Green to the Extreme

Talk about designing for the environment.

London Designer Asif Khan has designed a range of tables and chairs made from freeze dried flowers. His design is part of the Designers in Residence program, at the Design Museum in London. The project named Harvest (how appropriate) aims to produce furniture from plants found around london.

They use a plant called Gypsophilia as it has a natural ability to interlock. The plant material is put in moulds and freeze-dried over several weeks before it is bonded with resin.

MVRDV

Last year when I was working on my shed project I came across the Dutch architects MVRDV and was intrigued by there work so began to look into past and present projects. The one I found most influential was the apartment buildings originally designed for older residents. This is probably one of their most iconic buildings to date and is recognised worldwide.

Recently though the Dutch architects have come together with designer Richard Hutten to design a research facility within a courtyard at the Delf University of Technology.

"The Why Factor” is a main orange staircase structure that comprises of meeting rooms, lecture halls and places for researching. The black furniture surrounding the main structure was designed by Hutten to use up the wasted space created for the use of lectures and researching.

The design arrangement benefits the many users that work and attend the university. The simple design creates an eye-catching piece of artwork that fits well into the surroundings. This has definitely not gone unnoticed as they won the LAI 2009 award.

Co2 Admission

Another project that has caught my attention is the Co2 Cubes by Alfio Bonanno and Christopher Cornubert.

The idea behind their design is a great concept that should send out a strong message and encourage people to think about the matter concerned, which is reducing their co2 admission.

This is another design that is trying to take the role of sustainability and encourage people to create a better life style that will hopefully make a difference to the change in climate and environment in years to come.

The issue of Sustainability has been one that has recently taken headline in most areas of design and is soon to be even bolder, however is this the way to encourage people to take action? By showing them the equivalent to their carbon footprint or should we as designers show people the real destruction they are causing in order to create a response that will lead to doing something about the problem.

What Bonanno and Cornubert have tried to do is represent the monthly carbon footprint of the average person or the amount produced by a person from the us in two weeks. The cube measures 27’ x 27’ x 27’and is a representation of one metric ton of carbon dioxide. The cube has been designed so that it can incorporate video streams; real-time information and solutions that will help slow down climate change. It should broadcast this information at the gathering that will take place in Copenhagen next month at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This is a small way to broadcast the matter of climate change that will hopefully make a difference in the way people think and act. Visually the cube will create more of an impact, which is why the idea should be a success.

This also brings me back to a lecture we had about sustainability and how designers have tried to create products that can function using different forms of energy replacing oil. A company called “Bed Zed”believes we can make a change in our lifestyle through carbon-friendly homes however this process doesn't happen over night, there's a lot of compromising to do to get it to this stage. I do believe though that if we do all have this attitude and increase the awareness of climate change then there will be more things done to achieve the result we want.

Fiscavaig

An architectural design has been completed close to home so thought i would take pride in writing about it. Its by a Scottish Architecture Firm called Rural Design and they have just finished constructing a small timber house on the Isle of Skye. The actual project has been named Fiscavaig and is a two-storey house that has been raised above the ground by wooden columns. The building has been designed so it narrows towards the north side to capture the surrounding landscape. The overall appearance is one that creates a visually pleasing building to look at and draws in the nature of its surroundings.

E.L.A Desk

While researching in to furniture for our own furniture project i came across this unusual but modern take on a desk. It has been designed by Bulgarian studio Bozhinovskidesign and they have created this "cantilevered" E.L.A desk by suspending it from the side wall by steel cables. The desk has been produced from fibreglass and was designed for the fibreglass specialist ElzaDesign.