Design your Self!
Next NatureWho are you, who do you want to be, and what do you need to do to get there? We are constantly pushed to lead the perfect life. The media present us with a picture of an existence …
Search results for Self Design
How to design your future family
Ruben BaartImagine a place called Reprodutopia. How would such a place look like?
The things we design end up designing us
Dr Natural"While battling the forces of nature, man has become more and more independent of physical conditions. At the same time, however, he has become more and more dependent of …
How to design your (home)office
Govert FlintDesigner Govert Flint proposes a new office concept, entirely based on movement and play.
A Designers take on Intelligent Design
Koert van Mensvoort://nextnature.net A typographical film on the term ' Intelligent Design ' and its relation with design. Created by Christian Bramsiepe from the Köln International School of Design …
Geodesign
Nellie FriedrichWe have identified eight key defining moments that tell the story of geodesign, from ancient insight to artificial intelligence.
Discussing non-human centered design with Kelvin Godee and Simon Wijrdeman
Ruben BaartWhat if design began to put everything but the human first? The needs of the human not paramount to the design process, but instead the other entities that we cohabit planet earth …
How to design a digital democracy
Rinie van Est10 design requirements to fully immerse ourselves into the 21st Century—in which technology makes our world richer, not poorer.
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.
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.
Bio textiles: meet three designers reimagining materials using biotechnology
Alexandra KisielewskiThe world needs interdisciplinary creators who are designing not just for humans, but for the rest of the living planet. To foster this thinking, Biodesign Challenge (BDC) pairs …
Join the Next Nature Talkshow on biodesign!
Next NatureA living lamp that you need to feed, a tapestry made of animal waste streams and tableware made from algae. Welcome to the wonderful world of biodesign.
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 …
NATURE is an exhibition where biology and design meet
Ruben BaartCube Design Museum in Kerkrade and Cooper Hewitt in New York present the comprehensive exhibition NATURE - in which internationally renowned designers, artists and inventors …
Bio, Art & Design (BAD) Award Winners
Next NatureThe three winners of the Bio, Art & Design (BAD) awards have been announced.
Next Generation: Launching the Eva Biodesign Lab with Carlos Silveira
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Next Generation: Delving into biophilic design with Daniel Elkayam
Freya HutchingsThis story is part of Next Generation, a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your coordinates as we …
Experience biodesign at DDW19
Ruben BaartBio design crosses the border between the ‘made’ and the ‘born’. Enabling living organisms as essential design elements, it brings us products that adapt, grow, sense and repair …
The Self-Portrait of the Digital Age
Alessia AndreottiThe series Museum of Selfies combines the original art of portraiture with its modern counterpart, the the smartphone self-portrait.
Interview: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Designer and Synthetic Biology Expert
Alessia AndreottiAn interview with Daisy Ginsberg, artist and synthetic biologist.
What Is the Selfie Elbow?
Ruben BaartThe advent of digital communications media is bringing along some health conditions.
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 …
Goodbye Password, Hello Selfie!
Margherita OlivoCompanies try a new, more secure payment system using selfies.
Why there is a new urgency for speculative design
Freya HutchingsPink chickens, synthesized tiger penises and salads grown from bodily fluids - how could they shape our future? In a Next Nature collaboration with the Gogbot Festival, the …
Dutch Design Award Nomination
NextNature.netThe In Vitro Meat Cookbook is nominated for the 2014 Dutch Design Award!
BP logo redesign
Koert van MensvoortOver the past few months there has been a lot of commotion about the BP oil spill that happened in the Gulf of Mexico. It is considered as the largest offshore spill in U.S. …
Next Nature Night on Design & Evolution
NextNature.netNext Nature Night on Design & Evolution, Tuesday 30th June.
Design Your Own Vegetables
Ruben BaartWith her project Future Food Formula, food designer Chloé Rutzerveld is looking for innovative methods to design vegetables.
Designing for Next Nature: selected proposals
Some months ago we sent out a call for proposals asking for visions, statements & ideas on we how we can design, build and live in next nature. We received an overwhelming …
Self Control Freak
Koert van MensvoortWARNING: Spending too much time behind the computer, may cause the leaking of elements from the digital environment into everyday life. Self control freak Olivier Otten is …
Designing for NextNature @ TU Eindhoven
Koert van MensvoortStarting February 2009 the Industrial Design department of the Eindhoven University of Technology takes Next Nature as one of its educational themes. The Industrial Design …
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.
Submit your project to the Bio Art & Design Awards 2022
NextNature.netHello upcoming bio artists and designers! We invite designers and artists interested in bio art & design to propose projects for collaborative work across disciplines. The Bio …
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 …
Designing Cars with Synthetic Biology
Louise HuyghebaertDesigner and artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg explains how synthetic biology inspires her for designing the cars of the future.
The First Self-Driving City Coach
Ruben BaartMercedes-Benz just revealed the first self-driving city coach and took it to the streets of Amsterdam for a test drive.
Paco Rabanne's AI-designed perfume can connect with your phone while making you smell sexier
Selin KirPaco Rabanne already positioned himself as a cutting-edge designer by establishing his reputation as one of the trailblazers during the space age movement of the 1960s. With his …
Designing for Next Nature Workshop
Koert van MensvoortDesigning for Next Nature Workshop. This weekend at the Media Design Program @ Art Center College of Design . See also: Call for Proposals .
Design Indaba Interview
NextNature.netOur South African friends of Design Indaba made a nifty little video of the presentation we did at What Design Can Do this spring.
Design on the Border of Technology and Biology Demands Us to 'Mother' Nature
Koert van MensvoortDesigner and architect Neri Oxman explores how digital fabrication technologies can interact with the biological world. Watch the TED talk.
Designer Creates Water Bottles from Algae
Daniel FragaIcelandic Product Design student Ari Jónsson has used red algae powder and water to create a biodegradable water bottle.
How animal filters unmask the estranged relation to our wild self
Meike SchipperWould you like a dog snout, cat eyes or fluffy bunny ears? The choice is yours. Virtual selfie filters have become a widespread phenomenon on social media platforms such as …
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, …
Do It Yourself Pet
sijmeImage: A. Sidorov Have you ever fantasized about creatures which carry the biggest smile? Or creatures which are so deeply covered with fur that you wish they were real? Good …
Food Design in the 21th Century
Koert van MensvoortOld nature provided us with a wide variety of food: fresh milk, crispy vegetables, nutritious meat. Yet this is not enough, we want more: We want a printed steak , square …
Our Cookbook Wins Dutch Design Award
NextNature.netThe In Vitro Meat Cookbook won the Design Research Award.
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 …
Napkin Sketch – On the impact of Design
Koert van MensvoortCreated by Bruce Mau , who is not so much interested in the world of design, as in the design of the world. See also Napkin Sketch – Nature changes along with us .
Protocell Shoe Mends Itself
Rachel ArmstrongThe self-repairing sole is a dynamic solution to an everyday problem.
How a Self-Driving Car Sees the World
Lotte BiesheuvelThe Google self-driving car has driven 700.000 miles by itself, and now it can drive through busy city streets.
Designed to Survive Our Roads
Ruben BaartA road safety campaign in the Australian state of Victoria exposed an educational, yet confronting picture to raise awareness to the vulnerable human body on the road.
Body hair helps animals stay clean – and could inspire self-cleaning technologies
David HuWatch a fly land on the kitchen table, and the first thing it does is clean itself, very, very carefully. Although we can’t see it, the animal’s surface is covered with dust, …
Self-Driving Cars Are Here to Stay
Megan Ray NicholsThe first time you switch on your self-driving car, punch in your coordinates and cruise off to the soulless thrum of an electric motor you’ve got to wonder: does this thing know what it’s doing?
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.
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 …
Join the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award
Koert van MensvoortSo, you are well aware that biotech will drive our evolution , you took the crash course on synthetic genomics , you've got your map of the DNA world in your backpack and are now …
Self–Repairing Architecture
Rachel ArmstrongAll buildings today have something in common: They are made using Victorian technologies. This involves blueprints, industrial manufacturing and construction using teams of …
Join the Bio Art & Design Awards
Koert van MensvoortSo, you are well aware that biotech will drive our evolution , you took the crash course on synthetic genomics , you’ve got your map of the DNA world in your backpack and are now …
Analogue vs Digital: Take a Selfie
NextNature.netNo, the selfie at the top isn’t the latest post of Albrecht Du?rer on Instagram.
Bio Art & Design Awards 2015
Koert van MensvoortIf we are going to mutate the made & the born, let us at least do this creatively.
Flip-Flop Selfie
Mathilde NakkenThese two boys use the nap of their flip-flop as a camera to take an imaginary selfie. Still, their selfie went viral and it became our peculiar image of the week.
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.
Selfie Time with Your Dead Beloved One
Julie ReindlForever by your side. Elrois a South Korean firm developed an app that allows you to engage with your dead friends lovers or idols.
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 …
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 …
Next Nature Lecture @ DesignMarch Island
Koert van MensvoortIf you happen to be in the neighborhood you may want to attend the Next Nature lecture at the Island Design March on March 22 in the "most northerly capital in the world". If you …
Shock Therapy for a Better Self
Julia WeberThe Pavlok wristband gives its wearers an electric shock if they fail at hitting work deadlines or completing fitness goals.
Empowered by Robots Design Challenge
NextNature.netWanted: New jobs for humans and robots! Which designers, technicians, robot enthusiasts will help us with innovative, feasible ideas for the new jobs of the future?
GM Self-Destroying Moths
Julie ReindlOpen-air tests of self-destructing moths mark a new frontier for GMOs.
The Self-Flying Taxi Drone
Ruben BaartPassenger-carrying drones will hit the skies in Dubai this summer.
This 3D-Printed Structure Can Fold Itself
Charlotte KuijpersResearchers at the University of Technology in Delft have created flat structures able to fold themselves into three-dimensional constructions.
This podcast aims to help design better food systems
Ruben BaartThe podcast Food by Design was created by Sarah Codraro and Sandeep Pahuja, and is hosted by Sandeep. According to the makers "Our food system is not 'broken'. It’s working …
Lunch talk @ Art Center College of Design
Lunch talk at the Art Center College of Design on March 5th. See also: Call for Proposals .
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.
