean oil and corn starch rather than traditional plastics which are derived from petroleum. …
Designing for Next Nature (workshop report)
Koert van MensvoortThe extent to which new technologies are intervening with everyday life can hardly be underestimated. Virtual realities, nano- and biotechnology are increasingly providing new …
Dynamic Terrain
Koert van MensvoortRegular furniture is quite static. You can move it around, but 90% of the time you're not using it and it is just standing there in your room. So boring! But if Janis gets his …
Eternal Sunset
Koert van MensvoortEternal Sunset endeavours to ensure you can enjoy the sunset live from any location, at any time. As the sunset moves westward, Eternal Sunset continuously tunes into different …
Excitement Clothing
Koert van MensvoortThe body suit pictured above has LEDs that illuminate according to the wearer's state of excitement. Skin signals are measured and change light emission through biometric sensing …
Fruit Tape
KarlGummed tape with a fruit-like print on its surface. The tape reminds us of the feeling of peeling fruit when opening a box. A design for opening, rather than packaging. Designed …
Green Electricity
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkElectricity itself is a natural phenomena, but as regular AC/DC currency it becomes a commoddity. But Green Electricity is a strange thing. You pay more money for your electricity …
Harddisk tree visualisation
Koert van MensvoortRemember the beautiful sequoiaview harddisk visualisation posted a while ago? Above a more illustrative harddisk tree visualisation by professor Jack van Wijk. Branches are …
How To Grow A Chair: An Interview with Richard Reames
Rolf CoppensUsing ancient grafting techniques and a few basic tools, Richard Reames shapes living trees into furniture and sculpture near his home in Oregon for clients worldwide. He is the …
Infant Pillow - Simulates a Mother's Hand
velinaIf you've ever wished for a "hand" to leave behind so that your baby would feel as if you've never left the room, your prayers have been answered with the Zaky Infant …
Info Toaster
Rolf CoppensToasted bread as an information display device (originally developed in 2001 but somehow still intruiging): a toaster that parses meteorological information from the web and then …
Liquid Orange
Koert van MensvoortWouldn't it be great if we could grow Orangina bottles? Graeme Davies of RCA Industrial Design Engineering, now presents a kitchen appliance for providing orange juice packaged …
Meta meta reality
Rolf CoppensTringo is an online multiplayer game created by Nathan Keir (aka Kermitt Quirk) in December 2004 that runs inside the virtual reality platform Second Life. It is described as a …
More leg = more money
Rolf CoppensThe Stock market skirt Nancy Paterson made a blue taffeta & black velvet party dress that represents the real-time stock market situation by lowering or raising its hemline. …
Morphotheque
Koert van MensvoortNature becomes Culture becomes Nature. The Morphotheque series from Erwin Driessens & Maria Verstappen is already a few years old. Still good.
Park(ing)
Koert van MensvoortMore than 70% of San Francisco's downtown outdoor space is dedicated to the private vehicle, while only a fraction of that space is allocated to the public realm. Park(ing) …
pour des dents d'un blanc éclatant et saines
Dr NaturalAnother peculiar image by jeroen diepenmaat
Pushing the Desktop Metaphor
Koert van MensvoortDespite the metaphor, current virtual desktops (a) have little resemblance to the look or feel of real world desktops (b). Bumptop explores making virtual desktops behave in a …
Save our Next Nature! Buy the book
A critical and visual take on culturally emerged Nature. Full of statements from designers and thinkers from around the globe. Wild systems, Genetic Surprises, Calm Technology, …
Semantic landscapes
Koert van MensvoortSemantic landscapes use the natural metaphore to visualize abstract data. The project above visualises different meanings of the word 'cold' in Biomedical patent documents.
Sequoiaview - harddisk visualisation
Koert van MensvoortDid you ever wonder where all that hard drive space went too? Sequoiaview generates organic-like views of the files and folders on your hard drives using cushion treemaps. …
Sketch furniture
Rolf CoppensIs it possible to let a first sketch become an object, to design directly onto space? This is a question that Front Design have just asked in their project Sketch Furniture. "The …
Topic Flowers
Koert van MensvoortAn online application that generates artificial flowers from text . Type in any sentence you like and it is being transformed to a fake flower. via information aestethics
Tree traffic light
Koert van MensvoortFunded and produced by the Public Art Commissions Agency. On roundabout just beyond the Canary Wharf estate there are three trees, two are London planes; the third is a traffic …
Cellphone Treemasts
Koert van MensvoortMobile phone operators go to extraordinary lengths to conceal the masts that form their networks. They are being disguised as chimneys, clocks, drainpipes, telegraph poles, and …
Tropical Dome
Koert van MensvoortThe largest indoor beach in Europe, near Berlin. www.my-tropical-islands.com
Universal Connections - USB fetish
Koert van MensvoortUSB was originally only used by computer experts and nerds. Nowadays USB (universal serial bus) has developed into an every-day item and symbol for connecting the digital with the …
USB Flashbag
Dr NaturalAnother gadget. An usb memory stick that is capable of changing its physical size, depending on the amount of data it holds. when the device is about to blow up one can see the …
USB Tanner
Rolf CoppensDon't let the sun have the monopoly on making people love you more. Get the USB Desktop Tanning center and, in the comfort of your own cubicle, a scrumptiously golden tone can be …
Weather forecasting umbrella
Rolf CoppensAn umbrella that provides information about the likelihood of rain so that users can make a simple, informed decision about whether to take the umbrella with them as they leave …
Wildgruen
Dr NaturalMandy Meißner's "Wildgruen", a plant that can move and communicate. In her view, plants need to be freed from their isolation, both in the way that they can only lean towards the …
Wind Shaped Pavillion
Koert van MensvoortThe Wind Shaped Pavilion is a design proposal for a large fabric structure that can be used as a public or private pavilion. As a lightweight fabric structure, the wind slowly and …
Withus Oragainstus
Rolf CoppensJust read this article on Darpa 's work on using bugs for war effort . They are planning to make a kind of insect cyborg to use in the army. The Defense Advanced Research Projects …
Would You Like a Bouquet of Nanoflowers?
Koert van MensvoortThese crystalline 'nanoflowers' were developed by Cambridge University PhD student Ghim Wei Ho. The nanostructures of silicon carbide are grown from droplets of gallium on a …
apple stickers
MarcoApple Mac logo with apple stickers by Mark Ferguson. Found on: danieleatock.com
Augmented Cognition
Arnoud van den HeuvelThe Augmented Cognition System will help the brain adapt to data on computer-screens. If there's too much/little data, it will decrease/increase the information for you. If the …
Barcode Tattoos
Koert van MensvoortBarcode tatoos . An intuitive manifestation of the decreasing border between humans and products?
Bioprinting in Hawai
Koert van MensvoortThis Fall, the 1st world Bioprinting Congress is organized in Honolulu, Hawai. Four whole days of biopatterning, bioassembly and biofabrication! The ironic choice of location …
Bleeding till Death
Koert van MensvoortFlowers start dying from the moment they're being cut. We try to keep them alive as long as possible by giving them water, sunlight and feeding them. But all of a sudden they …
Bone Chair
Koert van MensvoortJoris Laarman 's Bone chair takes its inspiration from the efficient way that bones grow (adding material where strength is needed and taking away material where it's …
Bonsai tree table
Koert van MensvoortSomehow next nature seems to reveal itself through furniture. Earlier we've featured the treetrunk bench , the bone chair , the folding chair , sketch furniture and how to grow a …
Botanicalls: The Plants have your Number
Koert van MensvoortBotanicalls is a system that allows plants to call their owner when they need more (or less) sunlight or water. It works by placing moisture and light sensors in plants and then …
Brain-computer interface for Second Life
Dr NaturalWhile recent developments in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology have given humans the power to mentally control computers, nobody has used the technology in conjunction …
Bright blind
Rolf CoppensMade of electroluminescent (EL) sheets, Makoto Hirahara's Bright Blind simulates a window where none exists. In all other respects, the artificial blind functions in exactly the …
Business is Peanuts!
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkWe designers often have to exchange business cards and usually they sit in a drawer forever, forgotten and out of date. In Japan there is quite a ritual about exchanging meishi or …
Cell Phone Disco
Arnoud van den HeuvelElectromagnetic radiation of active mobile phone sets off the LEDs in relative proximity. Light shadow follows the conversation through the space. …
Chewing = Browsing
Rolf CoppensJapanese researchers have developed head gear that lets people control devices such as an iPod using their teeth. Now that is not really new, except when you take in mind that …
Super Mario Cloud
MarcoCory Arcangel hacked and modified a piece of hardware'the cartridge on which the game "Super Mario" is stored, or rather, was stored to produce "Super Mario Cloud" This is …
Die Hard - Vilcus plug dactyloadapter
Koert van MensvoortMany people get a kick out of a direct contact with AC power supply. To that end, people normally use U-shaped fragments of bare wire, paper clips or even usual metal forks. All …
DNA as Information Storage
Dr NaturalScientists have written a message into the DNA of a living organism , a breakthrough they believe could lead to a new era of organic computers capable of healing themselves if …
Dutch Nature
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkA few days ago, I went for a day trip walk to the Dutch "Great Outdoors". It didn't take long before we got confronted with a typical dutch stance on natural experience: a guy …
EnergyTree
Rolf CoppensThe EnergyTree is a device dedicated to monitoring your household energy use. It monitors you energy output from sockets and any device that is using electricity. It also monitors …
Fake for Real: Digital Trashcan
Koert van MensvoortAt the beginning of the digital era, several metaphors from the physical world were transferred to the digital environment in order to make, otherwise incomprehensible, technology …
Fake XP grass
Rolf CoppensFake commercial for Norton computer maintenance software. Made by some student, who's name I couldn't find.
