Be Open think tank

#BeOpenDESIGN Developed by designer Saiyami Jhaveri, Ecobloom is a concept device that take the routine of maintenance needed for home gardening. Almost of parts of this process, such as watering, sunlight and protection from pests, are automated. Soil moisture sensors determine the right time to water the plants, while drippers dispense the right amount of water. The smart gardening pot also features artificial "grow lights" and a built-in insect repellent that keeps pests away without harming humans and pets.

#BeOpenDESIGN Skateboarder and designer Chris Luu has turned a city barrier into a purse. The Barrier Bag, playfully cast in resin, mirrors different barriers celebrating their distinctiveness, so no two bags are identical.

#BeOpenDESIGN Uncovering beauty from the mundane, NYC based designer Nik Bentel has crafted a bag out of a single orange electric cord. He wrapped and glued the 25 metre lonbg cord to form a bucket-like shape, preserving the cord for its intended use without any cuts. Aptly named Electric Cord Bag, the bag can be worn as a unique and distinctive accessory, or can even be plugged into a wall. More bespoke bags in our blog.

#BeOpenDESIGN With the development of online shopping and deliveries, the growing amount of plastic packaging waste threatens to question all progress made with reducing the amount of plastic bags. To address this problem, the design team from Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, China, experimented with better ways of recycling polymer mailer bags and transforming them into a new surface material through simple processing or pattern design. The regenerated material can be used to produce various products, such as fashionable bag designs. The material is highly flexible and wear-resistant, with a texture that resembles vegetable tanned leather. More exciting sustainable bags in our blog

#BeOpenDESIGN Swedish design studio Addi has created an alternative to conventional waiting-area furniture – a minimalist log-like perch for users to lean on while waiting around in anonymous spaces. Named Lumber, the piece can also act as a room divider when placed next to each other, a centerpiece in an artsy environment as well as a play area for young and old. The textile components are easily removable: thus facilitating cleaning and the option to replace if needed, thereby extending the product’s longevity.

#BeOpenDESIGN TRAGA, a new Milanese design brand, has debuted with a bifunctional glass. One side of this is perfect for Martini cocktails, but when flipped the glass can be used to serve shots. Each glass is crafted from borosilicate glass, known for its durability and resistance to hot and cold temperature. The colour palette includes four options: transparent, blue & pink, teal & blue and amber & lilac, all of which brings vibrancy to any table setting.

#BeOpenDESIGN Hungarian designer Ben Koros has envisioned a conceptual timepiece that works like a digital hourglass and shows the passing of “subjective time”. Named Piece of Time, the piece of jewellery, which can be worn as a pendant necklace, bracelet, or basic clip, synchronises saved events and alarms from all the user’s calendar apps via a smartphone’s Bluetooth function, and counts down to the next important event based on the user’s preferences.

#BeOpenDESIGN Designed and fabricated by Madrid-based studio Caliper for Manhattan clothing brand Hidden as part of store display, the Mac Pro Bench – just as its name suggests – is comprised of two recycled first-gen Mac Pro shells, deprived of any electronic components, with a folded aluminium bench top.

#BeOpenART Botanical artist and "urban gardener" Christophe Guinet, better known as Monsieur Plant, delicately twists and contorts robust pieces of tree trunk, modeling them into five hyper-realistic sculptures recalling everyday symbols and objects for his Twist project. More furniture and art created using tree trunks in our blog

#BeOpenDESIGN Eli portable coffee maker by NYC based designer Chenchen Fan lets you master the pour-over brewing method and make the taste more consistent. This brewing kit makes the process more intuitive, dividing it into three phases – material preparation, brewing setup, and final brewing. It even features an automatic rotating water nozzle so each ground can be evenly coated with water, which is usually done by hand with traditional machines. What's more, an integrated electromagnetic heating pad is used to boil water to make the device truly portable.

