Fibre reinforced concrete

German Designer Tim Mackerodt designed and built a lamp and a stool from folded concrete. The objects which he calls the FALT. series are made from thin sheets of fibre reinforced concrete from the company g.tecz. The material is rolled out and folded on flexible moulds. Using this method, concrete can produce shapes that would not be possible using traditional casting methods. The lamps walls are only 2.77mm think making it deceivingly lightweight.

Carbon negative concrete

The concrete industry currently accounts for up to 5% of worldwide CO2 emissions, it is the second most consumed substance on the planet following water. So the search for carbon neutral building materials is at an all time high.  Novacem have developed a new cement based on magnesium oxide replacing the calcium carbonates used in traditional production methods. Production of this new building material is not just carbon neutral but carbon negative, it absorbs Carbon dioxide rather than emitting it.

Light transmitting concrete

Designed by Hungarian Aron Losonczi, Litracon is a mysterious and dramatic material comprised of optical glass fibres and fine concrete.  The thousands of glass fibres lead light parallel to one another between the two surfaces of the block:  in this way light and shadow can pass through it giving it a translucent effect.  Backlighting litracon gives a moody glow and day lighting behind any object gives a ghostly silhouette.

Industrial designers are having a go at using the concrete too. The Espresso Solo by designer Shmuel Linski is a conceptual product featuring metal working parts and a concrete case and London designer Magnus Pettersen has designed a series of products called Solid – Desk Accessories. The set consists of 3 concrete products which are hand cast in small batches.

They weren’t due till 2015 but Nike have brought back the future to 2011 with the legendary replica trainers that were made famous by Michael J. Fox on a pink hover-board in Back to the Future Part II.  On September 8th 1500 pairs of the 2011 Nike MAG shoes, ‘the most expensive shoe never made’, were put up for auction on eBay. An auction benefiting the Micheal J. Fox foundation for Parkinsons research.

In 1989, Nike designer Tinker Hatfield was tasked with designing a shoe for the second chapter in the Back to the Future series. He created the 2015 power-lacing Nike MAG.  Over fifteen years later in 2005 Tinker responded to public demand to bring the shoe back and six years on the Nike MAG 2011 is the true predecessor to the 2015 power-lacing Nike MAG.

Although the Nike MAG 2011 lack any self lacing technology, they feature an electroluminescent Nike Strap, glowing LED panels, space-age materials and a rechargeable internal battery lasting for 3,000 hours.

If you want a pair of these you are going to have to folk out the cash as the average auction selling price is $5000!!

Check out the Back For The Future ad.