Inhabitat

REEL ROCKER

Everybody loves a rocking chair. From classic porch rockers to high-end “gliders”, the rocker is superior among chairs. Making the rocking experience all the more care-free is Reel Furniture, a UK-based company that makes eco-friendly furniture from discarded wood.

The Reel Rocker is made from the discs of giant wooden reels and other industrial waste scraps. The discs are held together with slats and hemp rope, creating a flexible seat that forms to the …

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SESSELJUHUS ECO HOUSE

The S’lheimar eco village that I visited while on holiday in Iceland was full of interesting takes on environmentally concious architecture. Most of the buildings have sod roofs, which provide extremely good insulation in Iceland’s cold windy climate. Architecture in the village places heavy emphasis on local building materials and geothermal power. From a design point of view, the most interesting building in Solheimer is the village center: Sesseljuhus

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ICELANDIC ECO VILLAGE

If you’ve been to Iceland, you’ve probably done the famous “Golden Circle” tour, which hits all of Iceland’s main tourist attractions in a couple hours drive through the southwest part of the country. However, a man-made attraction that most tourists miss is the nearby Solheimer eco-village. Located just 1/2 hour away from Geysir and Gulfloss, and half an hour away from Hveragerdi, Solheimer lies within the Golden Circle, on the road back to Reykjavik. This tiny village deserves more attention than it gets, as it is one of the oldest thriving eco-villages in the world, and is a model community for green-minded individuals. It also features some interesting architecture.

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THE ABANDONED BUILDING

Bruni/Babarit, the French odd couple of site-specific earth art, are currently exhibiting their most recent tour de force in Fert?-Bernard, France. Gilles Bruni and Marc Babarit are artistic partners with a unique motivation and a stunning execution. The current exhibition, entitled The Abandoned Building, challenges the viewer to adopt a new perspective on the seeming meaninglessness of abandoned spaces.
The artists lay out two primary aspects of the work: architecture and ecology. The building itself is full of empty space and surrounded by fallow land; its historical function has faded. But the architecture takes on new meaning as vegetation is ushered in by neglect.

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STEREOLUZ

Now that speaker design has gotten all high-tech, are you feeling nostalgic for the wooden boxes of yesteryear? If you are like me and harbor a fondness for the boxy design of old hi-fi speakers (but not the scratchy sound quality), you can recycle yours into beautiful ambient lights like this one, with custom lighting design company Stereoluz.

Lighting designer Trey Gerfers began reappropriating old speaker boxes in 2003 to create interactive ambient lights. He founded Stereoluz to keep up with the growing demand for his custom lamps, which now incorporate a variety of designs and materials in addition to the original speaker boxes. In some of his designs Gerfer uses old maps ? in others he uses wood paneling or LEDs. Although these may sound like an incongruous bunch of materials, once you see the lamps, you realize how well they work together. His motto is “old and new, modern and rustic, familiar but altogether something else” Sums it up about right.

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TASCHEN: ARCHITECTURE IN THE 20TH CENTURY

The phenomenal publisher of art and culture books, Taschen, is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. There are a number of reprints and special editions coming out to mark the occasion, including the expanded Architecture in the 20th Century, a vertiable bible of great design and architecture in last century.

The book is being released in August 2005 in two volumes. It is arranged chronologically with a wealth of photos and a biographical appendix. Taschen never fails to turn …

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ICELAND’S GEOTHERMAL POWER

Iceland is hot – both as a tourist destination, and underground, where all the geothermal action is. Iceland sits on the geologically active Mid-Atlantic Ridge (where the North American continental plate pulls away from the Eurasian continental plate), and since the beginning of its history has seen more than its fair share of crazy volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The upside of all this geothermal activity shaking up Iceland is a cheap, efficient and clean energy source for its inhabitants.