Self-healing Surfaces
Arnoud van den HeuvelWhat if a scratch on your car door could heal itself, just like the human skin does? Engineers are working on a way to transfer the self-healing ability of the skin to surfaces …
11 Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design: Introduction
NextNature.netWelcome to the 11 part series The Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Product Design. In this series, we will be examining how designers can better integrate human-like forms or …
NANO Supermarket nominated for Dutch Design Award
NextNature.netOur traveling NANO Supermarket is nominated for a Dutch Design Award. Winners will be announced late October.
Self-Driving Cars Practice Kids Recognition
Alexandra BremersThis year's Halloween, Google asked children from the neighborhood to come by in their spooky outfits and play around the self-driving cars.
Stewart Helps People to Trust Self-Driving Car
Erik van der VeenStewart is a tactile interface that mediates the communication between human and self-driving car.
Transfigurations: Let's Design People
Daniel FragaPlastic artist Agi Haines explores hypothetical scenarios for surgically implanted body enhancements in babies.
Designer pets
Rolf CoppensIf your house just isn't big enough to have a leopard, you can allways buy these 20.000 dollar cats. Nailcaps are included to prevent scratches on the matching cat furniture. I …
Design = No sign
Arnoud van den HeuvelThe Wilson Quarterly profiles the in January 2008 departed traffic engineer, Hans Monderman , of the "less is more" school of traffic control: " (...) Previously, Monderman, like …
Architecture that repairs itself
Koert van MensvoortVenice, Italy is sinking. To save it, Dr. Rachel Armstrong in her TED talk argues we need to outgrow architecture made of inert materials and, well, make architecture that grows …
Computer Teaches Itself to Play Games
Geert van den BoogaartAn algorithm observes human players to learn how to beat Super Mario Bros.
Self-Assembling Fungus Tower
Alessia AndreottiHy-Fi, a structure built from a combination of corn husks and fungus.
A Self-Aware Mario Able to Learn and Feel
Yunus Emre DuyarSuper Mario is now able to learn and feel in the confines of his 8-bit universe.
First Self Sufficient Solar-Powered Airport
Margherita OlivoThe Cochin International Airport is self-sufficient thanks to its solar power plant.
Designer babies: the kids of the future?
Megan Ray NicholsWhat if you had the choice of sparing your child from diseases and disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease or autism?
Kangaroos Confuse Self-Driving Cars
Julie ReindlVolvo's driverless car system has trouble recognizing kangaroos because it gets confused by the hopping of the marsupial.
How a mantis shrimp can one day help build self-growing roads
MaithriDon’t get fooled by the colourful, unsuspecting demeanour and size of the mantis shrimp. Known as “death incarnate” to its prey on the seafloor, the crustacean hides two …
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 …
How to build yourself a night elf
Koert van MensvoortArtist Max Kor, built himself a World of Warcraft Night Elf from scratch. Check his tutorial for an inside peek in surreal beauty construction. We are waiting for night elves to …
RepRap - a self-reproducing machine
GuustThe RepRap is a selfreproducing 3D printer. The 3D printer 'prints' his own components by melting tiny plastic particles together. Imagine what would happen if this 3D printer …
Debugged: 'Graphic Design Bugs'
Michael KluverThe Eindhoven-based design team ' Edhv ' made an installation to turn creepy crawlers into genuine graphic designers. By letting crickets, woodlice, ants and many other insects …
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, …
Runaway Robots Hunted by the Mammals They Were Designed to Replace
Zack GottliebLast week, the U.S. Navy announced that four of their “ REMUS 100 ” unmanned underwater vehicles sailed off-radar and stopped responding to commands. The ‘bots were part of a …
Homemade Robot Designed from Recycled Scraps
Alessia AndreottiA Chinese inventor created a $24,500 robot from junkyard scraps.
Le Bistro In Vitro @ Dutch Design Week
Koert van MensvoortThis whole week you can come and taste meat ice at Le Bistro In Vitro in the main hall of Eindhoven University of Technology.
Scan Yourself With Your Digital Doctor
Mateja VidakovicThere seems to be a high demand for the ability to self-diagnose. Consider Scanadu , a company developing a medical device for self-diagnosis, has become the highest funded …
Self-Healing Concrete
Daniel FragaA microbiologist has developed a way to make the cracks in concrete structures heal themselves.
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.
Banana by Design
Koert van MensvoortIf you compare the supermarket banana with the original wild banana the differences in size, look and taste are striking.
Towards a design brief for the artificial womb
NextNature.netHumanity is facing the disconnection between biological reproduction and the body, facilitated by the emerging technology of the Artificial Womb. Envisioned in bleak science …
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 …
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 …
Lecture @ Design Academy
Koert van MensvoortIf you happen to be in the neighborhood this Wednesday...
Self Catching Fish
Koert van MensvoortResearchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood's Hole, Massachusetts, are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by using a sound broadcast to attract them into …
Innovative Nostalgia
Koert van MensvoortWe humans simply feel more comfortable with technological change when it comes in a familiar form that refers to an existing and accepted object, habit, value, tradition or intuition.
Analogue vs Digital: Self-Driving Cars
NextNature.netThe image on the left is a car, as we know them. It has a lot of digital technology in it already, but not nearly as much as the other one.
Self-Driving Trucks Hit the Highways
Margherita OlivoA driverless convoy of trucks drove through Europe and safely arrived in Rotterdam yesterday.
Enter the self-driving car
Rolf CoppensThis promo video for the Google autonomous car is pretty exciting. I'm sure in a decade driving our own car will seem so old-fashioned,thinking how we ever trusted the physical …
Design Looking Backwards
Stephen PerryShould digital technology imitate that which exists, or could it also surpass it?
Organs Could Self-Heal with Nanoneedles
Yunus Emre DuyarAn international team of scientists used nano-sized needles in order to promote production of new blood cells.
Elephants are geodesigners
Jeppe Aagaard KristensenImagine you’re in a hot air balloon flying over an African savanna in the late growing season. Below, herds of elephants, zebras, wildebeests and rhinos roam a mosaic landscape …
Next Generation: Designing ecological webs with Miriam Lellek
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Lessons in bio design from Emma van der Leest
Meike SchipperAs a young bio designer at the start of your career, you'll have to overtake all kinds of obstacles. From the collection of living materials to working in a laboratory and …
Gène Bertrand on design for human needs
Meike SchipperNature has always been a source of inspiration for many artists and designers, yet the urgency to connect to nature is more pressing than ever. Environmental issues such as …
Next Generation: Writing a design manifesto with Pleun Wilting
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Interview: Mike Thompson and Susana Cámara Leret, Designers Exploring Alternative Ways of Thinking & Doing
Ingmar NieuweboerInterview with Mike Thompson and Susana Cámara Leret.
Interview: Pauline Van Dongen, Designer Merging Fashion and Technology
Margherita OlivoDutch fashion designer specialized in wearable technology, Pauline van Dongen researches the human body in relation to its surroundings.
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 …
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 …
Designer Dave Hakkens is putting plastic waste to better use
Ruben BaartWe recently handed this year’s ECO Coin Award to Dutch designer Dave Hakkens, founder of the Precious Plastic movement. With his open sourced recycling machines, he provides people around the world the knowledge to start recycling plastic locally.
What food design can do
Kelly van GemertFood design gives us a taste of innovation. It visualizes, speculates, challenges and problem-solves.
In conversation with Teresa van Dongen, biodesigner exploring natural forms of artificial light
Kelly van GemertThere was a time when flipping the switch, and seeing a glass bulb light up, was magical to anyone in the world. Today, the presence of a light switch in a room, is something …
The Embassy of Health is designing a chronically healthy society
Eloise MaraisHow will we stay healthy in the future? Can we utilize the power of design to move towards a more healthy society?
Designer Govert Flint applies motion to everyday life
Ingmar NieuweboerInterview with Govert Flint, designer, architect and self-taught artist.
Seven Future Visions on In-Vitro Meat
Koert van MensvoortBefore we can decide if we will ever be willing to eat in-vitro, we need to explore the food culture it will bring us.
Interview: Chloé Rutzerveld, Designer Who Wants to Grow Healthy 3D Printed Food
Alessia AndreottiFood and Concept designer, Chloé Rutzerveld, explains her 3D food printing project Edible Growth.
Interview: Designer Shahar Livne is geomimicing the future of plastics
Kelly van GemertWe sat down with Shahar Livne, an Israeli-born designer who graduated from the Design Academy in Eindhoven to talk about her vision on the future of plastics.
Next Generation: Designing modular fashion with Mathilde Rougier
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
6 designers changing the future of fashion
Meike SchipperWe live in a world of fast or disposable fashion. This industry is increasingly impacting the environment due to the use of toxic chemicals, water and energy consumption, heavy …
Chloé Rutzerveld designs the food of tomorrow
Eleni MaragkouYou are in for a surprise when you look at food and concept designer Chloé Rutzerveld 's portfolio. It is hard to believe that somebody so young - she is just 25 - has already …
Interview: Agi Haines, Speculative Artist Who Wants to Redesign the Human Body
Ruben BaartSpeculative designer Agi Haines' work focuses on (re)designing the human body, and speculates upon future scenarios.
Designer Anouk Wipprecht combines fashion with robotics
Alessia AndreottiWe met Anouk Wipprecht and talked about smart fabrics and accessories that can listen to our body, therapeutic fashion and the future of dressmaking.
THRIVE: an expo in designing nature and growing technology
Ruben BaartTHRIVE expo showcases the latest works at the convergence of art, design, and biology, which examine current and future uses of biotechnology.
Interview: Leanne Wijnsma, Designer for the Instinct Who Uses Smell as Medium
Ruben BaartDutch experience designer Leanne Wijnsma designs for the human instinct and puts the sense of smell back to where it belongs, as modern hazards have shifted to the digital realm.
What an artificial womb may look like in the future
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkIn the future, artificial wombs could replace incubators as they mimic the natural environment of the female uterus. But what will these devices look like?
Interview: Lining Yao, Interaction Designer and Maker of Novel Materials
Alessia AndreottiWe recently interviewed Lining Yao, Chinese interaction designer who uses organic materials as a technology that brings us back to nature.
