Be Open think tank

#BeOpenARCH Baumschlager Eberle Architekten has completed the Huy Hoang Lock Factory in Vietnam’s Quang Minh Industrial Zone, a three-hectare complex distinguished by its rhythmic concrete fin facade. Designed for Vietnam’s tropical climate, the louvers are positioned at angles across the building’s elevations to optimize solar gain and natural ventilation. Not only does the design addresses environmental challenges, it also embodies Huy Hoang’s forty years of growth and innovation, achieving LEED Gold certification in both design and operation.

#BeOpenARCH Bangkok’s Curvy Dining, designed by local Unknown Surface Studio, blossoms from an industrial setting, offering an architectural marvel inspired by surrounding flora. The café’s petal-like curves and radial symmetry create a luminous, sculptural space, where light and shadow play across arching white surfaces. This innovative design breaks from conventional geometry, offering a seamless transition between indoors and outdoors, and a unique dining experience.

#BeOpenDESIGN Sukhino perfume, in collaboration with the Onyang Folk Museum, breaks from traditional perfume box packaging with a striking design by BKID co. Inspired by traditional Korean zip-pul egg storage, the packaging encases the bottle in woven straw, offering a modern, sophisticated take on protecting fragile items. This innovative approach, utilizing both form and material rooted in Korean culture, delivers a unique experience while offering security and a subtle visual elegance.

#BeOpenARCH Barcelona’s Marina del Prat Vermell social housing explodes with color and innovation, featuring terracotta-clad blocks punctuated by striking red balconies with movable shutters. This project, designed by MIAS and Coll-Leclerc Architects, cleverly references the area’s textile history while prioritizing community, porosity, and individual expression. By dividing the building into smaller blocks and embracing sustainable solutions like photovoltaic panels, Marina del Prat Vermell transforms affordable housing into a vibrant architectural statement that embraces both style and substance. More social housing breaking the monotony on our blog.

#BeOpenDESIGN Hana-Arashi collection, designed by Japanese studio nendo for Italian brand Paola Lenti, sets a new bar for sustainable furniture. Using 100% recyclable polypropylene mesh fabric offcuts, the collection pioneers a high-frequency thermocompression technique, bonding layers without traditional adhesives. This process not only reinforces the structure and creates unique translucent effects but also transforms waste into sculptural, luminous pieces perfect for community spaces, proving that sustainable design can be both beautiful and innovative.

#BeOpenDESIGN Chinese studio Tend has ingeniously tackled the vision challenges faced during emergencies with Three Days to See, innovative emergency glasses designed for myopic individuals. These life-saving glasses, ideal for inclusion in disaster kits, offer quick and easy diopter adjustments using soft liquid lenses and sacs filled with silicone oil; by simply pressing the sacs, users can adjust the focus in five increments, significantly increasing their chances of survival when clear vision is paramount. via red-dot.org

#BeOpenDESIGN South Korean designer Jinil Park’s Drawing Series furniture transforms sketches into three-dimensional reality, crafting chairs, lamps, and a table from intersecting steel wires that appear as roughly drawn designs. Park begins by sketching furniture with intersecting lines, then meticulously recreating feasible designs in steel wire. Distorting the wires with a hammer to mimic the variations of a pen stroke, he welds them together, creating surprisingly robust structures.

#BeOpenDESIGN The Perê Chair by Dimitrih Correa defies expectations with its single, full-width “leg,” inspired by the Brazilian trickster Saci. Crafted from recycled Peroba de Campos hardwood, this modular furniture employs a cantilever system for surprising stability. Its removable backrest transforms it into a stool, maintaining its playful, taunting aesthetic. Showcasing the wood’s past life through visible scratches and holes, the Perê Chair merges Brazilian folklore, sustainable design, and functional art, sparking conversation and inviting users to ponder the stories behind the materials.

#BeOpenDESIGN Makestreme’s TARS-inspired weather robot injects humor into daily forecasts. Inspired by Interstellar, this DIY device combines OpenWeatherMap data with Google Gemini AI to generate sarcastic weather reports displayed on a tiny screen. Constructed from folded poster paper and magnets, it’s a “poor man’s” DIY project that proves impactful design doesn’t require expensive tools. TARS offers a quirky, accessible, and personality-driven alternative to standard weather apps, showcasing how creativity and resourcefulness can transform everyday information. More design-forward weather devices on our blog.

#BeOpenDESIGN The Paw-Swing Purrring Cat Self-Grooming House redefines feline hygiene through a blend of insightful design and innovative technology. By capitalizing on a cat’s natural inclination to squeeze into tight spaces, this felt-covered enclosure features a small entrance lined with tongue-mimicking brushes that gently remove loose fur as the cat passes through, simulating the comforting sensation of maternal grooming. Beyond this ingenious passive grooming system, the Purrring House incorporates an automated treat dispenser to entice feline users and collects data on usage frequency for health monitoring.

#BeOpenDESIGN Agnieszka Mazur, a design researcher currently based between the Netherlands and Poland, is the creative force behind Secret Heart, a poignant creation perfect for Valentine’s Day reflections. Functioning as both a piggy bank and a symbolic gesture, this porcelain heart invites you to seal away notes expressing dreams, desires, or even darker thoughts, acting as a secret-keeper and emotion-storage all in one. Each anatomically-sized heart serves as a physical embodiment of the metaphorical weight we often associate with this vital organ, and is intended as a place for emotions and feelings, providing a unique and somewhat bittersweet experience: retrieving these stored messages requires literally breaking the heart.