#BeOpenDESIGN Compact and lightweight, POCO portable capsule coffee machine by Designer Dot and Seunghun Song can easily fit into a backpack. The sleek and modern device is easily rechargeable using an USB-C on a laptop or a portable charger, which makes it the perfect choice for people who are always on the move. What makes the design remarkable is that it incorporates a built-in thermal insulation function, which keeps water warm, eliminating the need for a separate coffee thermos. More portable coffee makers in our blog

#BeOpenDESIGN Danish design and innovation studio Swift Creatives has unveiled Sculptural Surveillance – a brand new concept of architectural outdoor lighting and monitoring system. This striking range challenges the conventional with visually impactful structures that seamlessly combine lights, speakers, and monitoring devices, serving as statement pieces for gardens and grounds. Crafted from powder-coated recycled aluminium, the motion sensor-controlled motorized cameras offer a 360° field of vision, accompanied by speakers, tracing lamps, and WIFI connectivity. The concept ushers in a new era of home surveillance that echoes current trends in the smart-home sphere, where functional devices are modeled to blend with their surroundings without compromising the home’s aesthetic.

#BeOpenDESIGN Designer Seung-Wan Nam has envisioned a pen that can metaphorically help your dreams "bloom like flowers." The concept design dubbed Bloomstick basically looks like just any ordinary pen when closed. However, when you press the silicone-covered button on top, it opens to a flower-like shape and turns it into a blooming writing instrument. via yankodesign

#BeOpenDESIGN Alice Hultqvist, Emelie Sjöberg and Linnea Nilsson, design students from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, have created a chair that is used for cultivating plant life. The extraordinary furniture is named Chia-Chair and comprises a knitted tube of a seat with chia seeds planted in it. As a result that chair primarily serves as a planting bed for the seeds, and only then as a seating for humans.

#BeOpenARCH Local studio Medprostor has topped a 900-year-old Romanesque church in Slovenia with a semi-foldable folding roof to improve its functionality for tourism and events. The half-gable roof structure spans the length of the church and can be opened to the sky. When lowered, it enables the smooth running of events in the church regardless of the season and weather, while when raised, it preserves one of the most important intangible moments of the ruin: contact with the open sky.

#BeOpenART #BeOpenNEWS We are happy to announce that Zhyldyz Bekova, a painter and digital artist from Kyrgyzstan, has been selected the Regional Artist of the month (February 2024) as an artist who best represents the artistic tradition of Central Asia. In 2024, BE OPEN Art continues to run BE OPEN Regional Art, the regional competition for emerging artists, whose art best represents their regional, cultural and ethnic identities. The first stage of the second year of the programme will cover the countries of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The stage will last 3 months, with a winner named and awarded 500 euro at the end of March. Zhyldyz Bekova has become the second of the three candidates to the Artist of the Region and the 500 euros prize, alongside Guzel Zakirova (Kazakhstan). In her paintings, Zhyldyz uses themes from myths, customs and traditions of Turkic ethnic peoples of Central Asia.

#BeOpenARCH In Hangzhou, China, Danish architecture studio BIG has designed an infinity-loop shaped skyscraper named the O-Tower for an R&D team of OPPO, China's largest smartphone manufacturer. According to the studio, the building's form is supposed to "connect ground to sky in a continuous loop of collaboration".

#BeOpenDESIGN Berlin-based design agency EMAMIDESIGN has come up with a way to easily take a selection of your favourite felt-tip pens with you. Aptly named PenFan, the compact, easy-to-carry set of eight flat-head pens looks like something between a Pantone colour swatch book and a Japanese fan. With a height of only 3 mm per pen, the fan remains as compact as possible and offers a wide range of colors for you to choose from. Each individual sketch pen is detachable too, which allows you to snap off and on pens to create a palette of their choice. More extraordinary coloured markers in our blog

#BeOpenDESIGN As its name suggests, Gere Multifunctional Crockery Shelf developed by German designer Florian Beser seamlessly combines plates and... shelves. The partitioned plates double as decorative panels for kitchen furniture, which can be efficiently utilized to store more crockery, cups, glasses, and other kitchen essentials. Every plate has a uniquely different partition design, so it not only enhances the dining experience separating main courses and side dishes but also contributes to the shelf’s eye-catching facade. More multifunctional plates in our blog

#BeOpenNEWS BE OPEN Art is happy to announce that Lisa Einkemmer, a self-taught painter from Austria, has been voted the Artist of the Month by the visitors of art.beopenfuture.com Passionate with art as we are, every month we invite art enthusiasts to choose the best artist among those featured in our online gallery. In February, paintings by Lisa have gained her a majority of votes. Lisa was trained as a graphic designer and began painting only a few years ago. We also take the opportunity to applaud all the featured artists and thank everyone who voted.