Folding Chair - Flexible Love
Koert van MensvoortThis amazing 'flexible love' folding chair can be stretched to seat as many as sixteen individuals; once compacted, the chair seats one. Watch the video in order to understand the …
Furry Display
Koert van MensvoortI applaud any new display technique that isn't emitting light. A recent patent application by Philips for a new type of screen based on "furry" pixels , or physical pixels made …
Grass Wheel
Koert van MensvoortIf you've gotta run the wheel, you might as well do it in bare feet. Many of us are so busy being good little hamsters that we never have face time with green space. A group of …
Greener Apple
Koert van MensvoortApple knows more about clean design than anybody. But apparently their products contain hazardous substances that other companies have abandoned. Hence, green my Apple! Via …
iBiogenetics
Arnoud van den HeuvelIn 1998 at the introduction of the iMac , Apple declared that the "i" stood for "internet". Apple later adopted the "i" prefix across its consumer hardware and software lines. …
IVY - hard disk cover evolves with your data
Koert van MensvoortIVY is an external hard disk which shows the content of the hard disk on its skin. When no data is stored on IVY, its skin will remain blank. When you purchase IVY, it appears to …
Ladybug cleans the Toilet
Dr NaturalA bug that does the cleaning? This 1-meter (39-inch) tall, 1.35-meter (53-inch) long prototype robot ' named "Lady Bird" ' is designed to clean public restrooms at highway rest …
MemorySticks / USB-tree
Arnoud van den HeuvelNow here's a nice piece of dead old nature I would like to stick in my computer! Notice the beautiful micro-organism-patterns. Designed by Oooms.nl Related posts: Sunflower …
Modernistic vs Nextnature Architecture
Koert van MensvoortWhile the Freedom tower , replacing the WTC twin towers, is being constructed at ground zero, I still enjoy looking at some of the earlier submitted proposals. They tend to be …
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a Dog
Dr NaturalYes I know this is a classic New Yorker comic everyone knows already. But I don't care! This is my blog, dammit, and I'll rant about fifteen-year-old memes if I want.
Periodic table of the internet
Koert van MensvoortA periodic table of the most popular websites on the internet . websites are categorized according to search engines, internet tools, site ranking, aggregators, web comics, …
Plantvertising
Dr NaturalYou put all that care into your plants, and what do you get in return? Magic. Buy a can with a bean seed , add water, watch it sprout with a message etched on the leaf. Well in …
Printing virtuality
Arnoud van den HeuvelPhone, internet, television, photography, even books or music: today it is hard for the mind to escape from virtual worlds. A day without communication or interaction could make …
Retro Future: Magic Highway USA
Koert van MensvoortNothing makes a person more modest about future speculations than Retro Future. Want proof? Here is a 1958 video entitled " Magic Highway USA ". No, they didn't anticipate traffic …
Spiders on Drugs
Dr NaturalIn the 1960s, Dr. Peter Witt gave drugs to spiders and observed their effects on web building. Meet the cocaine, LSD, and the crack spider. Corny Alert!
Modernistic Watermelon
Koert van MensvoortPeculiar object of the week is this square watermelon, found in Japan. Very practical and cost efficient when you want to pile them in boxes and ship them. Artist Piet Mondrian …
Stump
Koert van MensvoortThis morning I found a tree stump in my laminate wooden floor?! Oh well, that's the peculiar object of the week, created by David Lefkowitz .
The surrealist were telling the truth
Koert van MensvoortAfter Magritte; Surrealism in the 21th century. Peculiar image of the week, created by Isabel Lucena.
Switch Critters - Can you make them switch?
Koert van MensvoortEarlier we discussed the Magical Interaction project, in which Joris van Gelder rethought the boring activity of switching on/off a light by transforming it into a magical …
The Desktop Factory - Do It Yourself
Dr NaturalNowadays, most people can't make anything at home because it's too expensive. Roboticist Hod Lipson wants you to stop shopping and use his portable 3-D printer to make your own …
Treetrunk Bench
Dr NaturalOld nature meets next nature in the design by Jurgen Bey. Related: How to grow a Chair , Folding Chair , Sketch furniture , Dynamic terrain .
TV Helmet
Dr NaturalTV-Helmet (Portable Living Room) made by in the '60s by Walter Pichler- Photo: Werner Kaligofsky. Via: We make Money not Art , Mouse . Related: Conditioned , Schöne Aussichten , …
Urban Camouflage II
Koert van MensvoortAaron Larney made these urban camouflage printed hoodies, just in case you need to blend into your dorm's notice-board. See also: Urban Camouflage I .
Who wants a stylus?
Rolf Coppens"Who wants a stylus?" Words by Apple's Steve Jobs when introducing the iPhone that uses a revolutionary input device: the finger. Using this device you find that it's pretty hard …
Ambient Umbrella
Koert van MensvoortThe Ambient Umbrella shows when rain or snow is in the forecast by illuminating its handle. Light patterns intuitively indicate rain, drizzle, snow, or thunderstorms. Local …
Animator vs Animation
oustamanWhat happens if the user interface becomes a landscape? Watch the short film by Alan Becker.
Asus introduces scented laptops
ConnieIntegrating nature in our technology. There are four different laptops: Floral Blossom (pink), which has a tropical, flowery scent; Musky Black (black), which incorporates a waft …
Avatarian Graveyard
Koert van MensvoortAvatarian Graveyard supplies a service for virtual addicts – people who excessively or compulsively spend time in virtual environments – to help them reintegrate into everyday …
Better than the real thing
Koert van MensvoortTake a bite from this pear and I'll spare you all the default connotations with the apple of eden. Source photo by Pablo Montanez . See also Modernistic Watermelon , Ferrari …
Catch and eat fishing by phone
Dr NaturalFor mobile gamers in western Japan, a hearty seafood dinner awaits just a few key clicks away, thanks to a unique new cellphone fishing game that rewards successful players with …
Composting Bottle
Koert van MensvoortDon't you just love that vanishing bioplastic bottle! It is our peculiar object of the week.
Computer crash virus
Koert van MensvoortYes. Evelien Lohbeck takes metaphors seriously (but with humor).
Day at the Pool
Dr NaturalDon't you just love urban recreation? Only in China. Peculiar image of the week. Via . See also: Super Cities , Tropical Dome .
Call for Proposals: Designing for Next Nature
Nowadays, children know more corporate logo's and brands than bird or tree species. The average Western person has more worries about the instability of financial markets and …
Don't you just love those classical games?
Koert van MensvoortPeculiar image of the week by Anne de Vries .
Evolving mouse
Koert van MensvoortJosé E. Rivera emailed us this image of his strangely evolving mouse. We are clueless on what motives or evolutionary pressure a computer mouse might have to transform itself into …
Föhn le fenêtre
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkTired of looking out on a grey wall and in dire need of a green touch? Then Föhn le fenêtre has got just what you need. The concept is simple enough: artist Karel Verhoeven offers …
Growing Rooms, Buildings & Cities
Koert van MensvoortWith their project 'Rules of Six' architects Aranda & Lasch envision an unpredictable, self-generating landscape of interlocking hexagons that could represent rooms, buildings …
Hortus Conclusus
Arnoud van den HeuvelThis weeks peculiar image is a work by Zeger Reyers. In 2001 he vaccinated some everyday objects - found in the basement of Rotterdam Art Centre Witte de With - with oyster …
It is Nature... but not as we know it
Dr NaturalNo, this isn't the newest picture of some star system or nebula taken by Hubble telescope in deep space. This is a map of the internet. It might not be of much use since it is …
Banana Juice Box
oustamanThis Japanese Juice box is camouflaged from modern box designs and tries to convince consumers with its appealing 'natural' look. A schoolbook example of biomimicmarketing ; …
Kokon Chair
Koert van MensvoortOur peculiar object of the week is the 'Kokon Chair' created by Dutch designer Jurgen Bey , who wrapped existing chairs with tight, elastic synthetic fiber resulting in a highly …
Let the plants do the dirty work.
Koert van MensvoortMathieu Lehanneur created a plant-powered indoor filtration system, that pulls in filthy air to be processed through a plant's leaves, roots, and humidity, reintroducing purified …
Light weeds
SaraLightweeds is a project by Simon Heijdens and currently exhibited at the MoMA - part of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition . The organisms - plants, weeds, trees - exist …
Lilium Urbanus
oustamanLilium Urbanus is a collaborative senior thesis project by Anca Risca and Joji Tsuruga, recent graduates of SVA. Pretty cool to watch, the video is a metaphor of urban landscapes …
Liquified Furniture
Arnoud van den HeuvelNever, 1999. By Nina Saunders Just a random collection of her works: Any day now, 2003 – Woodland trust, 2007 Ever onwards, 2001 Age of Reason, 1995 – Confession, 2005 Sincerely …
Luxalive - The emotionally aware lamp
Koert van MensvoortSo you thought that animated Pixar Lamp from the movies was just a fantasy? Not anymore. Luxalive is a prototype of an reading lamp that moves according to the character of its …
Mario meets Magritte
Dr NaturalSuper Mario and Rene Magritte mashed up for Dadaist delight. Available as a T-shirt . See also The surrealist were telling the truth .
Modernistic Chair
Koert van MensvoortIn the category: Creativity with modernistic tree trunks . Created by the good people of Draw me a sheep , who with this project aim to explore today’s human relationship with …
Modernistic Tree
Koert van MensvoortMondrian would have appreciated square trees. Furthermore, they would enable wood industry to lose less material, to cut easier with machines and to store more efficiently. Hence …
My latest cellphone
Dr NaturalI think I'll have my next one implanted in my tooth . Via joe-ks.com .
Observing Next Nature
Koert van MensvoortYou can watch it grow in front of your eyes. Via Core.form-ula .