#BeOpenDESIGN Superforma by EX FIGURA is a revolutionary portable survival kit addressing the urgent need for temporary housing in emergency situations. This innovative design cleverly integrates a shelter, a bed, and a backpack into a single, easily transportable 4-meter square piece of recycled polyester fabric. Simple, stitched instructions guide users in quickly assembling the shelter, which features a portable metallic structure for added stability and the ability to connect with other Superforma units, creating larger communal spaces. Its sustainable materials and minimalist design ensure efficient production and global distribution, offering rapid and effective aid to those displaced by disaster or crisis. More revolutionary emergency kits on our blog.

#BeOpenDESIGN The Veil by Polish designer Przemyslaw Wolnicki at Argaros, a Poland-based design powerhouse known for pushing the boundaries of visualization and prototyping, reimagines watch design with a futuristic approach. Its defining feature is a strap that doubles as a display, projecting time elegantly over the watch face while maintaining a classic digital dial readout. This innovative design pushes boundaries, challenging the traditional role of the often overlooked watch strap.

#BeOpenDESIGN The Amber case, designed by AI startup Amber.Page, is a revolutionary accessory aimed at transforming smartphones into portable writing machines. Unlike typical phone cases, this design docks a phone into a laptop-style clamshell, complete with a high-travel 60% mechanical keyboard, geared towards writers seeking a more tactile and efficient typing experience. Though it restricts phone functionalities when docked, the Amber case prioritizes writing, mimicking the feel of a dedicated laptop but in a more compact form, potentially allowing writers to ditch their laptops and tablets.

#BeOpenDESIGN Developed by Korean designers HeeSu Choi, HyoWon Son, and JiSeung Lee, Base is a cleverly designed, dual-purpose pet product that seamlessly integrates into modern homes, serving as both a stylish and comfortable everyday pet furniture piece and a readily available emergency carrier. Inspired by the natural instinct of animals to seek shelter, its cave-like structure provides a sense of security, while a hidden compartment at its base houses a complete disaster preparedness kit. More emergency designs for your furry companions on our blog.

#BeOpenARCH Nendo, the Tokyo/Milan design force, unveils the Hand-in-Hand House in Japan: six compact, angular cottages with playful, interconnected roofs, nestled in a lush forest. This sustainable weekend retreat playfully balances individuality with collective experience, carving out distinct zones for different functions while encouraging family interaction through a shared terrace. Inside, curved ceilings and expansive windows merge interior and exterior, proving that innovative design can foster both intimate moments and a deep connection with the natural world.

#BeOpenNEWS #BeOpenART BE OPEN Art is thrilled to announce Amal Al-Nakhala, a visual artist from Gaza, as the Artist of the Month for January 2025, as voted by visitors of art.beopenfuture.com. Each month, art enthusiasts worldwide select an artist whose work most resonates with them, and Al-Nakhala’s powerful and poignant pieces have earned her this distinction. Al-Nakhala views her art as both a personal and political expression, deeply influenced by her environment and the Palestinian experience. Her work, which blends history, memory, and identity, eloquently portrays themes of resilience and resistance, offering a profound exploration of Palestinian life. At the end of 2025, out of the monthly winners BE OPEN Art Community will select the Artist of the Year, who will be awarded a 1000 euro prize and offered publicity aimed at boosting their career.

#BeOpenDESIGN A collaboration between designers Jihye Choi, Doyeon Lee, Hyerin Lee, and Jeonghyeon We, Safe-Ever reimagines home safety through a groundbreaking design philosophy that seamlessly integrates essential emergency tools into everyday objects. By transforming familiar items like desk lamps, doorbells, and tissue boxes into multi-functional safety devices, Safe-Ever prioritizes accessibility and user-centered design. The desk lamp reveals itself as both a portable flashlight and a sturdy helmet, while the ordinary doorbell becomes a beacon of light as a necklace, also providing a crucial breath towel. Even the common tissue box surprises by revealing a first aid kit and an ICE card compartment. More safety tools disguised as everyday objects on blog. #BeOpenDESIGN

#BeOpenARCH Mitsubishi Jisho Design’s The Warp pavilion, showcased at Dubai Design Week, is a testament to innovative and sustainable design. Utilizing their “Regenerative Wood” system, they 3D-printed modular tiles from sawdust waste mixed with bioplastic, creating a teahouse structure that slots together without fixings. This elegant pavilion, inspired by Japanese carpentry and featuring a vortex-like interior, not only provides a unique tea ceremony experience but also demonstrates a closed-loop system, highlighting how technology can revive traditions and minimize waste in construction.

#BeOpenARCH Designed by Taichi Kuma of Japanese architectural practice TAILAND, Logging Hill is a playful, interactive pavilion in a Tokyo park composed of three interlocked timber rings. Crafted from plywood using advanced 3D CNC technology, the curving rings invite visitors to sit, run, climb, and even personalize the structure with colored paper, transforming it into a collaborative artwork. This engaging design showcases timber’s versatility and offers a sustainable, inviting alternative to conventional urban infrastructure, drawing attention particularly from children and families. More pavilions made from sustainable materials on our blog.