87% of Icelandic houses are heated geothermally, and 17% of Iceland’s electricity comes from Geothermal Power. The fact that Reykjavik gets much of its power from geothermal sources is immediately apparent. As many of the postcards and brochures I’ve picked up attest to, Reykjavik “is the most unpolluted capital in Europe.” It’s true what the postcards say – the city is absolutely pristine. The air is crystal clear. This may have more to do with the small population and fierce winds that sweep over the island, blowing pollution out to sea – but the geothermal power can’t be discounted either.

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ICELAND’S MODERNIST CHURCHES

One of the first things visitors to Reykjavik notice is the crazy spaceship-looking church dominating the skyline. The Hallgrimskirkja (Hallgrim’s Church) is impossible to miss, as it is by far the tallest building in Reykjavik and it sits on top of a hill. Although most tourists to Reykjavik make a point of going to see this church, Iceland has a wealth of innovative modernist churches – most of which don?t get much mention in guidebooks. The fact that there are so many modernist churches dotting the urban landscape ? and so few older churches – was one of the main things that struck me about Iceland architecturally. In other European countries (France, England, Germany, etc.) churches tend to be old and built in traditional Gothic and Renaissance styles. In America many churches built in a modern style, but typically their design tends to be uninspired (to say the least).

So why does Iceland have so many sleek, modernist churches? I couldn’t find any good answers, but here are some thoughts:

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GREETINGS FROM REYKJAVIK

I’m currently here in Reykjavik, the windy capital of Iceland, and will be here until Sunday July 24th. I’ll be scouring the scene for the coolest Icelandic design and architecture, so feel free to get in touch with me if you have any tips. In the next week I’ll be covering Icelandic modernist churches, geothermal energy, Icelandic product design, and the Solheimer Eco village. If you can think of anything I may have missed, please …

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KNIT CHAIR

Once, during a paralyzingly cold winter, you decided to take up knitting. You bought a soft ball of yarn and a pair of needles and plopped down on your couch with the lofty goal of making a skull cap with ear flaps. But half-way through your project, the cat got the yarn, the snow melted, and your partially-completed hat is still in your closet. At least now that you’ve tried, you have fresh admiration for those who pull it off.

Emiliano Godoy is in a class of knitters all his own. He took the homely craft to a knew level by knitting a chair. At the 2005 International Furniture Design Fair Asahikawa (IFDA) in Japan in June, Godoy’s Knit Chair was awarded a bronze leaf.

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ECO MOD

For those of you who believe that the reputation of college students as impassioned revolutionaries has been replaced by one of apathetic conformists, you may find restored hope at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.

ecoMOD is a research and design/build project begun during the 04-05 school year and slated to continue in phases over the next four years. In partnership with the Piedmont Housing Alliance in Charlottesville, VA, students at the UVA School of Architecture intend to design and erect at least three 1,000-1,2000-sq.-ft. homes in low-income communities in the Piedmont area.

These are not your standard affordable houses. The ecoMOD homes are modular and eco-friendly, with emphasis placed on marrying indoor and outdoor space through passive design strategies. The first prototype is aptly named the OUTin house, and will be erected in the Fifeville neighborhood following completion at a build site in a former airplane hangar.

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LIVERPOOL GREEN VILLAGE

Developers in Liverpool are planning a major residential development that would incorporate green principles from design through operation. The $31m project would include fifty-four homes in a five-block area and would be slated to expand to one hundred and fifty homes over several future phases.

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ECO SURFBOARD

When I think of token surf spots around the globe, the UK is not the first one that comes to mind. But as it turns out, Britain’s surf history is some three hundred years old. The British Surfing Museum, in collaboration with the Eden Project(a mecca of sustainability in Cornwall), has just opened their exhibit “Full Circle – surfboard evolution,” which will be on display at Eden until the end of August.

The exhibit shows the evolution of surfboard manufacturing and materials, from natural wood planks to the current standard composites which use petrol products and fiberglass and are non-biodegradable and environmentally toxic. The people at the Eden Project have also developed an “eco-surfboard” for the exhibition, using a combination of materials derived from plants. The wood comes from balsa grown on Eden property and coatings are made from hemp and plant-based oils.

