watur.

Watur is a door made out of water. Or a fountain that looks like a door. Whichever you prefer.

functional.
The Watur is billed as "functional," and by that I take it they mean it can open and close. The promo copy for this is...er...well...here, you decide: "A functional door formed by constantly falling water which pushes for a redefinition of boundaries and obstacles by forcing one to choose to be denied or refused access." Right. Exactly. Could not have said it better. Whatever it means.

standard.
The Watur is a standard door width, so you can put it pretty much wherever a normal door goes. (I'm assuming the water is self contained, but I could be wrong. I'm also assuming it needs to be plugged in.) The ideal use for the door, we're told, is for gardens, bath houses, pool houses, and spas. The normal model runs $2,000, but a custom size will cost more.

bel. air. chair.

The concept of a chair shaped like the front end of a car is not terrifically appealing to me, or at least it wasn't until I saw this picture of the Bel Air Chair. I've officially changed my mind. This thing is amazing looking, and the ottoman is an added bit of genius. And, bonus, the lights work.



vroom. vroom. vroom.
Okay, this won't go with just any decor, but if you've got a place where a 1957 Bel Air Car Chair in red or blue would look good, how could you not get this? And it's only $1,296.75, including the ottoman. And it even has taillights. Seriously, what more could you want?

(c)lamp.

Cyber journalist, Wired blogger, science fiction author and design maven Bruce Sterling is putting the final touches on his first commercial lighting project, called the (C)lamp. Here he is in Paris reading by the light of his own creation. Nice work if you can get it, Bruce!

oh. lamp.
Not having seen it in person, my first reaction from the pic is "Oh, how orange!" And then "Oh, how organic." But ultimately I think I'll end up with, "Oh, how cool." (Maybe it should be called the (O)lamp?) It's kind of like a Halloween mushroom made out of DNA. In case you're wondering, I mean that in a good way.

available.
In terms of availability, Bruce says: "Should be next month, if all goes well. We are ironing out final manufacturing details."

i-lean.

The I-lean is a very strange concept. It's a piece of furniture that you ... lean against. Even in the world of funky furniture, that's a pretty specialized product.

i. deal.
The ideal spots for the I-lean are, so we're told, "areas where social interaction is constant and people linger." But I just can't see myself easily conversing or lingering with someone standing, er, leaning, against this. Even the guys in the product shot don't look like they're very comfortable. (And where is that guy going to put his drink, huh?) But I give designer Daniel Harper points for trying something new!

i. cost. $1,200.
An I-Lean will run you $1,200, and more ideal uses for it, we're further told, are: bars, lounges, coffee houses, for teachers, rest areas, bus stops, loft style spaces, and impromptu gatherings. (Okay, seriously, impromptu gatherings? Like I just happened to have my I-Lean with me when a bunch of people spontaneously show up for...oh, never mind. I-done.)

kelvin. 40.

Take an uber designer who loves science fiction and airplanes, give him a commission from the Fondation Cartier Pour l'Art Contemporain, then sit back and gape in awe at the Kelvin 40. The "40" as I'll call it for short is a concept plane from Marc Newson, and although the mock-up doesn't actually fly, with a few tweaks and an engine, it could.

pure. fun.
But getting off the ground was never the goal for the 40, which "has no commercial reason for being; it is pure fun" according to Newson. It was his way of injecting emotion back into the world of personal aircraft, which in his view has become banal. "The world of civil aviation appears to us as pragmatic and rational and boring, which is absurd when you think how exciting the experience of flying is."

what's. in. a. name.
The name Kelvin is a dual homage, to real-life thermodynamicist Lord Kelvin and also to the fictional character Dr. Kelvin from the Andrei Tarkovski film Solaris. The 40 was Marc's age at the time he built the plane.