The Folding Stuff - gadgets for the space-savvy Londoner

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Barbara Chandler10 April 2012

Super-savvy outwardly mobile Londoners know the value of the folding stuff. Neat designs that take up less room in bags, backpacks, car boots or on bicycles are a boon for the spatially challenged.

Since fashionistas first fell upon folding ballet pumps, fold-to-go has been a big success on the design agenda.

So just in time for festival forays comes the portable iPhone Speaker - a nifty all-in-one unit which unzips and then unfolds (like a mini-suitcase), to reveal an iPhone/Pod dock in the bottom and two built-in speakers in the lid.
When travelling, we all find bulky three-pin UK plugs bashing up our super-slim laptops annoying. Sheffield engineer John Gillis invented the basic SlimPlug with fold-down pins (£8.70, teleadapt.com), but now the challenge is radically to slim the plug itself.

Zihni Yalcin from Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, recently won an international Red Dot Award for his BSI-approved ThinPlug (on the market early this summer; thinplug.com). Korean Royal College of Art graduate Min-Kyu Choi also won an award for the concept of his "folding plug", still under development. And Yalcin's snappy folding ThinCharger with a USB port for iPhones, iPods etc costs £12.95 - and the folding action is the same as his plug (gizoo.co.uk).

The new Dell Inspiron has a seamless flip-hinge which changes the screen from a netbook to a tablet PC, and thus from type to touch, in seconds (£479 in John Lewis).

Notting Hill eco-activist Guy Jeremiah was roasted on Dragons' Den for his collapsible £5 Aquatina water bottles in "food-safe" plastic, but they have sold 28,000 and are flying out of Howies on Carnaby Street.

The Brits invented folding "campaign" furniture for overseas domination, with fine woods and classy brass hinges. Today, the owner of Roullier White in East Dulwich has a stylish aluminium update he found in America - an all-in-one lightweight aluminium picnic table and four seats which folds flat for £100.

"Analyse the function of an object and its form often becomes obvious," said Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. The eightfold action of Porsche's titanium "folding reading tool" (specs to you and me) is not really obvious - just brilliant. It comes with a choice of four lens strengths, for £219. "This is a much-coveted classic," says optician Richard Brunt of H Dickinson, which has an internet service to fit any strength lens into these classy frames.

New from Vitra, German incubator of more design classics, comes Chairless, the most minimal fold-down on the market (£20 from Conran). It's simply a strap to help you sit on the floor.

Unsnap, unfold, slip it over your head, and it will comfortably hold your knees against your body (adjust to fit). From Germany comes a more expensive seating design in the form of VIAL's pop-up seats.

Mums on the move want portable babies and that means folding gear. Mother Rachel Jones invented the new Totseat, which unfolds from a pouch to turn any dining chair into a baby seat up at the table (£24).

Unfold, fold up, travel light on the move - for the latest in cool design, it really is an open and shut case.

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