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LIVING WALL

At the University of Guelph, near Toronto, green design is a literal term. The new Humber building, designed by Toronto firm Diamond Schmitt Architects, Inc., uses a wall of plants as a living air purifier for the 170,000-sq.ft. building.

The four-story biofilter is a thick jungle of ferns, ivy and other plants, working together to emit microbes that break down harmful airborne contaminants into water and CO2. The wall is self-cleaning, since pollutants are not absorbed into the plants, but actually broken down.
The biofilter was developed by biological researchers at the University of Guelph, including Alan Darlington, who now heads his own company, Air Quality Solutions, Ltd., to sell the living walls commercially.

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SOLAR PLANE

In the century since the Wright brothers made their giant leap for aviation, flying has become an unremarkable mode of transport, and planes have turned into airborne living rooms. The standard of a good ride today is a personal television screen and in-flight yoga.

Somehow, in the quest for on-board luxury, aircrafts have gotten far less attention than ground transport as culprits in deteriorating air quality and depleted oil sources, even though one pass of a Boeing 747 across the Atlantic uses more gas than 2,500 cars. The environmental impact of planes has been downplayed by our need to travel long distances and our preoccupation with safety.

This problem has not been lost on Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland, who is known for his round-the-world hot air balloon flight in 1999. With the support of the European Space Agency, Piccard is engineering the Solar Impulse, a solar-powered plane that he plans to fly non-stop around the world in 2010. The plane resembles a glider in its design, with wide wings and a slim body.

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MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES

Across the bay from San Francisco, enormous industrial cranes that resemble steel dinosaurs stand guard at the Port of Oakland. They epitomize the domination of industry in the modern world, and at the same time they possess a strangely artistic fascination.

Natural landscapes that have been scarred by industry and waste are often more aesthetically interesting because of their damage. Edward Burtynsky captures this paradox stunningly in his photo retrospective, Manufactured Landscapes, on exhibit at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University through September 18.

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ICELAND

I’m headed to Iceland today for a week to check out the Icelandic design scene and soak it up in geothermal hot springs! Contributing writer Sarah Rich will be taking care of Inhabitat while I am gone.

I will be checking email occasionally, and hopefully posting a little bit while in Rekjavik (Internet access permitting), so please keep the Icelandic tips coming in! And thanks so much to everyone who has sent me tips, I plan to check it all out.

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OOOOOOOMs

What is it about the Dutch and design? Why is it that most witty and thought-provoking designers these days all seem to be coming out of the Netherlands? Tord Boontje, Jurgen Bey, Hella Jongerious, Droog… Its hard to put a finger on exactly what it is that unites these different designers ? but there seems to be a certain playfulness to Dutch design which makes it uniquely compelling.

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HOTEL FOX

Everyone is drawing on the walls at Hotel Fox?at least everyone who is someone in the world of urban art, graphic design and illustration. Situated in the heart of Copenhagen, the sixty-one rooms have been individually (and stunningly) painted, creating a boutique hotel unlike any other.

Each room has its own character and its own story. Like room #408, by Hort, where the walls are drenched in a graphic green forest. Or room #209 (pictured above), by the French designers Antoine et Manuel, where everything is about chance.

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LOS ANGELES’ BLACK HOLE

You could argue it’s astrophysically impossible to have a black hole within a black hole (we kid, we kid, LA peeps). Nonetheless, architects Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues (from Materials & Applications) have managed to reconstruct a featherweight rendition of “the deadliest force in the Universe” as a shade structure which hovers over M&A’s office on Silverlake blvd in Los Angeles. The shiny Mylar vortex has been slowing down traffic in front of 1619 Silverlake Blvd, as passersby stop to get a better look.

