Industrial Design

Capsules of limestone-producing bacteria are embedded in the concrete.

With This Self-Healing Concrete, Buildings Repair Themselves

A concrete developed by Dutch scientists and embedded with limestone-producing bacteria is ready to hit the market

A paternoster elevator can be thrilling, or just scary.

Ride This Bizarre, Old-School Elevator Before They All Shut Down

The paternoster elevators of Europe are weird, a bit scary and getting harder and harder to find. For now, there are still a few you can ride

University of Vermont engineering student Joseph Maser gazes down at the prototype of the inflatable airlock for space stations and vehicles that he and three other students built.

Made by College Seniors, These Seven Products Give Us a Glimpse Into the Future

Engineering students at universities across the country took these projects from sketch to reality in one year

Does That Button Really Work, Or Is It a Placebo?

Fake buttons are more common than you might think

"Joe" and "Josephine" inThe Measure of Man posters, authored by Henry Dreyfuss, designed by Alvin R. Tilley, 1969

The Smithsonian Design Museum Tells the Story of User-Centered Design Through 120 Beautiful Products

A thermostat, a wheelchair, a prosthetic arm and razors are all a part of "Beautiful Users," now on display in New York City

The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, P.A. is celebrating its city in a long-term exhibition, "Pittsburgh a Tradition of Innovation."

Celebrating Pittsburgh, the City Behind Pro Football, Big Macs and the Polio Vaccine

The Pennsylvanian city had more lives than a cat and thrives as a hub of innovation

People's Design Award collage

The People’s Design Award Promises a Very Cyborg Future

This year's nominees focus on wearable technology

A 4.4-pound, leg-worn exoskeleton creates a chair out of nowhere.

Sit Anywhere on a Chair You Can Wear

A Swiss startup has created a trim exoskeleton that lets factory workers perch for quick breaks

Various examples of garderobe design

From Turrets to Toilets: A Partial History of the Throne Room

For centuries the humble bathroom has been shaping the space we live and work

Fire Hydrants Get a Face Lift

A new design for fire hydrants could make fighting fires a lot easier

Etsy Product Design: Building the marketplace, global, ongoing.

Cooper-Hewitt Gets Crafty and Honors Etsy with a National Design Award

Other recipients of the National Design Museum's prestigious award include fashionista Narciso Rodriguez and writer Witold Rybcznski

Warka Water towers are designed to take advantage of condensation.

This Tower Pulls Drinking Water Out of Thin Air

Designer Arturo Vittori says his invention can provide remote villages with more than 25 gallons of clean drinking water per day

An X-Acto Knife with size 2 blade.

For 80 Years, X-Acto Has Been on the Cutting Edge of Edge Cutting

From its debut as a surgical knife, X-Acto's precision blades have been the Kleenex of cutting

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This Incredible, Folding Design Could Change How Doors Work

It’s about time the door industry got a little more exciting

The Tabby can be customized using different blueprints downloadable online.

This Car Can Be Assembled In Less Than An Hour

The team behind the OSVehicle project has developed an open-source vehicle that's easy to build and fully customizable

Harrison: "Practically every product in the Sears, Roebuck line I had a hand in at one time or another."

Interview with Charles Harrison

The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt honors the prolific industrial designer with its Lifetime Achievement Award

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