This bin transforms household waste into chicken food
Selin KirImagine a trash can that matches the size of your ordinary bin, yet it scoffs at weeks' worth of discarded food before even considering fullness. You're off the hook, as there's …
How this self-sustainable microhome may change the future of housing
Belen MunozLooking for a self-sustainable mobile microhome? Ecocapsule got you covered. This cute-as-pie capsule pod allows you to live completely off the grid in a low-energy, mobile …
Discussing bio-based material experiences with Elvin Karana
Meike SchipperThe world of design is in need of new materials that align with the urgency for sustainability. Issues such as climate change, plastic waste and harmful materials require us to …
Next Generation: Redesigning Burberry with Jiyong Lee
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Sitting on Tofu
Alessia AndreottiItalian Designer discovers new material. A ideal throne for a vegan king.
Next Generation: Designing a living menstrual cup with Lucrezia Alessandroni
Kelly van GemertWhat if living objects could re-connect humans with their menstrual cycle and change the way we perceive it?
From Bad Selfie to Perfect Portrait
Ruben BaartSay goodbye to bad selfies with Adobe’s latest AI photo editor.
Architects, You Better Design Cars!
Alejandro AlvarezHyundai envisions a future where your smart home is your driverless car, and vice versa.
Barbie Becomes a Hologram of Herself
Julie ReindlBarbie has been turned into a hologram version of herself and will now be your kids assistend.
How a starfish inspires robotic design
MaithriIn a feat of biomimicry that seamlessly marries biology with physics, tests carried out at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering made fascinating …
Next Generation: Designing ecosystems of technology with Maike Gebker
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Human Nature, designing the equilibrium with Koert van Mensvoort
NextNature.netUnder the title Human Nature, designing the equilibrium, eleven designers will answer questions about a future in which Humankind and Nature enter into a new relationship. An …
'I volunteer myself to try this cultured meat at my own risk'
Koert van MensvoortThe Netherlands leads in cheese, clogs, and cultured meat. This sustainable and animal-friendly form of meat has largely been developed in our country. In 1997, Willem van Eelen …
A forcie is an involuntary selfie
TeyoshThere are many reasons why somebody doesn’t want to take a photo at a certain place in a certain moment or with a certain people and put it online. The reason might be anything …
How self-driving cars will change our sex lives
bryan clarkIt’s clear that driverless cars will revolutionize the way we get from Point A to Point B. Perhaps less obvious is how it’ll change our sex lives. According to a new study by the …
Go forth, Buy a Smartphone and Reproduce Thyself
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkIt took some years of evolution to turn sex (between different sexes) from a stricly functional activity attuned to reproduction, into the recreational activity it is primarily …
Tulip Island - Design a Polder
Arnoud van den HeuvelA proposal to gain 600.000 m 2 of land near the Dutch coast recently came from the CDA (Dutch Christian-Democratic political party). The idea is to create a tulip-shaped island …
A new mythology of technology
Ruben BaartIn conversation with architect Julia Watson, a leading expert on Indigenous technologies and author of 'Lo-TEK, Design by Radical Indigenism'.
Nurturing architecture
Ruben BaartThe way we currently build is not sustainable. We will have to develop a sustainable living environment that matches our human needs, intuitions and potential.
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 …
Beyond biomimicry: a new urgency
William MyersDesigners face an unprecedented urgency to alter their methods and reprioritize their goals to address the accelerating degradation of the environment. This new …
Suzanne Lee wants to live in a world that uses only sustainable materials
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 …
An Ecstatic Dialogue with Richard Doyle
Jason SilvaWhen techno–optimist and fellow at the Hybrid Reality Institute , Jason Silva, meets with Richard Doyle, author of Darwin's Pharmacy: Sex, Plants and the Evolution of the …
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.
An introduction to biomimicry
Janine BenyusThe first time I explained biomimicry to a stranger was not in a talk or a workshop but in a big-box bookstore just after Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature had come out. I …
Virtual makeup: maybe they're born with it, maybe it’s XR
Ruben BaartAs our reality exists increasingly within digital realms, our virtual world demands a virtual identity. Our work is hybrid, our social identity is online and our connection is …
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 …
Meet Humanity beyond Race, it's Beautiful
Koert van MensvoortMeet Humanity beyond Race, it's Beautiful
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 …
Vertical Farms Growing In Giant Trees
Francesca BarchiesiUrban Skyfarm is a giant tree-shaped farm system for environmental improvement in food production and distribution.
Next Generation: Growing technology with Prosthetic X
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
9 creatives in biotech you need to know right now
Ruben BaartThe field of biofabrication is still new to most people. As founder and CEO of Biofabricate, Suzanne Lee shared with us this exciting online event series Creatives in Biotech . If …
Screen mutations and reframing perspectives with Louisa Zahareas
Ruben BaartIn the digital era of a globalized world, our screens have become a second set of eyes. Communication has advanced leaps and bounds, to a point where we cannot imagine a world …
The Material Futures of Central Saint Martins
Zeynep KunduracilarMeet United Matters, a London collective exploring how we might live in the future by blurring the boundaries between craft, science and technology.
Matilde Boelhouwer wants to make urban environments flower again
Ruben BaartMatilde Boelhouwer is a designer whose work speculates between art, design, science, biology and food. Matilde shapes this obligation into a studio which mainly focuses on the …
Next Generation: Simulating textile ecosystems with Scarlett Yang
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your coordinates as we …
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 …
Next Generation: Building aquatecture with Shaakira Jassat
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
In conversation with Jalila Essaïdi
Freya HutchingsWhat do in-vitro human skin, spider silk and cow manure have in common? They are all unlikely materials that can cloth, protect and inspire humans, as realized by award-winning …
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 …
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.
Anthropomorphobia
Koert van MensvoortAre you familiar with the affliction? Anthropomorphobia is the fear of recognizing human characteristics in non-human objects. The term is a hybrid of two Greek-derived words: …
A Stroll Through the Bubbles of Chemicals and Men
Etienne TurpinA stunning pre-history of the anthropocene
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.
Maurizio Montalti talks about the cycle of life
Meike SchipperAs modern humans, we are out of balance with our natural environment. With use of technology, we try to prolong our human lifespan and create materials that live longer than we …
There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkSo you’re triggered by our call for products and now you’re considering to send in one, two or maybe three of your brilliant products for the Nano Supermarket? Good. Or – and this …
On the origin of the e-bike
Huub EhlhardtThe oldest known serious candidate forerunner for the bicycle is the ‘running machine’ built by the German Baron Karl von Drais. His two-wheeled machine became known as the …
Next Generation: Unleashing nature’s untapped potential with Amelie Unger
Freya HutchingsThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your coordinates as we …
FluDOC – Glowing Bacteria Show if You Have Influenza
Koert van MensvoortBacteria are traditionally perceived as infectious and unhealthy, but that is about to change. This week designer Jan van der Asdonk graduated from the Next Nature Lab at the TU/e …
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 …
Razorius Gilletus – On the Origin of a Next Species
Koert van MensvoortIs the evolution of the single bladed razor into an exorbitant five–bladed vibrating gizmo the outcome of human needs, or is there another force in play? Say hello to Razorius …
NANO Supermarket Jury Report 2012
NextNature.netAfter the successful introduction of the NANO Supermarket in 2010 it became even more clear that the contest and the presented results produced discussions and many challenges to …
I Want Wings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nicholas CarrRead Nicholas Carr's essay on the transhumanist dream of having wings.
Why human enhancement requires technological citizenship
Ira van Keulen and Rinie van EstNew technologies – from artificial intelligence to synthetic biology – are set to alter the world, the human condition, and our very being in ways that are hard to imagine. The …
The path towards solar democracy with Marjan van Aubel
Meike SchipperSolar cells are often considered an eyesore, used for their sustainability yet not for their beauty. Installed on roofs or in solar parks, they take up precious space. Well that’s …
Next Generation: Visualising the diversity of microbial species with Valerie Daude
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your coordinates as we …
Evolving In Vitro with Yuval Yancovitch
Kelly van GemertWith 7.9 billion people and counting, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations predicts that by 2050, food supply needs to grow by 70% in order to accommodate …
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 …
Adding a new dimension to marine restoration: 3D printing coral reefs
David KlingesThe local fishermen looked on skeptically. From the deck of a small motorboat, scuba divers grabbed odd chunks of ceramic – which could be described as rocky brains stuck on …
In conversation with cyborg musician Kai Landre
Ruben BaartWhat does the merge of bodies and technology mean for the human? For cyborg Kai Landre, cybernetic extensions become body parts and not technology. Kai began his transition to a …
Enter Spa Sybarite: the luxury wellness center of our dreams and nightmares
Kelly van GemertIn conversation with film director Joshua Ashish Dawson about the future of wellness, climate anxiety and healthy cynicism India-born, Los Angeles-based film director Joshua …
Nature through the Windshield
Brendan CormierVolume magazine interviews Next Nature founder Koert van Mensvoort.
Transportations Of The Future
Francesca BarchiesiA selection of nine enthralling and striking concepts of future way of transportation.
Next Generation: Moving towards the plastic human with Max Ahluwalia
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Next Generation: Changing the oceans chemistry with Santa Ramaherison
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
5 must see exhibitions in 2023
Selin Kir1. THE FUTURE IS PRESENT Design Museum Danmark How will contemporary design define the future? THE FUTURE IS PRESENT grasps the very essence of Danish artistry of material …
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 …
Interview: Arne Hendriks, Researcher and "Father" of The Incredible Shrinking Man
Alessia AndreottiHendriks’s activity explores the positive transformative power of creative impulses and the importance of fundamental free scientific research.
The Invention of Morel is a techno-lovestory from the future
Ruben BaartOctavio Paz says calls The Invention of Morel , “ without exaggeration… a perfect novel. ” According to Borges, “ to classify [it] as perfect is neither an …
Next Nature and the Curse of Oil
Tere VadénThe next step is to embrace and celebrate how cultural artifacts are escaping control, becoming autonomous, and forming the “next nature”.
Can AI become addicted?
Thomas MoynihanIn 1953, a Harvard psychologist thought he discovered pleasure – accidentally – within the cranium of a rat. With an electrode inserted into a specific area of its brain, the rat …
Next Generation: Pursuing digital tactility with Studio PMS
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Next Generation: Shaping intimacy through objects with Pleun van Dijk
Ruben BaartPleun van Dijk is a speculative artist/designer who investigates the intimate relationship between human and technology.
Structuring biomimicry, improving building's resiliency
Wilfredo Mendez VazquezThe same way Einstein assumes the speed of light to be a constant of reference for his Theory of Relativity, the philosophy of biomimicry assumes Nature as a constant of reference …
ECO Coin Award Interviews: Ritsert Mans
Jack CaulfieldWe asked Ritsert Mans, our second ECO coin award nominee about his bike, the technology that fuels it and his hopes for the future.
