apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Tara Mullaney, a recent graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, designed a most unusual collection of normal housewares—a teacup, chair and frying pan—that react with abnormal actions when you use them:

A teacup that shivers in response to its tea going cold. A chair that warms when you sit in it, revealing its aspirations to be soft and comfortable. A pan whose handle becomes impossible to grasp when it becomes hot to the touch.

It's all done with the help of motors, temperature sensors, Flexinol wire and thermochromic paint.

The porcupine pan makes grabbing a hot pan an impossibility as Flexinol wire spikes at attention when it's too hot to handle. The fever chair is designed to please as it's lined with warming heat-tape that will keep you cozy as soon as you sit down. The shiver cup lets you know when your tea's gone cold the same way that we mortals do, as it's embedded with a temperature sensor and a small motor for the shivering action.

Below are the porcupine pan, the fever chair and the shivering teacup in action, respectively:

Via Core77