Weekly design dictionary: emotional austerity, the Flipi, QR cufflinks

(Koelnmesse/Constantin Meyer)

Design buzz words of the week (January 9-16).

Ark - designed by Alexander Remizov, an architect for Remmistudio, the Ark is a building with an independent life-support system designed to support a bio-climate and be built either on land or in the sea. ( Arch Daily)

ECAL - a Paris exhibition dedicated to the French University of Art and Design (ECAL) will be showcasing the latest innovative lighting designs from the school's current students, recent graduates and former pupils such as renowned furniture designer Fabien Cappello. ( Wallpaper)

Emotional Austerity - the art of combining simple designs and formal edges with high tech components, "emotional austerity" is predicted to be one of the major trends at upcoming household design exhibition IMM Cologne from January 18-23. ( IMM Cologne)

Flipi - designed by Shlomi Platzman, the Flipi is a multi-plug socket than allows each section to be rotated so that it is able to accommodate irregular plug sizes without causing the loss of other sockets. ( Yanko Design)

Floating village - UK based property developer Floating Concepts has been chosen to develop a floating leisure village in an area of the Clyde River in Scotland. ( World Interior Design Network)

Henning Larsen ­- the architectural firm won an international architecture competition to design the Calabar Conference Center in Nigeria. ( World Interior Design Network)

Tulip - a revolutionary new bath and shower unit known as the Tulip has been popular across the design blogs this week. The unit has a clear plastic front which can be raised to act as a shower curtain or lowered to double as a bathtub. ( Trends Now (French only)/ Yanko Design)

QR cufflinks - Canadian design company Blend Creations has released a selection of QR (quick read) barcode cufflinks. Secret messages can be engraved on the cufflinks, then read via a barcode scanner on a smartphone. ( Design Spotter)