This was one of those where I had to check the date when I read about it, and no, it wasn’t April 1st A  Dutch architectural firm has created a modular house that can physically separate when a couple does.

Studio OBA‘s design is called the prenuptial house. The components are made from wood and carbon fibre, prefabricated independently of each other and slotted together in a Tetris-like formation to form one unit.  In keeping with its Amsterdam origins, the house will also float to cater for those divorcees that want to try canal living.

I’m not sure what kind of couple get married and then buy a house which prepares them for their divorce, but it’s an interesting idea. Two other thoughts spring from it:

1. Might there be other uses for a ‘seperateable’ house…to enable friends to buy a house together and then separate when they are more financially stable,  for example?

2. Divorce is on the increase. What other products or services might help to smooth the path?

Website: www.studio-oba.nl

Last year, I recall a story circulating  about Amazon trialling delivery by drone. I think  it was some kind of hoax because it seemed so impractical, but maybe there is potential for it after all.

Chinese company, JD, are trialling a drone delivery service outside Suqian City in East China’s Jiangsu province.  The service currently runs between central depots and those in more rural areas. The reason it becomes realistic is that the final leg of the journey is still run by actual people. According to the company, this final human leg is necessary to mitigate the potential danger of multiple, individual flight paths.

The drones can carry up to 33 pounds in weight and travel up to 12 miles at speeds of up to 34 mph. The machines can also function in moderate rain and wind. A drone can make the journey significantly faster than a delivery van, trundling through winding roads.

So could drone deliveries actually work in the UK? Well in rural areas, and if you exclude the possibility of delivering direct to the door from a drone, I see no reason why not. Perhaps something to watch.

Treepress is an online platform designed for users to upload, search and license scripts for plays.

There are 700,000 amateur theatre performances in the UK alone. Users can upload their scripts to the site and search the database to discover new work to perform. The platform  aims to solve key problems of theatre publishing – publishers find it hard to distribute their work, self-publishing is time consuming, and content is impossible to find.

iTunes has revolutionised the way music is licensed and distributed. Perhaps theatre is the next frontier. If you’re looking to publicise your script or looking for a script to perform, this seems the ideal vehicle.

Website: www.treepress.org

Studies show that roughly half of all our food goes to waste.  Too Good To Go is an app that allows users to order food from local restaurants at a big discount – food that would otherwise be thrown away.

App users choose from a selection of restaurants, pay through the app and travel to pick up their meal. Restaurants normally offer designated pick-up times for food, usually at closing or after peak eating times. The meals cost between £2 and £3.80. The service provides participating restaurants with recyclable takeaway food containers and includes an option to donate meals to people in need. So far, the app is only available in certain UK cities: Brighton; Birmingham; Manchester and Leeds,  and London.

Anything which cuts food waste and helps people save money has to be a good thing. Might you be able to organise something like this with local restaurants in your area, perhaps splitting the revenue? Something to think about.

Website: www.toogoodtogo.co.uk

Sometimes you can’t predict where a money making opportunity will come from. A British schoolgirl from Gloucester  has made £48,000 by helping Chinese parents name their babies!

Many Chinese parents are fascinated with Western culture and want to give their children English sounding names. But because of  censorship, they often don’t have access to relevant naming websites. Sixteen year old Beau Jessop was asked for advice whilst travelling in China and hit on the idea of setting up an accessible website which links English names with the Chinese tradition of basing names on the elements.

Site visitors get to pick from a shortlist and pay 60p for the final choice. They then get a certificate detailing information about the name including an example of a famous person who shares it. Over 200,000 Chinese parents have been helped to find names so far.

It’s very easy to focus on the home market because, well, that’s where you are. But there’s a huge world out there. In China alone for example, there are almost £1.4 billion people – over 20 times the population of the UK. Some time spent figuring out what they might want to buy, could deliver huge dividends.