RE-USE

Currently I am in South Africa for the Christmas Holidays and managed to get you an update on whats 'GREEN' over here. I noticed that it's only really starting the trend now, however there were a few good thing I saw.

For example I had a takeaway from 'Primi Piatti' an italian restaurant and the food came in boxes made of 100% recycled paper. The packaging is designed to be re-used as potting trays and pots to 'plant a herb'. They therefore give you a step by step guide on the back of each box.

"We are living on this Planet as if we has another one to go to."

Terri Swearingen

"There are two possible routes to affluence. Either produce much or desire little."

Interconnected Design Thinking

Urban Eco Chic Interiors

The interiors of our homes and work places play an important role in our lives and how we live! Interiors can also adopt an environmental way of living. For as much as the shell of a building can help reduce the use of resources through insulation and renewable technologies, interiors can affect direct behavioral change.

The question is - do we just stop at sustainable architecture and feel pleased with ourselves that we are making a difference? or do we not stop there and incorporate it in the interior design of our homes?

Beautiful eco interiors can reflect your environmental aspirations, make the most of sustainable resources, and encourage the use of recycled materials and recycling.

OLIVER HEATH has just written a book called 'Urban Eco Chic' which promotes the balance of technology, nature and vintage to create spaces which are functional, beautiful and as good to live in as they are for the environment.

An example of beautiful sustainable interiors is the furniture designed by Frank Gehry using cardboard. Making being GREEN at HOME easy!

Sustainable in SoHo

Canvas home boutique opens in New York. A store selling interior goods which are ethically sourced and ecologically responsible. I think we need one in London! Just walk up the Kings road and you see hundreds of interior design shops, but with the increasing demand for fair trade and sustainable products I think a shop like this one is exactly what is needed!

Are you fed up of buying thinks for your home, only having to throw them away shortly after? This 1,800 square-foot shop offers long life designs in the brands signature tableware, textiles and furniture in rich blues, soft pastels and natural tones.

Check it out at http://shop.canvashomestore.com/

TreeLife

Green Design Tree houses have become huge eco-statements in the World of design. They allow people to be 'in' nature and peace above the stressful street level below.

The Cool Hunter has invited local and international designers, architects, and artist to design a modern treehouse solely created from sustainable and recyclable materials.

Check out Sweden's TreeHotel where you can stay overnight in a TreeHouse among the forests and nature of northern Sweden. http://www.treehotel.se/en/start

Each TreeHouse/room is uniquely designed by a different designer or architect uses ecological values. They emphasize the value of the forest, rather than cutting down the trees for industrial use.

Below: The Cabin

Below: The Mirrorcube

Below: The Bird's Nest

Below: The Blue Cone

Below: The UFO

Below: A room with a View

Urban Cactus

Urban Cactus is a project in the Vuurplaat section of Rotterdam by UCX Architects Ben Huygen and Jasper Jaegers.

Architects are offering Suburban like dreams in Urban form. Eco-friendly designs that offer external green spaces are being built and our cities may never be the same!

A high rise apartment block with nineteen stories set in a rotating pattern so that all 98 residential units get a fair share of the sunlight.

Sustainable Design

Sustainable design can be split into two category's :

1. Microcosm - small objects for everyday use.
2. Macrocosm - buildings, cities, and the Earth's physical surface.

My main focus at university is sustainable architecture. This is the environmentally conscious design techniques used in architecture. SIMPLY it is a way of ensuring that our actions and decisions today do not hold back the opportunities of future generations.

Example:

NANO HOUSE - the World's smallest sustainable house.

The Nano Living System is a Swiss made "Green" pre-engineered concept for residential use. This innovative and sustainable house is based on the combination of using pre-engineered SIP's (made from cement fiberboard, recycled light gauge and polyurethane foam) creation of flexible spaces and the use of renewable energy systems.

It's used by a family of four in an area of just32 meters squared. This is made possible by the "Suspended Technology", which doubles the living area by day into two separate bedrooms by night.

Architectural Furniture

Doing research for my project Architectural Furniture I came across a Green Garden Pod made by two French designers Dainiel Pouzet and Fred Fret. They made a suspended chair called a NESTREST, designed around the idea of a bird's nest. This garden chair/pod is made out of woven Dedon fiber and offers an outdoor relaxing experience.

I have designed a hanging Pod chair based around the idea of a raindrop. My site is the porch with three arches in the chelsea parade ground (below)

I then designed a pod chair that would hang from the highest point of the arches and when someone sits in it, it extends like a raindrop.

