DISRUPTIVE DESIGNS
DESIGN ICONS
Everything around us has been engineered, from the smartphone in your pocket to the pen in your hand. But some designs truly challenge the norm and change the way we live. These disruptive designs and designers inspire us to keep thinking differently.
BROMPTON BICYCLE
From a tinkering side project to one of the largest volume bike manufacturers in Britain.
CATSEYES
The company Percy Shaw founded in 1935 still makes over a million Catseyes every year.
THE TESLA COIL
His invention became the 20th century's standard power system - all over the world.
THE COMPUTER PROGRAM
An addendum that would change the world as we know it.
TURBOJET ENGINE
Air combat and international travel - revolutionized.
CONCORDE
The first supersonic airliner.
SELF-CLEANING GLASS
Sometimes it's laziness that's the mother of invention.
GEODESIC DOME
A pioneering environmentalist who did more with less.
THOMAS EDISON
"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration".
MEMORY FOAM
Synonymous with comfortable mattresses, memory foam was actually developed by an aeronautical engineering working at a NASA research centre.
ZIP
Or 'hookless fastener no. 2', as it was officially known.
ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL
A master of materials and structures who transformed public transport.
THE HOOK AND LOOP FASTENER
Mestral named his creation Velcro after the French 'velours', meaning velvet and 'crochet', meaning hook.
AKASHI-KAIKYO BRIDGE
Conventional design pushed to its limits.
WINDSCREEN WIPERS
Until 1903, driving in inclement weather involved in an element of guesswork.