Ordinary Chaos

Tag: Board

  • AIA Board alleges “coordinated campaign” to discredit leadership

    AIA Board alleges “coordinated campaign” to discredit leadership

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    Yesterday afternoon, a press statement from AIA Board of Directors was sent to AIA members alleging “a coordinated campaign being driven by various AIA stakeholders to publicly discredit the EVP/CEO and the wider Board.”

    Details about the plot, including who might be leading it, were not provided.

    “The AIA Board is concerned about the coordinated effort that we have become aware of to discredit our leadership team this year,” AIA president Kimberly Dowdell told AN. “We are focused on advancing the AIA’s mission and are delegating this matter to the National Ethics Committee for a thorough review. Our objective is to prevent further damage to AIA and the profession.”

    The statement reaffirmed the Board’s confidence in AIA EVP/CEO Lakisha Woods: “Based on the results of the independent review, and considering other key performance indicators, the Board, again, unanimously approved a strong vote of confidence in CEO/EVP Lakisha Ann Woods, CAE, and her ability to lead the organization with integrity and highly specialized association expertise. We trust that Woods is exactly who we need in this position to forge a stronger future for AIA.”

    The “conduct has been formally filed with the AIA National Ethics Council (NEC) for review,” the statement continued. The NEC, according to the bylaws of the AIA, has the “authority to interpret and enforce the AIA Code of Ethics.” The council consists of AIA members appointed by the AIA Board of Directors and only has jurisdiction over the actions of AIA members. Recently, the NEC has released few disciplinary actions, including one in 2022 and three in 2020.

    The AIA statement is available to read in full here.

    How Did We Get Here?

    This update comes on the heels of layoffs at AIA headquarters, as recently reported by Zach Mortice for Architectural Record. This month, 28 AIA employees were fired, constituting 16 percent of AIA’s workforce of 175. Mortice’s article also revealed that the week after the layoffs, “AIA’s board and senior leadership decamped to the Salamander Resort and Spa in Middleburg, Virginia, for a board meeting,” according to an anonymous AIA staffer. (Mortice, who previously worked for AIA, is also a regular contributor to AN.)

    This development also arrives months after 22 former AIA presidents issued a separate letter to current AIA leadership about myriad concerns related to “finances and management,” “potential misspending, nepotism, cronyism, and the pursuit of personal gain” within AIA leadership. Just after the 2024 AIA conference, the Board released a statement of support for EVP/CEO Woods and her team.

    Miller & Chevalier, a Washington, D.C.–based law firm, later found no wrongdoing by Woods in relation to a claim made against her that she financially benefited from a staff retreat to the Dominican Republic.

    The announcement by Miller & Chevalier was published shortly after former AIA general counsel Terrence Ona sued AIA for $2 million, claiming both “economic damages and mental anguish” due to his termination in April. The lawsuit between Ona and AIA is ongoing.

    AN will continue to follow this developing story.



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  • An open letter to the board of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

    An open letter to the board of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

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    Dear Members of the Board,

    With the announcement of the departure of Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation’s President Stuart Graff, the Foundation faces a new era. As someone who had the privilege and pleasure of living at Taliesin (in Spring Green, Wisconsin) and Taliesin West (in Scottsdale, Arizona) for five years as I led what was first the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and then the School of Architecture at Taliesin, I would like to provide a few suggestions for the Board to consider as it looks toward its future.

    First, my interpretation (as well as that of many others) of Wright’s will is that the Foundation was set up explicitly to enable the peculiar combination of training program and practice for which Wright and his apprentices built most of the facilities at Taliesin and all of Taliesin West. Over time, that entity split into an architecture practice and an accredited school of architecture. The former petered out and closed, while the latter kept going but largely lost the Foundation’s interest and support. In 2020, after I resigned as its head, “the Foundation and the School were able to resolve their differences and reach an agreement in their mutual best interests and wish each other success in their respective future endeavors,” according to the agreement. The School had to leave its home at Taliesin West. The Foundation then refused to let it use the Wright or Taliesin name or any logos or symbols. Today Taliesin and Taliesin West are empty shells whose primary purposes are to be house museums. Admirably, the School continues to operate a few miles from Taliesin West.

    Wright and his widow, Ogilvanna Wright, abhorred the idea of such preserved tourist sites—a repulsion I personally share. They saw the Fellowship, as the combination school and practice was called, as a living entity that was the heart and soul of the physical sites between which it migrated twice a year. The Foundation was the legal entity meant to ensure that active legacy.

