Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

Brilliant Folding Wheel Rolls in a Wheelchair Revolution

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 10:00 AM PDT

Storing and transporting wheelchairs has traditionally been a rather frustrating task – even folding wheelchairs still have enormous wheels that won’t fit into airplane luggage compartments, small cars or small rooms without a struggle. The Morph Folding Wheel from Vitamins Design in London will change that and revolutionize wheelchairs.

Morph is the world’s first folding wheelchair wheel. When in the open position, the wheel takes up 22 liters of space. But when folded, it only occupies 12 liters of space. The folded wheel is small enough to fit into an easily carry-able bag, and at 7.5 pounds each they are light enough to be carried by most people.

The folding wheels use a standard rubber tire on their outer rims, requiring no special order parts when the tire treads get worn. The lightweight composite material used for the wheel itself is tough enough to afford a pair of the wheels a 300 pound weight limit.

The wheel was originally designed for folding bikes to allow the bikes to have larger wheels. But once the project gained attention, the wheelchair community embraced the idea and the Morph was redesigned for wheelchair users. And finally, people who have been using “folding” wheelchairs for years will have a chair that can easily and quickly fold up small enough to go anywhere.

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Cheeky Kitchen Objects Hide a Provocative Secret Function

Posted: 11 Apr 2013 04:00 PM PDT

Homebrewing alcohol has been attracting a rather large following in the United States and some other countries, but the in-home production of alcohol is prohibited in many parts of the world. The Prohibition Kit from designer Francesco Morackini is a cheeky take on the hobby and its rather shady origins.

During Prohibition in the U.S., some crafty folks with the right equipment and the right knowledge made their own liquor to get past the country’s outright outlawing of the substance. However, getting caught meant stiff punishments. So the smart bootleggers discovered how to disguise their equipment and their work spaces.

The Prohibition Kit does the same thing, but with the added benefit of almost an entire century of additional manufacturing technology. Morackini’s kit features four separate objects that can be used as perfectly legal items in the home: a pot, a watering can, a fruit bowl and a fondue pot. Separately, they are innocent and commonly seen in many kitchens.

Put them together, however, and the common kitchen objects become a fully functional alcohol still. You can make your own schnapps at home, and between uses no one will be the wiser about the actual intended function of each of the components. As the designer points out, you can even use each of these items in the growing of the fruit for the alcohol. The intentionally provocative project brings up some challenging questions: when do everyday items become criminalized, and when do our governments have the right to restrict the use of certain objects based solely on their potential to one day be used in a crime?