Designs of the Year
The Design Museum’s new exhibition shows us the past year in 89 designs, from a virtual supermarket to a super-lightweight wheelchair.
Tesco Virtual Store in Seomyeon subway in Seoul, South Korea, designed by Home plus.
These touchscreen supermarket shelves offer online shopping on an underground platform.
Mine Kafon, a landmine clearance device by Massoud Hassani.
This wind-controlled mine clearer is designed to roll over a limited territory detonating mines. Still in trial, it’s not 100% effective but its GPS tracker reveals the route it has cleared.
A mockup of the ambulance design by Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design.
A long-overdue redesign, with a more spacious, easier-to-clean interior for treating patients in situ, not just transporting them to the hospital.
Solar Sinter designed by Markus Kayser Studio.
This 3D printer uses a concentrated beam of sunlight to turn sand into glass objects.
Guangzhou Opera House, China, by Zaha Hadid Architects.
More glitzy abstraction from the London architect, this time for a manufacturing city in the Pearl River Delta.
Folly for a Flyover designed by Assemble, Hackney Wick, London.
Wedged under two flyovers in east London, this wooden folly became a cultural hotspot in no man’s land last summer.
Not So Expanded Polystyrene (NSEPS) Table by Silo.
Polystyrene is more commonly known for its use as disposable packaging, but if you don’t expand it fully it makes solid, characterful furniture.
AA Files magazine designed by John Morgan Studio.
A conservative but beautifully dignified design for this architecture journal.
White Collection range of daylight therapy lights designed and produced by Artek.
Designed in Finland, where there is limited daylight in winter, these are more like windows than lamps, with the frames taking a backseat to the quality of light itself.
Osso chair by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, produced by Mattiazzi.
This chair, made of four distinct pieces, combines computer-cutting machinery and traditional craftsmanship.
Carbon Black wheelchair designed by Andrew Slorance and produced by British manufacturer I Imagine.
This wheelchair, made of super-lightweight carbon fibre, is designed to make users not feel like they’re sitting in a medical device.