    My advice to the Foundation Board would be to immediately bring back the School, give it back the ability to use the Wright brands and names, and help it grow and thrive. There is a practical side to this suggestion. Even when the School was at a minimal size, it provided several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of support to the Foundation’s extensive and highly paid staff and operations. It also made Taliesin and Taliesin West into living communities that were highly attractive to the sites’ tens of thousands of annual visitors. In its absence, the places are, again in my opinion, empty and barren.

    I believe that Wright’s vision could be honored and continued by thinking of the School as what any good and experimental graduate program in architecture should be: a place that is not only a site for high-level education, but also a research laboratory for the future of our designed environment. That is certainly how Wright treated it when he produced projects such as his “Usonian” vision of sprawl there. Integral to the School have been extensive lecture programs that have brought some of the best practitioners and theoreticians there, which is easy to do because of the sites’ attraction. The monthly social events that brought community members onto the property for meals cooked and served by students and faculty added to the function. These forms of research, development, and outreach could and should be formalized and strengthened.

    As the School is small, the Foundation should look to partner with other educational institutions. While local universities such as the University of Wisconsin and Arizona State have not been very helpful in the past, there are many other institutions with which it could partner. The Foundation could also look beyond the current definition of architecture that has been stripped of many of areas Wright pursued, such as landscape, graphic, and furniture design, as well as agriculture, theater, and film, to extend the School’s activities in new ways. In Wisconsin in particular, the relationship with the strong organic farming tradition and culinary experiments of the Driftless Region in which Taliesin is located suggest a strong potential for integration of the facility’s eight hundred-odd acre site and its programs.

    In order to do this, the Foundation should relax its overly restrictive policy on the use of Wright’s name and logos by the School. This would be more fitting for the history of Wright’s vision instead of endorsing the manufacture vent grilles or faucets with neo-Wrightian details or sneakers inspired by Wright’s Broadacre City.

    The Foundation also needs to abandon its efforts to set the sites in amber. The currently goal of returning the properties to the state in which they were on the day when Wright died in 1959 are based on outmoded ideas of historic preservation and ignore the ways in which both Taliesin and Taliesin West continued to evolve and change–and should continue to do so—both during and after Wright’s life.

    Finally, the Foundation should act as a responsible, open member of the larger communities of which it is part. These include not only the Frank Lloyd Wright ecosystem, with components as the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust in Chicago, the various other historic properties, and the archives the Foundation sold to Columbia University and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but also the larger world of architecture, the more nebulous terrain of intentional communities, and the local communities in Spring Green and Phoenix. The Foundation should be a participant, sometime convener, and thought leader.

    Taliesin and Taliesin West are amazing sites. Frank Lloyd Wright’s legacy in buildings and thought is extensive and productive of new ways of understanding how we might make a more sustainable and beautiful environment. As trustees of these sites and legacies, the Foundation should focus not on policing and exploiting memory, but on fostering what Frank Lloyd Wright and his many collaborators made possible.

    Aaron Betsky is a visiting professor at the Michael Graves School of Public Architecture and a critic living in Philadelphia. He served as the dean of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and then the School of Architecture at Taliesin from 2015 to 2020.



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  • Fluid Truck’s board ousted its sibling co-founders amid allegations of mismanaging funds

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    Fluid Truck, a startup that was founded to disrupt the commercial vehicle rental industry, has ousted its sibling co-founders – CEO James Eberhard and chief legal counsel Jenifer Snyder – according to sources familiar with the matter. The shakeup, which employees have described as a hostile takeover, was led by two minority investors on the board. Both Eberhard and Snyder have retained their own board seats.

    The leadership restructuring, which hasn’t been reported previously, comes after the venture-backed Fluid Truck lost tens of millions of dollars as of June 31, leaving vendors and fleet owners unpaid, according to documents that TechCrunch has viewed and sources with direct knowledge. 

    It’s a hole that several rounds of layoffs and other cost-cutting measures taken in 2023 couldn’t fix for the company that’s been described as a Zipcar of commercial trucks.

    The board’s decision to oust Eberhard and Snyder was driven by two minority shareholders, Bison Capital and Ingka Investments, which is Ikea’s venture arm. Sources familiar with the matter said the investors accused Eberhard of mismanaging the company’s funds and leading it into substantial operating losses. 