The next generation xenobots are here
Simon CoghlanIn 2020, scientists made global headlines by creating “ xenobots ” – tiny “ programmable ” living things made of several thousand frog stem cells. These pioneer xenobots could …
The Prefuture of Synthetic Biology
Alexandra Daisy GinsbergAlexandra Daisy Ginsberg discusses the promises and realities of synthetic biology.
Pirjo Kääriäinen on new ecological biomateriality
Freya HutchingsMeet Pirjo Kääriäinen, professor of design driven fibre innovation at Aalto University, Finland. Kääriäinen founded CHEMARTS —a collaborative program at the university that brings …
How future fashion could help us cope with isolation
Ruben BaartToday we cannot meet, touch or hug our loved ones. And while we all like the feeling of the touch of another human being, physical contact does not just feel nice, it is crucial …
Next Generation: illustrating the remains of the anthropocene with Louise Silfversparre
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Next Generation: Exploring cybernetic ecologies with Marie Walker-Smith
Liam BekaertThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Next Generation: Exploring blood, salt and iron as biomaterials with Hedwich Rooks
Kelly van GemertThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch: magazine@nextnature.net. …
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 …
Interview: Jason Silva, Media Artist and Curator of Awe-Inspiring Ideas
Alessia AndreottiMedia artist, filmmaker and wonderjunkie Jason Silva talks about technological evolution and why humans are gods with anuses.
Speculative Sensing at WDCD 2015
NextNature.netOn may 21st, Next Nature Network art director Hendrik-Jan Grievink will host a workshop around the idea of Speculative Sensing: exploring the potential of senses found in nature …
Iconic Buildings in Untouched Lands
Margherita OlivoAnton Repponen's project places iconic NY buildings in organic, untouched environments to put them in the spotlight.
Air Pollution Mask for Kids
Ruben BaartDanish design studio Kilo created an air pollution mask suitable for kids aged six and up.
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.
The GOGBOT Conference 2019 is your guide to biotech futures
Ruben BaartLook around you and try to find the most natural thing in the room you are in now. It is you. But for how long? Welcome to the wonderful world of bio design ; a world full of …
Artificial bones for the natural meat experience
Ruben BaartThe world is developing, climate change is happening and it's time for us to do something. Now. One strategy would be to simply stop eating meat — or at least reduce the amount of …
Discover the art of the living at Centre Pompidou
Ruben BaartGo forward to nature at the La Fabrique du Vivant (the Factory of Life), the newly opened exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Exhibiting the recent works of fifty …
What will your future supermarket look like?
Ruben BaartWhat will the supermarket of the future look like? And what kind of food will you be able to buy there? That is what the Embassy of Food is researching. The production and …
The Next Nature Magazine is here!
Next NatureIt’s our pleasure to announce the first issue of the Next Nature Magazine. Indeed, a good old fashioned magazine. Next Nature Magazine presents 176 pages of thought-provoking …
Cooking with mycelium
Ruben BaartResearchers from the University of Colorado created a recipe book to cook with mycelium.
Better than the real thing
Written by Debbie Mollenhagen PART 1: FROM LINEAR TO CIRCULAR Designer living has become designing life. I often ask myself: did it taste like the real thing? But when I open my …
Breaking Point?
John Zerzan, published in Green Anarchy issue #24 - Spring/Summer 2007 The rapidly mounting toll of modern life is worse than we could have imagined. A metamorphosis rushes …
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 …
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, …
Flying Car Modular Transport System
Elle Zhan WeiAirbus and Italdesign unveil modular urban land and air transport system.
Anthropomorphism Puts a Friendly Face on Autonomous Vehicles
Jack CaulfieldDo you ever look at the bonnet of a car and see a face? Now, designers are looking at how to give self-driving cars the friendliest "faces" they can through anthropomorphism.
5 must-see exhibitions before the end of the year
Ruben BaartA large-scale asian food market serving in vitro meat, a transatlantic expo on the future of nature and a travelling exhibition that explores our relationship with AI. These five …
How fungi can help create a green construction industry
Ian FletcherThe world of fungi has attracted a lot of interest and seems to be becoming very fashionable of late. A new exhibition at Somerset House in London, for example, is dedicated to …
Next Generation: Shimmering nature with Elissa Brunato
Freya HutchingsThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Would you like to see your work here? Get in touch …
Track freshness and reduce food waste with Rui Xu
Ruben BaartImagine this: you wake up on a lazy Sunday morning, trudging your way to the fridge only to be welcomed with the smell of something rotting. Did the meat expire sooner than …
Furniture futures
Nellie FriedrichWondering how next natural furniture may change your way of life? Will we feed our lamps? Grow chairs? Talk with our tables?
Future Festive Feast
Kelly van GemertAs the year is coming to a close, many of us are preparing our homes and dinner tables for a festive meal.
Urban Dolls
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkThe idea of altering your body for aesthetic purposes is still somewhat frowned upon today. But more than because the very idea of improving yourself, this is about its …
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 …
Nano Supermarket 2nd Edition: Call for Products
NextNature.netWe call upon designers, technologists and artists to submit their speculative nanotech products for the next round of the NANO supermarket.
Pyramid of Technology: How technology becomes nature in seven steps
Koert van MensvoortHow technology becomes nature in seven steps
Interview: Suzanne Lee, Fashion Innovator Who Grows Clothing in the Laboratory
Alessia AndreottiWe recently talked with Suzanne Lee about the textile industry and technology, growing leather in the lab, and the use of new alternative materials in the future of fashion.
Intimate Technology: the Battle for Our Body and Behaviour
Rinie van EstTechnology is nestling itself within us and between us, has knowledge about us and can act just like us.
The Enlightenment Is Dead, Long Live the Entanglement
Danny HillisWe humans are changing. We have become so intertwined with what we have created that we are no longer separate from it. We have outgrown the distinction between the natural and the artificial. We are what we make.
If you could have another sense, which sense would you choose?
Meike SchipperColor-blind artist Neil Harbisson designed a brain-implanted antenna that converts colors into sound. This enables him to hear colors he cannot see, and extends his vision to …
The Artificial Womb project receives funding to develop a prototype
Freya HutchingsHooray! The team of researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology (whom we previously collaborated with to design a prototype for an artificial womb ) has been awarded a …
Exploring body architecture with Lucy McRae
Meike SchipperAs evolution goes on, the human body is evolving too. What does it mean to be human in times of advanced biotechnology and genetic engineering? Are our bodies ready for our …
POND is a symphony of lights and water
Nellie FriedrichHave you ever gone a day without water? Most likely you have experienced low energy levels or fatigue after a few couple of hours. Water gives us energy. More than that, water is …
The Institute of Digital Fashion explores what's next in the industry
Ruben BaartTrading animal skins for pixels, our digital selves call for a digital wardrobe. The Institute of Digital Fashion , led by CommuneEast founder Leanne Elliott Young and Digi-Gxl …
Join us at the Embassy of Food Conference
Next NaturePromising food design projects do not always find their way to producers, the market and ultimately to consumers. Why is that and what can we do to advance these ideas? Why is it …
Next Generation: Sensing the critical zone with Menno Brouwer
Kelly van GemertThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your coordinates as we …
Jurassic World scientists still haven’t learned
Ruben BaartJust because you can doesn’t mean you should – real-world genetic engineers can learn from the cautionary tale. “ Jurassic World: Dominion ” is hyperbolic Hollywood entertainment …
Next Generation: Mending mycelium with Emma Huffman
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Next Generation: (Un)learning Time By Light with Valentine Maurice
Kelly van GemertThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
The No(nhuman) Consent Form
Kelly van GemertThere seems to be a green shift happening in Dutch Design, where the traditional vision is slowly sprouting into a newer, more refreshing one. The biodesigners are emerging from …
Fresh from the Pharm
Gordon TiemstraWill we in the future still buy several needs according food in shops, or will we grow M&M’s ourselves? There is a lot happening on in the field of food technology , think for …
Infotizement Call For Entries
In anticipation of the forthcoming Next Nature book, we call upon you, dearest creatives, to submit a fictitious editorial advertisement: The Infotizement. The infotizement is a …
Nano Product: The Food Printer
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkAre we creating the penicillin or the asbestos of the 21st century? In the months preceding our Nano Supermarket Project , we share some speculative nanotech products with you. …
Nano Supermarket – Call for Products
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 …
The Technological Sublime
Jos de MulThe sublime is an aesthetic concept of 'the exalted,' of beauty that is grand and dangerous. Through 17th and 18th century European intellectual tradition, the sublime became …
Growing the Future of Meat
Christina AgapakisOutside of the limits imposed by the edges of an animal’s body, the cells can reproduce and multiply until they exhaust the nutrients and space provided, filling petri dishes and vats to grow the future of meat.
NANO Supermarket Best Product 2014
Alessia AndreottiA jury of design and science experts awarded the best NANO Supermarket product a € 2.500 prize.
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.
The Next Nature Sneaker Series
Mathilde NakkenWe present for the real sneaker heads amongst us, six new futuristic pieces of footwear. Going from pineapple leather to self lacing 'Back to the Future' Nikes.
Ermi van Oers wants to bring living light to your living room
Jack CaulfieldThe Living Light harnesses plant energy to provide light. We spoke to its designer, Ermi van Oers, to find out more about the unique product.
Getting rid of that bit of unspoiled green
Sanne vander BeekThere it is. A hefty hen, with its head up high and its beak out. And a gigantic VR headset over its beady little eyes. What does this battery hen see? ‘An experience of a free …
3D-printing food waste into tasty products
Meike SchipperGlobally, humans produce enough food to feed 10 billion people (we are only 7 billion now) yet somehow we waste a third of this. Food waste is one of the biggest climate …
How to biofabricate leather
Laura MuthLeather is one of the oldest and most versatile materials in the world. It’s a supple, tough, relatively strong and durable material and it’s relatively impermeable, yet …
The Pyramid of Technology: How will we co-evolve with technology?
