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....
Image source: Selina Rose
The idea of putting felt rugs, table runners and wallcoverings around your home might bring back images of arts and crafts projects from elementary school. But the designs coming out of
Selina Rose are anything but elementary.
More Selina Rose pieces after the Jump...
Photo used courtesy of
Vagawi
The U.S. Department of Energy has established that in many cases using an electric space heater in one room is much more efficient that
heating an entire home efficiently with a gas furnace (especially an older unit). With so many space heater options out there, it is not so much a question of using one, but which one to use.
There are a lot of great options out there, so while we can't cover all the great ones, we are going to focus on a few models which have either been praised by online reviews (such as Amazon, Viewpoints, Epinions, etc), Consumer Reports, and/or Good Housekeeping.
We have separated these units out to the more common forms of portable heat. You have your basic convection heater, fan forced convection, oil filled heater, mica panel, and radiant heater. Each of these offer a slightly different means of heat to meet your needs, and we shall describe their pros and cons along with their unique features....
Photo: courtesy Richard Byrd
Got three million and change? Get in line. The hottest eco-friendly home on the market is a $3.5 million,
LEED Platinum, 1920s Spanish stunner recently renovated by Adrian Grenier’s go-to green expert Richard Byrd of “
Alter Eco” fame. The guy may be brand new in the eco-development department, but in this, his first sustainable home, he hits all the marks. Think
reclaimed materials like 300-year-old Spanish roof tile,
CFL bulbs,
solar trees, low-flow sinks and toilets, and a carpet made entirely from
post-consumer waste recycled plastic water bottles. (Check out more pics after the jump!) And that's not all...
...
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....
Lloyd and I were happy to see Akemi Tanaka and her new work at ICFF. After designing some
really clever transformer furniture in 2006, she's re-imagining how furniture and space is used, maximizing its function by adding some cool design touches to everyday objects like credenzas and occasional tables.
In the video after the jump, she explains how she conceived some interesting new options and great ideas to better use space in furniture, and how she incorporates sustainability into her beautiful modern work.
::ICFF 2008 and
::Akemi Tanaka...
The
Wall Street Journal tells us that "
after a decade of catering to Americans' appetite for large living with giant-size sofas, chairs, ottomans and tables, furniture makers are starting to think small." Furniture maker Montauk bucks the Less is More trend with oversized sofas. In others you can lose your change between the cushions; in a Montauk you can lose your children.
However, they know how to build them; in
Azure they are advertising: "Our commitment to limiting our environmental footprint is factored into all aspects of the manufacture and distribution of our products. By switching to natural and recycled raw materials with no oil-based products or contaminants we are opting for a clean alternative in the construction and deconstruction processes that constitute the natural life cycle of our sofas."
Good design and a strong green message. That is how you compete against imports.
::Montauk
...
Most people know that computers and appliances are often rated
Energy Star compliant, but how many of us consider our own home audio systems? You might be surprised to know that according to Energy Star "Americans spend more money to power home audio products when turned off than when actually in use." ...
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.”
...
We've admired the work of the
Brothers Dressler before; the Toronto-based design duo (and, yep, they're actually twin brothers) really get it right when it comes to designing with sustainability and the environment in mind. Take the
Bare Sofa, pictured above, for example; using 100% recycled fabric and FSC-certified solid walnut, they've created a wonderfully minimal piece that purposefully shows its inner beauty.
The Brothers say, "We have brought the skeleton to the outside to expose the structure and use tactile fabric to invite the contact of skin." We like the way the two elements work together, and like the thoughtful way it's put together even more; it's constructed so that at the end of its useful life, it can be disassembled into its components for re-use or recycle. Like much of their craft-level work, the sofa is available on a made-to-order basis, available in select fabrics with recycled content and can be customized by size and configuration.
Contact them for more details.
::Brothers Dressler via
::Design Milk
See also:
::BuyGreen: Sofas and Loveseats...
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:...