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HANSA CANYON Temparature Sensitive Bathroom Fixtures

Germany’s Hansa has come out with these futuristic bathroom fixtures. The metal spigot has the top portion removed, creating a visible canyon for your water to run through. As if these rectangular minimalist fixtures weren’t beautiful enough, they also feature temperature sensitive LEDs lining the walls of the canyon, which illuminate the water in different colors depending on the temperature of the water (red=hot, pink=warm, blue=cold). Not that anyone really needs colored light help to discern the temperature of running water – but its a cool feature none-the-less. Who knows, maybe it could help prevent those nasty surprises you sometimes get when washing your hands or stepping into the bath a little too quickly.

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Jean Nouvel’s LOUISIANA MANIFESTO

“Each new situation requires a new architecture.” Jean Nouvel

French new wave architect Jean Nouvel is probably most famous for his L’Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. Seeing that building at age 19 was one of the catalysts that inspired me to go into design. For fans of Jean Nouvel, I’ve just discovered that the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is currently housing an exhibition of the architect’s philosophy on life and design, entitled The Louisiana Manifesto.

Jean Nouvel attaches great importance to design that is in harmony with its surroundings, and his aim is to ensure that his architecture merges with the spirit of the place. In the Louisiana manifesto, he rails against the horrors of what he calls ‘generic architecture’, and crusades for the type of site specificity and unique context that the Louisiana Museum employs in its design.

The exhibit will be running until the 18th of September, so catch it while you can.

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TOM DIXON’S ECO WARE

Maverick design star Tom Dixon is a household name in England, where they take design more seriously than us yokels accross the pond. Dixon is most famous for being the creative director of Habitat, the UK-based home-furnishings shop.

Recently, Dixon has been experimenting with biodegradeable plastics made from compressed natural materials such as byproducts of coconut, rice and bamboo processing. He has created a line of biodegradeable plates, bowls and cups dubbed Eco Ware . This elegant line of sustainable tableware is 85% bamboo bound with a water-soluble polymer.

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HIVE MODULAR PREFAB

Hive Modular is three architects who dreamt of building affordable pre-fab homes. Affordable prefab, you ask? Isn’t all prefab affordable? Although prefabricated building is meant to be affordable by its very nature ? in reality, many of the Modernist prefab houses currently on the market tend towards the “summer home for design-savvy millionaire” (aka First Penthouse) rather than the “starter house for first-time home buyer”. Faced with this challenge, Hive Modular has attempted to blend affordability and style with their new B-line house.

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LOOOLO: 100% Sustainable Textiles

Now that sustainability has become household language, environmental-friendliness can be more of a marketing buzz word than a true indication of responsible manufacturing. Fortunately, there are some exceptionally dedicated green businesses that are implementing sustainable practices throughout the entire lifecycle of a product. Looolo Textiles is one of these companies.

Based in Toronto, Looolo develops “living textiles,” made from certified organic buckwheat and cotton, as well as Climatex Lifcycle yarns (organic fibers free of toxins and hazardous bio-products, conceived in conjunction with McDonough and Braungart). Raw materials are grown mostly by local Canadian farmers, then dyed in a “closed loop” facility, where remainders from the dye baths are purified, recycled and reused entirely, never releasing pollutants to the outside. When a Looolo product no longer serves its owner, it can be composted and will completely biodegrade and reabsorb into the earth within one year. This is true “cradle-to-cradle” industry.

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LP Record Bowl

Brooklyn based Vinylux fashions tableware from old records. Artist Jeff Davis started hand?making these symmetrical, stepped bowls from non-playable LPs as part of his graduate thesis project. The product has taken off in such a big way that Vinylux has blossomed into a full-scale sustainable design business. His fabrication process keeps the original label intact by protecting it with a clear seal. Vinylux is a recent recipient of an International Design Resource Award for excellence in eco-friendly, sustainable design. The company should win an award for fair pricing as well, as these LP bowls are only $14 from Vivavi. That’s less than you would likely pay for a playable LP!