Photoshop for real
oustamanStudent work from Central Saint Martins in London. All the credit goes to Henry Hadlow and Ed Cornish. Via
Press [CTRL] [S] to save the environment
Koert van MensvoortThe people at Preem.se – the Swedish organization responsible for this advertisement – must think this is the way to promote environmental protection with a younger generation of …
Remote pets
Arnoud van den HeuvelHumans have domesticated animals for thousands of years. The earliest known evidence of a domesticated dog is a jawbone found in a cave in Iraq and dated to about 12,000 years ago …
Shopping tree
Koert van MensvoortWe used to wonder where all the stuff in the shops comes from. So now we know. This shopping tree is actually the latest logo of the Dutch shopping center chain V&D . Thanks …
Simulating Old Nature on Next Nature
Koert van MensvoortiDail replaces the iPhone keypad with a good old rotary keyboard. For all you nostalgics (and grandparents) out there. See also: Who wants a Stylus? , 8-bit icon watch , Treetrunk …
Skeleton Mouse
Koert van MensvoortThis rather illustrative but nonetheless peculiar object of the week is for all you Goths out there. Surely Douglas Engelbart – who invented the computer mouse in 1967 – would not …
Speaking at the Wall
Koert van MensvoortI used to hear voices in my head, but now they seem to be coming from the walls – am I back in to the womb? No wait.. it's a wall that reacts to the spectators voice (quicktime) . …
The Blogging Houseplant
BramMeet midori-san , the first blogging houseplant! Through sensors connected to the leaves of this Sweetheart Hoya reads bioelectric currents through the plant, this gives …
The copypaste Bird
Koert van MensvoortOne might think this video is just another witty flick made by some media artist. It is not. This is a real bird living in Southern Australia. In order to attract females, the …
The Order Electrus
Koert van Mensvoort"Nature adapts, even to human actions that seem to destroy everything. The amazing power of evolution has given birth to a new species of insect. Their ideal habitats are old …
Wallpaper Blooms When the Heat is On
Koert van MensvoortNow this is a spot on example of information decoration : a heat–sensitive wallpaper of which the printed flowers will be blooming when the radiator is on. Created by Shiyuan .
Water in my phone
Koert van MensvoortWater inside your phone used to be rather devastating, but with the NEC FOMA N702iS (only in Japan) , designed by Oki Sato, it is turned into a joy. Watch the faked fluid move on …
Your grand-grand-parents new media
Koert van Mensvoort19th century people needed some explanation to understand the difference between the regular candlelight and the electrically simulated candlelight. Note the disclaimer at the …
Agenda Wallpaper
Koert van MensvoortUsing thermochromatic ink, which changes color when the temperature exceeds a specific degree, designer Josien Pieters created a prototype of a dynamic wallpaper that …
Antenna Tree Mast Safari
Arnoud van den HeuvelThis picture was taken in Zambia by Sarah Los (NL) while on wildlife safari . Every fairly trained "NextNature spotter" should be able to distinguish the cellphone-tree masts from …
Anthropomorphic 3d webcam
Dr NaturalThis new 3D webcam with two cameras spaced approximately as far apart as human eyes is our anthropomorphic object of the week. Can you feel it, watching you? The little brother …
Autimacy
Koert van MensvoortAutimacy [aw-tih-muh-see] - noun, plural - cies. The term was coined by Simona Kicurovska .
Bioluminescent Trees will Replace Streetlights?
Koert van MensvoortMost people know about light emitting organisms such as jellyfishes, fireflies and mushrooms . Some time ago, genetic engineers transferred genes responsible for the luciferin and …
Brain Needs 'Nature'
Arnoud van den HeuvelScientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental …
Brain Scan Replaces Job Interview in 5 Years?
Dr NaturalForget about palmistry! MRI scans for candidates in top jobs such as bank directors could soon become part of the job-application package, says Erasmus University researcher Prof …
Corporate animal wallpaper (in real life)
Koert van MensvoortStudents of the Next Nature Theme at TU/e Industrial design in Eindhoven decided to jungle-up their working environment a bit with the corporate animal wallpaper. Hand painted (!) …
Dandella Shows You the Way
Koert van MensvoortHow to navigate the urban jungle? Adopting the metaphorical image of a dandelion in flight, Dandella is a GPS device that shows you the way. Inspired by how young sunflowers …
DrinkPeeDrinkPeeDrinkPee
Arnoud van den HeuvelDrinkpeedrinkpeedrinkpee is a project by Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray about the role our bodies play in larger ecosystems. It's an installation about the Urine to Fertilzer DIY …
Field of Waves
Koert van MensvoortParks are not nature. Parks are culture: man-made simulations of nature, carefully constructed to provide walkers, runners and mountain bikers with a recreational, yet confined – …
Flyvertising
Arnoud van den HeuvelTo draw attention to a stand at the publishing house of the Frankfurter Buchmesse , a publisher hired some flies. The paper mini-banners -- attached with self-dissolving wax -- …
Foldable Icons
Koert van MensvoortIn response to the Boomeranged Metaphors post of last week, visual wizard Ton Meijdam sent us these foldable icons. Print them, fold them and use them to decorate your 3D desktop …
Fruit4Day
Koert van MensvoortFruit does wonders for your health. No doubt about it. It is recommended to consume two pieces of fruit each day. One.. Sorry, I've lost count? How convenient to have the two …
Games Become Jobs: Gold Farming in China
Koert van MensvoortChinese workers slaying monsters to earn gold for western consumers. It sounds surreal, but it is a far from virtual reality for the so-called 'gold farmers', who are working in …
Google Everything
Koert van MensvoortFilippo Minelli envisions Google total world domination in his very own stickery manner. See also: Google tracks flue via sick searchers , Google 2084 , Google DNA , Google …
Growth Assembly
Arnoud van den HeuvelThough the example product seems a little far-fetched; growth assembly could be quite revolutionary. Worldwide shipping of manufactured things is very inefficient. Why not ship …
High Line Park
Rolf CoppensOn elevated unused traintracks the city of New York created a park. Nice work, makes me think of the unnatural nature of parks I visit sometimes. Typically, the park is designed …
Hyper Fruit
Koert van MensvoortImaginary advertizement for genetically engineered hybrid hyperfruits featuring an 'limwi', 'kiwange' and a 'strawblackberry'. Imagine a taste of things to come. Makes you want to …
Laptop Pillow
Koert van MensvoortWith who or what do we have contact the most in our daily life routines? Our family, our bed pillow, doorknobs maybe? The answer is probably: Display. And now there is even a …
Mikel Uribetxeberria
Rolf CoppensBeautiful images by Mikel Uribetxeberria, I think that he also made videos out of this work. Or I saw something exactly like it in a gallery in Chelsea. Gimme more
Mobile Evolution
Koert van MensvoortMiniaturization of mobile phones visualized in the style of a Russian Matroesjka doll. If this continues your phone will soon be small enough to fit into your tooth ? Created by …
Norwegian forest cat on batteries
Koert van MensvoortRobots are penetrating our homes... disguised as cats? On July 30, Sega Toys releases an el-cheapo simulation cat toy for robot cat lovers with allergies or pet-unfriendly …
Pantonebow
Arnoud van den HeuvelNever believed in pots of gold anyway. Related: Credit on Color - rainbow of credit cards | Datafountain - money translated into water | Ceci n'est pas une Roche | Faked Fireworks …
Pelvis Rocking Chair
Arnoud van den HeuvelIt is nature, but not like we know it when chairs biomimic the pelvis. This anatomic Ruby rockingchair was designed by Pouyan Mokhtarani , Tehran (Iran). Via b oingboing.net | …
Phone of the future
Dr NaturalComic relief for the weekend. The Sumsing Turbo 3000 has it all. Commercial spoof of a cellphone with many functions by Groen Brothers . Related: Excuse me, Is Your Tooth Ringing? …
Placebo Buttons
Koert van MensvoortButtons are everywhere: throughout your day you press them on phones, alarm clocks, keyboards, elevators, dishwashers and of course on the computer screen. Although buttons did …
Screen Saver
Koert van MensvoortEver wondered what happened to your old computer screen? At Monitex, a Grand Prairie, Texas recycler, workers strip picture tubes from used computer monitors. Tubes that work will …
Sixth Sense
Koert van MensvoortAlthough this TED video has been all over the web and commented on this website already, it still deserves a separate post: Desigineers Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry of the MIT …
Sunlight-shaped Furniture
Arnoud van den HeuvelAustrian designers Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler have created a solar powered machine that makes arrays of furnishings that vary based on how much sunlight it receives over …
The Next Hacking Frontier: Your Brain
Dr NaturalWiredScience writes: Hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that someday, they’ll try to take over your brain. In the past year, researchers …
Tribal Communication Technology
Koert van MensvoortMobile phones are nextnature: Twenty years ago they didn't exist, now everyone has one and when you leave your house without it, you feel amputated. Like you are missing a limb …
USB condom
Dr NaturalAs soon as the USB Condom detects a virus, built-in software shuts off USB access, verifies the problem, removes the nasty bug, then reopens the communication bridge to your …
USB Finger
JurrianNo this isn't photoshopped. After a motor accident Finish hacker Jerry Jalava decided not to use a normal prosthesis and felt that a prosthesis usb memory stick would enhance his …
Who designed the banana?
Koert van MensvoortLooking at a banana from a design perspective, one immediately notices the fruit is highly ergonomic and sophisticated: Bananas fit perfectly in the human hand, they come with a …
Why are carrots orange? It is political
Koert van MensvoortNo, the image above does not some show some collection of freshly genetically designed hypercarrots in various colors of the rainbow. This is the spectrum of colors carrots used to have.
