At first glance, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Sorapot is a piece of elegant apparatus for some scientific experiment. Indeed, a great deal of science went into its design and manufacture. (The stainless steel body is sculpted using the same procedure that is used to craft jet turbine blades). Once you realize that you are dealing with a teapot, though, the Sorapot is, well, beautiful. Its shape is striking from any angle. From most of those angles it is impossible to see the tea leaf filter in front of the spout. What is easy to see are the tea leaves themselves. Unlike most tea pots which confine the tea leaves to cramped mesh spaces, the Sorapot allows the leaves to unfurl fully, naturally. So your tea won’t only look better in a Sorapot, it will taste better too.
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We remember humidifiers from our childhood as those bulky, loud, ugly things over in the corner. There was perhaps no household appliance more in need of a design makeover. And there is perhaps no designer more up to the task than Naoto Fukasawa, a designer with over 40 awards whose work is widely credited with inspiring the best of Apple’s designs. So now your children can have as their humidifier a piece of elegant artwork on a self or bedside table. The Fukasawa Humidifier runs extremely quietly and has the option of adding aromas to the water vapor. It is sold almost exclusively in Japan, but thanks to the folks at the Japan Trend Shop it is available in Europe and North America too. US$319
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Sure, it looks cool. It also looks like it might be fragile and uncomfortable. It is neither! The spoon lounge from Vivavi is manufactured from soft vines, firm on the back but with enough give to feel luxurious. The vines themselves ares wrapped around steel wiring. The Spoon Lounge is one long-lasting piece for your home. And like everything Vivavi sells it is eco-friendly.
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One piece going on display at Artists Space in New York City this month especially caught our eye. Local River is more than a flowerpot-and-aquarium-in-one. It is a symbiotic system: the fish feed off the plants, and the plants drink the water nutrient-rich with fish waste, which in turns purifies the water for the fish. Designers Mathieu Lehanneur and Anthony van den Bossche were inspired by the Locavores movement that encourages locally sustainable lifestyles. We like that Local River eliminates the need for us to feed the fish or clean the fish tank. Catch it at Artists Space from 25 April to 21 June 2008.
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