As the year end approaches and we count down to the new year, we want to take a moment to reflect on the year in design. 2006 has been a pivotal year for green design. With the success of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, and books like Worldchanging & Design Like You Give A Damn, 2006 seemed to be the year that environmental design went mainstream. In our opinion, here were the most pivotal moments for green design in 2006:
Anyone who tuned into fiftyRX3 over the last year knows that I am a big fan of the “reuse” in “reuse, reduce, recycle”, so it was just a matter of time before I recommended a dip into the apparel archives for Sustainable Style Sunday. Formalwear seems one category where it is quite common to borrow from the past. Many of these designs are timeless, such as the clean and modern aesthetic of Halston in the 70’s or Vionnet, who pioneered the bias cut some 60 years earlier. Therefore, wearing vintage does not always mean sacrificing modern style. If the Paco Rabanne or Givenchy dresses above don’t work for you, a wealth of possibilities exist in many other sites from Rusty Zipper to Enoki World.
Buildings consume 40% of the world’s energy every year.
Buildings generate almost half of the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.
40% of landfill currently comes from construction waste.
Clearly, the building industry has a huge impact on the state of our environment. Because of this influence, architects have a moral and social responsibility to learn about and concern themselves with issues of energy and environmentally sustainable building. After all, architecture is supposed to serve the greater good of society… isn’t it?
The folks at Marmol Radziner Prefab have been busy bees these past few months. Aside from their two new Joshua Tree homes, a slew of other custom projects, and Leo Marmol’s lecture and interview at the Dwell on Design conference, the dynamic duo have just completed the initial installation of their Utah House 1. Two days before Thanksgiving Day, the fifteen-module custom home was assembled on site, near Moab, Utah. Before the owners move in after the New Year, all that’s left to do is connect utility lines and seal joints between the modules. Prefabricated in Marmol Radziner’s own state-of-the-art factory, Utah House 1 arrived on site with pre-installed solar panels, windows, doors, and cabinetry.
Skylights are a great addition to any house, as they bring in more natural light - cutting down on artificial light electricity costs, as well as promoting good health for a home’s occupants. Unfortunately, however, skylights are hard to install in most pre-built homes because they require so much roof real estate. Also, unless the sun is at the right angle and there are absolutely no clouds in the sky, skylights don’t always illuminate a space in a way that makes their cost worthwhile. Thats why we love Solatube - a smart technology which takes skylights one step further by refracting, reflecting and concentrating solar light into a small tube using mirrors and lenses.
In the Electrolux Design Lab competition we just mentioned, our favorite submission was probably the HydroSphere - one of the runner-up picks among the nine finalists. The Electrolux Design Lab is an annual competition that challenges design students to find innovative solutions for consumer products. The theme of this year’s competition was focused on food preservation and preparation, encouraging designs that promote healthy lifestyles through healthy eating habits. The HydroSphere is a small self-efficient green house that manages to be a really cool light fixture and science lab all in one.
Hundreds of young student hopefuls entered the Electrolux Design Lab industrial design competition this year for a crack at the big-time. Finally the results are in – Metin Kaplan, an industrial design student from Istanbul Technical University has snagged the grand prize for his innovative take on the conventional lunchbox. Kaplan’s design cleverly addressed the competition’s running theme – solutions that provide the 2016 consumer with healthier eating habits. Kaplan’s creation, which he dubbed Nevale, was inspired by an antique food container with layers called ‘sefertasi’ which was used for centuries in Middle-Eastern countries.
As the holidays come to a close, the gifts have been given, the cookies have been eaten, and your Christmas tree is more than likely starting to look a little crisp around the edges. It is at this point in the holiday season that the realities of the Christmas tree dilemma start to sink in. If you have a live cut Christmas tree like the majority of the US population, you are probably beginning to contemplate how to dispose properly of the tree. This point in the cycle always seems so sad, considering this tree probably took at least 10 years to cultivate and grow and was cut down for a just a few weeks of holiday pleasure.
There are better, greener ways to do the Christmas tree thing (and we’ll talk about them in detail below), but if you already have a cut tree, your best option now is to send your little tannenbaum to a better place through Treecycling. These days, most communities have treecycling centers, where you can drop your trees off without hassle and know that they will go on to start a new life providing mulch, landscaping or erosion prevention.
For treecycling locations near you, look here >
Christmas is a great day for traditions. Some families make a giant turkey, some roast chestnuts, while others tear open presents with grandma at the crack of dawn. This year, allow me to suggest a new tradition: Giving Back For Christmas. What better day to be thankful for the gifts you received, then give back to the world. There are so many ways to give- from volunteering at your local soup kitchen to hauling a trunkload of clothes and unused housewares to the Goodwill, to making a monetary donation to a worthy cause. Even the smallest actions can make a difference. So, in the words of my proactive father, “Just do something.” Here are some suggested volunteer opportunites, charitable organizations, and ways to donate… And from all of us at Inhabitat, have a safe and merry Christmas.
As we head into Christmas and a frenzy of gifts and gluttony, try to take a moment to step back and remember what the holidays are really about. We found Brian Smith’s story about Recycled Christmas a while back and thought it an inspiring example of what the holidays could and should really represent: celebration, thoughtfulness, and giving part of yourself.
