Fabric That Can Switch Between Heating and Cooling

While the race to create the most versatile fabric has yielded significant offerings from the likes of The North Face and Columbia, a pair of researchers at the University of Maryland may have made the next promising push. Their fabric is made from two yarns—one to absorb water and one to repel it. Together, they react to moisture from your body. When you sweat, the …

Factory Visit: California’s Modernica Furniture

Tracing the people-powered process of making a fiberglass shell chair and more

Half a dozen buildings rise on Modernica‘s sprawling five-acre compound just south of DTLA proper. Here—in Vernon, California—the family-owned business awaits its 29th birthday. Brothers Frank and Jay Novak founded the furniture brand to honor and foster Southern California design and, along the way, Modernica became synonymous with the fiberglass shell chair—a product that’s still at the heart of what they do today. On the …

Lighting The Audi A7 Sportback

The second-generation model boasts innovation from the LED headlights all the way back

Audi‘s A7 Sportback set the new gold standard for a four-door coupe’s lines and proportions when it debuted as a concept car back in 2009. The following year it went into production and now, ten years later, a totally refreshed iteration is on the streets. The 2019 A7 makes extensive use of digital lighting to create a clean, sleek silhouette with undeniable presence. Fusing the …