Wifi Dowsing Rod
Koert van MensvoortToday's technology advances so rapidly that people are often unable to update their media schemas in time and as a result are left cluelessly in awe of it all. Mike Thompson's …
Wooden Bankcard
Koert van MensvoortSilver, gold or platinum creditcards? Expensive metals in credit card design used to have a certain luster in the past, yet today we are all (painfully) aware the mimicked …
Adaptive Bloom
Michael KluverThis interactive installation came out of the Postgraduate Certificate Course in Advanced Architectural Research of the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Graduate Justin …
Artificial Shrub Observatories
Arnoud van den HeuvelJustin Shull investigates the born and the made by mixing them up in mobile installations like the "Terrestrial Shrub Rover" and the "Porta Hedge" . His designs consist of several …
Botnet Storm
Koert van MensvoortNo, this is not some solar system far, far away. Closer than you think, this is is a visualization of a botnet storm . For all you know this malicious virus, or one of its …
Breathe, Believe, Surf the Web
TimoA while ago a plan was proposed within the European Union to add a “Three Strikes, Out” law regarding to copyright infringement. After three accuses of copyright infringement by …
Chinese Crayons
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkThough I did not eat as many crayons as PiPi growing up, I’m sure we all remember the first day we tasted wax. How can something *look* so tasty, yet be totally bland. But I …
Constellation
Koert van MensvoortNo this is not some stellar system far away. What is it then? Lets make another picture, this time with the flashlight on... ...and we learn the small universe is comprised by LED …
Engineered Bacteria heal Cracks in Walls
Koert van MensvoortResearchers have designed bacteria that can produce a special glue to knit together cracks in concrete structures. Technews Daily reports the genetically modified microbes have …
Harddrive on legs
Koert van MensvoortDrive Legs is a portable hard drive which stands up if liquid is spilled near it. Created by James Chambers , who is experimenting with giving products defense mechanisms to …
Logo landscape
JurrianAs you walk through the corporate jungle you notice that it is a hectic place, but sometimes it can be quiet and peaceful. Then you'll see pumas next to crocodiles and bunny …
Media Sunrise
Koert van MensvoortOr is it a sunset? Not sure. Ubiquitous corporature either way. Image by Mieke Gerritzen .
Newspaper Wood
Arnoud van den HeuvelHow to upcycle old newspapers? Mieke Meijer (a.o.) from Vij5 took a jar of glue and started imitating tree rings. "The product surprisingly mimics the quality of real wood" she …
Seashells are becoming Unnecessary
Minke KampmanAt the beach, I'm always on the look-out for seashells big enough to hold against my ear to hear the sound of the sea . This child-like behavior still resonates with me. But I got …
So thats where Phones come from
Koert van MensvoortReally? I never knew. Biomimicmarketing strategies are getting crazier by the day.
Social Networking with Plants
Ties van de WerffUsing energy is not a social activity. Every electrical device we use has its own carbon “foorpint” which, in excess, can harm other living beings. How and to what extent you’ve …
Spot of the Month: Arbor Artificialis Naturalis
Our first spot of the month was made by Tijn Kooijmans, who pinpointed the first Dutch Arbor Artificialis Naturalis planted in 1999 by telecom provider Libertel. You too can share …
Squirming ‘umbilical’ phone cable
Koert van MensvoortThis umbilical cord-inspired charger cable by interactive media artist Mio I-zawa comes to life when connected to an iPhone. Don't watch the video if you are anthropomorphobic . …
Sign Out Forever
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkAn earlier post on Next Nature learned that The Good People behind Webwill provide us with a service to extend our lives on social networks after our physical death. But what if …
The Buttons
Koert van MensvoortNowadays buttons are completely mundane and natural objects in our environment. You find them on phones, alarm clocks, keyboards, elevators, dishwashers and of course on the …
Under the Beach Lies the Pavement
Koert van MensvoortDuring the riots of 1968 , as students in Paris ripped up paving stones and threw them at the police, one of the rallying cries was “sous le pave: la plage” (under the pavement: …
Unlimited Urban Woods
Rolf CoppensWhat to do when you have a small city with limited space, and you rather turn available space into parking lots instead of parks? You turn to DUS Architects for an unlimited …
Where do Cursors come from?
Koert van MensvoortOut of the cursorwoods of course! Our peculiar image of the week was created by Nathan W. Pyle . Thanks Willem H. Lucas .
Alex Gross
Koert van MensvoortIndulge in the paintings by Alex Gross . There is 'something' next nature about them... If happen to have more information on what that 'something' is, feel free to enlighten us …
Augmented Cat beats Dog
Koert van MensvoortSupersmart cat beats pitt-bull with a little help of an electric vacuum cleaning robot.
Augmented Ecologies
Koert van MensvoortIt might take a while before this goes mainstream, if ever, but there is a certain luster in being a plant VJ. Augmented Ecologies is an installation by Guido Maciocci, who rigged …
Biomodd at work
Minke KampmanModding is the act of adapting hardware/software to have it do what you want it to do, which does not always correlate with what it is originally built to do. Biomodd (ding) is …
Breeding QR codes
Koert van MensvoortYou look at the great dane and wonder what information the QR codes on its pelt might contain. You point your smart phone camera at the dog and realize you’ve been hit by a …
Concrete Cabin
Koert van MensvoortOur peculiar image of the week was made by Peter Doig . Oil on canvas, 200x275 cm, 1992. Via De Groene Amsterdammer .
Disgusting Switches
Koert van MensvoortIf a light switch would be hairy or snotty nobody would want to turn on the light anymore, which is exactly why designer Katrin Baumgarten created some of the most one nauseating …
Growing Cement like Coral
Allison GuyCorals are the master builders of the animal kingdom. Powered on plankton and their symbiotic algae, hard corals extract the carbon dissolved in seawater and turn it into their …
Hiking in Hypernature
René RiegerAn escalator to the top of the hill, for people who like nature but don't like to hike. This photo was taken at the Montjuïc in Barcelona two years ago. See the original photo …
Hungry Birds
TimoA while ago I wrote a post about birds which tried to adapt to the city by singing louder and in different tones than before. Now it seems the birds have taken this adaptation to …
Natural Car Alarms
Allison GuyWhile hiking in Trinidad, artist Nina Katchadourian was struck by the similarity of bird calls to car alarms. One inspires us to poetry, the other makes us groan and pull the …
Plastic Planet
Koert van MensvoortWe tend to think of plastic as a cheap, inferior and ugly material used to make children’s toys, garden furniture and throwaway bottles. But as an experiment, imagine for a moment …
Should we clone Neanderthals?
Zach ZorichIf Neanderthals ever walk the earth again, the primordial ooze from which they will rise is an emulsion of oil, water, and DNA capture beads engineered in the laboratory of 454 …
So that's where blackberries come from
Koert van MensvoortPeculiar image of the week, by Arnoud van den Heuvel . Related: Children's dictionary dumps 'nature' words , Crackberry addicts are suing their employers , handset gets taken to …
The Sound of the Blue Canary
Berry EggenBlue is a beautiful color, but its sound is simply irresistible. It is the song of the unhappy and the depressed. It is a sound that touches people. It was also the sound of a …
Tree Temple
Koert van MensvoortSo we may think ‘ guided growth ‘ is a typically 21th century design methodology, yet apparently it was also in vogue in the 19th century. According the original description in …
Woodplastics
Koert van MensvoortLooking for a new kitchen counter-top, but can't decide between a natural or an artificial material? Soon you might be getting both . Designer Hironori Yoshida is pioneering …
A Fake Sun for Your 25/7 Life
Allison GuyThe earth operates on a 24 hour cycle, and so do humans. For most of history, we didn't have much choice in the matter. However, in the absence of visual cues light sunlight, some …
Animals of the Future
Nick van der WeijdenNearly every adult in the Western world owns a personalized pet, sometimes more than one . It is treated with great care, fed when necessary and fitted to the owner’s wishes and …
Book as Human-Computer Interface
Stefan FinckenIn combining the classic feeling of handling a book with the interactivity of the computer, Waldek W?grzyn of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, has created a new human-computer interface.
Corpus 2.1
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkCould you imagine yourself having QR-code freckles, or a chlorophyl skin? Dutch artist Marcia Nolte visualises these kind of speculative scenarios in a very non-spectacular yet …
Featured Page #02: Google Nature
NextNature.netDuring the coming weeks, we will present a selection of our favourite pages from the Next Nature book . This week the second one in this series: Google Nature. Imagine you are an …
Greetings from the Ohio Turnpike
Koert van MensvoortApparently freeways have obtained a level of nostalgia that they are now suitable objects to be depicted on postcards (speaking of nostalgic objects). Perhaps one day in the …
Growing Plants in the Dark
Allison GuyWhile sunlight contains all colors, the dominant type of chlorophyll in plants only needs purple light to function. This simple fact has big implications for the future of …
IKEA Lamp Catches Elephantiasis Virus
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkHave you heard of Elephantiasis? It is a disease caused by microscopic parasitic worms that cause a thickening of the skin and underlying tissues. The disease typically occurs in …
Latro Algae Lamp
Koert van MensvoortAs advances in nanotechnology bring us increasingly energy efficient products, plant life such as algae could become attractive sources for tapping energy. The Latro lamp by …
Let the Robotic Farmers feed the World
Koert van MensvoortThe future of farming is not to be found in further mass-industrialization nor in the return to traditional farming with man and horse power, but rather in swarms of smart, cheap robotic farmers that patiently seed, tend and harvest fields one plant at a time without the need for damaging pesticides.
Making Deserts Flourish
Simone KochUsing only plastic sheets and an irrigation-nutrient system, a Japanese researcher has found a way to change agriculture as we know it. Professor Yuichi Mori argues in his talk at …
Mobile Phone Avant La Lettre
Koert van MensvoortOur peculiar image of the week is exemplary of our human longing for technology that intimately integrates with our body & senses. We are all cyborgs .
