Being a college lecturer – or at least, being a good one – involves more than just speaking at a podium. You also have to engage the students, and a new dual-camera system is designed to assess just how well instructors are doing so. Known as EduSense, the technology is currently being developed by scientists at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. […]

Today’s most influential entrepreneurs reached their level of success because they constantly exposed themselves to fresh new ideas, and the easiest way to do this is by reading. However, the average person doesn’t have time to read a book, let alone many, which is why BookNotes can save you time while still introducing you to new perspectives for $29. BookNotes […]

Chicago architecture practice MANA and skateboarder Scott Oster have added a skate ramp encased within a reflective silver cube in the atrium of Le Bon Marché department store in Paris. The installation – called Le Cube – was unveiled as the centrepiece of the Los Angeles Rive Gauche exhibition in Paris, where a curated selection of LA fashion, beauty, and […]

Norm Architects and lifestyle magazine Kinfolk have authored The Touch, a book that explores sensory interiors and architecture. Here are six of their favourite projects from the title. The Touch – published by Gestalten – is divided into five elements that Norm Architects and Kinfolk see as the “building blocks” for creating sensory spaces: light, materiality, colour nature and community. […]

The call for environmental awareness and action has been given a new voice in a visually stunning art installation that just opened its doors in New York City. Entitled Arcadia Earth, the temporary art exhibition immerses guests in a multi-sensory journey spotlighting pressing ecological issues — such as overfishing, plastic pollution, food waste, deforestation and climate change — with vivid […]

Designer Zhekai Zhang has developed a method of staining porcelain with used coffeegrounds to mimic the texture of marble, and applied the technique to a collection of lamps called Coffire. The method, inspired by ancient Chinese pit-firing techniques, forms an “imperfect” random texture, meaning each Coffire pendant light is different. The lamps are one of 261 design projects that have […]

Plans have been revealed for a new development that certainly lives up to its “Giga-Project” marketing spiel. Named Qiddiya, the huge project’s masterplan is designed, appropriately enough, by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), and will measure an incredible 334 sq km (129 sq mi). It’s envisioned as Saudi Arabia’s new capital of entertainment, sports, and arts, and is expected to be […]

Dutch artist Thijs Biersteker collaborated with scientist Stefano Mancuso to create this installation at the Fondation Cartier that shows the real-time impact of climate changeon nature in Paris. Biersteker creates interactive installations about environmental and social issues. His project with Mancuso is titled Symbiosia and seeks to promote awareness of the impact of climate change by providing visitors with a […]

Architecture studio Various Associates has fashioned monochromatic interiors with mirrored surfaces and unusual fur-covered partitions, for this womenswear store in Chongqing, China. Shenzhen-based Various Associates ensured that symmetry was the focus of the store’s design by creating a rectangular floor plan that encloses a smaller rectangular zone inside. Described by the studio as a “milestone”, the enclosed core accommodates a service […]

Daniel Libeskind has designed an outdoor installation called Through the Lens of Faith in Poland to showcase photographer Caryl Englander’s portraits of Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors. Through the Lens of Faith is a series of three-metre-high steel panels lining a path near the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum in O?wi?cim. Libeskind chose the pattern of the vertical panels and the striping on the walkway between them […]