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Make beautiful combinations:

17 principles and examples

Inspiration for innovation

Inspiration for innovation.

Make smart, cool, social, sustainable, cost saving and beautiful combinations.

1. Combine nostalgia with new uses

Solar box

Red London phone boxes on Tottenham Court Road are converted into free solar- powered mobile phone charging points or defibrillator houses.

2. Mix the bold and the beautiful

A waste to Energy plant which doubles as ski-slope

Amager Resource Center Denmark

3. Blend strong concepts

and new applications

Uberfication, Tinderfication, Shazamifaction …

4. Combine unused space and new functions

Ikea Utrecht (NL) and a bus stop

In 2013 a sports field was opened on the roof of an Ikea store in Utrecht in the Netherlands resulting a further 12,000 sqm being added to the building’s useable area.

The local authorities would not allow the centre to expand because it would have destroyed existing sporting facilities so two artificial grass pitches with a total area of ​​20,000 sqm were built on the roof of the building as well as a club room on the roof of the new car park.

5. Integrate nature and comfort

Grapevine canopy in the old town of Jerez, Spain.

Greensulation and natural airco.

6. Surprise with art and functionality

7. Mingle colors

Our cities also need more color next to trees and parks. Hidden basketball court pressed between two bleak apartment buildings in suburban Paris.

8. Combine high and low tech

XBOX 360 controllers for periscope control in newest US Submarines

9. Add fun to packaging

Toys made of cardboard relief boxes

"Relief packages for refugees or those in disaster-stricken areas meet essential needs, containing food and medicine. But there is no room for toys or games

– a basic need for children. Playing helps them to cope. With ‘Inside the Box’ I created a way to make the packages themselves fun by printing colourful images of animals, vehicles and board games on the inside. These can easily be cut out to make toys and there are different colour codes for different ages. In this way, the aid boxes are not wasted, but get a new life, brightening the days of the most vulnerable." Lisanne Koning

10. Mix things for happiness

11. Learn from other industries

12. Give objects a soul

Doctors in Brescia, Italy, check a patient's lung scan. Mobile XRay device from Siemens - child-friendly version with giraffe design.

13. Combine products / services and platforms / ecosystems

open source / partnering / open API’s / co-creation / crowdsourcing / platform / corporate startups / alliances / cool combinations / network / junctions / cross-sector / mixing / love your competitors / co-branding / hybrid organisation / ecosystem / open data / peer to peer / shortcutting / …

14. Go for multifunctionality

Skatepark doubles as emergency reservoir in event of flooding

15. Combine a chainsaw and a bike

Video (with English subtitles)

16. Manifesto

Let’s make beautiful combinations

17. Look for similarities

No vacation this year ... That's how we solve it here. This morning before showering I thought I had slept in the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai.. 😎. And that for € 7.49.

Extra: new edition with many examples

"Reinventing multifunctionality

Innovation through integration"

Authors: Jurgen van der Heijden (AT Osborne) Denise de Blok (AT Osborne)
Date of publication: 15 June 2020

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