Power, Water and Shelter from Giant Mushrooms?
Tim HuibertsIn his (fictional!) documentary, designer and artist Tobias Revell sketches the city of New Mumbai powered by giant mushrooms. These genetically-engineered fungal organisms …
Rainbow Roses
Koert van MensvoortWe spotted these hypernatural rainbow roses at the train station in Utrecht . Indeed they look a bit over date, I guess drinking rainbow ink doesn't make them last any longer. …
The Action Plant Runs Away from Your Touch
Allison GuyPlants have it tough. They're tasty, silent, and stuck to the spot. With Jurema Action Plant, artist Ivan Henriques has given plants the mobility they deserve . Henriques' pieces …
Delivery Drones Are Coming
Koert van MensvoortAmazon announces they want to use drones to deliver your order within a half hour at any location you choose.
Lets Grow a Glowing Plant
Koert van MensvoortSome four years ago we wrote about a plan to create bioluminescent trees that would replace streetlights. This dream is getting closer.
Work Out Like the Flintstones
Alessia AndreottiThe Paleo workout replicates the fitness regimen of our caveman ancestors.
Anti-Drone Tent
Koert van MensvoortAnti Drone Tent is a small construction of emergency blankets that blocks infrared sensing, making it invisible to drones.
Electricity From Plants
Lotte BiesheuvelA new technology enables us to produce electricity from living plants at practically every site where plants can grow.
Printing with Grass
Alessia AndreottiThis 3D Grass Printer can print a garden in any shape you can imagine
The First Man Made Leaf Looks like a Leaf
Koert van MensvoortJulian Melchiorri created a synthetic biological leaf that absorbs water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen just like a plant.
Updated Next Nature Spotter
Koert van MensvoortJoin us in spotting Next Nature phenomena around the World. Download the free Next Nature Spotter app.
A Wooden Floor that Follows the Curves of the Tree it's Made of
Koert van MensvoortA wooden floor that follows the curves of the tree it's made of, thanks to smart milling techniques.
Happy Next Nature!
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkTime measurement tools are perhaps among the most inventive technologies mankind has produced, as it enables us to articulate ‘natural’ time (in the form of lunar years, sun …
Hunger Games for Robots
Yunus Emre DuyarHow would you feel if robots inherited ethical complications of existence?
Seconds for Sale: Domestication of Time
Sander DijkhuisTime Ingot is a solid piece of lead alloy, its mass can slow down time in the immediate vicinity.
Iconic Buildings in Untouched Lands
Margherita OlivoAnton Repponen's project places iconic NY buildings in organic, untouched environments to put them in the spotlight.
Turn Your Cursor into a Songbird
Alejandro AlvarezThe Bird Sounds experiment, powered by Google Creative lab, is a visualization of thousands of bird songs organized by their similarities.
Your Personal Plant Assistant
Ruben BaartMeet Grovio, a smart and wireless assistant for your plants. Using specialized sensors, it automatically waters and monitors your plants in real time.
One Minute on the Internet
Ruben BaartWith the rise of modernity, we have domesticated ourselves with new technology: discover how the world spends one minute on the Internet.
Opening HUBOT at DDW
NextNature.netThe robots have arrived! Yesterday we celebrated the launch of HUBOT , job agency for people and robots at MediaMarkt , as part of the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. Our virtual …
Jobs for Entrepreneurs - Robots at Work #4
Mathilde NakkenThis is post number four of our serie 'Robots at Work'. In this episode we present you five jobs for entrepreneurs, the ones who love doing big business.
New Tree Species Found Only in Dubai
Koert van MensvoortA cellphone antenna tree with an empty billboard and a tiny label that reads: Media 24/7.
Interview Mark Wigley: "We are living in an ecology of antenna"
Ruben BaartWith the invention of the radio antenna in the late 19th century, we became a different species: Introducing the human insect. A species, able to communicate across oceans using …
Your Next Nature guide to Transmediale 2019
Berlin is kicking off its cultural season with the not-to-miss 23th installment of Transmediale . This year the digital art/culture festival focuses on how feelings are made into …
Spatial planning - Learning from Second Life
Written by Joop de Boer from Studio Golfstromen - strategy, planning and design on the city. In the virtual world 'Second Life' everything is possible. That's most obvious in the …
Controlling the Uncontrollable
Arnoud van den HeuvelIt is a home to crawlers, virusses, search engines, gamers, spammers, chatters, twitters, bloggers, worms and spiders. If calling it alive goes too far, it's still safe to say …
Ecology – A New Opium for the Masses
Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek discusses the 'naturalization' of capitalism and how ecology became a new field of capitalist investment. He also argues that the ultimate …
The World Without Technology
Kevin KellyI remember the smoke the most. That pungent smell permeating the camps of tribal people. Everything they touch is infused with the lingering perfume of smoke – their food, …
It's Always Sunny with LED Panels
Alessia AndreottiAn artificial illumination that is "authentic" enough to replace natural light.
Implanting Chips into Employees
Alessia AndreottiAn he hi-tech Swedish office block implanted a microchip under the employees’ hand skin.
Genetic Scissors Instead of Chef's Knife
Monika KozubCRISPRy cabbage has been served for the first time in the world.
Madrid's Future Is Greener than Ever
Margherita OlivoMadrid's new plans to fight rising temperatures and high pollution rates investing on green urban areas.
ECO Coin Award Interviews: Shubhendu Sharma
Jack CaulfieldWe asked Shubhendu Sharm, our first ECO coin award nominee about his method, business and hopes for the future.
Sponge Cities: Soak It, Store It, Reuse It
Alec SchellinxThe philosophy behind sponge cities is simple: cities should contribute to solving water related problems instead of causing them.
Exploring Next Nature (2004)
Koert van MensvoortThe first essay ever written on Next Nature, published in Next Nature Pocket and in Entry Paradise, New Design Worlds . ( download pdf ) (German version: Erkundungen im Nächste …
Biggest Visual Powershow: Photo report
The pictures of the Next Nature Biggest Visual Powershow , in Zollverein are now online! Powershowmaster Koert van Mensvoort and Claudia (most advanced robot in the world). …
Real Nature is not Green
Koert van MensvoortAt the edge of the woods along the motorway near the Dutch town of Bloemendaal, there stands a mobile telephone mast disguised as a pine tree. This mast is not nature: at best, it …
Next Nature Interview
For the Venezuelan Magazine Platanoverde , Gabriela Valdivieso y Lope Gutiarrez-Ruiz interviewed artist/scientist Koert van Mensvoort and discussed some of the idea's behind Next …
Simulacra and Simulations
The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true. -Ecclesiastes If we were able to take as the …
Cloudmaker
Koert van MensvoortAlways dreamed of creating your own clouds? You can now create them... from text. Wordle is a toy for generating 'word clouds' from any text, url or rss stream you provide. The …
Dirt 2.0
Rolf CoppensTo increase decrease CO2 a lot of plans are made to cover city buildings with roof gardens. One problem however is that those gardens tend to be quite heavy. Especially when you …
Fake for Real: White House
Koert van MensvoortThe White House, seat and symbol of the US government, is built in a Roman style, which was in turn inspired by Greek architecture. At left, we see it applied in the Villa …
Earrings for Spontaneous Seeding
Arnoud van den HeuvelSeed bombs away, because these earrings may awake the Guerilla Gardener in you... You never know when an opportunity for planting might present itself. Be prepared with these tiny …
The Playboy Interview
In 1961, the name of Marshall McLuhan was unknown to everyone but his English students at the University of Toronto – and a coterie of academic admirers who followed his abstruse …
Castle Duivenvoorde
Rolf CoppensThat Next Nature is nothing new can be proven in a walk around Castle Duivenvoorde. The castle dates back from the 11th century, while the gardens date from 1631. In a time where …
Cough in Your Cell Phone, not Your Sleeve
Koert van MensvoortCoughing into your cell phone could soon save you a trip to the doctor's office. Thanks to software currently being developed by Star Analytical Services , people may soon be able …
![Visual of MANKO & Vacuum [#2]](https://nextnature.net/media/pages/magazine/story/2010/manko-vacuum-2/3276be3198-1602632753/manco-3-530-868x486.jpg)
MANKO & Vacuum [#2]
Aston RevolaI should tell you the story of how Manko lost a leg. You need to know about this incident to understand his recent works. So please forgive me, I first have to go back to that …
Birdfeeders spit Blackcaps in two species
Koert van MensvoortUntil now, most people have likely regarded bird-feeders as merely a pleasant addition to their gardens. But scientists have now discovered that bird-feeders in the UK are …
Policing Genes
Rolf CoppensThe genetics of the plants in your garden could become a police matter. Pharmaceutical companies are experimenting with genetically engineering plants to produce useful and …
A €1,174 Chicken Coop for the Bourgeois Farmer
Allison GuyLong for farm-fresh eggs on the table? Dream about going to bed each night worrying about racoons, rats and foxes? Like the feeling of scraping chicken shit off your hands? For …
Featured Page #01: Hypernature
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkDuring the coming weeks, we will present a selection of our favourite pages from the Next Nature book . To kick the series off, we’ll start with a spread about hypernature; the …
The NBIC Convergence: When Machines and Matter ‘Have Sex’
Rachel ArmstrongThe Singularity , as popularized by Ray Kurtzweil, refers to a near term, theoretical time when machine intelligence greatly surpasses our own. At this point we will experience a …
Artifice Earth: Adam Rutherford on the Promises of Synthetic Biology
NextNature.netAn interview about the history and promises of synthetic biology, and the problem with the word "nature".
