Manual's camera shop in New York is imbued with "philosophy of skate shop"

Design-build studio Protean Practice and camera company Manual have collaborated on the brand's first storefront and photo lab, outfitting a Chinatown shop with plywood seating, metallic finishes and baby-pink accents.

Manual founder Malcolm Dia told Dezeen that creating a downtown gathering spot for the next generation of photographers drove the design. It is a space where they can "pull up in the morning, grab a camera, go live your life, and then come back, get it developed and hang out".

Tom Hegen’s ‘The Mineral Age’ Documents the Indelible Effects of the Green Transition

In its current form, the global transition away from fossil fuels will depend on the earth’s rare minerals. According to ClimateWorks, we’ll collectively need to mine 6.5 billion tons of cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, and other materials before 2050 in order to keep up with energy demands. Most of these resources are found in regions already facing the greatest impacts of the climate crisis, from Chile’s Atacama Desert to Indonesia’s nickel reserves to the cobalt deposits of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For the past six years, German photographer Tom Hegen has been traveling the globe to document the...

Mojave 2019

"Jagged" New York house is Aston Martin's first US residence

Automotive company Aston Martin has collaborated with US studio S3 Architecture for the Sylvan Rock residential compound in Upstate New York, conforming the metal roofline to the outcroppings of stone on the site.

Located in the town of Red Hook, Sylvan Rock features a faceted, black-metal roofline that angles with the house, which was built to follow the site's slope.

Timeless Totemic Figures by Izumi Kato Coexist in an Otherworldly Aquatic Realm

In Izumi Kato’s surreal paintings, stones appear to float, bodies disappear in water, and feet become fish tails. In his new eponymous solo exhibition at Perrotin, two- and three-dimensional works converge in a dreamlike grouping where time slips, bodies morph, and space is simultaneously flattened, compartmentalized, and stretched.

The Tokyo- and Hong Kong-based artist’s practice has evolved from painting to include wood forms, soft vinyl sculptures, and cast metal. As Kato explores materiality, his sculptures emerge from the same almost alchemical approach to canvas. He paints the tiny wooden figures with the same approach he does a flat surface,...

A Mesmerizing Kinetic Sculpture of Ducks in Flight

This "Flock of Ducks" motorized sculpture is by German artist Felix Scharstein. "Three spirals are interlocked and rotate synchronously," Scharstein writes. "The ducks at the ends of the spirals fly playfully in circles and around each other."

The sculpture is made of aluminum and gold-plated brass. Scharstein created the first one in 2022; now, for an exhibition of his work at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, he's created a larger version:

Scharstein's exhibition, called "Free Machines," is currently running thru November 29th. For those who can't make it, you can see more of Scharstein's machines in action...

Claire Lavabre's Industrial-Minimalist Lamp for Hay

This Posto lamp, by French industrial designer and photographer Claire Lavabre, has an industrial-minimalist aesthetic:

Pete Buttigieg: A Mosaic of Messages

Six typographic mosaic portraits of Pete Buttigieg by Charis Tsevis (2026), each built from thousands of cut-paper messages: slogans, state names, letters and small images. A positive tribute, free to share under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Wowhaus' Dichroic Glass "Inspire" Sculpture

"Inspire" is a public sculpture by Wowhaus, a California-based art and design studio. 

Commissioned by the San Ramon Public Library, the stainless steel structure mimics a book, with the pages made of dichroic glass; this is glass that has multiple coatings on it, with each layer tuned to reflect some colors of light while letting others pass through. The result is that the colors on each pane appear to shift as you walk around it.

Büro Ziyu Zhuang designs Chinese museum cluster to "blend seamlessly" into meadow

Chinese architecture studio Büro Ziyu Zhuang embedded four cultural buildings, including a viewing tower and a rammed-earth workshop, into parkland in Xianning, China, to create the Zi Museum.

Located along Zishan Lake in Xianning, Hubei Province, the project comprises four public buildings designed to complement the guest houses of the Ziyouji resort on the other side of the lake. 

The centrepiece of the project is the 3,000-square-metre Zi Museum, which features a multi-faceted, layered structure made from pale concrete and was organised around a central courtyard.

Büro Ziyu Zhuang (BUZZ) created three separate access points into the museum...