You don’t need to be an architect to love cool architecture. Urban planning and building design is an interdisciplinary passion, attracting the likes of art enthusiasts, engineers, history buffs, designers and travelers. Chances are that at least one person on your gift shopping is among those.
With that in mind, here’s our roundup of seven inexpensive—and one not-so-much—gifts for architecture enthusiasts. For this review we specifically excluded architecture magazines and books (of which there are a huge and excellent variety to choose from). We also nixed items used by working architects in their craft, like drafting tables or home design software.
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Humans, being wing-less creatures, are used to seeing our world from ground level. Even in the jet age, we are surprised when we view the planet from overhead.
Munich-based designer David Hanauer sought to take advantage of that element of surprised when he created his World Wide carpets. The floor pieces all use graphics taken from directly from Google Earth.
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“The world is a bubble” declared Saint Augustine. Seventeen centuries later, the patron saint of brewers and printers would surely be a huge fan of the portable plastic offerings from Bubble Tree.
The french design and manufacturing company sells bubble products that they describe as “Unusual huts for unusual nights.” Spot Cool Stuff would characterize them more as glorified tents.
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You drag yourself to work on a Monday morning, walk into your office bathroom, get a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and are startled to see that in your hung over, coffee deprived, half-asleep state you only managed to shave half of your stubble.
Oh no! What are you going to do?
For such circumstances, there’s a Crazor—an emergency razor that folds down to the size of a credit card. Keep it next to your actual credit cards and you’ll always have a razor with you when you leave the house (unless you lose your wallet).
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Making a fully waterproof running and hiking shoe is really hard. Doubly so if you want that shoe to be lightweight. Sealing the seams and using water-resistant fabrics can help. But if you spend enough time stomping around in enough water, every “waterproof” shoe will eventually be breached.
So in the spirit of If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, Columbia is introducing their Powerdrain hybrid water shoe. It has a drainable footbed, with points in both the heel and forefoot—so when water does get into the shoe it can easily flow out.
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