Prairie Fish — Green Inside
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 03. 7.06
We recently had a US enquiry seeking a designer or firm for the interior design of a retail store. “Really want someone who will take a fresh approach while still understanding our aesthetic/message and work with sustainable materials.” While I’m sure there are plenty in the field these days, my immediate thought was of Prairie Fish, a Chicago based consulting firm that specialises in the "design of products, interiors and environments." Happened upon them back in 1993, when mainstream green design was pretty embryonic. They seem to be still thriving. Projects include the Real Goods Retail Store, that serves “as an example to customers and other retailers that environmentally benign materials can be used in interior design and fixturing, with no detrimental effect to the desired aesthetic.” And the Hallmarks Cards stores using wheat, plantation poplar, and water based inks. Or the Ben and Jerry Scoop Shops that employed the likes of recycled glass tiles and linoeum. Through to Patagonia underwear racks fabricated from recycled lumber (and alas some MDF, tsk tsk.) ::Prairie Fish.
PS. Last year Display and Design Ideas (DDI) ran a three part story on what they termed The Coming Green Boom in green retail design, suggesting it “may be the wave of the future”.
Scoop
What's the gripe with MDF? Most production of MDF utilise 90% recycled and reclaimed wood fibres.
Thanks for the Q George. It's not so much the materials that are issue, but the binder and the production methods, which are health concerns with long exposure. Medium Density Fibreboard is bound together with formaldehyde. Cutting MDF creates an extra fine wood dust, that carries the formaldehyde with it.
"Even at a low level, exposure to formaldehyde though inhalation can cause irritation to the eyes, nose, throat and mucous membrane. Formaldehyde can also affect the skin, leading to dermatitis, and the respiratory system causing asthma and rhinitis. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organisation, quoted evidence that even short term exposure to formaldehyde, at far below the legal limit allowable in Britain, could cause irritation to the eyes, nose and throat.
The IARC's findings also stated that wood dust is a carcinogen' (cancer
causing) and that 'formaldehyde is probably carcinogenic to humans'. IARC was also concerned about the reproductive hazards of formaldehyde'."
That's from Amicus, the largest manufacturing union in the UK who go on to say: "Australia has a tighter exposure standard than Britain and warns its workers that formaldehyde is 'a probable carcinogen' and a sensitiser (i.e. it can cause allergic reaction such as asthma)."
In the UK, a arts and crafts teacher was last year awarded nearly £150,000 ($266,000 USD) compensation, following prolonged exposure to MDF wood dust and formaldehyde adhesives. "Exposure to these substances caused nasal obstruction, headaches, nasal discharge and the eventual diagnosis of rhinosinusitis."
Formaldehyde is a significant contributor to Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), and where we have other options, we should select them first. Alternative materials like masonite use the timber's natural lignin as the binder, and have much less problems with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Although concerns remain with the wood dust from any 'manufactured' wood product.