    Current and former employees separately described Eberhard as having good intentions and a kind nature, but agreed he played a large part in steering the company to a financial deficit. 

    Now, they’re worried these investors don’t have the company’s best interests at heart. They have pointed to a term sheet for a debt financing round that Bison and Ingka presented in 2023 as evidence of this misalignment. These employees requested anonymity from fear of retaliation. Industry experts say the term sheet presents as an aggressive lifeline, one that demonstrates a loss of faith in Eberhard and Snyder to reform the company.

    In Eberhard’s place today is Scott Avila, a temporary CEO from Paladin Management, a company that guides businesses through challenging financial, operational and strategic transitions. Sources inside the company say this placement has furthered what they describe as an increasingly tense workplace environment at Fluid Truck – one that went from shorts and flip flops and casual banter, to executives in suits and a quiet office, according to sources who saw the transition firsthand.

    To make matters more complicated, the interim CEO has taken the helm at the busiest season of the year for the startup. 

    When asked for comment, Eberhard told TechCrunch to reach out to Fluid Truck’s press contact. Snyder could not be reached.

    Fluid Truck confirmed to TechCrunch that Avila has taken over as interim CEO, but declined to address numerous questions clarifying the information sources revealed. 

    “We are actively addressing our current challenges and pursuing every opportunity to restore our financial health and set Fluid Truck on a solid trajectory for the future,” the company said in an emailed statement. “As we navigate this pivotal transition, our commitment to our employees, [Fluid Vehicle Investor Program members], investors, vendors and customers remains unwavering.”

    Bison and Ingka did not answer questions regarding the term sheet or address allegations they pushed the co-founders out of the company. They did respond with similar statements that repudiated TechCrunch’s questions.

    “Bison Capital is focused on securing a better future for all the Company’s stakeholders and strongly disputes the premises of your questions, all of which indicate that your sources have provided you with incomplete and inaccurate information,” Bison Capital wrote in an emailed statement. 

    Ingka sent a statement with near identical language.

    “We strongly refute the premise of your questions, which suggest that information is incomplete, based on misrepresentations and inaccuracies and has been taken out of context.”

    All good plans go to waste 

    When Fluid Truck launched in 2016, the startup garnered plenty of attention and investment by offering a product that was one-part asset management, one-part software-as-a-service (SaaS). It raised more than $80 million across two rounds, and expanded across the United States and into Buenos Aires. 

    Fluid Truck, which boasts enterprise customers like Amazon, UPS and FedEx, came up with what seemed like a clever scheme in 2018 to make the business more asset-light and reduce its own risk and financial burden. 

    The startup introduced a program, called the Fluid Vehicle Investor Program (FVIP), that would allow individuals and small business owners to purchase fleets of vans and trucks, which could be rented out via the platformFluid Truck would manage the fleets on behalf of the vehicle owner, who would rake in rental income until they sold their fleets. The owner would then rely on the startup to sell the vehicles on their behalf, with the owner earning a lump sum payment for each vehicle sold. 

    In theory, this business model would be a win for everybody. But critical missteps, including mismanaged insurance claims, left many FVIP members waiting for payment on vehicles that Fluid Truck had already sold, according to four asset owners who spoke to TechCrunch under the condition of anonymity. 

    Anytime a driver was involved in a crash or a vehicle was damaged, Fluid Truck would file an insurance claim on behalf of the vehicle owner. Since insurance companies can take up to two years to reimburse claims, Fluid Truck would cover the repair costs to get FVIP vehicles back on the road quickly, according to several FVIP members and an email that Leo Amigoni, Fluid Truck’s chief operating officer, sent FVIP members.

    That meant Fluid Truck was eating into its own cash reserves to pay out insurance claims; and it wasn’t getting money back from insurance companies fast enough to keep up with vendor payments.  

    Sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch the financial hole grew substantially when the company’s management decided to appropriate the funds from vehicles sold toward its own debt to keep the business afloat. 

    Fluid Truck’s outstanding insurance claims today are around $9 million, according to information shared with TechCrunch. The company owes vendors millions, as well.

    FVIP members who spoke to TechCrunch confirmed they’re awaiting payment from Fluid Truck after selling their vehicles, for which they’ve received bills of sale. While payment claims vary, some say they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

    One asset owner, Cina Global, sued Fluid Truck in April 2021 for damages to its fleet of 150 cargo vans, claiming to be owed $100,000. Another company called Van Go filed a complaint against Fluid Fleet (one of the company’s other entities) in September 2022, claiming a breach of contract and material non-performance. The company alleged that Fluid failed to properly maintain and repair its vehicles as promised and delayed decommissioning and returning Van Go’s fleet of vehicles, which resulted in the company incurring significant financial losses. 