Continuing with the theme Re-Use, Re-Cycle, Re-Build, I designed the base of the pod to be a woven wicker basket, creating a strong structure for the sitting person. The extendable sides will be made from left over Speedo swimsuits from the last shelter project.

I will also add in see-through 'windows' where the user can survey the parade ground, while still feeling the safety and privacy of the enclosed pod.

Below is my proposed pod.

New Technologies

Living Modular Walls:

'Indoor air pollution causes 14 times more deaths than outdoor air pollution', reports the World's Health Organisation. American-based Environmental Protection Agency reports 'it is also one of five top environmental threats to human health'.

Hong Kong designer Francois Hurtaud has created the P.01 modular vegetal wall to help provide a cleaner living space. The modular P.01 wall uses LED's for photosynthesis and is an attractive addition to any eco-friendly home.

“The idea is to design a modular green wall system where plants, water and light create an “interior lung” to enhance air quality and create a luminous positive effect on workers and users,” explains Hurtaud.

Edible cities

New Technologies

By studying under the title 'A Space of Waste', I found many areas in London which are exactly this, a waste of space! These spaces could be used to promote more food growing in London.

For example:

1. Using Parks to accommodate food growing in their grounds.
2. Exploring under-utilised spaces such as derelict council property, private gardens, and social housing to grow food.
3. Making use of abundant buildings in London to grow food on rooftops, up walls and in window boxes.
4. Providing education and training for new growers e.g. The Camden Good Food project

City Harvest

Having looked at living walls and urban chicken coops I also began to explore the idea of 'City Harvest' and the benefits associated with urban agriculture. It focuses mainly on food growing and sustainability.

It has even attracted the attention of the government as a way of tackling obesity, health inequalities, climate change and more.

An example of this is Changemakers - 'Good Food for Camden' a food strategy launched in October 2009 till 2012. Residents were extremely interested in 'growing their own' to save money and increase the freshness of produce. But most importantly creating environmental sustainability.

A big factor is the reduced food waste. did you know that approximately one third of the food bought in the UK is thrown away, with the average household throwing away £420 worth of edible food each year, and more for households with children.

The Benefits of 'CITY HARVEST' : (Interconnected design thinking)

1. Community - addressing antisocial behavior and decreasing isolation.
2. Environment - increasing biodiversity, reducing environmental impact of food production and food miles.
3. Education - providing training, skills development and opportunities.
4. Health - improving mental and physical health.
5. Economy - addresses poverty, strengthening green infrastructure, supporting communities to trade amongst each other.

Green Cities

I think that consumers are feeling disempowered. They want to know who's made their product, and where their food came from. City farming brings back the idea of 'local', as well as the sense of power.

For example 'OMLET' is a company started up by five designers, which sells chicken coops, beehives and rabbit houses. Helping those who live in the city to easily obtain fresh eggs of make their own honey.

Below: Beehive by Omlet

Below: City Chickens

Below: Chicken coop by Omlet

Emotionally durable design

Jonathan Chapmans has argued that in the context of sustainable product design "the methods through which we currently address sustainability are not as sustainable as we might like to think" (Chapman, 2005, p170). The rationale behind this argument is that the methods and techniques currently in use appear to go straight to the third, and least preferable, of the 'three Rs' of sustainable design - "REDUCE - REUSE - RECYCLE", when focus should be placed on reduce and reuse first.

In simple terms he advocates that designers need to design products which are emotionally durable, this essentially means that people connect with the product emotionally such that there is more desire to keep and repair, maintain and upgrade a product rather than dispose and replace with a new product.

Chapman, J. (2005) Emotionally Durable Design - objects, experience and empathy, Earthscan Publications Ltd, London, UK.

Cradle to Cradle

The large consumption of goods and services in the western World is referred to as a drug or alcohol addiction say Robert Lilienfeld and William Rathje's in their 1998 book Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are.

"Recycling is an asprin, alleviating a rather large collective hangover . . . overconsumption." Or again,

"The best way to reduce any environmental impact is not to recycle more, but to produce and dispose of less."

"We can no longer import our lives in the form of food, fuel and fundamentalism. Life is home-grown and always has been, So is culture. And so, too, are the solutions to global problems."

(Paul Hawken, 2008)

"To be a responsible designer requires more than just talent, it requires good citizenship"

(Steven Heller - Citizen Designer, 2003)

Designers as Social Innovators

After hearing about Ezio Manzini's SusHouse I read a similar artical in Detail magazine on a housing project in Brighton, England.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The project, 'One Brighton' was designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, a practice with a track record in sustainable design.

