Stuck with a tiny balcony? Looking for a smart way to maximize space? Look no further than the design by
Christian Lessing, whose modular furniture system adds clever multi-tasking to a previously useless (or less used) space. It's got modules for seating, tables and flat surfaces that are handy for plants, especially if it's out on a balcony or adjacent to a window; though it's designed for balconies, this design is a great way to maximize space anywhere.
We could see this doing good work in a breakfast nook or similarly small space; sit for a quick meal and then turn it over to your plants while you're gone all day. Clevr.
::Christian Lessing via
::Josh Spear...
Put the words "
flat" and "
pack" together, and TreeHugger usually needs a towel to contain the drooling; there are few things we like more than the ability to change dimensions, create structure from wafer-thin materials and make efficient use of materials in manufacturing and space when shipping. With that in mind, we submit for your consideration: the Zweifach Shelf.
Designed by Simon Schappi and oddly reminiscent of Kindergarten, each double cubbie starts as three separate, flat pieces; spend a few minutes folding and fitting, and a modular shelf is born. This is one of our favorite things about this design: you can build only as much storage as you need; the modular, stackable system lets you expand and contract your storage as the volume of your stuff fluctuates. Empty a box or two out? No need to waste space with empty storage; just break down one of the boxes. Perfect for a small apartment dweller, frequent mover or anyone who doesn't want to kill extra space with storage you don't need.
::The Formsons via
::swissmiss...
A solution for those who move a lot, for people who are really on the go, or for anyone who changes the function of their living space with regularity (with a
Murphy bed, let's say),
Books to Go is a handy, modular bookshelf by UK designer
Rose Cobb. Adding a combination vice/handle and wheels (isn't
everything better on wheels?) to a more traditional bookcase adds easy moving functionality to the normally static, dust-collection shelf.
We could see this working well for small apartment dwellers and fans of multi-use living rooms everywhere. Contact
the designer for more info on the wheeled wonder.
::Rose Cobb (site under construction) via
::Yanko Design
...
Made from just a single sheet of laser-cut steel, and requiring just two screws to mount it on the wall,
Piegato shelves are a great way to add storage using minimal space and materials. You get to decide how its configured -- the shelves can be packed flat as a piece of paper and shipped in a big envelope -- and thanks to some pretty thoughtful design (the bottom braces that keep the individual shelves from folding like a taco), the shelves can hold a surprising amount of weight; we're surprised to see lots of books on the shelves, but the designer swears it's true.
Because the shelf system is a single piece of steel, this baby is also highly recyclable, if/when you decide it's useful life is through; we could definitely see this in the
downloadable design realm. Check out more at
::Piegato via
::MoCo Loco...
Timtimxtimtim (pronounced ‘tim tim por tim tim’) is a Portuguese expression which translates into something like ‘step by step’, just like their peculiar
web site. These designers are all about recycling with a twist and a very social side to things. Making sure their raw materials are recycled and recyclable, these guys are giving objects a second chance by extending their lifecycles. Designing and producing, Timtimxtimtim are both hands on and conceptual. ...
Part geometry lesson and part reclaimed materials-use lesson, the Split Series from Peter Marigold shows that it doesn't take fancy materials to create striking, artful shelving. The designer, who seems fascinated with creating shelving and storage solutions (we featured his groovy
Make/Shift shelving before), created these amazingly simple shelves by bisecting a round log into four (unequal) sections and adding some slats around the outside. The result: oddly geometric, stackable (but not in a boring way -- rectangles are for squares!), shelves that are easy to scale up; just grab another log and a couple more slats. While the finished product, which is oddly reminiscent of something you'd see in a
Dr. Seuss cartoon, may not be a fit for everyone's style, we love the creativity and recall of 7th grade geometry that goes in to each design. More pics, including some stand-alone shelving, after the jump.
::Peter Marigold via
::pan-dan
...
TreeHugger does love the flat-pack
furniture and
architecture, mostly for its ability to do more with less, create structure and function from materials not that much bigger than a piece of paper, and slide under a door, if necessary.
Because flat-pack furniture is easy to ship and build multiple times, it's a great modular option for those of us on the move a lot; a new example we submit for your consideration is the Knockdown Bookcase (no relation to the
other knock-down furniture we've seen), which does the job without glue, hardware or even an instruction manual.
Each piece is identical and just slips together to create a modern, modular bookshelf, and the design variations are limited to what your imagination can dream up. Designed by ::Sung Won Park via
::Yanko Design...
The other day we took some flak for showing a design students concept of a
folding bike. And while we agree it can be frustrating seeing ideas, not actual products, we firmly believe supporting fledgling designers who show a bent towards eco-design can only be a positive thing. A thought echoed by South African designer Ryan Frank, commenting on the state of furniture in the current issue of the UK’s New Consumer magazine, “You can see the design graduates coming up now using reclaimed, recycled and sustainable materials,’ says Frank. ‘They have a better education about such issues now and know they’re important. But consumers will have to be more demanding if the benefits of eco-friendly furniture are going to be seen beyond just small batch production.” However, David Colwell, founder of eco-furniture company
Trannon says, “Conceptual sustainable furniture is important to get the message across, [...] but it could be so much better.” He suggests that designers should also be striving for works which are sustainable, sexy and inviting, give long service, and “minimise the desire for a rapid turnover of styles.” In short, classics. Though he does concede the high price of designer eco-furniture is holding back its broader uptake. A concern we are well familiar with here at TH. [In a related New Consumer piece you can read of
Kresse Wesling, a young Canadian, selling furniture made from salvaged fire hose. A stool goes for £600 (~$1175 USD).]The first article explores further the issues in taking eco-furniture mainstream.
