The 5 Biggest Design Stories of 2013

Too often, people associate design exclusively with architecture or cars. This year, some of the best design stories had nothing to do with buildings. And not all of them should.

Great stories of design do not have to be about making the tallest, strongest, fastest or most beautiful thing and 2013 was an exemplary year of that.

This year was about designing something practical that could make a big difference. Vanity went out the window — 2013 seemed more about applying the skills and resources we acquired accomplishing great feats and scaling them for everyone's benefit.

Here are the five biggest design stories of 2013 from a list by Fast Company.

1. A shelter design by IKEA. The Swedish home furnishings company that had more than 27 billion euros in revenue in 2012 applied its affordable-quality philosophy to a shelter for refugees. In July, Ikea Foundation and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) released build-it-yourself homes with electricity-generating roofs. The temporary residences fold flat for easy transportation and will last an estimated ten times longer than a traditional tent.

One shelter, which is packed with features like an overhead awning to deflect the sun during the day, costs $10,000 but could fall to as little as $1,000.

More than 43 million people globally live as refugees, in either another country or their own, and 80 percent of them are women and children.

2. Condoms that feel good. In March, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced it will reward $1 million towards the production of a condom that more people wanted to wear.

Condoms are a cheap means to avoid pregnancy and help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases but many men say they reduce stimulation and are uncomfortable.

The foundation put out a call for designers to create something that would alleviate the problem and was flooded with more than 500 applications.

3. Microapartment's people want to live in. Steve Sauer, an engineer live part-time in a 182-square-foot apartment in Seatle. He designed it himself ans swears it is spacious enough for him.

The "Pico-dwelling," a term he coined, is three levels with an open kitchen, a bathroom, a bed space, two bikes, and a dining room table that can seat six.

He invested more than $50,000 to create the space but it's not about the money. On a large scale, like a metropolis high rise, they will come down in cost and the building could contain double the apartments of others.

4. Cell phone towers that aren't obviously cell phone towers. Nothing spoils a wide view of a landscape like a cell phone tower but there is some effort going into their concealment and that got some attention in 2013.

Dillon Marsh, a South African photographer produced a series of photos of the "concealed" towers. What intrigued him about them was how badly they stuck out in spite of the effort to hide them.

It's a story of a design failure, really.

5. 3D printers that can pay for themselves. 3D pringting was around before 2013 but printers this year were designing items that could make one worth purchasing.

In a study put out by Mechatronics in July, the publication listed 20 household items that would help a 3D printer pay for itself. The items might not be the flashiest, but the total savings could be anywhere from $300 to $2,000.