Trees on top Written on May 28, 2009, by Ingeborg.

“Take a circular piece of the forest and put it 36 meters up in the sky. From this elevated ground there is a 360 degree view over the forest,” says SeARCH architects. Trees actually grow on top. Not the hardest part for structural engineer Pieters Bouwtechniek: “That’s to avoid visitors from feeling the tower move.” The forest on the platform is engineered smallness.

Flip flops from the slum Written on May 27, 2009, by Ingeborg.

Loose the Birckies. Shoe designer Jan Jansen and industrial design students are selling a slipper that keeps car tyres from being incinerated. Plus gives South Africans in slums a job. The patterns were designed by orphans from the slums around Durban. Even our secretary of state our wears a pair of Plakkies (South African for flip flop).