::New Consumer on Eco Furniture....
Everyspace is a team of Brookyn designers who "find inspiration in the challenges of urban living and aim to design furniture and household objects that offer creative solutions for city dwelling." The arrange shelf is designed "to integrate nature and furniture. Originally intended for a front hallway, the shelf functions as a catch-all for your comings and goings and doubles as a modern receptacle for flowers. Install the back plate on a wall and change the orientation of the shelf left or right for different looks. The tubes can be easily removed and filled with water as needed. All components are sustainable, simple to put together and easy to dismantle." Made from bamboo, steel, glass and rubber.
They have a wonderfully minimalist booth this weekend at CA boom; nothing but butcher paper and felt pen. Pictures at
::NotCot ::Everyspace
...
Make/shift shelving is for the tenant: Peter Marigold designed it for tenants and apartment dwellers needing storage but unable to attach anything to walls. It looks good, and is stylishly decorative, as well as being utilitarian; as opposed to some of those ugly ones that we all have used in our past (and present). Inspired by the humble recycled wooden crate, the units expand and contract and can even be used as boxes to move house. They can be wedged into any width of alcove, depending on how far the wedge-shaped units are pushed in. The original design was wood, but now they are being made of a relatively eco-material: a polypropylene that can be broken down and reused. Marigold is interested in simplicity, and making beautiful objects inexpensively. Another of his pieces, Prop, consists of a crate wedged into a corner, halfway up a wall, supported only by a pole at an angle, resting on a sick of rice. He's hot--his name was just mentioned in this month's Wallpaper so watch for him. ::
Peter Marigold Via ::
Design Museum
...
“The noble use of noble wood” is the ultimate goal for Brazilian Orro & Christensen design firm. For this, they plan their designs to be useful and functional, and they produce them with certified Brazilian wood. That is, excluding wood harvested from forest areas where traditional or civil rights are violated; from non FSC-certified forest areas; from genetically modified (GM) trees; illegally harvested wood; and natural forests that have been converted to plantations or non-forest use. “A lot has yet to be done to extend these the conditions of exploration of wood throughout the country, but Brazil has already moved forward a great deal”, they claim in their website. The pictures we chose are only a few from the vast collection of furniture and accessories, with some really cool designs.
::Orro & Christensen...
The first time we saw Casey Mack's Strip Shelving, we liked it a lot. Then we learned the design had a TreeHugger angle, made with 75% sawdust, which made us like it even more. Then we read this quote by
Metropolis: "The design world often seems split between two camps: the plastics-obsessed futurists and the earnest greens. Casey Mack bridges the wood-plastic gap." So it seems that Mack, proprietor of
Popular Architecture, devoted to evolving urban building with a new focus on maximizing overlaps between pop culture, open systems, and sustainability, combines the best of many worlds: smart design, green materials and functional shelving.
Strip, whose patent pending design is in advanced development, is currently being discussed with sales and marketing companies to get the shelves on the shelf. Free prototype samples (prototype pictured above) and more information are available for interested retailers and end users through info(at)populararchitecture(dot)com.
::Strip Shelving and
::Popular Architecture...
d.e. SELLERS' takes a single sheet of FSC certified
Europly, mixes "conceptual sensitivity with technical expertise", plays a CNC machine like a violin and creates furniture like this book-case without any waste at all. It needs no fasteners or glue and could be shipped in a (really big) envelope. ...
You’ve come across
Amor de Madre before when we featured their
ComeBagAgain here. Lamarta and
Ernest Perera are the main designers behind Amor de Madre. They made it their mission to distribute design objects they ‘feel amor de madre (mother love) for and that often don’t suit the conventional commercial circuits’. As a small Spanish company it is very important to them to know the designers as well as the stories behind the products they distribute and to maintain a close relationship with them. Amor de Madre believe that each designer should control (like a mother) the entire production line of their products. They say their protective instinct does not prevent them from being bold, to explore new territories, to entertain and to respect the environment. There is certainly a green side to a lot of their objects.
Examples are:
Bonus Track, the recyclable cardboard CD wall rack which doesn’t result in any off-cuts,
Galet, a handbag made from natural felt,
Estaps, a pot stand made from aluminium and cork and
Felpudo Maldito, a carpet made from coconut fibres. All the products are available through their very pleasant web site, their showroom in Barcelona (calle Cometa 6, baixo 6) and various shops in Spain and Germany so far.
::Amor de Madre...
