Speedo Furniture

I FINALLY finished making my speedo hanging chair pod. I only used offcuts of the speedo swimsuits and wire found in the rubbish tip. Keeping in line with my Re-use, Re-cycle, Re-build approach.

I used a double climbing clip to attach it to the roof and to the pod. Making them transferable to any location around Chelsea or even London.

See the photo's below of my finish 'Speedo-Pod'.

Sustainable Style

H&M are using greener materials in their clothes/goods as well as testing for new ones all the time. It's most popular green material at the moment is 'Organic Cotton' which it has been selling since 2004, it has become more and more popular as people have become more aware.

What you can do to minimise you impact on the environment? (see video clip below).

In addition to organic cotton H&M also sells clothes containing a number of other sustainable materials :

Organic Linen- grown without the use or hazardous chemicals.

Recycled Cotton - cotton made from textile remnants in production.

Recycled Polyester- made from PET-bottles or textile waste.

Recycled Polyamide- made from fishing nets or textile waste.

Recycled Wool- from worn-out woollen garments and remnants of fabric.

Tencel - silk-like renewable material.

Organic Cotton Denim- certified organic.

Sustainable Design

Qatar unveils new sustainable designs for Fifa 2022 World Cup Stadiums!

The country which has already started making preparations to host the games in 2022 and has just unveiled detailed plans for their brand new, state of the art stadiums. As well as upgrading two existing stadiums. It was conceptualised in Germany by AS&P, each of the stadiums will be built to exceed environment efficiency standards and be easily accessible by public transportation.

It provides covered seating to accommodate for over 30,000 fans within 3 hours. The new stadiums will each be assembled using modular components for easy disassembly and transport at the close of the game. The seats and pitch will be cooled using an innovative, environmentally friendly, carbon-neutral technology.

Solar panels will be used to harvest the sun's energy, in turn powering absorption chilling systems to keep everyone comfortable in the desert heat.

London Fashion Week

More from speedo . . .

For London Fashion Week in February 2011 we (platform 5 at Chelsea College of Art and Design) have been asked to design and make a changing room out of the speedo swimsuits. We are thinking of using the pop-up style tent design below used for the emergency shelter projects and expanding on it to create a full length pop-up dressing room.

Check out (above) some of the recycled speedo fashion designs by students at London College of Fashion, University College Falmouth and the University of Huddersfield.

EcoBuild 2011

This year for 'EcoBuild' 2011 we (platform 5 at Chelsea College of Art and Design) were told to design and build a pavilion using the left over speedo swimsuits we used to make the emergency shelters with.

The design which was chosen and will be built buy us, in the week running up to the 1st of march, is based on a weaving pattern. As you can see below, inside the pavilion we hope to make hammocks/chairs out of the speedo's too which will be strong enough to hold a humans body weight.

Come and see our pavilion at stand S231, at the ExCell centre in London. It's open from tuesday the 1st to thursday the 3rd of March 2011.

A Greener London

'KOKO' the legendary music venue in London's, Camden, has won the award for Environmental Excellence in Camden Organisations (EECO) 2010 for Innovation in waste management and recycling.

'Koko' which opened in 2004 was recently praised for 'the continued exceptional effort by staff to achieve a 95% recycling rate in the difficult events and entertainment industry, and for the use of recycled materials within the building in order to close the recycling loop.'

They have installed an active 'Green Policy', and aim for 100% waste recycling.

Most astonishing of all, and what we didn't think we drank, is that in one month they recycle approximately 30,960 glass bottles, 20,088 aluminium cans and 77,166 plastic cups.

Daylesford Organic

Today I went for brunch at the Daylesford Organic cafe/restaurant/market/shop on Pimlico Road. There are a few across London now and they only cook and sells organic produce from an organic farm in Gloucestershire.

It's not only organic but it also tastes good! Which is rare. They have won over 60 national and international awards over the last 3 years, including the Soil Association Awards, British Cheese Awards, World Cheese Awards, Great Taste Awards and a Michelin Bib Gourmand Award.

They are also supporters of the Slow Food Movement placing emphasis on respecting the food they eat and serve, and the land it comes from.

They are fully transparent in that you can visit their farm to see for yourself how their animals are kept, where their vegetables are grown and how their food is produced.

Shop online at www.daylesfordorganic.com/engine/shop/page/shop+online

ORGANIC FARM SCHOOL : they offer hands-on courses, hosted by organic farmers and artisan craft people with personal experience, in growing your own food, rearing animals and poultry, country cooking and rural crafts.

M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange

Recycled

Johnson Tiles' wall and floor tiles are suitable for use in a wide range of commercial and domestic applications. The Absolute wall and floor tile range includes the new item 'ZANONCE' - a porcelain tile that consists of 40% recycled glass from old television screens. Numerous other collections added to the Absolute range contain up to 40% recycled manufacturing waste material within the tile body.

Absolute now comprises over 6000 items. The complete portfolio can be seen at Johnson Tile's showroom, Material Lab, in central London. Or online at www.johnson-tiles.com. With manufacturing interests in Greece and South Africa, together with operations in Australia, USA and the Middle East, the company has a global presence in the ceramic tile market.

Organic Box Scheme

Sales of organic produce via box and mail order has more than doubled last year to 400,000 according to the soil association.

A weekly box of fresh fruit and vegetables is delivered direct to your door, office or local collection point. The boxes contents varies each week according to whats in season.

Some include meat, wine and whole foods and vary from £15 to £25 per box.

Produce is locally sourced, keeping unnecessary packaging, storage and transportation costs to a minimum, and most is farmed organically.

By shortening the supply chain it gives customers greater confidence about where their food has come from and how it has been grown. It is therefore a convenient alternative to trekking to the farmers market!