    Hostile takeover

    Power struggles between investors and startup founders are a tale as old as venture capital. It’s not uncommon to see a loss of faith in a founder’s abilities or personality clashes between a founder and VC lead to executive shakeups.

    Bison Capital led Fluid’s 2021 fundraise of $63 million, a round that Ingka Investments participated in. Neither has a majority share in the company, according to a current employee, yet they were able to leverage Fluid Truck’s liquidity issues under Eberhard’s stewardship to push him out in mid-July. 

    Sources have pointed out that while Fluid Truck continued to experience a cash crunch, the company hit EBITDA profitability in 2023 for the first time at $3 million. Fluid is expected to hit close to $60 million in revenue in 2024, and also achieve EBITDA positivity. However, for investors, profits aren’t enough to instill confidence in management. 

    Sources said the tension between Eberhard and the investors at Ingka and Bison – Cees Aanahaanen for Ingka and Andreas Hildebrand and Doug Trussler for Bison –  was palpable. 

    Pressure increased last year as the company tried to cut costs. While multiple rounds of layoffs in 2023 brought down Fluid Truck’s spending, the measures didn’t solve its liquidity issues. Bison and Ingka presented Eberhard and the company with a term sheet to invest more money into Fluid Truck, giving it the cash it desperately needed. 

    Sources and industry experts who have viewed the term sheet described the offer  – which would have provided $10 million in debt financing over three tranches – as “aggressive.” The investors called for Eberhard and Snyder to resign from their executive positions and give up their voting rights as shareholders, according to the term sheet. The term sheet also would have required a cost reduction plan and for Fluid Truck to pay back more than $50 million within 36 months. 

    If the company was unable to generate substantial cash within a tight timeframe, it could have been forced to liquidate or further dilute equity. Meanwhile, the investors would have been protected, even at the expense of other shareholders. 

    In spite of its financial problems, Fluid Truck was scaling — a benchmark that some VCs encourage. The company went from operating solely in Denver to 60 U.S. markets in a span of three years. Typically, that kind of growth is rewarded by investors who provide the working capital to maintain, and even accelerate, it. 

    The term sheet from Bison and Ingka would have provided a lifeline, but it came at a cost to Eberhard and Snyder. So Eberhard turned down the offer and set about securing a debt financing round from Trinity Capital to help pay off Fluid’s debts. 

    External market factors got in the way. Valuations started to tank for wholesale used vehicles, particularly after rental car company Hertz filed for bankruptcy in 2021 and flooded the market with a large number of commercial vans and trucks. 

    And without the assurance that Fluid’s existing investors would match Trinity’s loan with equity, the deal fell through. On the back of this loss, the board voted to terminate Eberhard and Snyder.

    Fluid Truck, Bison and Ingka did not respond to TechCrunch’s questions about whether they plan to invest more funds into the company to help it get back on track. Sources familiar with the matter say the investors have not offered to give Fluid Truck more capital. 

    Ingka told TechCrunch it is “aware of the current challenges faced by Fluid Truck, in which [they] hold a minority stake.” The VC said it remains “committed to supporting Fluid Truck during this time and believe[s] strongly in its potential for long-term growth and success.”

    As it stands today, Fluid Truck has new management without direct experience in the company’s ways, and the company is still dealing with the same cash crunch it had when Eberhard was at the helm.

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  • 32 Best Family Board Games (2024): Catan, Labyrinth, Onitama

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    There are so many family board games. Here are a few more we liked.

    Indiana Jones Cryptic for $40: An escape-room puzzle game with Indiana Jones styling is a licensing match made in heaven. This game is beautifully illustrated, with three cases to solve that match story beats from the original trilogy, narration from Indy’s journal, and coin rewards for success. The puzzles are a bit hit or miss (sometimes too easy, sometimes too hard), but once solved you won’t want to play again, though you can always pass the game on.

    You Gotta Be Kitten Me! for $16: A simple twist on liar’s dice that focuses on bluffing and calling bluffs; I am of two minds about this game. On the one hand, the game is nothing special, but on the other, cute cats! My moggy-obsessed daughter immediately wanted to play, and we had a few laughs with outrageous bluffs on the number of glasses, hats, and bow ties on these felines.

