Trend Watch July 2019

Public punching bags placed around New York City:

A US design studio, donttakethisthewrongway (dtttww), has installed bright yellow punching bags throughout New York City to help relieve tension and stress among residents.

The bags were introduced in May at New York City Design Week in attempts to stop people from taking their frustrations out on each other.

“The concept explores designing common spaces for the frustrations we all face. Frustrations that go beyond designed systems and happen, well, because we are human,” the design studio said.

“The public punching bag offers an outlet for these emotions as a means to maybe develop a healthier way to address personal and collective issues in a public setting.”

New Yorkers passing by tipped their hats to dtttww, welcoming the installation with fists and kicks of frustration and joy, according to Design Boom.

“In Washington Square Park, young children, probably not old enough to read, threw themselves at the public punching bags, understanding its plushy purpose without any context or explanation needed,” they write.

Photo: Dtttww.

Free plugin exports 360° images from SketchUp to virtual reality:

Online platform Tour Fácil has launched a free plugin that can view exported 360-degree images from SketchUp in virtual or augmented reality, writes ArchDaily.

The plugin allows you to create 360-degree images directly from SketchUp and upload them to the platform’s online gallery.

From there, you can navigate virtual spaces through your monitor, or fully immersed via a VR headset such as Google Cardboard.

Though the plugin works only in SketchUp, the online gallery supports 360 images created in other software, such as 3D Studio Max, Blender and Lumion.

To upload and share with colleagues, professors, and clients, registration is required. The website is in Portugese; English is available through Google Translate.

Photo: Maurizio Pesce, Flickr.