Kitchen of 2001 – Envisioned in 1967
Koert van MensvoortRetro futuristic vision from the sixties: "The menu is given to the automatic chef via typewriter or punched computer cards."
Scientists Implant False Memory in Mice
Alessia AndreottiManipulations of the mind that were once the terrain of futuristic fantasy are now one step closer to becoming reality. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology …
Space Farming for Astronauts
Alessia AndreottiSpace Farming: NASA plans to grow a vegetable garden 230 miles above the Earth.
Using Wood to Purify Water
Lotte BiesheuvelResearchers at the MIT institute recently discovered an amazing low-tech way to filter water.
Anthropo-scene #9: Sense, Sensors, Sensitivity
ChristianTechnology helps us understand the unfolding of the Anthropocene.
Empowered by Robots Event Report
Mathilde NakkenA report on the Empowered by Robots conference during DDW16, demonstrating fruitful collaboration between humans and robots.
Future Architecture: Digesting Walls
Mathilde NakkenThe University of West England is developing living bricks, turning your walls into a digesting organism.
VR Days Europe: Next Nature Habitat
Monika KozubNext Nature Habitat premiered at VR Days Europe in Amsterdam last weekend.
PC Problems? Better Call a Witch!
Margherita OlivoMeet the witch who casts viruses out of computers with magic.
Next Nature Habitat VR at SXSW17
NextNature.netThis week our virtual reality experience landed at the inaugural VR program of SXSW festival.
HUBOT: Take the Jobtest!
NextNature.netThe robots are coming! They’re getting smarter, cheaper and more reliable. How long will I have my job before a robot steals it? The industrial revolution made muscular power …
Conversation with Dutch Philosopher Bas Haring: Robot, Colleague or Foe?
Ruben BaartWe talked with Bas Haring to discuss the conception, image and will of the robot. Read our conversation with him and update your ideas about robots.
NNN Is Hiring: Managing Director
NextNature.netNNN is looking for a Managing Director to join our office in Amsterdam.
Orange Petunias Banned in Europe
Julie ReindlGM varieties of petunia are not authorized for cultivation in the EU.
Replacing Fireflies with Lasers
Alec SchellinxAfter mounting criticism from environmentalists, a firefly-themed park in China announced that the glowing bugs will be replaced by lasers.
Building a City on Mars by 2117
Elle Zhan WeiThe United Arab Emirates released plans to build a city on Mars.
Meat the Future Exhibition: Appetizer
NextNature.netHave you already visited our Meat the Future exhibition? Consider this three course meal an introduction to what you may expect.
A Voice Mask to Protect Your Privacy
Ruben BaartIntroducing world's first voice mask designed to protect your privacy.
The age of cyborgs has arrived
Vanessa Bates RamirezHow many cyborgs did you see during your morning commute today? I would guess at least five. Did they make you nervous? Probably not; you likely didn’t even realize they were …
![Visual of #French [Green] DreamTowers](https://nextnature.net/media/pages/magazine/story/2018/french-dream-towers/d09be6a9fe-1602632756/han-1xtu-868x486.jpg)
#French [Green] DreamTowers
Alec SchellinxFrenchDreamTowers is an eco-friendly high-rise complex imagined by Paris-based architect studio XTU , for the city of Hangzhou in Southern China. Currently under study, the …
Next hospitals: How virtual reality is shaping the future of medicine
Jack CaulfieldAnd it’s already showing incredible results. VR transports us to faraway worlds without even asking us to leave our chairs. Yet we usually hear about it in the context of video …
On inhumane technology
Jack CaulfieldStick-on shoes, wakeup lights, bionic limbs: these are examples of humane technology. But what exactly does this mean? It can best be explained in contrast with its opposite. …
How biotechnology could shape the future of product design
Ruben BaartHumans have been manipulating living things for thousands of years. Examples of early biotechnologies include domesticating plants and animals and then selectively breeding them …
Suzanne Lee wants to live in a sustainable material world. Built with biology, not oil
Ruben BaartBiotechnology is nearly as old as humanity itself. The food you eat and the pets you love? You can thank our ancestors for kickstarting the agricultural revolution, using …
How rich people used to show off their wealth with pineapples and celery
Lauren Alex O HaganA stack of pancakes ladened with syrup, a frothy latte posed next to a white MacBook, a deep pan pizza oozing with cheese. Instagram has made “food porn” – images that portray …
The Coronation
Charles EisensteinFor years, normality has been stretched nearly to its breaking point, a rope pulled tighter and tighter, waiting for a nip of the black swan’s beak to snap it in two. Now that the …
On the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality
Ruben BaartLet’s talk about the most controversial of "m words"—monogamy. And let’s have this conversation with in mind its prehistoric origins. Our modern picture of prehistoric societies …
Colonizing Mars: Not with humans, but plants
MaithriThe idea of colonizing Mars has become the big speculative future of humanity on Earth. But, artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg has radically different ideas to contribute to the …
24 hours economy
Rolf CoppensCould the biggest, most successful discount store in the world really meet your every need? Twenty-four hours a day? That's what the TV spots are saying. Really living there. …
Wifi Camera
oustamanWifi Camera Obscura reveals the electromagnetic space of our devices and the shadows that we create within such spaces, in particular our wifi networks which are increasingly …
Biomimicmarketing
Koert van MensvoortThe sciences of biomimicry studies nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs to solve human problems: Culture imitates nature. The Black&Decker …
E-volver
Dr NaturalThe E-volver is an 'image breeding machine', which takes inspiration from the methods of evolutionary biology to produce colourful,ever-changing images. The software generates …
Entry 2006 exhibition opened
Koert van MensvoortToday the Entry 2006 exhibition opened in the coalwashe building, Zollverein. For 100 days 'perspectives and visions in design' with over 300 exhibits from more than 20 countries …
Entryparadise
Written by Werner Lippert & Peter Wippermann, Curators of the Entryparadise exhibition (26/8 until 3/12, 2006, at Kohlenwäsche, Zollverein) Design is about to undergo a …
Pig City
Koert van MensvoortThe Netherlands produces some 16.5 million tons of pig meat each year, making it the European Union's leading exporter. In 1999 there were officially 15.2 million pigs in the …
Shapeshifting memory plastic
Dr NaturalScientists have invented a plastic memory material that can change into three different shapes based on heat. Researchers demonstrated a plastic tube with three "programmed" …
Tree bombs
Rolf CoppensDisarm - or we will reforest you! Back in 1997, Moshe Alamaro "designed conical canisters, of a starchy biodegradable material, which each contain a seedling packed in soil and …
Compubeaver
Rolf CoppensCompubeaver by Kasey McMahon "I am interested in the way we interact with nature. As we become increasingly reliant on technology, we become disconnected from our natural …
Ferrari Tomato
Koert van MensvoortDo you happen to know the Dutch Tomatoes? They look like Ferrari's and taste like shit. They are redder, rounder, larger, and maybe even healthier than the ones from our gardens. …
FishBowl - Ready made Meal
Koert van MensvoortAfter cooking lobsters alive, picking your own living fish in a restaurant and serving your rabbit for Christmas dinner, now comes a wonderful new creation: the FishBoil. This …
Humans to Blame for Global Warming
Koert van MensvoortGlobal warming is "very likely" a human-caused problem that will last for centuries and require concerted international action to reduce its potentially devastating impacts, a …
Interview with a cyborg
Arnoud van den HeuvelErich Berger has a 96 year old grandmother who is a cyborg. She features dentures, hearing aids, glasses, pace maker, a metal implant on the pinkie toe, and more. Quotes from the …
Lego Towers
Arnoud van den HeuvelWhat did you play with when you were 8+ years old? Well let's say some people can never quit playing. The Bjarke Ingels Group ( BIG , Copenhagen-based group of 85 architects, …
Manufactured landscapes
Rolf CoppensEdward Burtynsky is a photographer that makes pictures scarred or altered landscapes, changed by industrial activities. His work shows the disappearance of nature and the …
Out of Control
The Made and the Born: Neo-Biological civillization, written by Kevin Kelly, excerpt from Out of Control : The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World, …
Feelings Translated to Plants
Koert van MensvoortAmbient Biomedia is an investigative project about using living beings, in particular plants, to display human lifestyle problems information. The working principle of our systems …
Ceci n'est pas une Potato Chip
Koert van MensvoortProctor and Gamble, the maker of Pringles , has successfully argued in a British court that their product is ‘not a potato chip’. Pringles are also officially now, not potato …
Design for dummies
Arnoud van den HeuvelCreativity for all! Design used to be predestined to a select group of qualified brand–owning designers. That model is made redundant. At least, if it is up to Studio Ludens in …
Design Your Sims
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkIKEA is going to sell furniture with Electronic Arts via The Sims 2 game. Soon, it will be possible for you game addicts, to refurbish your Sims living room into your own …
Evolution in the Bedroom
Arnoud van den HeuvelGood morning anywhere in the world! Waking up is a problem (at least for 50% of the population). That's why alarm clocks exist; machines and devices are invented to solve …
Fake for Real: Fantasy Castle
Koert van MensvoortDisney's Sleeping Beauty Castle could be the single best-loved structure in the world. Ever wondered where Walt Disney got his enchanting fairytale aesthetic? The castle, which …
Faked Fireworks at Beijing Olympics
Koert van MensvoortA local Chinese newspaper, The Beijing Times , revealed some of the staggering fireworks at the opening of the Beijing Olympics were actually not fireworks, but computer graphics. …
Faustian Bargains and Pineapple Shampoo
Since the early days of the net, the electronic pastoral has lent itself to all sorts of dubious agendas pushed by science, the military and even libertarian tendencies. In the …
Google tracks flue spread via sick searchers
Koert van MensvoortThis Tuesday, search giant Google released an experimental tool that tracks the intensity and movement of the influenza virus across the United States by monitoring the number of …
Grasscutter Architects
Arnoud van den HeuvelTen tons of cement were pourred into this grasscutters ant colony, revealing a subterranean structure of 8 meters / 26 feet deep. 'Ant-City' was built including circulating …
Last night I saw a magnificent flock of Visas
Koert van Mensvoort"Visa has elements of Jeffersonian democracy, it has elements of the free market, of government franchising – almost every kind of organization you can think about. But it is none …
Man Charged for Dumping Silicone Girlfriend
Koert van MensvoortFifteen policemen rushed to the scene, after a couple reported to have bumped into a "corpse" while out walking their dog in a mountain forest in Izu, central Japan. The officers …
Smart Forests - EWAN
Arnoud van den HeuvelAt Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Christopher Love and colleagues are working to find out whether energy from trees can be used to prevent forest fires. A sensor system …
Treetrunk Trashcan
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkThe Nanputo Temple in Xiamen (Southeast China) is an oasis of quietness, religious practice and leisure for Chinese amidst the hustle and bustle of one of the fastest growing …
Boomeranged Metaphors
Koert van MensvoortAt the start of the digital era, metaphors from everyday life were used – in what was then the new computer environment – in order to make otherwise incomprehensible technology …
Designing Bugs That Eat Plastic
Koert van MensvoortIt is a well known secret that plastic hardly breaks down and almost all of the plastic ever made still floats around somewhere . With the great pacific garbage patch now twice …
Exmovere Chariot: the wearable wheelchair
federicaExmovere Holdings , a biomedical engineering company, is focused on government and consumer applications for healthcare, security and mobility. This company developed Exmovere …
Five strategies of Biomimicmarketing
Koert van MensvoortGreen electricity, Organic Shampoo, Jaguar convertibles, Red Bull, Bio Beef, Alligator gardening tools, Camel cigarettes and Puma sneakers. Once you develop an eye for it, it is …
How do Bacteria Communicate?