    Poetry for Neanderthals for $20: Every card has a word, and your seemingly simple task is to get your team to correctly guess it within the time limit by speaking in single syllables only. If you break the rules, the opposition can hit you with the inflatable “No” stick. Suitable for two to eight players aged 7 and up, it’s loud, silly, and usually makes everyone laugh.

    Danger Danger for $15: Fast and frenetic, this simple card game for two teams is about trying to have high-scoring cards showing at the end of each round. There are no turns, you can cover the other team’s cards, and rounds are timed, but you must guess when the round will end. Super simple and very quick to play, this game can get chaotic.

    That Escalated Quickly for $20: This game is quick, easy, and fun for up to eight players. Featuring scenarios such as “I have invented a new sport, what is it?” players must provide suggestions from least dangerous (1) to most dangerous (10) based on their assigned number for each round. The leader of the round has to try to get them in the correct order. It works best with witty players who know each other well.

    Kitchen Rush for $46: A truly unique title that proves too many cooks can spoil the broth; this game can get chaotic fast. You work together to cook dishes for customers within a strict time limit. It’s a little too complicated for young kids. (I’d say 10 years and up is best.) If you like this, try the videogame Overcooked.

    Sounds Fishy for $20: Another fun group game from Big Potato, the challenge in Sounds Fishy is to spot fake answers. Each card poses a question, but only one of the answers you get is correct. It’s for four to 10 players, and we found it more fun but tougher with more people.

    Zillionaires Road Trip USA for $12: Each of the 49 squares on the game board is a quirky roadside attraction, from Bubblegum Alley to the National Mustard Museum, and players bid to buy them with the aim of securing four in a row. My kids loved this, the adults not so much.

    Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition for $29: You can play this party game with up to 30 players, and it will produce a fair bit of juvenile giggling and chortling. Like the adult version, there isn’t much strategy here, but finding the perfect combination to crack everyone up is satisfying.

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  • Catan: New Energies Review—Climate Crisis Across the Board

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    Not everyone will appreciate a side of existential threat with their board game, but that is exactly what you get with Catan: New Energies. It drags the beloved classic Catan into the modern day with fossil fuels and renewable energy, an inventive climate crisis mechanic, and a clever illustration of the consequences if we fail to work toward a greener world. This stand-alone board game for two to four players doesn’t require the original, though experienced players will grasp it more easily.

    While the message is clear, the makers did not forget about flow or fun. The addictive hook of Catan, the deals, the room for multiple strategies, and the variation in playthroughs are all present and correct. It is familiar enough to entice old fans and fresh enough to demand a look for newcomers. New Energies also succeeds in making its point, and our first game provoked a long and interesting conversation with my kids about why climate change is happening and why some folks are not on board with fighting it.

    New Age Catan

    If you are unfamiliar, The Settlers of Catan was first published in 1995. The game takes place on a fictional medieval island with hexagonal tiles placed randomly, ensuring plenty of replay value. Players must build roads, towns, and cities by spending resources like lumber and grain. Resources are collected and traded after dice rolls to determine which tiles pay out each turn. A robber mechanic spices things up when anyone rolls a seven, and some additional achievements and cards provide victory points. The winner is the first person to amass 10 victory points.

    Boardgame packaging showing the instructions stackable pieces player cards and more

    Photograph: Simon Hill

    Five editions and various expansions were released over the years, and the game was rebranded as simply Catan for the 20th-anniversary edition in 2015. It has sold more than 45 million copies in all its various forms. Catan: New Energies is a stand-alone game rather than an expansion, and it was first conceived over a decade ago, then shelved until creator Klaus Teuber and his sons decided to resurrect it during lockdown.

    All the basic mechanics are still there: the randomly generated map of hexagonal tiles, the resource harvesting and trading, and the race for 10 victory points. But there are several additions and a modern-day makeover. Energy is a new resource, and you harvest it by building power plants; towns can support one, and cities up to three. The energy you generate can be spent on resources, including the new science cards needed to build power plants.

    Fossil fuel power plants cost one science card, while renewable plants cost three, and cards are scarce at the beginning of the game. The catch is that building fossil fuel plants accelerates the risk of climate disasters and increases what’s called your local footprint. Each player must draw brown event tokens from a bag at the beginning of their turn, and these add up to trigger climate events. Most have a negative impact, such as hazards that block cities from earning resources for a turn, and they tend to punish the player with the highest local footprint.

