Looks like a simple block of wood? There’s a secret inside, or at least there could be!

While Japanese companies are known for their clever designs and attention to detail (and a whole host of other less positive things), not everyone waits until they finish school to head out into the big, wide world of design.

Looking back through the hazy mists of time to my own school days, Design Technology, as the lessons were called at my school, consisted of about one part making pen stands from various materials and one part sniggering every time the teacher referred to the bastard files. Despite each thinking ourselves the next Isambard Kingdom Brunel, our creations looked they’d been crafted by students without opposable thumbs and then left out in the sun.

Bearing that in mind, the following creation is stunningly impressive.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/872712584343965696

When instructed by their teacher to ‘build a container using layered wooden boards’ a Japanese first-year high school student (so about 16 years old), created this container with a hidden heart, accessible only to those who can decipher the safe-like lock (or hit it with a hammer – not shown, unsurprisingly).

▼ From the outside it looks like a solid block.

▼ But give it a twist…

▼ And a secret hidey-hole is revealed!

The ingenious design means that the top two layers can be independently rotated, releasing the catches from their holes, uncovering the secret compartment within. Now, what to put in it? Suggestions on a postcard. Now to dig out my metal rule, put a pencil behind my ear, and give that pen stand another go.

Source, images: Twitter/reach_lukuku