on 11. 3.09
Image credit Razy2
What is the difference between a dining table and a desk?
Mocoloco shows a very clever dining table for six with a pull-out end that exposes storage, USB hub and pen holders. A little pull changes the nature of it completely.
on 09.10.09
If the meal calls for disposable plates, they may as well be biological nutrients that can be readily returned to the soil. Elegance doesn't hurt, either. These disposable plates, bowls, and serving dishes from VerTerra are made from fallen leaves, pressed into shape with nothing but heat and water. You can see from our post last year that VerTerra's designs have evolved aesthetically, while retaining the same remarkably simple production process.
on 09. 9.09
Timber Houses Lead a Double Life. As Carbon Sinks.
National Geographic points us to the work of Galina Churkina of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research in Germany. TreeHugger has often made the case for wood construction as a way of creating less CO2 during construction and sequestering it in the building; Galina takes it much further, suggesting that
Anybody can increase storage of organic carbon in their house by buying wooden furniture instead of plastic and using natural materials like wool, cotton and silk for interior design. Using carbon-rich construction materials and furniture with a long lifetime would increase inorganic carbon storage in cities.
on 04.16.09
You probably came across some of Ekobo's elegant and colourful kitchen accessories made from bamboo. If you like their work, which incorporates ethical production and eco-friendly materials, check out the MELLO stools. Glossy, minimalist and funky looking, the bamboo poufs are stackable, come in two sizes and the many bright colours that are typical for Ekobo products.
on 03.12.09
We love it when furniture can be adapted to different functions, like Catalan designer Guillem Ferran’s chair ‘Distendido’ that turns into a laundry rack. We also love it when design brings back traditional values and adds innovation to a sometimes-dying craft like the seat collection Where Memory Used To Sit by the same Spanish designer.
on 02.19.09
If you like it colourful and silky, eco-friendly and hand-crafted, Rajboori has just the things for you. These luxurious eco silk textiles brighten up any home with a bit of Indian colours and modern designs.
on 02. 9.09Table tops are easy; any old door or slab will do. Legs are tougher; you can go to IKEA or Mockett and buy any number of different designs of legs that can be screwed on, but nothing so simple to install as Phillipe Nigro's idea for a "universal base" that just clamps on to the top.
on 01.22.09
The Home Project, a design studio based between Berlin and Portugal, have surprised us before with their curious choice for materials; egg cups made from salt, and speakers made from cork. Wonderfully simple, fully biodegradable and renewable is what we love about their products. Here is another one for you: a traditional terracotta flowerpot but made from cork called Vaso 2.0.
Casa Decor, the international interior design show, chose “Pathway to a Sustainable Environment” (or Rumbo Sostenible in Spanish) as this year’s theme for their exhibition in Barcelona. We already wrote about the elegant recycled restaurant by designer Nancy Robbins in a previous article, and we would now like to present you the project Barcelona Forever, by designer Mette Bak Andersen. It is a more poetic recycling project, getting people to think about obsolescence and re-use. (More images after the jump)...
In our previous article about Casa Decor, the international interior design show taking place this month in Barcelona, we weren’t sure they stuck to their self-implied title Pathway to a Sustainable Environment (or “Rumbo Sostenible” in Spanish). However, amongst the non-convincing projects and confusing messages, the design of the restaurant makes a refreshing difference. Designed by Barcelona-based Nancy Robbins Design Studio, we’d like to invite you to take a closer look at a precious piece of recycled interior design. Read on to see more images....
Increasingly, we notice that people all over the world nurture a deep wish to live simply, beautifully. A case in point is how we eat. Traditionally, here in Japan, people eat with wooden chopsticks.
The trend in the past few years is to design beautiful ohashi that users cherish and keep for a long time. These properly designed, award-winning wooden chopsticks feel wonderful in your hand, with a lovely balance. Perfect for just eating a little bite, little by little. If you like slow food, this is the only utensil you need....
Kelly LaPlante's eco-friendly DIFFA installation/photo by Natalie Sojka
The design industry is not typically known for its desire to reduce, reuse and recycle. Clients who can actually afford interior designers to “do” their homes have a reputation for an “out with the old, in with the new” mentality that keeps these designers in business.
Read on to find out how sustainably-minded designer Kelly La Plante’s latest show installation took that mentality and turned it on its ear…...