    Overhead view of a boardgame set up on a table including a large circular board player cards and stackable pieces

    Photograph: Simon Hill

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  • Ana Kraš Talks Couch Covers, Static Noise, and Why You Shouldn’t Mood Board

    Ana Kraš Talks Couch Covers, Static Noise, and Why You Shouldn’t Mood Board

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    Ana Kraš has worn many hats throughout her career. From photographing campaigns for brands like Maryam Nassir Zadeh and Saks Potts to creating set designs for Ganni, she’s been at the center of fashion for decades. As an artist and designer, Ana has shown her textiles, drawings, and paintings at galleries internationally, and collaborated with Hay to produce her signature Bonbon pendant light. (In 2006, she published her debut photography book, Ikebana Albums, on Prestel.) Now the Serbian-born, Paris-based creative is adding founder to her impressive résumé with the launch of Teget, an objects brand she describes as “uncompromised and personal.”

    Ana has spent the past few years figuring out what vessel a brand of her own—with no commercial constraints—would take shape through. She toyed with launching a furniture brand and then a fashion brand, but both felt too tied to a single dimension of her identity. Built alongside her partner Ruben Moreira, a Jacquemus model with a background in business and legal, the creative couple ultimately decided to position as an objects brand, allowing for fluidity across fashion, home, and “whatever comes in the future.”

    Image may contain Cushion Home Decor Couch Furniture Clothing Footwear Shoe Face Head Person and Photography

    Ana lays on top of the ‘Warm Stripes‘ sofa cover surrounded by cushions from the collection.

    Photo: Ana Kraš

    As the culmination of her professional worlds and personal interests, Teget’s first collection, Static Noise, a nod to the visuals of a TV channel with no transmission (which Ana recalls finding “hypnotizing and beautiful” in her childhood), includes products ranging from paper lights and laminate tables to patterned sofa covers and oversized cushions. Ana’s vision was to create a series of essential objects that could make the biggest impact in a space starting with lighting, a personal favorite of hers. “You can have a mattress on the floor and a beautiful lamp that gives away a nice light and you’ll enjoy a room,” she says. “Soft and gentle light is going to change your life more than any furniture piece.”

    Designed as wall sconces, the Panel Lamp blends her art practice and textile work and is available in eight colorways with playful names like Wheat Field, Icescape, and Duvet. As Ana further explains, “Growing up my parents had a photocopy shop, so paper is my favorite material on the planet and something that I like to use a lot in my work. It was a must for my brand to have paper lamps.” While these lights exist as more of an artist edition and collectible items, comparing the collection to a fashion brand’s couture line, she has plans to launch a line that “many people can afford, as more of ready-to-wear,” noting that accessibility is very important as the brand evolves.

    Image may contain Cushion Home Decor Pillow Adult and Person

    Static Noise cushions from the Teget x unspun collaboration in ‘Sugar’ and ‘TV’.

    Photo: Ana Kraš

    Image may contain Furniture Table Dining Table Architecture Building Dining Room Indoors Room and Interior Design

    Panel Lamp in ‘Montenegro’ mounted on a wall in the dining room.

    Photo: Ana Kraš

    Inspired by her late grandmother Mara’s entirely laminate kitchen, Ana’s first furniture pieces are the appropriately named Mara T side table and Mara T coffee table. While typically the material can be “associated either to something inexpensive or to midcentury-modern shapes,” she made a point to design her laminate tables from a new perspective through texture and color while still working from archetypal shapes. The result is intentional lines that allow the tables to take on a new shape from every angle.



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  • Gyro-stabilized XFoil 2 puts dynamic wing flaps on a hydrofoiling board

    Gyro-stabilized XFoil 2 puts dynamic wing flaps on a hydrofoiling board

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    If airplane wings have moveable control surfaces, why don’t the wings of hydrofoiling boards? Well, the XFoil 2 does, resulting in what is said to be a much smoother and stabler ride than anything offered by its “old school” competitors.

    We first heard about the original version of PLX Devices’ XFoil two years ago, at which time it was the subject of an Indiegogo campaign.

    The board’s big selling feature was its modular design, which allowed it to be used as an unpowered stand-up paddleboard, a powered surfboard, or a powered hydrofoiling board. Its foiling wings were like those of any other, in that they were completely rigid.