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkThis question is an excerpt from the Pyramid of Technology toolkit Cooking is a process through which humans outsource part of their bodily functions to technology (think …
Why superhuman technologies will affect us all
Ruben BaartWhen you look through a super-telescope, you can still see the planet Earth. Once called the blue planet, she now looks red and parched. We had no choice but to abandon her… On a …
Fish-inspired soft robot takes a deep dive
Dimitris TsakirisThe deepest regions of the oceans still remain one of the least explored areas on Earth, despite their considerable scientific interest and the richness of lifeforms inhabiting …
Billionaire space race: the ultimate symbol of capitalism's obsession with growth
Tim JacksonMars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids, laments the Rocket Man in Elton John’s timeless classic. In fact, it’s cold as hell. But that doesn’t seem to worry a new …
Next Generation: Adorning bio embellishments with Aradhita Parasrampuria
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Next Generation: Producing glass from ashes with Benedikt Peirotén
Marit BeerseBenedikt Peirotén has started a project called ‘From the Ashes’ proposing using waste streams to replace the energy-intensive ingredients in glass.
Next Generation: Experiencing neo-robophilia with Hye Hyun Song
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Next Generation: Emptying Out with Natasja Bökkerink
Kelly van GemertThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
Nature Loves Technology
Next NatureWe interviewed William Myers and Emma van der Leest, curators of Nature Loves Technology, our exhibition at Floriade 2022
10 Biomimic Gadgets
Arnoud van den HeuvelComing across an image like this, makes one wonder at first: is it a giant punch-bag? Some sort of soft water-drop-sculpture? No, it is the Emergency Outdoor Survival Cocoon , …
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 …
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, …
Brand Environmentalism: The Augmented Reality Sneaker
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkOnce, we wore footwear to protect our feet from the hostile influences of our natural environment. But with the replacement of our natural environment by a world of design, the …
Totem Animals for the Anthropocene
Ted HeistmanInvasive species become the animal symbols for a man-made world.
Yes, Naturally
Ine GeversThe introductory essay from the Yes, Naturally book - available in our store!
Exploring Detroit’s Next Nature
NextNature.netFrom August 1 till 16 2015, Next Nature Network’s art director Hendrik-Jan Grievink will be co-tutor of the GDA Summer Sessions.
NNN Movement & the First ECO Coin
Alessia AndreottiWe officially launched the Next Nature Movement in The Netherlands. To seal the beginning of the Next Nature Movement, director Koert van Mensvoort donated the first symbolic ECO coin.
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.
ReGen, the Autarchic Off-Grid Village
Margherita OlivoUtopian off-grid ReGen Village produces all of its own food and energy is being implemented in Almere.
Ectogenesis, Artificial Womb, Human Egg?
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkThe artificial womb is on the verge of becoming a reality, but how it will affect our culture is for us to decide.
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.
Interview: Curator Ilari Laamanen on Momentum9, the Nordic Biennial
Ruben BaartWe recently spoke to Ilari Laamanen, to peel the outcrops of Momemtum9, and unveil the overlapping themes to the next nature philosophy.
Letter to Humanity
Koert van MensvoortNNN director Koert van Mensvoort writes a letter to humanity.
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.
Enter the Future Food Formula
Ruben BaartImagine, it’s 2050 and you are feeling hungry. What will be on your plate? Where will your food come from, and how will it be produced? It may be juicy ants from the nearest …
Next Nature Night: Future food is on the menu
Next NatureAlways thinking about food? What about food that doesn’t exist yet? On the 18th of September at De Studio, Next Nature Network will host a night of talks on the future of food and …
Next Generation: Thinking about the future of food with Annie Larkins
Freya HutchingsThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your coordinates as we …
Hello, superorganism
Koert van MensvoortWhen I was a kid, my parents took me to the beach every summer. We’d swim in the ocean and play on our inflatable raft in the surf. When the tide was low, I’d build a sand castle …
Next Generation: Exploring the vegetal cyborg with Marie Declerfayt
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Want to see your work here? Get in touch and …
Future cities: why we need to reimagine the look of urban landscapes
Ruben BaartIn imagining future urban landsapes, we need to answer questions about what can be sustained and what cannot, where cities can be located and where they cannot.
Meet Kaia the CO2 filtering lamp
Kelly van GemertDid you know that we owe every second breath we take to the algae in the sea? And that minerals have been absorbing CO2 for billions of years while converting it into important …
Seeking Symbiosis
Ruben BaartVisual artist Heleen Blanken explores the complex relationship between people, nature and technology.
Are we living in a superorganism?
Ruben BaartThe coverstory of Next Nature Magazine investigates how the rise of virtual influencers on social media reveals a superorganism.
Crowdsourced drink
Koert van MensvoortRemember the days when the flavor of a fruity drink was simply connected to an apple, orange, strawberry, kiwi, or perhaps – if you felt really exotic – an acai berry? Nowadays we …
Epidermits – The Tissue Engineered Toy
Koert van MensvoortThe world of tissue engineering is usually associated with medical applications . But how about some tissue engineered toys? The Epidermits toy is the Karten Design firm 's …
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 …
Join the Synthetic Aesthetics project
Koert van MensvoortSo, you are aware biotech will drive our evolution , you took the crash course on synthetic genomics , you've got your map of the DNA world in your backpack and are now eager to …
Logorama
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkSometimes you come across something that is not directly related to Next Nature, but só well made that it deserves a place on this website. Logorama, a 16 minute animation by the …
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 …
End of Life Care Machine
Marco van BeersDesigner, artist and engineer Dan Chen has developed the ' End of Life Care Machine ', a machine designed to guide and comfort dying patients with a carefully scripted message. …
Rule #4: Complex Products Tend to Be Anthropomorphized
NextNature.netFor past entries and an introduction to the 11 Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design, click here. Think about a spoon. Now think about a spoon with a face. What do you …
Minimalist Effect in the Maximalist Market
Abby QinThe multidisciplinary design consultancy Antrepo Team created a project named Minimalist Effect in the Maximalist Market in 2010.
Let’s Sweat the Heat Out: Sweating Wall Concept
Wei Lun WangHydroceramic: a composite material able to lower the temperature of an interior space by five degrees Celsius.
From Vegetable to Stroopwafel
Ruben BaartChloé Rutzerveld presents a modern version of the iconic stroopwafel, fully made of vegetables.
Meat the Future Exhibition
NextNature.netFrom October 11 to June 11 we will discuss the future of meat at Cube Deign Museum in Kerkrade (The Netherlands) with the exhibition Meat the Future.
Tangible Money in Digital Currency Era
Alejandro AlvarezThe Scrip, a new universal cash device is bringing back the old metallic sparkle of the money and mixing it with today’s technology in order to fill the deficiencies of our credit and debit cards.
Fellow Day: Next Senses
Ingmar NieuweboerOn June 17th a NNN Fellow Day was organized to explore the future project: Next Senses.
Rating the Reputation Economy
Lewis JustOur online reputation is becoming a valuable currency that is hard to earn and easy to lose.
The making of the Modular Body
Jack CaulfieldRemember the Modular Body? Curious about how OSCAR was really created or keen to know more about the project as a whole? Check out the making of videos!
The Economy of Ecology
Lewis JustWhat if we could redesign the system to work for humanity and the planet we call home? What would the economy of ecology look like?
Call for projects: bring your groundbreaking creativity to tackle pressing energy issues
NextNature.netWe need to change the way we power our daily lives. Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change, yet this is still our main source of energy. Much of this energy …
Face the future of intimacy with Kiiroo
Ruben BaartMeet the teledildonics, an ingenious species of bi-directionally controlled sextoys from the future, available today. These touch emulating vibrators find each other on social sex …
5 things to do at DDW19
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, …
In conversation with Studio Drift
Meike SchipperA flock of drones that fly like birds, drifting blocks of concrete, a choreography of opening and closing flowers. The work of Studio Drift is challenging the distinction between …
Our Next Nature Future Lab plan received funding
Next NatureHooray! This just in: Next Nature Network is granted a significant contribution from the Dutch government intended to develop a Future Lab for design & technology in Eindhoven …
What we can learn from The Social Dilemma
Vanessa Bates RamirezIs social media ruining the world? Dramatic political polarization. Rising anxiety and depression. An uptick in teen suicide rates. Misinformation that spreads like wildfire. The …
We are all parent Earth
Ruben BaartLast week I was strolling through the aisles of the supermarket when I heard a buzzing sound coming from my pocket. I looked up from my cart and saw it was a message from …
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 …
Check your technoprivilege!
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkTechnology is not neutral; the same tech might empower some and disempower others. It is time to check our Technoprivilege, argues author Hendrik-Jan Grievink.
Exploring speculative developments of reproductive technology
Next NatureWhat if women of childbearing age no longer had to interrupt their careers for a pregnancy? In Kuang-Yi Ku ’s project Grandmom Mom, we take a look into the future. In 2050, the …
Printing houses with cow poop
Kelly van GemertNow here's a perspective: a pooping cow is like a living 3D printer
Reproducing robots
Leanne VoshellWhen we think of robots, we typically do not think of small cellular organisms made with embryonic cells from frogs. However, this is exactly what the joint teams at University of …
Personalise your gut health with Microbiota To Go
Ruben BaartIn the supermarket of the future, part of the Embassy of Food at Dutch Design Week, designer Merle Bergers will present her project Microbiota To Go.
The Solar Biennale brings new perspectives on the energy of the sun
Ruben BaartThe sun lies at the heart of our solar system, providing life-giving light, heat and energy to Earth. The sun always gives, without asking for anything in return. In the …
The Museum of Edible Earth
Kelly van GemertWe spoke with the Museum of Edible Earth, a travelling museum dedicated to the prosperous amount of soil samples.
Next Nature's must reads
Ruben BaartTen books that continue to inspire the next nature philosophy—gathered for you to read this summer.
Slogan
The things we design will end up designing us. Slogan of the week. Retrieved from the essay Exploring Next Nature .
Sneak Preview Food
Koert van MensvoortLets face it: we spoiled western people are pretty much imprisoned by our self created safe environments and remotely disconnected from the wonders and chaotic surprises of old …
The 21th Century Paradigm
The history of art through the ages reveals a constancy that, by conscious or unconscious applications, provides us with an omnipresent correlation dealing with the …
Fake-Space Race
Koert van MensvoortSome weeks ago we pondered over the oddity of a space race in cyberspace . Rockets and jet-packs –so cool in the previous century– don't make sense in a virtual environment. The …
Humans Are the Sex Organs of Technology
Written by Kevin Kelly , published in The Technium . I claim that technology has its own agenda. What is the evidence that technology as a whole, or the technium as I call it, is …
Italians Do It Better
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkTERRACINA, Italy: Before Michele Assunto hauls in his fishing net from the banks of a reed-lined canal here, he uses a pole to push the garbage out of the way. "They really need …
BVPS Next Nature in LA - Pictures!