The vase designed and named after Finnish designer Alvar Aalto is an icon among the design-savvy. The now-classic piece was released in 1937 at the World Fair in Paris. Today, the vase is produced by Iittala, which has slightly changed the size and colours to please today’s market. The vase in the image above however, is called Droog Aalto. It is the work of Czech designer Jan Ctvrtnik who expresses the effects of global warming, based on the famous Aalto vase. More images after the jump....
Dining Room Furniture For Small Spaces
TreeHugger is always on the lookout for sleek ways to do more with less; it's a good thing any time you can, say, get six extra seats from a cube slightly larger than one cubic foot. That's the idea behind Japanese designer Naho Matsuno's Cube 6, an ingenious construction that fits six stools into a diminutive cube just bigger than a foot (35 cm) each way. Dinner party time? Bring out the cube! Party's over? Put the cube away; no need for a whole dining room to store a full set of full-size chairs.
Matsuno showed the design in the Salone Satellite at the recently-concluded Milan Furniture Fair; like Cube Style's Dining Set, it'd go great with the amazing BEDUP, the bed that retracts into the ceiling, and any other compact living solution that helps you live large in a small space. It isn't quite a whole apartment in a box or a whole apartment's worth of stuff in 43 square feet, but it's a pretty great way to add tons of possibilities to small space without adding tons of stuff. See how it works, and see the three-stool version, below the fold.
More on the Cube 6, Modern Dining Room Furniture for Small Spaces::Naho Matsuno via ::dezeen
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The Finnish family business Lasistudio reclaims glass bottles and jars without crushing them in order to create new objects. All the products are hand-made in an old barn in Finland. By taking advantage of the original shapes of the waste packages, only 1/4 of the energy needed to shape new objects from melted glass is used, says Jan Torstensson Oy, glassworks specialized in manufacturing items from recycled packaging glass....
Swedish design company Hetta’s favourite materials are cork, leather and wool. We particularly like the corky underlays for pots; one has the shape of a Ladder, and another one is Long and flexible for you to decorate the table in countless ways.
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We featured The Home Project’s cork speakers on TreeHugger before but have a look at these curious egg cups, perfect to display and eat this year's Easter eggs. ...
Intrigued by the possibility of single-use tableware made exclusively of pressed, organic fallen leaves (no colors, no binders, and no coating or stabilizers added), we asked Micheal of VerTerra to share some product table-top shots with us. We'll intersperse them with a few text snippets.Our entire process is run in concert with nature, which is why we use fallen leaves, and recapture over 80% of the water that we use. Our products are fine for use in a microwave, oven or freezer and bio-degrade in as little as 6 weeks, and they are fully compostable (a much higher standard than biodegradable)....
After our initial launch, we were thrilled to find Crate & Barrel's Kona rug. And over the past few years we’ve covered the company's various eco-products, such as their glass food storage containers, their Bamboo Bento collection and, in the past year, their “green sofa.” Nowadays, we’re amazed at what they’ve come up with.
At first, we were skeptical of Crate & Barrel’s most recent e-newsletters, touting their commitment to sustainability, but we’re beginning to see that this might not be a case of your average green washing. “The best place to start making the world a better place is right at home,” reads the introduction to the environmental part of their website. “At Crate & Barrel, green is not a trend. It’s an ongoing mission.”
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Too often, our dining tables are relegated to dust-collecting duty when it isn't dinner time. Functioning in the same way beds do in our lives -- that is, totally necessary when we need them, but just occupying space when we don't -- few dining tables offer the functional equivalent of something like a futon that can become a couch when not in use for its other purpose as a bed. Fusion Tables hopes to change that, by combining dining and billiards into one table. Yep, a pool table that changes into an elegant dining table, and back again, in just a few seconds.
It might not be quite as smart as the Ex Libris Bookshelf Table, but we bet it's more fun. Hit the jump to see more pics of it converting, and in classy dining mode. ::Fusion Tables via ::Freshome
See also ::BuyGreen: Dining Tables...
The greenest dining room chairs are the ones that use reclaimed or recycled materials, organic fibers and sustainable manufacturing practices. If you don't already have green dining chairs, this guide will help you find some. If your old dining room chairs are barely hanging in there, and you don't want Uncle Tony to come crashing down when he sits down for dinner the next time he visits, you need to find some sturdy and sustainable dining room chairs that will not only stand the test of time, but look good doing it.