    The XFoil 2 still boasts the original’s 3-in-1 design, but it now features what is known as the Omega system. This consists of motorized ailerons on its front wing, along with a motorized elevator on the one in the rear. These are automatically actuated by an integrated 6-axis electronic gyroscope, which instantaneously detects and compensates for any changes in the board’s roll, pitch or yaw.

    The prototype Omega system, pictured here on one the original XFoil boards
    The prototype Omega system, pictured here on one the original XFoil boards

    PLX Devices

    According to PLX, this functionality allows the XFoil 2 to maintain a smooth (and upright) ride even when subjected to waves, wind gusts, and subtle unintentional weight-shifting on the part of the user. That said, it still recognizes the rider’s more purposeful shifts in body weight, keeping them fully in control of steering at all times.

    In hydrofoiling mode, the XFoil 2 has a claimed runtime of one hour with the standard battery or 2.5 hours with an optional long-range battery, and a top speed of 30 mph (48 km/h). It also sports a lighter, stronger new carbon fiber body with a 6061-T6 anodized aluminum wing mast, a 6,000-watt motor, and a handheld Bluetooth remote (with an OLED display) for controlling the speed.

    A closer look at the XFoil 2's wings and motor
    A closer look at the XFoil 2’s wings and motor

    PLX Devices

    Like its predecessor was before it, the XFoil 2 is presently on Indiegogo. Assuming it reaches production, a pledge of US$4,999 (planned retail $15,000) will get you the full gyro-stabilized version of the board – a retrofit for the original model is also available for $2,999 (retail $6,000).

    You can see the board in action, in the video below.

    XFoil Dynamic Wings Prototype Demo

    Source: Indiegogo



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  • Almost 100%-recyclable circuit board turns to jelly for disassembly

    Almost 100%-recyclable circuit board turns to jelly for disassembly

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    A new type of printed circuit board (PCB) could drastically reduce the amount of electronic waste that ends up in landfills. Although most PCBs are difficult to recycle, such is not the case with this one, which partially turns into a reusable jelly when necessary.

    Among other components, PCBs typically incorporate a layer of non-conductive fiberglass which serves as a substrate for electronic parts such as chips, resistors and transformers. The fiberglass is in turn made up of two ingredients – woven glass fibers and epoxy resin – which are very difficult to separate from one another.

    Because this substrate material can’t be easily broken down, retrieving the electronics for reuse is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Sometimes the fiberglass is burned away in order to harvest the electronics, but this process is environmentally-unfriendly plus it may damage the very components that it’s freeing up.

    That’s where the experimental new PCB comes in.

    Created by scientists from the University of Washington, it replaces the resin in the fiberglass with a polymer known as a vitrimer. As long as the PCB is in use, that vitrimer remains strong, rigid and non-conductive, allowing the substrate to function just like one made of traditional fiberglass.

    Agni K. Biswal, a University of Washington postdoctoral scholar in mechanical engineering, uses a heat press to laminate a vitrimer printed circuit board
    Agni K. Biswal, a University of Washington postdoctoral scholar in mechanical engineering, uses a heat press to laminate a vitrimer printed circuit board

    Mark Stone/University of Washington

    Once such a “vPCB” (vitrimer printed circuit board) has reached the end of its use, it will be sent to a recycling facility and immersed in an organic solvent which has a relatively low boiling point. When that solvent boils, it causes the vitrimer to swell and become gelatinous.

    All of the glass fibers and electronics – which remain completely undamaged – can then be easily plucked out for reuse. Additionally, lab experiments have shown that 98% of the vitrimer itself can be reused, along with 91% of the solvent.

    And importantly, vPCBs can be manufactured at existing facilities, plus they can be recycled over and over again. In fact, the scientists estimate that the use of recycled vPCBs could entail a 48% reduction in global warming potential and an 81% reduction in carcinogenic emissions as compared to traditional PCBs.

    “PCBs make up a pretty large fraction of the mass and volume of electronic waste,” says Asst. Prof. Vikram Iyer, co-senior author of a paper on the research. “They’re constructed to be fireproof and chemical-proof, which is great in terms of making them very robust. But that also makes them basically impossible to recycle. Here, we created a new material formulation that has the electrical properties comparable to conventional PCBs as well as a process to recycle them repeatedly.”

    The paper was recently published in the journal Nature Sustainability. And as an interesting side note, some of the same scientists previously used vitrimers in a more easily repairable and recyclable type of carbon fiber.

    Source: University of Washington



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