Skin your car...

Alas, my elbow is still broken and my arm is still casted, so the slacker posts shall continue. One of these days, I'll be able to type my standard 40 wph...yes, hour.

Actually, I wish I could write more because design-wise, BMW is currently on crack. Wonderful, tremendously addictive crack. Crack that makes you see illusory possibilities and make them concrete. Crack that turns design on its head.

If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top. . .that floats by makes a fortuitous life preserver. But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings.

-Bucky Fuller

Have you ever ripped the side of your car? I didn't think so.

Behold, the BMW GINA Light Concept Car!

Instead of the standard aluminum, plastic or steel, BMW is experimenting with a textile fabric skin stretched around a metal and carbon fiber wire frame, thus allowing the car to be lighter in both performance and production footprint.

The concept is so flexible, in fact, that a design could conceptually change its shape. Imagine a Bugatti Veyron that pops up a spoiler to act as an airbrake. Now imagine something similar, only this time the airbrake is actually the shape of your car.

This innovative approach also affords other advantages for a clean design. Lighting can actually be placed subcutaneously, exposing itself through the transparent skin when needed.
The GINA Concept is based on the Z8 chassis -- a chassis where the frame carries the crash and structural load-- so the the addition of steel instead of textile skin would not improve, nor detract, from GINA's protection inside of the cockpit. The rider would be just as safe in a GINA as a Z8.

Watch as Chris Bangle, Director of Design BMW Group, explains the craziness behind the GINA concept...

Cause Jack Johnson told me to...

My wife and I live in a wonderful little split double in the middle of Hippiedippieville. It's definitely adequate in size and we live comfortably, but our kitchen seems to be shrinking in on us. With 95% of our trash is being recycled, the little bottles and cans (and more bottles) tend to pile up veeeerrrrrrry quickly, causing loud landslides that no doubt surprise the other tenant next door (for some reason, gravity seems to pull harder between the hours of 1:00am and 5:00am....he must think his neighbors are raccoons).

For a while I looked and looked and looked for a sleek and slim trash can that could sit flush with the counter top; something simple like a 8" x 24" x 32". Much to my surprise, it's not easy to find something compact, unless you're willing to use a blah-blue monster intended for commercial/restaurant applications.

BMW Designworks has taken my request, flipped it five different ways, and added a touch of Star Trek. It's the Ecopod home recycling center.

Put in bottle, press foot pedal, listen to compaction, bottle falls into storage bin, smile with sanctimoniously green grin.

From their website:

ecopod and BMW Designworks are determined to “Change the Way the World Recycles.” Together, over the past 20 months, Designworks & ecopod have met with leading Public and Private groups to research opportunities to determine the best ways to raise eco-awareness and reduce the amount of recyclable materials sent to landfills.

The first ecopod e1 was built to test it’s effectiveness in compacting and storing a wide variety of beverage containers, ranging from small Starbucks shot cans to large Monster Energy drinks along with tall Propel Water bottles and smaller kid size Arrowhead water. The ecopod e1 compacted and stored all of these containers with ease. A new revolution in home and office appliances was born.


The home recycling center with compaction and collection. Designed by BMW Designworks, the ecopod will clean up the way you recycle with its eco-chic design and functionality. After dropping an aluminum can or plastic bottle in the top opening, press the ecostep to hear the sweet sound of compaction. As the ecostep releases, the redeemable container automatically falls into the enclosed collection bin. Open the door and remove the bin for collection or redemption. Glass, paper and other recyclable items can be stored in the removeable bins inside the top lid. Dimensions: 31" tall x 16" wide x 21" deep Weight: Approx. 50 lbs.

Is it basically an expensive ($328.00!) trash can? Sure, but the fact that it compacts all your waste throughout a certain span of time, thus eliminating any and all travalanches (trash avalanches) and neighbor calls to the ASPCA about stray raccoons, makes me smile. Have you ever been in a rope snare before? It's not fun.

Check out their Newsweek article here.

Did I mention it's also affiliated with Jack Johnson's Kokua Hawai'i Foundation?


In case you don't know the words, you can sing along here.