"The objective with One Brighton was for all the environmental measures to remain in the background and to make it as easy as possible for people to reduce their carbon footprints without having to change their life style," says FCB project architect Andrew Macintosh.

The 'eco-studio' was developed, where a group of studio apartments share a communal room. The development also has a 925 meters squared community centre and 1134 meters squared of office space, as well as 28 mini-allotments.

(the picture below is an example of the 'eco-studio' )

It is Britain's first 'One Planet Living' project, containing the 10 principles: zero carbon, zero waste, sustainable transport, local and sustainable materials and food, sustainable water, natural habitats and wildlife, protect local cultural heritage and diversity, increased health and safety, equity and fair trade.

This project goes beyond sustainable building methods alone! It creates lifestyle changes such as car clubs, using public transport (next to train), and food-growing. This makes it EASY for people to live sustainably. I also think they got the combination of desirability + sustainability right making it an excellent project.

(To date, 85% of the apartments have been sold, which I think is good seeing as it coincides with the UK's credit crunch!)

Biomimicry

LIVING WALLS -

How much do you know about the sustainable materials that could insulate your home?

How about your windows and cabinets?

Have you ever considered LIVING WALLS?

• Living walls can act as insulation and help filter the air. They cool the ambient air temperature as well as cooling the building system it's attatched to.
• Glare is reduced.
• Sound insulation.
• Aesthetically pleasing, especially on barren cityscapes.
• Habitat and flora/fauna preservation, contributing to the overall health and sense of wellbeing of everyone.
• EVEN the fixing bars are made from recycled materials.

Sustainable Development

Sustainable building materials are more than just re-cycled or re-used materials. To be truly sustainable the material has to be examined from the time it was harvested as a raw material, to when it needs to be disposed of.

Considerations: Price, environmental and health impacts, energy consuption, waste, emissions, and the resources ability to renew itself.

Sustainable homes. If you could build a house that was healthier for your family as well as the environment would you?

More people are concerned with the carbon footprints of their homes. But now with environmentally friendly building materials, your home can be a sustainable one, which benefits the surrounding environment and is healthier for your family.

Local materials for sustainable building. Local materials are the most common, because they reduce the energy needed in transportation.

Sustainable Building Materials that are not made from recycled resources MUST be highly RENEWABLE. For example renewable materials such as straw, hay, adobe, bamboo, cork and clay, can be renewed quickly when harvested, have low or no emission rates, and have energy conservation qualities. They are natural materials and build healthier more eco-friendly homes.

Recycled Material are anything from steel, to granite, to polyurethane.

So use these materials, most of the time they even cost less than the traditional building materials.

Emergency Shelter Designs

UP-CYCLING : Making speedo swimsuits into emergency shelters/tents for disasters.

Some photo's of the other emergency shelters designed by Platform 5 (Re-use, Re-Build, Re-new).

Finished Shelter

Yesterday (04/11/10) we finished our emergency shelters and had a picnic Lunch in them.

Oxfam and Speedo came around to choose and judge which ones will be put into production. We will find out their choices soon.

My fingers are sore from sewing and I don't want to see another Speedo swimsuit for a long time!

Shelters

A very chilling and relevant article on the BBC news last week. Thousands of people still have NO shelters. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special_reports/pakistan_floods/

Progress

So far we have made the base for the shelter by sewing the speedo swimsuit bodies together. We then made the triangular frame for the structure, and are now sewing together the legs of the speedo's to make the walls.

Soooooo much sewing it's crazy, but nearly there!

Brief

Oxfam and Speedo brief for the emergency shelters.

Sustainable Scents

The Oon Candlemaker - Short-life to long-life design.

Want any new idea's to recycle? why not look at the new oon candlemaker that turns used cooking oil into fragrant candles.

Invented due to the mismanagement of used cooking oils and the water contamination it creates, not to mention the waste of value and resources.

INCREDIBLE!

DESIGN IDEAS : WOOL

'Wool Week' : this week (11th to 17th October 2010). Shops around the UK will be hosting fun, informative, wool-themed activities.

For example why not help by choosing to buy wool fabrics, floorings, and accessories this week and experiment with the decorative possibilities of this beautiful, natural and eco-friendly product.

A few of it's BRILLIANT qualities : beautiful, tactile, practical, versatile, biodegradable, easy to process, sustainable and renewable, natural, as well as eco-friendly!

"GIVE FLEECE A CHANCE" - www.campaignforwool.org