Arnoud van den HeuvelSo here we are; bragging about our discoveries and great new ways of living... meanwhile we tend to forget that we are NOT the dominant species on the surface of the earth. …
How to print a building
Koert van MensvoortIn the nineties laser printers revolutionized graphic design. Currently 3d desktop printers are revolutionizing industrial design. Next we will be printing buildings and …
Liberate the Breast Cancer Genes
Arnoud van den HeuvelOn May 12, 2009 the ACLU and the (not-for-profit) Public Patent Foundation, filed a lawsuit, charging that patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer are …
The Eye of a Cyber Sapien
BartAn earlier post on this blog already displayed the possible future of sight using augmented contact lenses. Researchers at MIT take this second sight to a next level by …
Acoustic Botany
Michael KluverWith his speculative ‘acoustic garden’ David Benqué tries to explore our cultural and aesthetic relationship to nature. He states that the current debate around Genetic …
Ars Electronica 2010: Artists Adressing NextNature
Ties van de WerffSind wir noch zu retten? That was the slogan of this year’s Ars Electronica festival in Linz (Austria). Titled ‘REPAIR’, the media art festival urged to leave our scepticism and …
Blob architecture 1.400 AD
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkBlob architecture 1.400 AD in the emperor's garden in the Forbidden City, Beijing. Peculiar image, from China with love.
Come See the Berg!
Koert van MensvoortSo you’ve seen the peak of the Mount Everest on tour ? Descended the bobsled ride of the Matterhorn in a Disneyland ? Think you’ve seen it all? Now come and see The Berg in …
Crops Running Wild
Minke KampmanOnly for the title already I wanted to post this as soon as I read it on Nature.com. The newsarticle is entitled " GM crop escapes into the American wild ." Brilliant! Let's walk …
Making a Telegraph with Stone Age Tools
Koert van MensvoortThe suited guy in the video is an employee from the office of materials that goes into the wilderness to test if it would have been possible to create a fully functioning …
Nano Supermarket – Jury Report
Nanotechnology is an important emerging technology of our time – it radically intervenes with our sense of what is natural – yet most people are still relatively unaware of its …
Next Nature Movie #5: American Beauty
Koert van MensvoortDuring the selection of the top ten of next nature movies we’ve doubted quite a bit between the Truman Show (1998) and American Beauty (1999). The Truman Show tells the story of a …
To Milk the Cows, Click here
Koert van MensvoortIn millions of offices and homes around the world, people are hard at work planting crops, feeding cattle and tilling their land. Welcome to Farmville , the digital rural world …
Urban Mining – Gold digging in the Sewers
Koert van MensvoortResource-poor Japan discovered a new source of mineral wealth: sewage sludge. In its first month of operation, a sewage plant in Japan’s Nagano prefecture has mined 5 million yen …
Drugs are Nuts
Stefan FinckenThinking about Next Nature can sometimes result in a feeling of vertigo. Normal standards are eroded and slowly replaced by next natural ones. A bewildering example can be found …
Electric Topiary
Allison GuyHas this tree gone Pac-Man on the power lines? In truth, the slice through the side of the tree is the work of 'utility pruning.' Topiary was once determined on entirely aesthetic …
Humane Technology #4: Resonate with human senses
Allison GuyPrinciple number four: Humane technology should resonate with the human senses, rather than numbing them. If you're an office worker or a video game fanatic , you may spend most …
Nano Product: Pharmaceutical Sushi
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkAre we creating the penicillin or the asbestos of the 21st century? Prior to the arrival of the Nano Supermarket , we share some speculative nanotech products with you. Here’s the …
Nano Supermarket seeks Assistants
Always wanted to work in a Supermarket? Here is you chance. The Nano Supermarket seeks assistants. The Nano Supermarket assistant is part of a team, knows the products and knows …
Rule #1: Any Association that Can be Made, Will be Made
NextNature.netFor other entries and an introduction to the 11 Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design, click here. People have evolutionarily built-in mechanisms that help us to …
The AI Revolution Is On
Ruben DaasSteven Levy writes in Wired on the unexpected turn of the Artificial Intelligence revolution: rather than whole artificial minds, it consists of a rich bestiary of digital fauna, …
Trading Humans for Trading Algorithms
Stefan FinckenThe economic system and profit motive has been a driving force that steers and even dictates social change. Investors and stockbrokers have been a major influence to these social …
YouTube preserves unmediated Nature
Allison GuyOn Youtube, there's a whole sub-genera of safari videos that show, in gruesome detail, what exactly it means to live and die in Old Nature. The above film is a particularly …
Complexity and Evolving Synthetic Soil
Rachel ArmstrongTwenty-first century society draws from a world that is less determined by objects and increasingly shaped by connectivity. The clear either/or distinctions that formerly informed …
Conservationists Turn Their Sights on Urban Habitats
Allison GuyFor city-dwellers, the closest 'true wilderness' to be found is usually the weeds sprouting in abandoned lots. Snow-capped, postcard nature might be beautiful but is …
Escaped Pet Birds Teach Wild Cockatoos how to Talk
Koert van MensvoortIn some parts of Australia it is no exception to hear voices when there are no people near. The voices are the chatter of wild cockatoos that where taught words and sentences from escaped domesticated cockatoos.
Genetic Screening for Christmas Trees
Allison GuyIf you've turned to plastic Christmas trees because the real ones leave piles of needles behind, science is working to bring live conifers back into your holidays. A $1.3 million …
GM Bacteria Turn Carbon Dioxide into Biofuel
Allison GuyIn a twist on the classic " microbes that turn shit into petrol ", researchers at MIT have developed a bacterium that turns carbon dioxide into a direct substitute for gasoline. …
Little Green Cows
Rachel ArmstrongThe world is alight with algae fever. In this age of deep ecological design aspirations, the range of speculative design projects based on algae technology is growing. Algae are …
Living with Nature in the Post-Suburbs
Allison GuyMoMA in New York has a new exhibit exploring what can be done with American's only seemingly inexhaustible resource: foreclosed homes and sparsely inhabited suburbs. Nature-City …
Next What?
John ZerzanIn this essay, anti-civilization, anarchist philosopher John Zerzan critiques the concept of 'next nature.' He argues that rather than freeing us, our self-domestication through …
The "Plantascraper" Sprouts in Sweden
Allison GuyWe're used to seeing proposals for high-tech vertical farms that never seem to translate to real life, but the city of Linköping in Sweden has finally taken these buildings out of …
Using Nanoscale Wood Pulp to Replace Metal and Plastics
Allison GuyNanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) sounds almost too good to be true. The same microscopic particles that help trees to stand up straight are also lightweight, non-toxic, stronger …
A Touchable, Moss-Covered Keyboard
Allison GuyDesigner Robbie Tilton's keyboard replaces the impersonal metal of a keyboard with lush imitation moss and wooden keys. Though it's a good example of fake nature , Tilton's …
Eco-Friendly Filter Sprouts Flowers
Alessia AndreottiA cigarette butt imbued with seeds grows flowers when it's discarded in dirt.
Food Familiarization #2: Celebrity Endorsement
Allison GuyHow "celebrity endorsements" transformed the potato from the devil's tuber into a global staple.
Frisky Whisky: Radioactive Booze from the Atomic Age
Allison GuyThe world's first – and hopefully last – whiskey aged with radioactivity.
High-Priced Honey from Parisian Rooftops
Allison GuyFamous Parisian landmarks are home to hundreds of thousands of bees.
Ingestible Microchips Monitor Medication
Stephen PerryDigestible Microchips are now approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Interview: Rachel Armstrong, Innovative Scientist Who Wants to Grow Architecture
Alessia AndreottiRachel Armstrong discusses living buildings, Venice's foundations, millennial nature and how to improve our future.
Living Among Pests – Designing the Biosynthetic City
Joyce HwangJoyce Hwang discusses the challenges for designers, and gains for citizens, of living in a truly biosynthetic city.