If you’ve been reading TreeHugger for awhile, you know how much we love VivaTerra. Between our
Top 5 Finds, the
Earth Platter and
Recycled Honeycomb Bowls, VivaTerra has something for everyone. Now, in the newest catalog they introduce a new vetiver and teak bath collection and a variety of artisan wood home furnishings from tables to lanterns, along with dozens of new products. According to a VivaTerra, “Since ancient times in India and Indonesia the gentle yet deeply penetrating scent of vetiver, a naturally aromatic root and wild grass, has been valued for its healing and relaxing powers.” The new collection includes a bath mat, tissue box cover, waste basket and colorful balls and all release a delightfully woody, citrus scent that helps turn any bathroom into a soothing atmosphere. The teak mat, stool and ladder (with removable shelf) in VivaTerra’s new Teak Collection offer a place to stand, sit, and hang towels while storing bathroom items as well. Every piece is made from certified, sustainable teak. Now with your purchase of $75 or more, VivaTerra will make a donation to plant a tree or help build a windmill.
::VivaTerra...
This beautiful table caught our eye on
Moco Loco this week. The fervent hope was that anyone who designs a table with such respect for the natural form and beauty of wood must love trees as much as we do.
Sense of Place is a bespoke design studio in Cornwall, UK, that specialises in furniture, cabinetry and ‘interior solutions’, which from looking at their portfolio translates as kitchens. Sense of Place's strength seems to be a beautifully handcrafted blend of traditional carpentry with an original design twist and a love for their materials. They clearly state that they use ‘only the best-quality materials and timber from well-managed and sustainable forests’. This particular table is a one piece made from local Cornish Macracarpa wood.
via: Moco Loco ::Sense Of Place....
It's no secret that TreeHugger is a big fan of bamboo. Regular readers see it pop up on these pages fairly regularly, and while they may tire of our seemingly ceaseless promotion of the wonder-grass, we haven't run out of reasons to like it yet. We've already highlighted it
once in our ongoing series featuring a sneak peek into the entries at this month's HauteGREEN, and we're doing it again. Today's feature, "Slippery Shelves" by Cambium Studio, are available in bamboo, though can also be built with other sustainable woods like coconut palm, FSC-certified walnut, and salvaged urban trees, and they're designed for people on the move. The piece is easy to hang on the wall, uses few materials and travels easily if you need to relocate. Each shelf can move easily through a dovetail in the backboard, offering new configurations in mere moments. Versatile, beautiful, sustainable: a trifecta that should please any TreeHugger.
::HauteGREEN and
::Cambium Studio
Check out the rest of the
Sneak Peek Series for a glimpse at the best in sustainable home design....
Last week at
Vinçon’s, the Zig-Zag caught our eye. It’s a bottle rack that at first seems just grey but when you get to know it better you realise it’s actually green. That’s because it’s made from Syntrewood, a 100% recycled and recyclable material that’s not only ecological but also low-cost. Syntrewood is a product of the Spanish company
Lasentiu, who use discarded material from urban plastic waste collection (the yellow containers here in Spain) that would otherwise end up as landfill or be burnt. So with 85-90% of Polyolefin (from bottle caps, bags or detergent bottles) and 10-15% paper, board, fabric, PET and aluminium such as from Tetra-bricks, Lasentiu created Syntrewood, a plastic material free from PVC that is ‘water-repellent, unchangeable to environmental conditions and non toxic’. Apart from the simple V-shaped modular bottle rack Zig-Zag that fits different sizes of bottles horizontally, Lasentiu have also designed a series of chairs, component seats, stackable boxes, drawer units and other storage systems that allow for easily assembly and your own distribution. Maybe it is too grey for your living room but will do nicely in any workshop, cellar or garden shed.
::Lasentiu...
The change in seasons is right around the corner, so in preparation for a little spring cleaning, here are some ways to get your stuff up off the floor and organized, TreeHugger style.
1)
Duane Smith's Squat can be handily stacked as a shelf or used as a bench or table.
2)
ReturDesign's Rock-n-Roll Shelf is great for customization and stick any way you want with velcro (thank you NASA!).
3)
Kiri Houndstooth shelves are perfect for displaying that snow globe collection you just can’t get rid of.
4) With
Iola Designs' innovative bamboo shelves and bookcases, form truly follows function.
5)
Max Kistner’s durable, modular Lux-us cubes are lit with a fluorescent bulb and can be used as storage boxes, bookcases, planters, stools (cushion optional), and even as beer coolers....
Toronto-based
KASTd hand-stitches bags from automotive inner tubes, giving new form to something to an old structure and new life to something that would otherwise be thrown away. The bags are an interesting juxtaposition of industry and art; clearly, they are all rubber, but the clean shapes show that care was given to each one; they are hand-stitched based on traditional saddlemakers techniques, which helps soften the looks into a more subtle, sophisticated look. Each bag also has a little personality, retaining the marks from its job on the road: heat and friction marks and print identification, which always end up on the inside of the bag. These are another good example of the evolution of recycled rubber; it wasn't long ago that we were lampooning and pooh-poohing products made from old tires and the like as "too industrial," "too cold," "too stagnant;" now, you can maintain your everyday handbag with Armor All. The bags can be ordered straight from the website; prices start at $238 CAD.
::KASTd via tipster Frank....
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 11.12.09
