Artefacts (Works That Work magazine)

Life, Rewound
A 1960s Czech black comedy reverses the narrative and play backwards, from the death to the birth of the protagonist.
Ice Hockey
Czechoslovakia’s outlet for national pride in a time of political repression.
Football
The Christmas Truce—friendly matches between the trenches of the Western Front.
Tennis
Billie Jean King, a champion not only on the tennis court, but in the arena of social change.
Bhutan Environmental Protection
Bhutan has some of the strictest environmental conservation laws in the world, and its constitution protects the forests, animals and plants.
Gross National Happiness
Gross National Happiness is Bhutan’s guiding principle, balancing environmental and cultural preservation with economic development.
Blind Football Ball — pain and Brazil
A football you can hear for players who can’t see.
Anti-Pee Paint — Hamburg, Germany
An ultrahydrophobic paint to deter men from relieving themselves in public.
A Vista With Nothing to See — US–Canada Border
The empty space that separates the US from Canada.
Location Code in Central Park — United States
19th-century geolocation — four numbers on lampposts in New York’s Central Park identify its precise location.
Higher Productivity — The Netherlands
Painters on stilts get the job done faster than painters on ladders.
Interactive Cinema — Czechoslovakia
Audience votes changed the storyline in the world’s first interactive movie.
Winky Dink — United States
An interactive children’s programme from 1950s that encouraged kids to draw on the TV screen.
The Fifth Wheel — USA
An ingenious device for getting cars into and out of tight parking spaces.
Hidden Mothers — England
Hidden mothers posing their wiggly toddlers for portrait photography.
The Kugelmugel — Austria
Vienna’s Prater Park is home to an artwork/illegal edifice/self-proclaimed autonomous state boasting hundreds of (non-resident) citizens.
Dissident Banknote — Burma
An anonymous protest against the Burmese military dictatorship cleverly encoded in the design of a state-issued banknote.
Fake Pharaoh — Egypt
A brazen smuggler carried stolen antiquities out of Egypt in broad daylight using a deceptively simple ploy.
Toy Protest — Russia
People who were denied permission to hold a public demonstration found that getting around the law was child’s play.
Mule Women — Morocco
Hundreds of Moroccan women take advantage of a loophole in import laws to earn money by carrying huge parcels into the country.
National Eagle Repository — USA
Balancing protection of the American national bird with Native Americans’ religious and cultural freedom.
Seat Belt Hacks — China
In spite of laws and fines, many Chinese drivers still don’t like to wear seat belts or listen to the safety system’s buzzer.
The Axe Reinvented — Sipoo, Finland
A retired air-traffic controller gives an ancient tool an innovative new twist.
Beermitten — The Arctic
A simple, yet effective solution to the problem of how to drink beer at an outdoor festival in subzero temperatures.
Solar Spell — Rjukan, Norway
An ambitious plan to bring sunlight to a valley town is finally realized one hundred years after its inception.
Gone Fishing — Lofoten Islands, Norway
Scent baits developed in Norway attract specific species at greater distances than bait fish.
Reindeer in the Dark — Finland
The search for an effective way to reduce the number of reindeer killed by automobiles at night.
All for One — Tromsø, Norway
Because a woman who has had a mastectomy doesn’t need a padded swimsuit to be beautiful at the beach.
Tattooed Pensioners — The Hague, NL
Some tattoos are personal statements. Some are a matter of life and death.
Icebound — the North Pole
The Fram, a ship designed to travel to the North Pole, proved the effectiveness of natural materials as insulation.
Home-grown polystyrene — Green Island, USA
Mushrooms provide the raw material for a fully biodegradable packaging material
World Bottles — Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Freddy Heineken’s plan to simultaneously reduce stray beer bottles and ease a shortage of building materials.
Flushing Power — Mississauga, Canada
An ingenious method for measuring and certifying the flushing capacity of high-efficiency toilets.
Evacuation New Orleans — USA
A distinctive, intuitive way to help people remember and find pickup points during a mass evacuation.
Upside down — the Netherlands
Research shows that when arrows on highway signs point up instead of down they improve traffic flow.
Inflatable Museum — Chile
A portable fine-arts exhibit capable of reaching visitors in remote locations.
Grace Under Pressure — Bogota
A new line of ballistic gear to protect children from both inclement weather and close-range gunfire.
Keep to the Right — London
Intuitive instructions to keep escalator traffic moving smoothly.
Reading in Bed Without Pillows
Periscope glasses for reading in bed without neck strain.
Smart Highway — Waddinxveen
Hi-tech highways: dynamic road markings for the 21st century.
Life Imitating Nature — Wenchuan
Training baby pandas to survive in the wild.
Open House — Levittown, NY
An economic experiment revisits the cottage industry.
ParaSITEs — New York City
A personal shelter that captures excess urban heat to warm the homeless.
Your Votes, Please — Cairo
Elections designed to be accessible to illiterate citizens.
BlindSquare — Helsinki
An augmented-reality app taps the Internet to help the visually impaired
Lighting the Way — London
Safe, sustainable lighting for areas with no power grid.
Please Touch — Amsterdam
A book whose title appears only with time and handling.
Cool Idea — Rajkot
A refrigerator that needs no electricity to keep things cool in the Indian heat.
The Bridges That Never Existed — Spijkenisse
Dutch designer makes fictitious Euro bridges real.
Museum of the Ordinary — New York City
An exhibit of everyday design in its everyday context.
Reverse Graffiti — São Paulo
Graffiti that turns grime into art.
The Fingers of One Hand — India
Coins that use what is perhaps the oldest, most universal counting system.

Connect with us RSS Facebook Twitter Questions? Email us directly!

Works That Work

Artefacts RSS