May 17th 2008. Biggest Visual Power Show: Next Nature in LA . More pictures below. We are all born in a world that has been designed already. BVPS intro video by Floris Kaayk. Big …
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 …
Having Invented the Gods, Perhaps we can Turn into Them
Jason SilvaMy name is Jason Silva. I've spent the last 5 years hosting and producing a tv show on Al Gore's Emmy-winning Current TV network and I'm a fellow at the Hybrid Realities …
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 …
A New Take on the Tree
IzzyWoodsMany people will have heard of the infamous swastika made up of larches that revealed itself every autumn in a forest outside Berlin . The trees, which turned yellow at the end …
Facing your Car
MattijsDo cars have a face? You would be inclined to say yes immediately. And you would be right as well, because they do. Study has confirmed through a complex statistical analysis that …
Kinetic architecture
Erik SwaagstraArchitecture has now come to a stage where the technical possibilities seem limitless. Buildings become more fluent, dynamic and organic. Examples can be found in most buildings …
Next Landscapes
Natalie DixonQuoted in a recent interview about his work, Landscapes without Memory , artist Joan Fontcuberta asked, “Could a natural nature exist? The answer is no, or at least, not anymore: …
#11: Don’t Use Anthropomorphism if it Does Not Serve Any Purpose
NextNature.netPart 11 of the series 11 Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design Anthropomorphism can be a powerful tool in product design. But there are also risks involved that urge …
Meat, the Expectations
Koert van MensvoortAs the planet’s population speeds towards 9 billion, it’s becomes impossible to continue consuming meat like we do today. Will we all be eating rice and beans? Grasshoppers …
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".
Demo Day at Next Nature Lab
Alessia AndreottiUnpolished creativity at the Next Nature lab from the Industrial Design Department at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
Fuel Your Body With Algae Headgear
Alessia AndreottiAlgae as the future alternative fuel for the human body.
A Registered Landscape
Lotte BiesheuvelTuscany is known for its natural beauty. But only a few know that this wonderful landscape is actually a really good design work.
NANO Supermarket New Line of Products
NextNature.netDuring the 2014 Dutch Design Week, the NANO Supermarket debuts a new line of speculative nano products.
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.
Which Technologies will 2016 Bring?
Wei Lun WangThe new year is right around the corner, let’s forget about long-term future for a while to check out what new tech trends will hit it big in 2016. At the end of every year, …
Roboat Ahoy: the First Autonomous Boats
Ruben BaartThe first self “driving” boat will be entering the canals of Amsterdam in 2017 with versatile ends.
Making Power Stations Part of the Landscape
Margherita OlivoCan we have pretty power stations? The design of power stations is becoming more appealing.
Morality of an Autonomous Car
Monika KozubWhen an autonomous car has to make a decision, will self-interest or the public good predominate?
A Robotic Suit to Update Your Granny
Mathilde NakkenThe elderly may toss their walkers for this robotic suit.
Teaching Crows to Clean Up Cigarette Butts
Jack CaulfieldCigarette butts are littered everywhere. But now, two Dutch designers have come up with a unique solution to the problem: the Crowbar.
Digital Detox: Disconnect to Reconnect?
Nadine RoestenburgDo you feel information overloaded? Do you experience stress? Do you feel like you are addicted to your smartphone, laptop, or the Internet? Get yourself digital detoxed!
ECO Coin Award Interviews: Sandra Rey
Jack CaulfieldWe asked Sandra Rey, our third ECO Coin Award nominee, about her company Glowee and her hopes for illuminating the future in a more sustainable way.
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?
Intimate Technology S01E07: Our Selves
NextNature.netWe think of selfhood as residing in our everyday stream of consciousness. But could we possibly have a second digital self in our online behaviors? Watch episode 3 of our Intimate Technology series.
Artificial Womb Workshop at Border Sessions
Elle Zhan WeiAt Border Sessions Festival in the Hague a workshop was hosted by Next Nature Network on the artificial womb.
Interview: Huub Ehlhardt on the evolution of products
Kelly van Gemert"To understand why a product is the way it is today, you need to learn about its evolutionary background." Meet Huub Ehlhardt, an engineer with a PhD in product design . Huub …
Why in the future, we will all wear one piece of garment
Ruben BaartIt's not an easy task to define the practice of designer Jasna Rok . Fashtech pioneer? Radical innovator? Visionary designer? ‘All of the above’ seems only appropriate. In fact, …
Your next doctor might just be a robot
Jack CaulfieldConventional wisdom says that you can’t replace the human touch in terms of medical care, but in our rapidly changing technological environment, it appears that this perception …
The return of Rayfish Footwear?
NextNature.netRayfish Footwear was a fictional company that offered personalized sneakers crafted from genetically modified stingray leather. This online science fiction story allowed customers …
Why digital detoxes are a solution looking for a problem
David EllisWith New Year’s resolutions in full swing, many people may have chosen to cut down on their tech use – or even give it up altogether. The growing popularity of such “digital …
Microbiocene: the microbiological archeology of the future
Linda ValentaIn configuring our next nature, artists and scientists explore new languages that move beyond the Anthropocene - the era of human beings. These semantics would bridge the gap …
10 Next Nature dinner table conversation starters
Ruben BaartSummer is here and the sun is out, and yes, this is awesome. After a long day in the sizzling summer sun, you get a group of people together to share some delicious food, …
Next Nature went to China!
Next NatureWe are proud to invite you to our largest showcase (so far), currently on display at OCT Art & Design in Shenzhen, China. Spanning across three floors, with a total surface of …
Next Nature plans for Evoluon honored with Region Deal
Next NatureGood day astronauts of spaceship Earth! Today it was announced that Next Nature's plans for the Evoluon have been awarded a financial contribution of €7.6 million from the Region …
The Next Nature gift guide 2021
Next NatureAs winter arrives, so does the season of giving. Good gift giving is an art and can be quite the endeavor at times. But don’t worry, Next Nature is here to help! We present to you …
Notes on the plastisphere
Shahar LivneEvery piece of plastic that’s ever made, still exists. It results in a floating garbage dump in the ocean, full of life. While this (geo)design was never intentional, humans …
What Julia Watson is reading this summer
Ruben BaartIn an era of high-tech and climate extremes, we are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. Architect Julia Watson imagines a design movement building on indigenous …
Five things not to miss at Floriade
Veronica FanzioHere are 5 things you cannot miss at Floriade Expo 2022
The GeneSprout Initiative: cultivating new plant breeding techniques
Ruben BaartSome 10,000 years ago humans began to domesticate plants and animals. The birth of agriculture, one of the earliest technologies available.
Growth is not the problem, but the solution
Ruben BaartIf we want to bring down global CO2 emissions to zero, we will need technological innovation and massive infrastructure projects.
Next Generation: Tasting Landless Food with Malu Luecking
Kelly van GemertRegeneration of extinct flavor families via microalgae
Making an AI supermarket with Nonhuman Nonsense
Ruben BaartWhat does the supermarket of the future look like? The Embassy of Food at Dutch Design week.
Next Generation: Unlearning botanical narratives with Nina Škerjanc
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
ChatGPT is getting stupider and we don't know why - so I asked ChatGPT
Kelly van GemertAI language model ChatGPT has hit the mainstream last year when it became widely accessible to everyone. Next to doing our (home)work, it became also a D&D Dungeon Master , …
N is for Nature
NextNature.netThere are people who think what makes a good wine comes from nature - factors like rain and soil and temperature. Then there are those who think it's a matter of second nature - …
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 …
Biotypography
Rolf CoppensIsraelian typographer Oded Ezer looks at the world from his point of view, through letters and numbers. So why not turn the world into typography. A short interview taken from …
Out of Body Experience
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkDid you have your Out of Body Experience today? We knew already that our nature is merely how we perceive it, but now scientists from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne …
Amsterdam Weekly on the Natural Revolution
The free cultural paper Amsterdam Weekly discusses the Natural Revolution of and includes tree tips for successful living in the next version of nature. Download PDF (148kb) . …
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 …
A Future Love Story
By MARCEL VAN DER DRIFT. Ten years from now, a cell phone gently sinks to the bottom of the river. It's one of the latest models. The clever design, trendy colours and nifty …
A Society of Simulations
Koert van MensvoortAn interviewer once asked Pablo Picasso why he paints such strange pictures instead of painting things the way they are. Picasso asks the man what he means. The man then takes out …
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 (!) …
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 …
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 …
Douglas Coupland: A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years
Hendrik-Jan GrievinkDouglas Coupland is a writer and artist based in Vancouver. For the canadian newspaper Globe and Mail, he wrote The ‘radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years’ a dystopian …
![Visual of MANKO & Plagiarism [#1]](https://nextnature.net/media/pages/magazine/story/2010/manko-plagiarism-1/b50dcc7ae7-1602632753/manco-530-868x486.jpg)
MANKO & Plagiarism [#1]
Aston RevolaIn this first review of the works of Manko, we'll discuss the complex sorts of plagiarism in Augmented Reality art that are typical for our contemporary art scene. This introduces …
Next Nature Introduction
Bruce SterlingThis project - the Next Nature Network - is about Nature's brand image. One might surmise that "Nature," being 100 percent all-natural, can't have any brand image. The facts …
Next Nature Movie #4: Blade Runner
Koert van MensvoortLook around you and try to find the most natural thing in the room you are in now. It is you. Now, you wouldn’t be so sure in the apocalyptic Los Angeles of 2019 depicted in Blade …
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 …
Afterlife for Atheists
Lisa van der VoortWhere religions promise their believers a life after death and cryonics also needs a kind of belief in future technological development, designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau …
![Visual of Manko & Time [#13, The End]](https://nextnature.net/media/pages/magazine/story/2011/manko-time-13-the-end/ad243e97e0-1602632753/manko13-868x486.jpg)
Manko & Time [#13, The End]
Aston RevolaMany things have been rumored about the artist called Manko since he vanished about a year ago. Some even went so far as to claim he had died. So it was all over the news when …
Morphing Cutlery
Koert van MensvoortImagine a world where the shapes of all objects around you would be able to change on the fly. Envision a future where nanotechnology and morphing become ubiquitous and blend in …
Next Nature Services
Bas HaringIntentionality separates culture from nature. A dog is intentional, a fox is not; a park is intentional, a forest is not. Since trash, ruined buildings, and automated computer …
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 …
#10: Enhance Human Experience, Don’t Replace it
NextNature.netPart 10 in the 11 part series Anthropomorphism and Design . The hidden danger with interactive products is that they will become so good at fulfilling our needs that they start to …
Creating the World's Cutest Fruit
Allison GuyJust like corn, bananas , and essentially any other plant we cultivate, the Cutie mandarin is the result of a concerted effort to produce an ideal food. Mandarin oranges come from …
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.