A good example I found is Abel & Cole. Check out their blog : http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/blog/

Organic?

I am always confused as to what organic means and why it is so important. Sometimes I even think it's simply a marketing ploy. So here's my basic understanding:

So what is it and why is it so important?

• Organic farming is a way of farming that works in harmony with the land while respecting the environment and it's animals. It is a way of farming crops and animals without the use of chemicals e.g. pesticides, fertiliser and medicines. Instead earthworms keep the soil healthy while insect and animal life naturally deter crop pests. Farmers rotate the crops to keep the soil healthy, and animals are reared without the routine use of antibiotics and other drugs. So to achieve Soil Association certification they have to achieve very high standards of animal welfare.

So why do it?

• Conventional farming causes serious environmental damage and costs the tax payer millions. Not to mention organic food tastes better! But it is also better for you - studies have shown that the levels of chemicals in non-organic foods exceeds the legal levels set by government regulations.

Organic Gastropub

The Duke of Cambridge in Islington, London is the UK's first and only gastropub to be certified by the Soil Association. They opened in 1998 and their ethical business idea's remain the same today.

They serve delicious organic food, carefully sourced from independent producers, while keeping their food miles low. In fact, 80% of their fresh produce comes from the Home Counties.

• This year they are celebrating 11 years of sustainable and ethical business.
• They change their menu daily according to whats available/in season.
• They never ever airfreight anything!
• All their food is organic, from the home-baked bread the home-made ice cream.
• They Reuse and Recycle where ever possible.
• Electricity is wind and solar powered.
• Use small independent, local farmers.
• Try to buy as much Fairtrade and organic produce as possible.

Check out Geetie's new cookbook with recipes from the kitchens of the Duke of Cambridge, now available on amazon.com

'Green Chef's'

The World's first 'Green Chef', Arthur Potts Dawson who owns two restaurants already - Acorn House and the WaterHouse.

The 'Acorn House' in Kings Cross aims to be 100% environmentally aware. It follows a policy of 'Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and, where no alternative exists, Recycle'. Therefore minimalising all waste, including : time, physical, space and energy.

It has :

• Cement floors throughout.
• Recycled wood chairs and tables.
• Cushions picked up in a jumble sale.
• Wind power operates the lights.
• Vegetables are composted (70kg a week).
• Uses bio-diesel when transporting in London.
• Avoids industrial farming.
• Buys 'Fairtrade' where it can.
• Never uses airfreight.
• Purify water on site.
• Take-away containers are eco-sensitive.
• No road miles.
• No wasted plastic or glass.
• Water filtration system is used to recycle the water for watering plants, flushing loo's etc.

Acorn is only a start, but it is from such little acorns as these that mighty oaks are said to grow. Let's just hope there's time!

Potts Dawson plans to open 3 more restaurants.

He has already opened 'The People's Supermarket' in Holburn.

His aim was to repair the disconnection between rural growers and urban communities by operating a sustainable supermarket. You pay an annual £25 for a membership for sustainable, local goods and if you're committed to working 4 hours a month then you get a 10% discount.

110 people have already signed up! why not be the next?

Green Architecture

(Image by www.inhabit.com)

Check out this new bit of technology in the city.

'The Rotating Tower' designed by architect David Fisher generates it's own power from the wind. It will be built by stacking platforms on a central concrete core with wind turbines in between each of them. Each floor can rotate 360 degrees once about every 90 minutes. The different times of the rotating platforms will give the building a constantly changing form. Inside the central core will be the lifts, emergency stairs and lobbies.

'The rotating Tower' will be built in Dubai in the next 6 months.

Up-Cycling

Just a quick update on my architectural furniture project.

I have decided to up-cycle the left over speedo swimsuits. I'm going to sew them togetherto make the extendable sides and surrounding skin of the pod. This will give the stretched effect i'm trying to create, similar to that of a raindrop. (see my deign below).

I was also thinking of designing it with a light in the top so that students from chelsea could study or read in it. This would also give it an amazing effect if you saw it at night - a suspended lit up pod!

Recycling

Today I pick up some cardboard boxes from the skip to use for making my Chelsea site model. A 1:20 model of my architectural furniture site (under the arches on Chelsea's Parade Ground, where the old main entrance to the building used to be).

I decided to use the cardboard instead of buying foam board and white card from the university shop. My contribution to the global issue of RE-USE, RE-NEW, RE-CYCLE.

Every little helps right?

New Technology

Check out the new Volkswagen's Golf blue-e-motion hybrid city car (2011). It's eco-freindly and energy-efficient appealing to an everyday car consumer.

It's an electric version of Europe's most popular selling car, the VW Golf, it's petrol free and has an electric motor under the front bonnet.

Set for release in 2014.

(photo provided by http://inhabitat.com/wpcontent/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/01/blueemotion4.jpg)

Juniper -Changemakers

check out http://www.juniperfoodwaste.com/

A high quality food recycling and waste management services to businesses across London. e.g. Leon.

Leon

I went to 'Leon' (the restaurant) today for lunch. They are part of the sustainable restaurant association helping them to be more sustainable in the way they source their ingredients, engage with their local community and manage their impact on the environment.

Some examples of what they've worked on are:

1. measuring and conserving the water they use.
2. increasing their engagement with local communities.
3. increasing the seasonal elements of their menu.
4. using farmers and butchers they trust.
5. they use free range eggs.
6. they buy fair-trade and organic products where there is a benefit.
7. 70% of their food is sourced from the UK and 90% from the EU.
8. Compost any food wasted.

They say "sustainability is not about being perfect, but about taking constant steps to improve".

So try out their restaurant or buy one of their two recipe books. http://www.leonrestaurants.co.uk