Core77 Design Awards

Three projects that redefine usability from the design world's newest competition

Starting with a reinvented trophy—designed as a mold for casting multiples to share with collaborators—the Core77 Design Awards is setting out to be a contest like no other. The competition presents some of the industry’s most thoughtful concepts that often change the way we interact with the landscape around us. Below are three paradigm-shifting projects that enhance life by redefining space and usage. Alcove Felix …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

A foldable rowboat, microscopic beauties, the human body as an instrument, and more in this week's link list

1. Genital Instruments Panties get strummed and nipples are turntables in this NSFW animated short and accompanying website from the French organization AIDES, putting a comically risqué spin on what in most other cultures would be a typically-sober public service announcement. 2. Spectacles Dazed & Confused editor John-Paul Pryor recently released his first novel called Spectacles, a “hallucinatory” ride through the Ballardian future of London …

Mass Modern Auction

The history of petty theft, fire graffiti, American Le Mans cars and more in our weekly survey of the web

Nearly 500 modern designs from Alvar Aalto to Sori Yanagi will go up for sale at Wright’s final spring auction in Chicago on 9 July 2011. With no set reserves, you might just get lucky.