This is a Japanese tradition we desperately need to adopt in North America – re-using textiles to wrap presents. It’s an art form, but it’s worth learning because it dispenses with all the annoying and wasteful tape and paper and ribbon, it’s a fun skill to learn (for kids too), and it’s an educational conversation piece – you might have to explain to the recipient what it is, but that’s probably worthwhile.

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The Chen House in North Taiwan, design and constructed by Finnish architect Marco Casagrande and Taiwanese architect Frank Chen, was built for an older couple who wanted to retire to the country and grow bamboo and cherry trees – on a flood plain also beset by hurricanes and earthquakes.

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The photo above shows the central living area of a rural farmhouse on the border of Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures. The house was restored by Kenji Tsuchisawa who bought it as a rundown heap when he was only 20, after seeing a photograph of a traditional Japanese farmhouse on a Tokyo magazine cover.

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The “What’s In and What’s Out in 2009” lists are starting to appear. Not to be too protestant about it, since environmentalism in its more puritanical moment can make you want to stab yourself in the eye with a fork—a plastic fork—but these lists can get anxiety-provoking.

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Making a “drop bag” at Kakefuda, the famous Furoshiki shop in Kyoto where Mick Jagger bought a furoshiki last year. Also see How to tie up two Bottles and Furoshiki – Reusable Grocery Bag.

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This compelling structure is an example of biomimetic architecture – architecture that mimics biological structures and/or functions. It is part of a project called Metabolic Media whose structures model the molecular structures and energy metabolism in living cells.

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It’s actually Icelandic moss, not grass. The Growing Jewelry collection is by Icelandic product designer Hafsteinn Juliusson. Kinder and gentler than brass knuckles and nicer than a green thumb.

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Magical kindergarten in Tromso, Norway, by Norwegian architecture firm 70° N. Via contemporist via trendinsights.

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This somehow manages to de-doilify doilies which is almost achieving the impossible. It makes the lace more reminiscent of bark or lichen or something from the bottom of the ocean—another example of how re-purposing a thing can actually improve on the original.

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