Inhabitat

PROPELLOR’S PLYBOO PENDANT LAMP

Making its debut at HauteGREEN this year, Propeller’s gorgeous new pendant lamps demonstrate the potential of combining CNC milling with sustainable materials like Plyboo. What particularly attracts us to the Furrow Parkade pendant light is the simple linear design, with cuts that reveal the inner core of the material, making it equally beautiful when showcased in natural light or when used to light-up a dark night.

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ECO-FRIENDLY EMIR CHAIR by Trokk 16

If you are looking for a cool alternative to your average, run-of-the-mill upholstered furniture, the latest buzz (and one of the stunners of the HauteGREEN show) is the Emir chair by Lars Urheim of the Norwegian design house Trokk16. A beautiful specimen of classic Scandinavian design, the Emir chair is constructed out of natural latex foam, sustainable wood, wool fabric and woolen felt. The biodegradable Emir is as much about form as it is about substance. According to Urheim, the chair’s components can easily be separated and reused or recycled after its initial use has run its course.

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THORNCROWN CHAPEL – A Paragon of Environmental Design

While walking through the woods near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, one might be forgiven to mistake Thorncrown Chapel for a grove of trees in the middle of the forest. The transparent glazed facade, combined with the timber trusses, create the appearance of a grand forest rather than a carefully constructed chapel. It is only when one is inside the chapel that one starts appreciating the small details that set it apart as a paragon of architectural achievement: the steel joints on the trusses, the lanterns, the reflection of the glass, and finally the steel roof.

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SWING WITH THE PLANTS: Green Swing by Marcel Wanders

For the (green) kid in all of us, check out Droog designer Marcel Wanders’ latest creation- ‘Swing With The Plants’ combines flora and the nostalgia of childhood days spent on a swingset. The seat of Swing with the Plants serves as a planter, AND comes packed with soil and the seeds of a climbing plant that will grow upwards along the ropes.

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GREEN YOUR WALLS with Schiavello Vertical Gardens

For all of us urban dwellers who crave indoor greenery but find ourselves a bit short on space, here’s a great solution that requires almost no square footage: Joost Bakker’s Schiavello Vertical Gardens. The steel-frame interior plant system was designed on a grid that allows numerous plants to be stacked vertically in columns or walls- providing the perfect backdrop for any office or apartment that needs and extra bit of greening but can’t afford the space required for them (when you can’t build out, build up!).

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GOOGLE GOES GREEN(ER)

It’s a good time to be green, and Google is leading the way. Last year, the search giant Google announced that their installation of the solar panels on their campus, which are expected to provide around 1,600 kw/h. And keeping with their green commitment, they recently launched the Google solar panel project webpage which will help anyone track how much power their solar panels are generating. And now, their newest green initiatives include everything from plug-in hybrids and car-powered homes to carbon neutrality.

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THE SONGJIANG SUSTAINABLE HOTEL IN CHINA

Near Shanghai, the Songjiang district has become a popular weekend destination for many tourists with its natural beauty and sprawling landscapes. And now the Songjiang Hotel might just become the newest and greenest attraction. While it may look a bit sci-fi, this hotel was designed for the real (green) world, with many sustainable features in mind.

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MOSO BAMBOO PENDANT LAMP by Brian Schmitt

A variety of environmentally-friendly pendant lights lit up the HauteGREEN exhibition last month in New York, but none of them more exquisitely displays our love for bamboo than the Moso Pendant by designer Brian Schmitt. Made almost entirely of bamboo and only three components (shade panels, bamboo frame, and cord set), the Moso Pendant can be flat packed and shipped to your preferred destination and be assembled without the use of any fasteners or glue. How cool is that?

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AMPLE SAMPLE Upcycling Design Contest

For those of you who work in a professional design office, you know how quickly we become inundated with samples of all sorts. From rubber to glass and everything in-between, we can’t help but find ourselves on the receiving end of sample shipments, momentarily entranced by the possibilities of their novelty.

A recent contest sponsored by carpet manufacturers Bentley Prince Street and Tricycle resulted in some of the best examples of upcycling we’ve seen in a while: from wine carriers to benches, these designers took to the task of finding real, new uses for their excess carpet samples. The winner of the contest was the Rugburm lounge chair, pictured above, designed by a group at RSA. The design incorporates 42 samples and takes advantage of their flexible and weight bearing properties.

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DASPARKHOTEL MADE FROM RECYCLED PIPES

While the idea of sleeping in a pipe might not immediately connote luxury in your mind, this hotel design turns concrete pipes into quite the comfortable space for your next overnight stay. Almost like glorified camping, the DasParkHotel is a series of individual hotel room pipes, set on a beautiful flora-filled backdrop just steps from the Danube River.

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ANDREA CREWS: Reinterpreting Second-Hand

Sustainable Style Sunday is on a recycling roll, so we figured we’d continue the theme with Andrea Crews, a Paris-based creative collective whose work defies definition as solely design, art, or fashion. Their projects are based on the use and reinterpretation of the second-hand garment as a social, economic and ethical choice. One part Swap-o-rama, one part Imitation of Christ, mixed with a let’s-play-dress-up enthusiasm, they express their vision in workshops, performances, fashion shows, and eventually the commercial sale of their creations.

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MELBOURNE BANS PLASTIC BAGS

Last July, Australia’s Victoria state legislation, home to Melbourne, announced legislation to put a levy of 10 cents on every giveaway plastic bag given at supermarkets. The move was seen as a necessary step to curb the ammount of plastic bags going into landfill, and follows the actions of several small towns in Victoria and in other parts of the country.

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SAN FRANCISCO BANS PLASTIC BAGS

Photo courtesy of NY Times

Next time you go grocery shopping in San Francisco, you won’t be hearing “paper or plastic” at the check out. As of this past March, San Francisco is officially the first city in the United States to ban plastic shopping bags in certain establishments. The city by the Bay’s Board of Supervisors approved the groundbreaking legislation that would officially ban plastic checkout bags supermarkets by September and pharmacies by early 2008. City officials are optimistic that other U.S. cities including Los Angeles and New York will follow suit.

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HONG KONG MOVES TO BAN PLASTIC BAGS

Lawmakers are closer to passing an environmental levy to cut plastic bag use in Hong Kong. “No Plastic Bag Day” campaigns may become permanent. According to a report released recently by Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department, Hong Kong throws out over 8 billion plastic shopping bags every year (that’s more than 3 bags per person a day).

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TOP 5 TINIEST PREFAB HOMES

As prefab housing takes hold as a viable, sustainable, contemporary building technique, one of the lessons we are learning is that bigger does not necessarily equal better. In fact, when is comes to simplifying your life and trying to tread lightly on the planet, we would argue that smaller is most certainly better. Some of our favorite prefabs here at Inhabitat have been those with the least amount of square footage. In an era of shoddily-built cookie-cutter McMansions, it’s nice to see a growing trend toward living small and efficiently, in a well built compact home. Read on for our Top 5 Tiniest Prefab Homes…

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SPINACH POWERED HOUSE

We all know how good spinach is for your body, but did you know that it is also good for your house? That’s the proposition behind the house designed by Matthew Coates and Tim Meldrum. Together, they have designed a residence which obtains its electricity from spinach, making it worthy of being declared the winner of Cradle to Cradle contest.

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