Torggler's Evolution Safety Feature

Remember Klemens Torggler's crazy Stahltür and Evolution doors? We'd joked about them never being available in litigious America due to the inherent safety hazard—but it turns out Torggler has updated the Evolution with a way to ensure your fingers don't get pinched:

For those who prefer to live dangerously, he's also got a version of the original Stahltür mechanism that can now handle a 200 kilogram (440 pound) steel door, shown here:

The Tubakuba Mountain Hub

A very different sort of door that's no less unusual can be found in the entrance to the Tubakuba Mountain Hub, a short-term rental getaway overlooking Bergen, Norway.

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Conceived of at a design-build workshop run by OPA Form Architects at the Bergen School of Architecture, the image above is probably a rendering, but the ones below aren't. The structure was actually built.

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Norwegian pine is apparently flexible, and by using "curved shavings" of the stuff, the team was able to get it around that radius "mounted in layers to provide sufficient strength."

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The actual door on the interior, seen below at left, is Hobbit-sized.

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That's because the entrance is child-height. Adults must crawl.

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There's not a lot in the interior in the way of amenities…

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…but the view overlooking Bergen is pretty nice.

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The Sibling/Y3K Entrance & Interior Device

Y3K was the name of a temporary gallery in Melbourne, designed to last for only two years. Architecture firm Sibling provided a rather special door to the space at their request:

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If you're like me, you're wondering what the hell's going on here. Your understanding of the purpose depends on your tolerance for architecturespeak:

[This] site-specific intervention [was created] to address the relationship of the space to the street. Here, the established role of the door in creating an impression of what lies beyond is layered with confusion. Retaining the existing door leafs due to a heritage overlay, a polycarbonate, timber and plywood insert forms a new architectural device.

The insertion allows Y3K to constantly manipulate the relationship the gallery has with the public: where the visitor is either welcomed by a large opening or a more complex negotiation is required to enter the space when the door transforms into three flexible walls.

Lauchner's Killer Cabinet

Lastly, we return to Torggler's Evolution mechanism. When designer Craig Lauchner needed an entertainment center for he and his wife, he built one himself, incorporating Torggler-inspired doors:

MUST. BUILD.