Pac Man

For the second year, Portuguese architects Bruno André and Francisco Salgado Ré (together known as AND-RÉ) have won the Iberian Urban Equipment Prize, an award organized by the Journal Architectures in partnership with Larus - Urban Design. Last year AND-RÉ won for the lighting design “Verso,” and this year's award in the “urban furniture” category is for their “Pac Man” recycling bins.

The spherical bins feature hand- and foot-operated "mouths" that are color-coded for the different types of recycling; pictured is the yellow metal/plastics bin. The functional orbs add a bit of whimsy to the streetscape, like little aliens assembled in rows. Or, as the designers humorously put it, the "round white skin creatures, distinguished from each other by the color of their mouths, were multiplying, rolling down the hills ... they opened their blue, yellow, green, and black mouths, and began eating all the garbage."