Transforming from svelte sofa to sleek sleeper "by means of a simple gesture," "Book" from the Italian designers at
Flou offers up its interpretation of the ideal boundary between day and night. During the day, it is an elegant, modern, linear sofa and elegant; at night, it transforms into a comfortable double-size bed with a slatted mattress support. Fitted with a folding orthopedic sprung mattress or with a Memoform mattress, it can be made in three versions: with a reclining head-board and with rectangular or roller backhead and armrests.
A great option for adding sleeping space for guests, or as a do-it-all piece in a studio apartment or other small living space. Hit the jump to see several versions of "Book," and drool over what your living room could look like with one in it.
::Flou via
::Azure...
Candles and an open fireplace are the hallmarks of holiday coziness, 'tis true, but not only are they inefficient, CO2 and particulate emissions are also unfortunate byproducts - about 15 grams of CO2 for each completely burned candle, and 3.3 kilograms of CO2 for one hour of open fireplace. Paraffin candle fumes can also contain benzene, formaldehyde and toulene, oh my! Last week we wrote about Swedish efforts to
eco-certify candles and get consumers to switch to those.
But how to get the open fireplace feeling without the open fire? Ethanol fireplaces or glassfires as they are sometimes called are becoming increasingly popular in Europe where more people live in smallish apartments without any chimneys or hearths. In all shapes and sizes, wall-mounted or freestanding bio-fuel burning glassfires give off only water vapor and a small amount of CO2 - the fuel makers rather cryptically say "in proportions similar to...air exhaled by humans" - and without any smoke or particulate action. Chestnut roasting probably not an option. While in the pictures the fireplaces can look almost as cheesy as those TV-screen fires, in real life biofuel fireplaces do add the cheery atmosphere, without as much off-gassing. A liter of the biofuel burns about 1 - 4 hours at about 4 Euros ($5.75) a liter. Via
::Art Deco Kamin Design (Swedish) and
Planika for U.S. available glassfires, including new design by Christopher Pillet.
...
We featured
plants that improve indoor air quality before but these modern looking objects, designed by Parisian designer
Mathieu Lehanneur, take air-filtering a step further. Bel-Air is ‘a domestic spacecraft’ whose live plant absorb the toxic compounds in the air. Dirty air is sucked in, filtered by the plant and out comes purified air. ...
If the words "sofa bed" do little to inspire you when combined, we submit "Scoop!" for your consideration. Designed by the savvy Saba Italia, this elegant space-saver transforms from round nest to two half-moon sofas (it also comes in a square version, if that's more your speed), creating some nice extra seating during the day and eliminating the need for you to have both a sofa and a guest bed. We're not crazy about their use of polyurethane foam, but it sure is a clever way to create space for sitting when you're awake and space to sleep when you're, well, asleep. Hit the jump to see sofa mode.
::Saba Italia via
::Trendir...
Working part or full-time from home can be a
pretty appealing (not to mention green) way to go, but it can be hard to devote precious living space to a full-on home office. Too often, we find that workspace has to be tucked into a corner of a bedroom, or jammed into a living area.
For those of us who work from home but don't have space -- or don't want to maintain an extra room, just for a home office -- we love the idea of this TV/office wall unit. It integrates work and play into one handy device: when you're working, pull up a chair to the fold-down desk; when you're off the clock, the whole things spins around on its single metal leg, making it quick 'n easy to instantly transform the room. We like the "out of sight, out of mind" component something like this would bring your routine; one caveat: no more watching TV while you work...oh well. We think it'd probably be worth it, given this piece's awesome functionality.
::Gruber + Schlager via
::Trendir...
With a really cool aesthetic that appears to have been bent and formed by some sort of giant benevolent force, we're liking the
"pli" collection (no, not
that pli) from New Zealand-based Formway. We've seen their
office chairs before; this collection of low seats, benches, ottomans and tables (to help you "get down" -- geddit?) has more of a lounge groove, with a pop of color here and there to help make it simple, but fun.
Formway doubles down on sustainability for pli, starting with FSC-certified plywood and water-based finishes and extending the materials with ultra-efficient bent ply design (read more about their
environmental efforts here) to create beautiful, effortless designs with a keen eye for the planet. Hit the jump for more pics and see it all at
::Formway pli via
::Freshome...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 11. 4.09
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