3D Print Your Thoughts
Alessia AndreottiHow incredible would it be to imagine a thing and have it magically appear in concrete form? After food , organs and virtuality , here comes the thought printer! Thinkerthing , …
Moral Shortcomings in the Technology Debate
Rinie van EstDigital and genetic techniques increasingly influence life. Our belief in progress through technology stands in the way of a moral debate on this development. By Rinie van Est We …
World's Worst Job? Being a Human Robot at Amazon's Fulfillment Center
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkWorkers are completely controlled by algorithms in Amazon's fulfillment center
A Plan to Eliminate Predators
Alessia AndreottiBritish philosopher David Pearce believes we should to stop animals from hunting and killing other animals.
Cleaning the Air with Roof Tiles
Alessia AndreottiSmog-busting roof tiles could clean tons of pollution.
Faking a Holiday on Social Media
Alessia AndreottiDutch girl fakes an exotic holiday with the power of Photoshop and Facebook.
Human Workers Get Increasingly Obsolete
Alessia AndreottiRobots are coming to replace humans at work, are they a real threat to the world’s unemployed?
In Vitro Recipe #12: Meat Flowers
NextNature.netIf vegetarian products can mimic meat, then why not the other way around?
No Future for Traditional Meat
Alessia AndreottiAt Home in the Lab with Mark Post, Father of the In Vitro Hamburger. Interview from The In Vitro Meat Cookbook
Peculiar Transportations
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkLast friday, these curious next natural transportations happened around our office in Amsterdam. All within the timeframe of a few hours. The surrealists where right. Have a nice …
Spider Silk will be Commercialized in 2015
Julia WeberCompany AMSilk will commercialize spider silk in 2015.
The Anthropocene Explosion
Koert van MensvoortWe have entered the Anthropocene epoch, in which humanity and its instrumentalities are the most potent and influential geological force.
The Carnery - A Cultured Future with In Vitro Meat
NextNature.netIn vitro meat has the capacity to transform meat production as we know it, introducing an entirely new way of thinking about and interacting with food.
What’s the Point If We Can’t Have Fun?
David GraeberSince Darwin we tend to look at the biological world exclusively in economical terms. The idea that monkey's, frogs, or even ants do more than simply propagate, doesn't find much acceptance among scientists. And yet, even crayfishes at times seem to displace objects just for fun.
Bionic Ants That Work Together
Louise HuyghebaertThese robotic ants by Festo are learning to work together, like real ants do.
Digital Aquarium Powered by Real Fish
Alessia AndreottiThe fish swimming in this aquarium are unaware part of the Flowers and Fish art installation by Japanese digital studio teamLab.
Diseases Of The Future
Alessia AndreottiNowadays humans suffer from diseases that didn't exist in the past, a trend that will probably continue into the future. A wide range of new disorders, especially related to the …
Facebook Turned into a Real Toxic Drug
Alessia AndreottiThe popular social network icon has been turned into a potentially lethal narcotic substance.
GM Salmon Approved for Consumption
Margherita OlivoTime ago we wrote about the fact that US Food and Drug Administration was considering whether to approve the first genetically engineered salmon. We have a verdict: from now on …
Houses to Live Integrated with Nature
Wei Lun WangEasy-to-assemble customized tiny houses that can be covered under layers of soil, turf, or even sand and snow.
Interview: Liam Young on Speculative Architecture and Engineering the Future
NextNature.netInterview with Liam Young on his work in speculative architecture, the future, and our role in nature as humans.
Tiny Robots Assemble a Room in Minutes
Wei Lun WangDom Indoors , is the latest research project developed by a construction robotics company called Asmbld . It includes a robotic system that can reconfigure an indoor space within …
If a Robot Buys XTC on the Dark Web, Who is Responsible?
Alexandra BremersThe Random Darknet Shopper, with bitcoin to burn, has purchased counterfeit jeans, master keys, dodgy cigs and even a bag of ecstasy tablets. Who is legally liable?
Should We Fear Thinking Machines?
Maria RamosIt seems thinking machines could put the human race in danger. How realistic these fears are?
Soil-Free Farming in the Desert
Yunus Emre DuyarA special absorbant film that require no soil may be able to grow plants more efficiently than soil farming.
The Risk of Technological Unemployment
Daniel FragaStephen Hawking gives his opinion on what technological unemployment, aka machines taking over our jobs, can represent for future human societies.
The Biosphere Code Manifesto
NextNature.netDuring the event The Biosphere Code, Stockholm University researcher Victor Galaz and colleagues outlined a manifesto for algorithms in the environment.
We Have Moved...
NextNature.netWhile you were on holiday we moved both virtually and physically. We are pleased to reveal our newly designed nextnature.net . We hope the updated design makes our website more …
Are There Pokémon on the Moon?
Ruben BaartPokémon Go is slowly taking over our planet. People know more Pokémon than bird or tree species. However, avid players will have noticed that some of the first-gen Pokémon are not available in the game yet.
The First Beauty Contest Judged by AI
Ruben BaartThe first beauty contest judged by complex algorithms has sparked controversy after biased results.
The Digital Life Project
Alejandro AlvarezResearchers are creating accurate 3D models of living organisms to preserve the heritage of life on Earth.
People, Use Your Drone to Map El Niño!
Margherita OlivoHow to monitor the effects of El Niño ? The Nature Conservancy wants to take advantage of the massive image production that can be collected using smartphones and drones. From …
Enlisting Eagles to Take Down Drones
Margherita OlivoAn eagle clutching a flying drone is probably not a show that you see everyday, unless you live in the Netherlands.
I Want Wings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nicholas CarrRead Nicholas Carr's essay on the transhumanist dream of having wings.
Growing Potatoes at JFK Airport
Ruben BaartThe 5th largest airline in the United States, JetBlue, is growing potatoes at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
Lilou the Airport Pig Will Soothe Your Travel
Monika KozubIf you happen to be at San Francisco International Airport on the hectic Holiday time, LiLou, the airport's pig can help you alleviate the stress.
Explore Mars with NASA's VR Experience
Margherita OlivoExploring the surface of Mars at least 15 years before a human being in flesh and blood will be able to, this is the new ambitious idea of the people at NASA.
What Is Next Nature? #5
Ingmar NieuweboerWalking on the grass while there is a road and feeling rebellious.
Disney Causes Tourism Overload in Norway
Ruben BaartDisney's Frozen is causing tourism overload in Norway, and it's not sure if that is a good thing.
Robots Taking Government Jobs
Ruben BaartMeet Amelia, the first robot to work along with human coworkers in a council job.
Slenderman: the Modern Big Foot
Alejandro AlvarezThe new mythical creature hunting our imagination is called Slenderman and is born on the internet. But who is this being and how it came to be? It may just be the modern version of a much older myth.
Solving Crimes Thanks to Amazon Echo
Ruben BaartAmazon's Echo smart speaker may have witnessed a murder. But will it talk?
Wi-Fi Hotspots Take Over Old Payphones
Alessia AndreottiNew York City decided to definitely say goodbye to neglected payphones and replace them with Wi-Fi hotspots.
Scientists Connected a Brain to a Tablet
Ingmar NieuweboerSeverely paralyzed woman controls a tablet with her brain.
Facial Recognition Replaces Passports
Ruben BaartBiometric technology replaces passports in Australian airports.
When Buildings Become Trees
Alec SchellinxWhat if buildings could become trees? That vision is what Italian architect Stefano Boeri is aiming at with his Vertical Foresting.
A Fake City for Real Self-Driving Cars
Siebren de VosUber built a fake city called Almono to train self-driving cars. This town is full of fake houses, mannequins and chaotic intersections.
HUBOT: Meet the Focused Assembly Worker
NextNature.netAs a focused assembly worker, you are a real go-getter thanks to your smart tools. Wearing smart factory goggles and using a transparent LED screen, these give you direct …
NNN Presents HUBOT - The Job Agency for People and Robots
NextNature.netA horse can run faster than a human, yet nobody claims horses will make mankind dispensable. When a man rides a horse and the two work together, something new happens. Then, what …
The Idea for Lab-Grown Meat Was Born in a Prisoner-of-War Camp
Chase PurdyThe phone call was as unexpected as the American accent at the other end of the line. And when she hung up a few moments later, Ira van Eelen had to stop to catch her breath. More …
The New Gold: Honey!
Ruben BaartA ‘gold rush’ is haunting New Zealand’s beekeepers, as beehive and honey thefts are continuing to rise.
Recharge! Sun for Your Brain Cells
Julie ReindlA gadget called HumanCharger promises "the sun in your pocket" to give you energy, by beaming light through your ears.
The City as Technology in Tokyo
NextNature.netAre cities in their current form really the future of the human habitat? What is a next nature version of the city and how would it look like? In line with this perspective, NNN designer Hendrik-Jan Grievink led two workshops in Tokyo.
How blockchain technology is changing the agriculture industry
Megan Ray NicholsBlockchain is useful for more than cryptocurrency. It’s revolutionizing industry after industry. Next, it may change the way we get our food. The agriculture industry is complex. …
Here’s how the Dutch are embracing blockchain in the polder
Coen van de VenSmiling broadly and rattling with enthusiasm, the 33-year-old Rylana Doesburg shows off a QR-code on her phone: an angular pattern of black and white squares. “Thanks to this …
Chinese farmers are using AI to help rear the world’s biggest pig population
James VincentIt’s been called China’s “pork miracle.” For centuries, pig-rearing in the country was predominantly a backyard occupation. (The etymology of the Chinese character for “home” …
Your Next Nature guide to Dutch Design Week 2018
Meike SchipperOver time, our bodies, our food and our environment have become more and more subject to design. As designers, we hold the responsibility and have the unique chance to envision …