For those DIY types out there (and I know there are lots of you) ? you can make your own record bowl in your own oven, if you so desire. Just make sure to use an old Billy Joel LP rather than the Beatle’s Butcher Cover album. And don’t expect it to turn out as pristine and symmetrical as the Vinylux version. Apparently there is a lot of shrinkage in process. Readymade Magazine has a detailed description on how to make a bowl out of your old LP:

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ICELAND

Attention Icelanders and friends of Iceland: I will be hitting Reykjavik from July 17th – 23rd, and I want to hear from you!

I have been trying to research the Icelandic design scene, and although I know there is one ? I haven’t been finding much on the internet. I would love to hear from (or even meet up with) anyone who has tips on where to go, what to do, and what to see in …

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PORTABLE LIGHT

Word on the street is that Wired’s Nextfest showcased a bunch of note-worthy projects, such as this Portable Light by University of Michigan and Kennedy & Violich Architecture.

The PortableLight is a series of prototypes that integrate flexible solar cells and super bright LEDs into lighting solutions for the billions of people in developing countries who do not have access to electric power or light. Although designed specifically for the “developing world” these designs will likely be useful in the first world as well, where there is a growing need to come up with energy efficient alternatives to the centralized and costly electrical grid.

The high brightness LEDs (hBLEDs) incorporated into the Portable Light are bright enough to read, work and illuminate area at night. The long term goal is to integrate the technology directly into textiles. For the time being, however, the Portable Light project has done a fabulous job of incorporating off-the-shelf components into functional designs.

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RECYCLED CHOPSTICK LAMPS

Next time you chow down on Chinese take-out, consider this: billions of single-use chopsticks are consumed annually. It takes an estimated 25 million trees and bamboo plants to support this resource waste. So what to do about the vast amounts of chopsticks headed for landfill?

Bryan Parks, an American who lived in China for several years, had a revelation about this while eating lunch with single-use chopsticks. He decided to start a company to recycle used chopsticks and turn them into decorative household products. After extensive R & D, including a developing a unique process for reclaiming and thoroughly sanitizing chopsticks, Kwytza Kraft was born.

Kwytza Kraft makes a variety of different home accessories all made from recycled sanitized chopstick. While I personally find some of them cute: such as these table lamps and placemats, some of the curvy designs I find a little too busy. I wish some of these hanging and standing lamps were a bit more minimalist and straight. Either way, the idea is just so fabulous that you gotta hand it to Bryan Parks.

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RETREAT HOUSE

If you hadn’t noticed, trailers have been making a comeback in the past few years. High-end designers have been reappropriating the typically “trashy” trailer and making it chic. But no amount of cosmetic enhancement can truly disassociate a product from its name. Which is why the UK has the upper hand in this arena. In England, a trailer is called a “caravan”. In fact, the British have an undeniable linguistic grace. For example, “holiday” sounds so much more romantic than vacation. The very word can change the whole experience.

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SUNLIGHT TABLE

We can’t get enough of sunlight transportation devices. As a recent study has shown (what intuitively most of us know) – sunlight is good for your health. Sadly, more and more of us have jobs that force us to sit in fluorescent caves all day, removing us from the healing benefits of natural light. Fortunately a bunch of different designers and lighting companies have started trying to bring sunlight into the indoors with fiber-optic sunlight transport devices. Following this path, two RCA students have come up with an amazingly brilliant Sunlight Table. Anab Jain and Stuart Wood’s innovative table brings sunlight from the outdoors using fiber-optic cables, and pumps it up through the wooden table: creating the is the first piece of furniture I have ever seen which integrates sunlight into its design.

Threaded with tiny fiber-optic cables that create a “sunlight display grid” on its surface, the Sunlight Table is designed to bring natural light into workspaces. The fiber-optic cables embedded in the wood table connect to an input grid placed over a window. Light and shade are transmitted from the panel through the fibers and into the table. Movement outside the window, such as passing birds or shifting clouds, brings a little bit of the outside world back to the user.

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