Monitor » Environ-Mentally

Roots

Paula — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:38:24 +0000

Mut design “emotional design studio” presented its new work during the design week in Milan. Between their projects, I’d like to mention Roots, a modular structure, produced in wood and porcelain, that allows the composition of a biombo like screen or just a mini vertical garden.

Satura

Paula — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 10:00:40 +0000

Within the ”Plus Edition 2011″ of the swiss Ruckstuhl we wish to point out Satura by Alfredo Häberli a delicate yet functional modular rug, a composition of natural colours and geometrical cuts, made out of 100% pure new wool (wool felt).

Jamal, another creation of Häberli dated 2005.

Magis

Paula — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:19:20 +0000

In these difficult times for the industry Magis, and its inspiring stand, shone during the design week in Milan. Showing new products, proposing new ideas and even materials.
Featured here are a couple of “Cyborgs” by Marcel Wanders, like the original ones, these chairs are the combination of both artificial and natural systems.

Zartan by Starck & Quitllet , is a promise of a natural daily future, a chair resulting from the use of elemental materials, such as bamboo, linen, hemp, with a high ecological technology. The reminder of an old post: Artek and UPM ProFi is not completely casual, and we hope for more developments.

Last but not least Vigna by Martino Gamper, like a climbing plant the Magis wire swirl creates a structural feature which supports the chair leg. The seat is in bi-injection-moulded plastic, a technology allowing to obtain a seat pattern in many combinations of double colours.

Green pockets

Paula — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:43:08 +0000

This project is obviously one of the winners in our Bucolic Empowerment category, these simple and beautiful plant pot/tiles by Maruja Fuentes not only allow you to bring nature into your home, they are also made of recycled materials, and can be placed in different configurations according to your vertical garden design.

Light games

Paula — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:08:26 +0000

When the “Salone del Mobile” arrives everyone knows “novelties” are on their way, the odd thing is that “novelties” never come alone, (despite the secrecy of the companies and the early rise of trends) when you see a “new object” there is always a twin sister around and some cousins, spy cases or trend sharing?
In any case, this time we are talking about light and interference, fragmentation, and magnification. Lamps with lenses, textured surfaces that enhance light or just give fancy decorations.

Among the different examples there is an important one, in which light is really enhanced by Fresnel lenses: Hope, by Francisco Gomez Paz and Paolo Rizzatto, for Luceplan, a modular “not crystal” chandelier, made in polycarbonate film.

Why is Hope listed within our Environ-Mentally category? Very simple, although I’m not a friend of plastic, Hope’s packaging is very compact due to the modularity of its components and the weight being reduced to the minimum. Something else, it fits different light bulbs, encouraging the use of energy saving ones; the result is better than ever, thanks to the thoughtful design the quality of light is not lessened by the use of these bulbs but is just as pleasant as we hope.

-Another example is Ross Lovegrove and his “Cosmic” lamps/sculptures for Artemide

-Two noteworthy installations:

Swarovsky’s stand in Euroluce, a interactive combination of crystals, light and colour.

Foscarini’s huge kaleidoscope in Zona Tortona, by Vicente Garcia Jimenez

And coming soon… the Organic LED, but for now just some pictures.

Every bag counts

Paula — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:33:32 +0000

Campaigns like “one less plastic bag a day” on Facebook, talk about the daily awareness, we are all getting, on the state of our natural resources.
Daily life without harming the environment results in a difficult task nowadays, using: our cars, hot water, wrappings, cling-film, fashion, nappies, takeaways, all those simple and practical friends from “the disposable culture” that make our life so easy, they are priceless, indeed, we are paying a price for them that is ever so high, none of us would believe it (look at the pacific rubbish island, the weather changes, not to mention allergies and infertility ranges) and it will be like that for many generations if we don’t start taking the problem of our “disposable” life style seriously from now on.
The alternatives are not always, beautiful, quick or easy, but taking some time to choose, we can find a wide range of green products and services, some examples:
- Bamboo Eco Friendly Disposable nappies from Denmark or even better, baby cloth nappies with delivery/cleaning service in the UK.
- Biodegradable and compostable shopping bags and packagings, like Italian bottled water Sant’Anna with its Biobottle, made in Ingeo™ biopolymer. Or a personal reusable “Not a Paper Cup” by Chartreuse
- Another choice are the beautiful reusable designed shopping bags, becoming more common every day, two examples I’ve just seen at Macef are: • Stelton’s from Denmark, the case works as a handle (to carry a heavy 10kg load), washable at 30° “without soap”.
• Envirosax® “Chic, inexpensive and compact bags”, the different ranges from the Organic Series (“manufactured from natural materials including viscose from bamboo, linen and a fine grade hemp, as well as recently introduced organic cotton”) to the kids or graphic series; all designed thinking about the environment, and to make us happy when going greener.

Bucolic Empowerment

Paula — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:49:39 +0000

“the agricultural community will become the planet’s new elite, dominating our essential needs and inspiring years of farmer styles. After all, the farmers of the future will clothe us, house us, feed us, fuel us and hopefully even heal us. Ultimately they will be able to engineer design and grow furniture in a symbiosis of technology and biology, and therefore rural and urban lifestyles will merge and become one; resulting in an inversed social landscape with a greener city and a more contemporary countryside”

This statement by Li Edelkoort, makes us aware that more than a trend, returning to nature, is a life choice to which we will have to get accustomed if we really want a healthy future.
But, not every one interprets trends, some designers and producers, just follow them, as mere aesthetical rules, giving birth to a very wide range of products, you can choose between honest and responsibly made products and those that just apparently (thanks to there natural aesthetic) satisfy the need to return to the essentials, to respect life and nature.
The next posts will be therefore, be dedicated to this present cycle, with its pure aesthetical trends, and to the different objects that really go beyond the “throw away culture” to become true life companions.

Enhanced Architecture

Paula — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:12:06 +0000

I found this video looking through the June issue Wallpaper magazine, all about the “made in China”. Apart from the exceptional engineering and architectural work, what caught my attention was the sober use of colour, made visible just from some angles, not just adorning and communicating, but expressing all the richness of the Chinese culture.

Steven Holl‘s Linked Hybrid building in Beijing.

Artek and UPM ProFi

Paula — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:58:30 +0000

Artek 10-UNIT SYSTEM

When I first came across “UPM ProFi” two years ago, in the Triennale museum of Milan, there wasn’t something really captivating about it. Artek’s pavilion, in the middle of the gardens, was built out of these bricks, made in a new composite material, recycled, water resistant (See the last picture on this entry, of one I still have on my shelf).

It was just in a “aperitivo fuori salone”, talking to Liliana, that I realised it is the same material (enriched with colour and design) Shigeru Ban, used then for the pavilion and now for the 10-UNIT SYSTEM, the proposal for Artek at the “Salone del Mobile 2009″. Based on an “L” shaped module, that can be easily assembled to build chairs, benches, tables. The simplicity of this project is not just the module, but the material: UPM ProFi

Made mostly of recycled wood and plastic, “UPM ProFi” is a sustainable material, that produces almost no waste during it’s production process; although its not biodegradable, it can be recycled several times into the raw material and so produce more “UPM ProFi” products; and its high environmental resistance, makes it a perfect choice for external uses.

Artek 10-UNIT SYSTEM

360 Paper Water Bottle

Paula — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Environ-mentally friendly world, this is the direction, a paper bottle, well, not just paper, it’s a sort of tetrapack. Anyway, it shows how people awareness is growing, and companies start to really care about the future generations.