Be Open think tank

International design and innovation office Carlo Ratti Associati has collaborated with Mobility in Chain (MIC) to develop a new vision for the waterfront of Lugano, Switzerland. The project aims to physically connect Lugano and the lake, allowing the city to stretch out onto the water thanks to a newly created floating island connected to the historical waterfront designed by Pasquale Lucchini in 1863 by a new water navigation system. The rotating island would be accessible by the public via a series of boardwalks, and would host various public spaces, including a garden to preserve the biodiversity of Lake Lugano. Check out a series of posts on floating architecture in our blog.beopenfuture.com

Aiming to reduce plastic pollution, Mexico-based design consultancy NOS developed the Everloop toothbrush concept. Instead of throwing the entire brush away, the team suggests replacing bristles. NOS came up with a clipping mechanism that allows the user to open and close the head of the toothbrush to replace a new set of sustainable bristles. The bristles are made of bamboo fibre, which makes them 100% compostable when the used set is disposed of, while the body of the brush is made of recycled plastic from discarded toothbrushes. Each toothbrush comes with eight sets of bristles which makes the Everloop’s lifespan a minimum of 2 years. nos.mx If you too support UN’s SDG 12 devoted to responsible consumption and production, join our #BEOPENThinkFuture Instagram challenge. Share the visuals on the topic to win €300. Rules: beopensocial.com

Arctic Bath is a new kind of a floating hotel on Sweden’s Lule River encompassing a circular main building and a series of accompanying cabins. Designed by architects Bertil Harström and Johan Kauppi to imitate a jam of logs drifting down the river, Arctic Bath is a remote year round getaway with a spa, hot and cold baths, saunas, shops, and a restaurant. In the ever-sunny summer months, the entire hotel floats upon the water's surface, while in winter, the structure locks in place upon the frozen river, providing an ideal platform for watching the northern lights in winter. arcticbath.se Check out a series of posts on floating architecture in our blog.beopenfuture.com

Win €300 in our new open call! Are you concerned about the future of the Planet? Make your statement by sharing your visuals promoting the values of UN’s SDG 12 devoted to responsible consumption and production on Instagram with #BEOPENThinkFuture hashtag. Rules: beopensocial.com Here’s a story to inspire. Amsterdam-based eyewear company Ace&Tate has collaborated with Plasticiet, a Dutch sustainable materials startup, for the new showroom in Antwerp, Belgium. Plasticietcollects plastic waste and turns it into sheets of material that look like traditional stone such as marble and granite. The Ace&Tate’s interior is clad in terrazzo made with colourful chips of recycled polyethylene, a material widely used for industrial and construction appliances as well as domestic products such as food packaging, kitchenware and toys. Nearly 1,000 kilograms of reclaimed plastic sourced locally were used for the project, panels of plastic terrazzo covering the walls, arches, shelves and counters of the shop. This type of plastic becomes less viscous during the melting process, which allows the chunks to retain their original shapes, so that the shop visitors can indulge themselves into finding familiar products. plasticiet.com

The project by LAVA, an architecture studio with offices in Sydney, Stuttgart and Berlin, has won the international competition that invited architects to design the Central Park in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. As the site was always about transportation, being home to south-eastern Asia’s first train station, the design references this history and future mobility. The concept of the 16-hectare park will feature elevated undulating walkways that replicate the position of the 19th century railway tracks, these metaphoric ‘railway lines’ also connecting to an underground shopping area linked to Vietnam’s first soon-to-be-opened metro station. Artificial plants will complement the existing landscape as well as provide shelter and harvest water and energy. Other spaces of the park include a sculpture garden, an outdoor art gallery, water features, sport zones, playgrounds and music pavilions. The construction is due to start in 2020. More contemporary parks in our blog.beopenfuture.com

Ribbonesia is an artist duo formed by the Japanese illustrator Baku Maeda and creative director Toru Yoshikawa who create mind-blowing art works from ribbons. Believing that ribbons hold the power to be more than just a decorative accessory, the artists transform the humble material into intricate sculptural pieces, taking advantage of its pliability and strength to shape dragons, creatures, face masks or floral landscapes. Some works look very simple and understated like ‘Origami’, others are tangled and complicated balancing on the borderline between paintings and sculptures. More techniques of sculpting with a textile medium in our blog.beopenfuture.com

For their Grotto sauna, Toronto-based studio Partisans has chosen a picturesque granite cliff on the shore of Canada’s Lake Huronz, ranked by National Geographic as one of the world’s best places to appreciate the sunset. The concept of this private sauna is based on the natural formation of waterside grottos, with their chambers smoothed by the ebbing waters. Externally, the structure is clad in burnt timber and has a solid, simple presence, while the undulating interior, which looks as if it were sculpted or carved, emulates the shape of a seaside grotto with its dynamic sensual forms. More saunas interpreted in creative ways in our blog.beopenfuture.com

Join our #BEOPENThinkFuture Instagram open call and win €300 for your visuals supporting UN’s SDG 12 devoted to responsible consumption and production! Rules: beopensocial.com Concerned about plastic pollution and its effect on the environment, Mexican architecture firm Paola Calzada Arquitectos produces flat-pack furniture made from 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles melted down into boards which can be simply assembled without nails or glue, the elements simply slotting together. Each piece recycles approximately 600 bottles made from polyethylene, it is resistant to sunlight and water and therefore robust enough to be used both inside and out. So far, the project has recycled up to 80,000 plastic bottles preventing them from ending up in rivers, lakes and oceans. lukenfurniture.com

Korean-based design studio Craft Combine came up with an idea of repurposing old used pallets that are generally just disposed of or incinerated. They created the Patterned Pallet Chair entirely from old pallet parts, conserving the wood’s original scratches and marks as a part of each pallet’s own story. Notwithstanding the fact that they are produced of such a mundane rough material, the chairs are as decorative as they are functional. The geometric pattern of coloured acrylic plates fitted onto the backrest is inspired by Art Deco, one of the main design styles when the pallet was invented. More sustainable furniture made from used and discarded things at blog.beopenfuture.com

Benjamin Shine, a Canberra-based multidisciplinary artist, is known for his tulle works. He manipulates the delicate material into form with an iron, often using a single uncut length of fabric. The large-scale self-supported Sky Flow (Quietude) sculpture is constructed from a steel sub-structure and a large piece of custom-made recycled high-density polyethylene net, hand-shaped through a process of folding and compressing the pliable net material to generate the ethereal form. More techniques of sculpting with a textile medium in our blog.beopenfuture.com