Eco-friendly Dutch designer Rianne de Witte has crafted a collection of accessories that is both playful and a subtle reaction on the current socio-political climate. The scarf, ‘an arm to hold you’, is in the form of an arm with hands on both ends, designed to literally give you a warm embrace. The ‘Peace deux pièce’ consists of a balaclava and a pair of gloves. The gloves show the peace sign by means of two colored fingers. What could be better on this Christmas Eve than to have peace and a warm embrace. Happy Holidays.
We had our first ever holiday party this past Wednesday night in San Francisco, and it was lots of fun. Thanks to all of you who stopped by to join in the green holiday cheer- we hope you had as good a time as we did! And a special thanks to our gracious and generous co-sponsors and supporters: Branch, Architecture For Humanity, Design Within Reach, and Mendocino Wine Company. Looking forward to next year! Following are some pics from the party…
They say that good things come in small packages, and the Clever Mini Home is a perfect demonstration of this theory. This compact 480-sq-ft design makes minimalist living efficient and elegant, with an open floor plan, abundant natural light, and well constructed interior details.
A large-scale convergence of public art, renewable energy and sustainable design, Aluna is a “lunar clock” — a giant timepiece that uses tidal-powered (or lunar-powered) LEDs to indicate the phase and position of the moon, and the ebb and flow of ocean tides.
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We bloggers are so tied to our laptops that we often times take them, and our constant connection to a neverending flow of information, for granted. We write and read about some amazing eco-friendly and environmentally-conscious design initiatives. But often times the socially-focused projects have the most potential to incite change, like Fuseproject’s XO computer designed for the One Laptop Per Child program, which provides not only an ingeniously designed piece of technology, but a plan to deliver said technology to an otherwise technologically underprivileged demographic. The cleverly-designed, fully-loaded XO laptop will be delivered in mass quantities to developing countries for about $130 each, giving thousands of children access to the web and other educational applications. This past July, Nigeria placed the first hefty order of one million units. And just last month, XO was honored with Popular Science magazine’s “Best of What’s New” Award.
Kids love the holidays- for the cheer, the joy, the abundance of cookies, but mostly, for the gifts. This year, why not give green gifts that are healthy, educational, and eco-friendly. The little ones will love them, and you’ll feel great about giving them. Warning: excessive cuteness ahead…
Leaves Imagination from HNTB & Brad Bell Studios
December marks the last month of the 13 extreme tree houses on display at the Dallas Arboretum. The Dallas Arboretum Ultimate Tree House exhibit is the result of a competition open to local architects in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex to design unique tree houses with regards to two rules…
Samples! Product representatives have opened our eyes before about their company’s sustainable efforts. So we were thrilled to receive this sample bracelet from 3form, a company that makes laminate panels for walls, doors, stair treads, tables- pretty much anything you can think of.
The bracelet is fabricated from the company’s Ecoresin, which is a non-toxic polyester resin. (They also offer a line called 100 Percent, which is made entirely from post-consumer HDPE.) Rather than sandwiching bamboo, glass, fabric, or any of the other popular materials inside the Ecoresin, 3form created a version which they call Ithemba, which translates as “hope” in the native language of the Xhosa - a people of South Africa.
Jewelry always makes a great gift. Whether you lean bohemian or mod, there are a variety of sustainable yet stylish adornment options to lend that added something to your look. Check out our suggestons below for the perfect eco stocking stuffer…
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Last year we got super excited about a recycled steel pipe menorah by Grand Idea studio. While that steel pipe menorah was just a DIY design idea and wasn’t actually for sale - this year we’ve come across a very similar steel pipe menorah that you can actually purchase for $99, from a company called Notschlock
Of course this makes us wonder a bit about where the designers got the idea….. but hey - I guess you can’t patent ideas! Since Grand Idea Studio seem to have no plans to sell their recycled-pipe menorah idea, we’re glad to see someone making such a clever design available for purchase.
Wooden dreidels? Sure. Clay dreidels? Even the South Park kids know about those. But recyclable stainless steel flat-pack dreidels? Can hanukkah get any better than this? I think not. If everyone in the world bought these instead of those old school bulky dreidels we could surely offset the Co2 emissions of every menorah in Kansas for the next fifty years. At the very least.
At the recent Dwell On Design conference in Palm Springs, I had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner about prefab architecture and sustainability. I asked him about his trajectory as a designer, and what opportunities he sees for prefab to have a larger impact on a wider, more affordable market. His response was thoughtful and optimistic, and provided some great insight into the mind of a forward-thinking and increasingly green designer.
Click on the image above to watch the interview or read below for the full interview transcription.
As global leader of the bizarre world of upscale development, Dubai has yet another feat of both engineering and excess in the works. The latest spire to be added to the desert landscape will be the Time Residences building in the City of Arabia, a 200-unit apartment tower - that will rotate! The complex will turn a full 360 degrees over the course of a week, utilizing stored solar energy to power the turning mechanisms.
For me, nothing induces a good case of eco-guilt like Christmas tree lights. They may be gaudy, cheesy, blazing examples of over-consumption festooned across our streets, but I love them. But this year, it’s time to break free from this dysfunctional relationship and invest in a few strands of LED lights to twinkle my greenery. Compared to traditional Christmas lights, I’ll be using 1/10th the amount of electricity to light the small LED’s, and 1/160th for the larger bulbs. Beyond the expected energy savings, LED strands also burn brighter so my tree will be more jolly than my neighbors’ tawdry displays. LED’s are also significantly more durable, meaning my holiday cheer will survive the elements and twinkle for years to come.
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