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.
Browsing the Map of Space Ship Earth
Koert van MensvoortBesides finding their way, people look at to transport them to another place, or in this case, another perspective on planet Earth.
Wearing Technology Under the Skin
Alessia AndreottiUnderSkin is a device that would be implanted beneath the skin on your hand and charge off your body’s energy.
3D Printed Eyes with WiFi Connection
Alessia AndreottiItalian research studio is working on EYE: a 3D bioprinted sight augmentation.
Bioprinting in the Kitchen of the Future
Alessia AndreottiCultivator is speculative design project on how bioprinting could find its way into the kitchen of the future.
From Discarded Mega Oil-Tanker to Village
Alessia AndreottiDutch architect Chris Collaris and designers Ruben Esser, Sander Bakker and Patrick van der Gronde, saw a new sustainable potential in discarded mega oil tankers in the Southern …
Interview: Nadine Bongaerts, Synthetic Biologist Bridging Science with Society
NextNature.netWe recently talk to Nadine Bongaerts about the role and impact of synthetic biology, the gap between biosciences and society and the importance of communication to overcome the fear of new technologies.
Modern Times Emergency Kit
Alexandra BremersIn these modern times a traditional first aid kit won't do anymore. As the world around us innovates, our needs in case of an emergency change as well.
53 Shades of Blue
Ruben BaartAn artist installed a sculpture on the main street of Ljubljana, Slovenia, that measures the blueness of the sky.
Harvesting Water from Thin Air
Margherita OlivoScientists in Harvard University have designed a new material inspired by organisms, such as cacti, that can effectively harvest water from thin air.
Insects are helping us develop the future of hearing aids
Rob MalkinThe human ear is a miracle of mechanical evolution. It allows us to hear an astonishing range of sounds and to communicate and navigate in the world. It’s also easy to damage and …
Luminous Bike Lane Opened in Poland
Monika KozubThe first self-sufficient luminous bike lane opened last week in Poland.
Add-on Body Parts: Bionic Thumb
Charlotte KuijpersRoyal College of Art graduate Dani Clode reframed prosthetics as extensions of the body, rather than replacements for missing parts.
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.
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 …
Otra Nation: Make Walls Great Again
Elle Zhan WeiThis group of 14 designers, engineers, builders and architects make a proposal of a wall for Trump's ambitious project.
Robotic Pillow Breathes to Help You Sleep
Charlotte KuijpersA smart, huggable bed partner, who also improves your sleep quality. Sounds great, right? Soon, you might be able to order one yourself: Somnox is a soft robotic pillow that gently breathes as you hold it.
How AI and genomics will impact the future of making babies
Vanessa Bates RamirezAs if stand-alone technologies weren’t advancing fast enough, we’re in age where we must study the intersection points of these technologies. How is what’s happening in robotics …
How will the artificial womb affect society?
Natalja HeybroekWhere contraceptives such as the pill disconnect sex from reproduction, in vitro fertilisation disconnects contraception from sex, and the artificial womb would disconnect the …
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 …
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. …
The artificial womb: are we ready?
Ruben Baart“Within a few years it will be possible for a premature baby to continue to mature in an artificial womb,” says gynecologist Guid Oei. It is therefore that the Artificial Womb: …
3 exhibitions that explore the relationship between humans and the environment
Freya HutchingsAs we go about our daily activities, we may lose sight of our connections with nonhuman life. Here are three exhibitions to encourage you to step outside of your everyday and …
Watch the BBC report on world's first artificial womb
Ruben BaartNow that the team of researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology (whom we previously collaborated with to design a prototype for an artificial womb ) has been awarded a …
‘Optimism is our duty’: in conversation with Koert van Mensvoort
Ruben BaartWe live in a world in which we control the biology of a tomato at such precision, you could think of it as a product of technology, instead of a product of nature. Think about it, …
Next Generation: Cooking with viruses with Pei-Ying Lin
Britta de VriesThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Want to see your work here? Get in touch and …
Living robots made from frog stem cells may revolutionize medicine
Freya HutchingsAt just a millimeter wide, Xenobots are “neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal", they are "a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism”, says …
Next Generation: Speculating about the future with Deborah Rhyner
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your coordinates as we …
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 …
Towards a global society as a superorganism
Ruben BaartToday we hold the ability to gather a lot of knowledge, thanks to science. We are able to watch, analyze, manipulate and change matter to the nano-level. This makes it tempting to …
Why I'm turning my son into a cyborg
Vivienne MingImagine if everyone spoke a language that you don’t understand. It’s not a foreign language–it’s been spoken around you since the day you were born–but where as everyone else …
5 Dutch exhibitions you cannot miss this summer
Ruben BaartInterior based on bacteria, spaces morphing perception and the merging of man, animal and machine. These five must see exhibitions in the Netherlands explore the intersection of …
Next Generation: Exploring non-binary futures with Lena Kuzmich
Ruben BaartThis story is part of Next Generation , a series in which we give young makers a platform to showcase their work. Your work here? Get in touch and plot your …
The Internet of Mycelium
Kelly van GemertA lot of the ground we live on is polluted. More than a third of our soils are moderately or heavily degraded; heavy metals such as lead are increasingly found in urban soils, …
Emma van der Leest wins ECO Coin Award 2022
Next NatureEach year we search the globe for people and projects that have outstandingly contributed to make this planet a more sustainable place and honour them with our ECO Coin …
Next Generation: Fantasising about fashion with ShirpShiro
Kelly van GemertFinding realistic solutions to the humanitarian and environmental issues in the textile and fashion industries.
Enter the symbiocene
Glenn AlbrechtWhat if we would use the idea of symbiosis as the basis for the next period of Earth’s history?
Erkundungen im Nächste Natur (D)
Die Natur verändert sich mit uns (English version: Exploring Next Nature ) by Koert van Mensvoort , published in Entry Paradise, Neue Welten des Designs, Gerhard Seltman, Werner …
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 …
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 …
Call for Proposals: One Day left!
One week left to send in your Designing for Next Nature proposals in round #1 . A selection of the proposals of round#1 is invited for a 5 minute presentation on 23 November 2007 …
Evolution in the Bathroom
Koert van MensvoortI have been conducting some attempts to backtrack the evolution of Gillette shaving razors appearing in my bathroom. Whereas older shavers were simple sticks with a blade on top, …
Bacteria That Eat Waste & Shit Petrol
Koert van MensvoortEnergy problem? Why not genetically alter bacteria to have them provide 'renewable petroleum'. Crude oil is only a few molecular stages removed from the acids normally excreted by …
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. …
Biggest Visual Power Show 2008
The Biggest Visual Power Show is an intellectual show that blends between a conference and a pop concert. Twenty filmers, scientists, designers, artist and thinkers present …
Build a better being
Koert van MensvoortWill Wright's hugely successful games SimCity and The Sims let players shape the structure of urban areas and the lives of virtual humans; his upcoming game, Spore , lets them …
Corpus 2.0
Koert van MensvoortCorpus 2.0 by Marcia Nolte is a set of seven portraits illustrating how the human body could adjust itself to the design of products, including an enlarged SMS thumb (above), an …
Playing with Dry Water
Arnoud van den HeuvelThe Waterboard is an interactive installation by Mike Burton giving the user a chance to play with water without getting wet. By drawing lines on the whiteboard, the water will …
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 …
Popple
Koert van MensvoortWith her babybunnies series provocateur/artist/designer Tinkebell aims to provide an analysis of the consumptive attitude people have in relation to their pets. This latest work – …
Software that Ranks Female Beauty
Koert van MensvoortEarlier we reported software that predicts how a wine will rate in reviews even before it is made . Now, for puber-geek delight, lets try that for women. Tel Aviv University …
The Breathe Table - Visceral Interaction
Koert van MensvoortNow why is that girl so excitingly staring at a few blurry blobs on a flat screen? Is it because these blobs are connected to her breath... What? Yes that is right, you are …
A plate that regulates the speed of eating
Koert van MensvoortMany people tend to eat too fast. As a result they do not receive signals from the stomach that they are in fact full. The result can be overeating and obesity . To encounter …
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 …
Deliver us from Skeuomorph Prosthetics
Koert van MensvoortNo, this is not another example in our fake for real series , comparing an artificial with a human hand. Rather, you are looking at twice the same hand: with and without its …
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 …
Phone Booths turned into Smoking Booths
Koert van MensvoortWith the emergence of mobile phones, classical phone booths are used less and less. Seems like the Dutch telecoms operator KPN is re-tooling its phone booths to function as …
Virtual Money Is a Pleonasm
Koert van MensvoortHave you heard the buzz on virtual money in online games? Some years ago the first virtual millionaire was announced, yet there have also been reports on people being practically …
Craig Venter unveils 'Synthetic Life'
Luuk SchipperheynCraig Venter announces what might be a historic milestone in the nature caused by people. For 15 years, Craig Venter and his team of scientists have tried to synthesize life from …
Digital Gastronomy
Koert van MensvoortThe food printer seems to be one of those lustrous concepts that continues to pop-up in the fantasy of techno-connoisseurs. Some years ago James King already proposed a printed …
ECO Currency – A Proposal to Balance Economical and Environmental Value
Koert van MensvoortImagine we would have an alternative monetary currency for environmental value. Would the rain forest still be destroyed if there existed an ECO–currency to express its value and …
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 …
Friendly Vending Machine
Koert van MensvoortDesigner Guus Baggermans was quite annoyed by the clumsy impoliteness of current vending machines, that typically require you to enter some abstract number to select your drink or …
Grapple – a Grape flavored Apple
Koert van MensvoortThey say “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, but now we wonder what this keeps away, the Grapple , a hyperfruit that "Grunches like an Apple. Tastes like a Grape." The …
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 …
Rare mutation: Razorius Gilletus Vectrus
Koert van MensvoortIf you haven't read the recently posted essay " Razorius Gilletus – On the Origin of a Next Species ?", you probably won't understand much of the following. Anyhow, I'd want to …
Recycled Island
Koert van MensvoortRecycled island is a research project on the potential of realizing a habitable floating island in the Pacific Ocean made from all the plastic waste that is momentarily floating …
The Anthropocene Debate: Marking Humanity’s Impact
Elizabeth KolbertIs human activity altering the planet on a scale comparable to major geological events of the past? Scientists are now considering whether to officially designate a new …
US Judge Rules Gene Patents Invalid ?because they are Natural
Koert van MensvoortDid you know that about 20 percent of your body isn't really yours? It has been patented by some corporation you probably never heard of. You can't patent gold, you can't patent …
Who wants to Bike on Bamboo?
