Most Beautiful Items: June 8 - June 14, 2013

What do a giant wooden egg, a crazy Japanese tech office, and a 3D printing factory have in common? Nothing, really. Except they were some of our favorite design posts this week. Check them out, plus a lot of awesome art, architecture, and more generally wonderful things below.

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Inside the Printing Studio Where Obsolete Tech Will Never Die

Before computers became the sole progenitors of almost all our visual artifacts, printing was a labor-intensive task that involved applying incredible pressure to inked blocks using machines weighing thousands of pounds. At the Common Press, in the basement of the University of Pennsylvania's Fine Arts Building,?

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An Office For Two That Transmogrifies Into a 6-Person Dining Table

Having enough room for separate working and dining tables is a luxury that most urban dwellers don't have. But thanks to Daniel Liss'transforming Table For Two, if you live in a small apartment you can now work on your cake and have a place to eat it too.

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A Tour of the New Makerbot Factory, Where 3D Printers Are Born

MakerBot is building an empire selling printers that make things?but have you ever wondered where the printers themselves are made? On June 7th, the company opened a huge new factory to accommodate the booming demand for Replicators, and we got a first-hand look inside. Read?

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You'll Never Want to Put Away This Elegant Pour-Over Coffee Dripper

Coffee-makers, like humans, come in every shape and size. Some are utterly utilitarian, like the Aeropress, while some express pure form, like the Chemex. The Manual Coffeemaker No. 1, by Chicago designer Craighton Berman, is the latest attempt to class up your kitchen counter.

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Ikea Dollhouse Furniture Is Perfect for Barbie's Dr?amh?use

Realizing that kids who grow up playing with Ikea furniture probably turn into college students and adults who buy Ikea furniture, the Swedish manufacturer is going to start producing dollhouse-sized versions of its more iconic pieces, including the Lack table and the Expedit shelving.

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Inside Google Japan's Lovely, Bizarre, Hair-Covered Offices

Google?s company policy requires that each office reflect some of the local color of the city around it: Google Zurich has ski gondolas, Google Pittsburgh has steel mill photos, and so on. That policy results in designs that sometimes border on twee (see: Google London'sgratuitous Union Jacks), but sometimes, it ends ?

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New Elevator Tech Could Double How Tall Our Highest Buildings Can Be

China may be quick on the path to constructing the world's newest tallest building ever, but should they succeed, their reign is probably going to be fairly short-lived?and all because of an elevator. More specifically, an elevator that can travel up to 1000 meters?two times higher than any built before it.

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These Quirky Lamps Were Inspired By Traditional Japanese Culture

Dutch furniture designer Wieki Somers is based in Rotterdam?but for her latest collection of bizarre lamps, she travelled east, to the land of the rising sun, where she found inspiration in the form of Samurai flags, Geisha culture, and traditional Japanese gardening techniques.

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What It Really Looks Like Atop the World?s Tallest Building

In January, Dubai photog Gerald Donovan showed us what the earth looks like from the pinnacle of the world?s tallest building, thanks to a 360 degree panorama that was ?shopped to remove the Burj Khalifa itself. But today, Donovan released the original, undoctored image?and it?s even better than the edited version.

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Uh, Why Is an Artist Living Inside a Floating Wooden Egg For a Year?

There's a strong probability you'd go crazy living inside of an egg, despite the fact that you actually came from one. But artist Stephen Turner is up to the challenge. Starting this month, he'll be taking up residence in the Exbury Egg, a self-sustaining studio/home/boat/monument to fertility, for the next 365 days.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/most-beautiful-items-june-8-june-14-2013-513481838

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