Safwat by Safwat balances "humor, clarity, and restraint" at Funny Bar in New York

Design studio Safwat by Safwat has balanced a bar, lounge, and restaurant programme at Funny Bar in New York's Lower East Side, using glass brick and postmodern details.

Working with New York entertainment operators Tom Moore and Billy Jones, the New York-based studio set out to convert a bar built out for "more of a mainstream audience" into a hip space combining jazz lounge, bar, and restaurant.

For Funny Bar, the studio maintained certain elements "using the original layout as constraint rather than attempting to erase it," according to founder Safwat Riad.

Riad kept...

"Congestion pricing works" in New York City say officials after a year in action

The first major traffic congestion pricing in the US, which rolled out a year ago today in New York City, has been considered a success according to the Metropolitan Transit Authority and New York governor Kathy Hochul.

Congestion pricing – known formally as the Central Business District Tolling Program – was implemented in January 2025.

Data available through the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and other studies show that the initiative has decreased air pollution and traffic, increased foot traffic to local businesses and raised more than $500 million, which is slated to fund improvements for the city's transit system.

Monsters are everywhere

Erwan Bouroullec disguises Samsung speaker as an abstract sculpture

As the annual CES tech fair kicks off in Las Vegas, Samsung has launched a minimalist speaker by French designer Erwan Bouroullec, distinguished by a narrow, arched body that's not much thicker than a picture frame.

The wireless speaker, called Music Studio 5, squeezes a four-inch woofer and dual tweeters into its minimalist shell, offering the sound of a chunkier model without the visual heft.

Bouroullec's aim was to create a design that won't be "forgotten the moment the sound stops", but instead resembles an abstract sculpture that enhances an interior even when not in...

Luftwerk Transforms Paint and Aluminum into Radiant Explorations of Sunlight

Topped with a roof shaped like a crabshell, Le Corbusier’s Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut is a sanctuary amid the French mountainside. The 1955 construction rests atop a hill in Ronchamp, standing unobstructed by the otherwise forested inclines. As the sun rises and falls, light filters in through the mélange of rectangular windows tinted to cast streams of color around the space.

The stained glass apertures of Le Corbusier’s modernist chapel are a clear reference point for Luftwerk’s “Open Frame.” The site-specific work fills a cavernous corner of Secrist | Beach with a collection of rectangular aluminum panels painted with acrylic and, most notably,...

A Rare Mid-Century Modern Design for a Space-Saving Bed

Sven and Johanna run Mid Century Friends, a German company that finds old furniture pieces, restores them, and resells them. They've come across some rare gems in their sourcing process, like this piece:

We tend to think of Mid-Century Modern furniture as one thing, and space-saving furniture as quite another. However, this rare example is both:

The duo say the piece was made in the 1960s, though they don't name the manufacturer.

Unsurprisingly, it was snapped up by a buyer mere hours after appearing on their site.

NO2LAND Branding

The Rise of Manual Bread Slicers

Since the pandemic, the amount of people baking their own bread has skyrocketed. Sales of yeast and flour have increased, and social media is awash in bread-baking tutorials. Product sales, too, presumably saw a boost; in the U.S., breadmaking forums now discuss obscure German brands that few Americans had heard of in 2019. In particular, manual bread slicers are popular among the DIY bread set as they offer consistency and adjustability.

German manufacturer Graef capitalized on the trend by re-releasing their Manuale H 1920, a hand-cranked bread slicer design from 1956.

Competitor Zassenhaus also revived an...

Puzzle Bomb's Form-Follows-Function Jigsaw Puzzles

With a traditional jigsaw puzzle, there is no correlation between the shape of the puzzle pieces and image printed on them. The puzzle solver must thus solve by using two types of pattern recognition.

Image: Charles Hamm, CC BY 3.0

Kansas-based puzzle designers Caylyn and Chad Krizan, however, take a very different approach. Their Bumfuzzled line of puzzle designs have corresponding graphics and shapes.

In essence, these are form-follows-function puzzle pieces.

I would argue that, if you wanted your kid to grow up to be an industrial designer, introducing them to this...

Industrial port informs metal exterior of home in Perth by Philip Stejskal

The Fremantle cargo port informed the corrugated metal cladding and steel-framed awnings of Henville Street House, a family home in Perth, Australia, by local studio Philip Stejskal Architecture.

Located on a compact urban site, Philip Stejskal Architecture designed the home to have a close relationship to its garden while avoiding overlooking.

It is organised around a patio and has a skeletal steel frame that will gradually be overgrown by climbing plants.

"It’s a simple project constrained by budget and a challenging site," studio founder Philip Stejskal told Dezeen.

"The design consists of a literal box...