In this Green Buying Guide, we will give you the low down on some of the most eco-friendly dining chairs out there. From FSC-certified wood to organic cotton to recycled materials, these green dining chairs chairs feature the best elements from some of our favorite sustainable designers. And, they are sure to please your hungry guests as much as your cooking (OK, for some of you, more than your cooking). Whether your style is elegant and formal or sleek and modern, hopefully you'll find a green dining room chair here to suit your taste.
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The brainchild of designer Patrick Turner, Thout Design's portfolio features a thoughtful collection of clever, space-saving, clutter-clearing designs with a sense of humor. Take "Forked Up," pictured above; part of the UtiliTILE series that frees up valuable kitchen space, it's useful tile for storing your utensils in a fun and space-efficient way. It makes setting the table is as easy as pulling out as many utensils as you need; magnets ensure that the utensils stay up there until you need them.
The rest of the UtiliTILE series is dedicated to the idea that it's nice to have shelves for all the things that otherwise clutter your space, but it's even nicer to have shelves that disappear when they aren't in use. It's a compact, modular, flexible system that offers an easy, elegant way to save space and do more with less. Hit the jump to see more. ::Thout Design...
Here’s a new shop paradigm for you: Shop according to the revealed ingredients of every object. Because those ingredients sure look yummy with a range of products made from sustainable wood, cork, bamboo, organic and recycled materials. Monica Potvin in Barcelona and Anu Suominen in Finland have joined forces and created ‘a new version shop presenting a collection of objects for living made as sustainable as possible’. Matteriashop is finally a shop that guarantees eco-smartness as well as fabulous design.
Through close collaboration with designers all over the globe, the Matteriashop offers a unique transparency and behind-the-scene information on each carefully selected product, taking into account its entire lifecycle. Monica Potvin explains:...
Who says recycling isn't fun? ::Modern Mechanix...
Table for two? This suave, utterly cute little table is an ingenious space saver, with two chairs that fold right in to the tabletop and base. In the same vein as Hans Olsen's dining set, the table's minimal footprint, when not in use, is ideal for small spaces and the romance of gazing into the eyes of whomever you happen to enjoying batter-blasted organic pancakes or organic yogurt with.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day; with something like this, even dwellers of the smallest spaces can have a place to sit down and enjoy it (and, in true TreeHugger spirit, we bet it would work for lunch and/or dinner, too). Sadly, this piece itself isn't currently available, but the clever concept itself is definitely worth a closer look. ::Amazon UK via ::Apartment Therapy...
Clevr: Hans Olsen's Compact Dining Set!
How smart is this? Perfect for small spaces and a truly clever design, Hans Olsen designed this dining set in 1953 for Frem Røjle Møblefabrik, and it "serves as the quintessential model for the holistic integration of form and function. The design is certainly as progressive and relevant today as it was 60 years ago," according to the Design Addict description on eBay.
Imagine what the world would be like, how much less stuff we'd be dealing with, if everything needed to be designed just once every 60 years. Get up close and personal with more pics after the jump.
More on Hans Olsen's Designs Sleek and Compact Breakfast Table for Two ::eBay via ::Apartment Therapy: San Francisco
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While TreeHugger knows that using what you've got 'til it's gone is the greenest way to go, but we all have to replace our old faithful with new favorites eventually. When that time comes, we want you to know some of the good green ways to go. On this list: dining tables.
Used as homework workstation, family gathering place and console for gourmet display and dinner parties galore, your dining table has to work hard, so having one that's durable, versatile and comfortable is important. Apartment dwellers might want to look for the smaller footprints, while families can use more surface area of larger models for more function. No matter what you need, watch out for formaldehyde, polyurethane and other toxic glues and finishes -- which you won't find on this list -- and keep your eyes peeled for wood from sustainable sources, and green alternatives to trees, like bamboo. Choosing a new dining table won't happen every day, so making it count and making it green are important; some of our favorites are below.
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West Coast Green – when they billed it as the biggest green building conference on this coast, they weren’t lying. It was huge and the lineup of speakers was excellent. There were roughly 4 tracks a day with at least 40 different sessions going on at the same time so there was no way to come even close to seeing everything. It was amazing!...
TreeHugger breaks it down for you in a series of in depth how-to articles that will help you green your life. No time like the present!
Here are a few recommended websites.