Andrea ReidlCarbon fiber and aluminum are so 2009. This year's best bicycling model is made out of bamboo and hemp. A new generation of manufacturers are coming up with some of the most …
Flap to Freedom
It 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 …
Nintendo Portables Are Breeding Grounds For Sexy Fun
Vincent KlerkxSexuality and sensuality are phenomena which have been a nature for us as long as we humans exist. Not only humans experience these phenomena; also animals experience sexuality …
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 …
Rule #2: Different People Anthropomorphize Differently
NextNature.netFor past entries and an introduction to the 11 Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design, click here. What people experience as anthropomorphic is highly personal. Tests have …
Rule #3: Keep it ASS: Abstract, Simple and Subtle
NextNature.netFor past entries and an introduction to the 11 Golden Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design, click here. Making good use of anthropomorphism isn’t easy. As you’ve probably …
Skyscrapers for Pandora
Erik SwaagstraWe've previously featured architecture that imitates nature by opening its walls like a flower , or drifting like a cloud . However, maybe this is not imitation enough. The next …
Snapshots from the Next Nature Lab
Koert van MensvoortLast week, the young and talented designers of the Next Nature lab at the Eindhoven University of Technology presented their end of term works in an internal exhibition. There are …
We Domesticated Ourselves
Allison GuyOur bodies are maps of our ancestor's social lives. We evolved, physically and behaviorally, in incredibly complex social groups. Such intense sociability may have favored the …
#9: Be Aware of the Ecosystem You're Invading
NextNature.netPart 9 in the 11 part series Anthropomorphism and Design . With most products, one wouldn’t normally worry about the environment that it enters. However, anthropomorphic products …
Better Than Nature?
Rachel ArmstrongAt the turn of the millennium, miniaturized canines acquired the cherished status of living, designer handbag ornaments. These teeny tiny photogenic doggies, which had been …
Bio-engineered Football
Marco van BeersWith the knowledge that footballs were once made of pig's bladder and that in 2006 the first artificial bladder was transplanted into a patient, artist John O’Shea designed the …
Darwinian Selection of the Cowboy Hat
Allison GuyThe standard story of the cowboy hat goes something like this: In 1865, J.B. Stetson went out west during the California gold rush. He observed that bowlers, raccoon hats, and …
Hendrik-Jan Grievink - From Blog to Book
Koert van MensvoortAt the next nature powershow designer Hendrik-Jan Grievink explained how over 1600 blog post on nextnature.net were re-designed & re-edited into a must-read coffee table book.
Is the Human Body Redundant?
Rachel ArmstrongThe increasing ‘liveliness’ of machines and accessibility to the virtual world has raised questions about whether it is possible to uncouple the mind from the body in through a …
Medicinal Blueberries
Koert van MensvoortAs our scientific knowledge of nutritious food increases, will healthy foods be progressively designed to look like medicines? This blueberry blister packaging created by Chinese …
Merkel Rainbow
Koert van MensvoortGerman chancellor Angela Merkel is quite a phenomenon of colors. Blazer remains invariant.
NANO Supermarket - Introducing the Jury
NextNature.netLittle over two weeks left to submit your speculative product idea for the Nano Supermarket . The jury that will select the finest submissions – to be exhibited in the Nano …
Nanotech Water Bottle Harvests Water from the Air
Allison GuyThe Namib desert gets less than a half an inch of rain per year, yet the stenocara beetle manages to survive in these punishing conditions. The beetle's secret lies in an array of …
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 Rise and Fall or Rayfish Footwear
Koert van MensvoortFor almost three years, we worked on a sneaker company that we knew would go bankrupt on the day it was founded. This is our coming out...
Walter Benjamin on Film and the Senses
During the late 1930’s the philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote its widely influential essay ‘The work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility’. While describing a general …
Bacterioptica
Marco van BeersLiving lamps like Latro Algea Lamp by Mike Thompson are nothing new. But design studio MADLAB has created Bacterioptica , a lamp that contains organisms and bacteria from the …
Microchips Learn to Repair Themselves
Daniel BlokbergenTaking a cue from the human brain, a new microchip can rewire itself after damage.
Fake-for-Real Fur from Imaginary Animals
Alice FumeyWWF teams up with designers to produce fur from imaginary animals
From Eco-Apartheid to Earth Democracy
Vandana ShivaDo humans exist merely to make money and use resources? Vandana Shiva believes humans have a higher purpose.
From Fast Food Packaging to Flowerpot
Alessia AndreottiDesigner Michal Marko created a biodegradable food bowl. Can you imagine this bowl being used in fast-food restaurants?
Gated Communities: In Or Out?
Silvia CelibertiUltimately existence (or not) for gated communities comes down to the existential choice: should we be afraid of the future?
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 , …
Meat & Greet Workshop Report
Insoo HwangLast week, Next Nature Lab had the first Meat & Greet to explore the future of in vitro meet.
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 …
Swap Your Bones for an Improved, 3D-Printed Version
Alice Fumey3D printed organs are on the way. Could they be designed to be aesthetically appealing?
The (Almost) Invisible Dancing Wheelchair
Jonathon MarkowskiDesigned by a dancer, a new wheelchair moves intuitively with the user's movements.
What You Feel Is What You Get - Smartphone for the Blind
Shikha SacharA revolutionary new smartphone for the blind uses a completely tactile interface.
A Jewel That Stops You From Checking Your Phone
Rolf CoppensFor every smartphone user to recognize, is that merely the lighting of your screen, a vibration or ring distracts you from almost every activity. Even when you are spending time …
Breathing Lights
Alessia AndreottiInspired by the movement of spider webs in the wind, Dutch designer Jeroen Van Der Meij created Breathing Lights.
In Vitro Meat: Animal Liberation?
NextNature.netMany people welcome in vitro meat because of what it may mean for animals. Even though they often find the idea strange, the promise for animals is widely felt as a source of hope.
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
Rainbow Station
Alessia AndreottiStudio Roosegaarde created a giant rainbow of light for the Amsterdam Central Station east side.
Shark Deterrent Wetsuits
Lotte BiesheuvelA new way to project yourself against sharks while enjoying your favorite watersport!
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.
Weaving a Home
Alessia AndreottiA lightweight and mobile structural fabric based on ancient traditions of weaving fibers.
What Bits Want
Kevin KellyDigital bits have lives. They work for us, but we totally ignore them. What do bits really want? Here are the life stories of four different bits.
A Wind Turbine That Looks Like a Tree
Yunus Emre DuyarThe wind turbines of the future will look like post-modern tree sculptures.
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 …
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.
Ikea's Lab-Grown 3D Printed Meatballs
Margherita OlivoIkea’s research laboratory was inspired by our Magic Meatballs to re-design their famous meatballs.
Hair Matter(s)
Alessia AndreottiFrench student at the Design Academy Eindhoven collected hair from African American hairdressers to create jackets and hats.
Holiday in a Bird's Nest
Alessia AndreottiThe exterior of the this hotel room is constructed with branches, sticks and twigs intertwined to create the look and feel of a real bird nest.
Intimate Technology Evening at Droog
NextNature.netDroog Foundation and Next Nature Network invites you to join the conversation about Intimate Technology: April 23, in Amsterdam.
Jewelry Harvests Energy from Veins
Yunus Emre DuyarNaomi Kizhner designed jewelry that can theoretically harvest energy from the body of the person wearing it.
Marketing the Oceans
Adriene LillyEco-friendly fashion is in vogue, evidenced by terms like “recycled-material” and “sustainable manufacturing” battered around as selling points for everything from sheets to …
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.
The Phone That's Just a Phone
Alessia AndreottiMeet the anti-smartphone. It literally does nothing but make and answer calls.
Your Cat Can Post on Instagram Now
Yunus Emre DuyarYour cat might be able to take photos and share them on Instagram by itself soon.
A Cryptocurrency Helping to Cure Cancer
Lewis JustPart two of a ten part series exploring the design of an invisible technology: money.
Empowered by Robots Event Report
Mathilde NakkenA report on the Empowered by Robots conference during DDW16, demonstrating fruitful collaboration between humans and robots.
Bionic Prosthetic Arm with Personal Drone
Ingmar NieuweboerWhy would you stick to an elbow, a wrist and five fingers if you could make anything? This guy got a game-inspired bionic arm.
This Robot Takes Care of Your Children
Ruben BaartThis robot nanny is designed to take on adult responsibilities, raising concerns regarding the consequences of using robots to raise our children.
Meeting the Future at TodaysArt
Monika KozubLast week The Hague hosted a festival dedicated to contemporary experiments in music, art and digital culture.
Facial Recognition Replaces Passports
Ruben BaartBiometric technology replaces passports in Australian airports.
Carpooling into the Future
Elle Zhan WeiAmerican company Ideo has taken the essence of on-demand economy at heart, presenting a vehicle with detail-designed services for the future of carpooling.
Tap Your Milk from a Cow Around the Corner
Ruben BaartTurning cows into walking vending machines for milk.
Govert Flint on Enrichers
Ruben BaartNNN fellow Govert Flint discusses Enrichers in Frame magazine.
Grow Your Own Bio Bot
Julie ReindlResearches at the University of Illinois released a step by step guide to build 3D printed bio robots with living muscles.
Robotization Makes Work More Human
Koert van MensvoortImagine being 16 and studying for a job that soon won't exist. What kind of future is that? New occupations will come thanks to robotization.
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.
Transformative Appetite: Shape-Shifting Pasta
NextNature.netMIT Media Lab developed pasta programmed on a computer.
