Okay, while this technologically advanced door is within the technical realm of this category, it really isn’t within the spirit … it doesn’t have a handle and you can’t walk through it (yet), but it is a clever old door nevertheless. This is the Electrolux Screenfridge, a simple name for a very intricate piece of electronics.

It is a prototype refrigerator which has a digital camera inside. The digital camera takes a picture and uploads it to a server every time the door closes – another weapon in the crime fighting arsenal of the missing chocolate detectives! When you are out at the store and can’t remember what you have run out of, you can check the photos using your cellphone … hooray, soon machines will have taken over the functions of the human brain completely, leaving us nothing to do except reproduce and create an environment for the machines to live in … You can also check the photos via a PC, which is handy if you often have your laptop in the car, but a little useless otherwise.

The is not the only amazing property of this fridge door though – it follows on from the multimedia refrigerator from LG, which you might have seen advertised on television. The LG version of the fridge is the original, and includes features like a television, music player, and internet surfing capabilities. For when you are cooking tea and suddenly must check your email without having the time to go into the living room or bedroom! It includes a camera and microphone, but doesn’t have the automatic picture taking and storing functions that the Electrolux model does. All the electronics are also put to some food-related use, with its inbuilt electronic temperature control, chilled water dispenser and ice dispenser. If you are prone to forgetting exactly what was in the Tupperware at the back of the fridge, but is now covered in green fur, then you can enter your container contents on the fridge’s screen, as well as their expiration dates. However, I’d like to meet the person that has all of the time, the inclination, and the need to do this …

I believe the internet connection capabilities of the fridge are built for when the technology advances further. In theory, in the future you may enter minimum quantities and types of food into the screen at the front, and the fridge may take photos of your fridge’s contents, catalogue them against your ’shopping list’, and automatically re-order things over the net when you reach the preset minimum quantity.

However, now you can shop for your door knob, lever handle, locks and knockers from an entirely new setting … the front of your fridge!

AT Architectural Classics, we have known for quite a long time about the bactericidal properties of copper (and its alloys, including brass). We have written on it quite a lot … including the value of having traditional handles in the germ-swamp that is a public lavatory, the health virtues of having your home decked out in brass as well as the visual virtues, etc. Scientists worldwide have also known this for quite a while, as would you if you have been following the blog! However, the news truly is ‘new’ for the International Copper Association, strangely enough.

Reuters reports that the fact that copper may have public health benefits is actually a US finding (and makes it seem that it is a new discovery, somehow ;-)), and that the International Copper Association now knows something they previously didn’t about the metal that they have spent decades staring at, all day every day!

They International Copper Association recently pitched to have the metal replace the standard fittings in hospitals and health care facilities. This would create an enormous demand for copper … also driving up the price and making the International Copper Association a pretty (copper) penny!

Copper has already been proven to be an effective bacterical for infections such as e-coli, streptococcus and staphylococcus. Even the common cold has trouble surviving on copper for longer than a set period of time. Most germs on a copper surface are killed within 90 minutes … and not because all copper surfaces are so endearing that people just can’t help themselves, and simply must clean it, for the sheer pleasure of touching it!

(more…)

Edwardian architecture is a lot less ornate than the Victorian style which preceded it … You can imagine King Edward coming in after old Vicky, looking around at the country and muttering “Bloody women! There’s crap everywhere! Look at all this trinketry and frou frou! Get rid of it all!” … then he’d sweep his arm over the tabletop of the country’s architecture, wiping off all the irrelevant details and leaving the bones. Although that is not to say that Edwardian architecture was boring - you can see how this house makes use of minimal colouring and decoration, but very precise integration of architectural elements.

Joining the extensive realms of useless inventions, and the equally extensive realms of useless inventions related to doors, are these bright doors from Alexander Lervik. Although, we must admit to being strangely attracted to them, in a visceral sort of way … not everything in life must be functional to be beautiful, as the Art Deco movement and supermodels the world over understand!

These bright doors build on the last post in our Beyond Door Thousand series, which looked at the Brighthandles door handles, which glowed green or red according to the position of the thumb latch – locked or unlocked. The concept is exactly the same with these (although not necessarily copied) – but the entire door now glows green or red, according to whether it is locked or unlocked!

We mentioned that the Brighthandles were actually quite difficult to install, as you will probably need to gouge out quite a chuck from the guts of your door … ironically, these much larger inventions should actually be easier to install, as all you need to do is remove the old door and re-hang a new one. As long as you are careful, this is infinitely less tricky than chiselling out your door’s innards.

They are made out of a special plastic material which is said to disperse the light evenly, so if you have dollar signs flashing up before your eyes when you consider the cost in electricity of lighting a whole door, you needn’t worry so much … although truthfully, a normal door takes the least electricity of all – none.

In a modern home, these could really be a stunning centrepiece. Obviously the functionality aspect of them can be executed with a great deal more simplicity and less power – simply using the old green or red circle on one side of the door will do just as well to let you know whether it is locked or unlocked. Or you could just push on it!

And we really hope they can be turned off at night, to prevent insane dreams of little grey men, experiments and probes … or if you lock the door to sleep, the fires of hell!

This beautiful, mechanically mysterious old lock belongs to a door in Sweden.
If you have a genuine old house, this is probably what the insides of your rim locks look like!
Aside from being a fascinating subject, it is a great photo – love how the hints of green patination on the round face in the middle of the photo echo the green grass, and the textures in the photo just seem to leap out at you.