Even though they are plentiful and free, leftover carpet and wallpaper samples rarely find a purposeful second life. However, there is hope to “rethink, reuse and upcycle” the ever growing pile of pre-consumer carpet waste. Design students and professionals can compete annually to come up with great ideas to reuse carpet samples in the Ample Sample design contest. Meeting the challenge to make good use of the some 700,000 carpet samples shipped annually, past years’ winners included everything from recliners, benches, bags, and wine carriers. The winner that caught our eye from this year’s Ample Sample competition is the GreenScreen.
Zurich-based Postfossil Design Collective came together to create a platform for exploring how design can influence responsible, and adaptable behavior. Earlier this year, at Milan’s furniture fair, they excused themselves for ‘deviating’ from a focus on the use of sustainable materials and production methods, yet Postfossil presented an impressive eco-conscious collection at Salone Satellite. Their thought-provoking designs garnered the Design Report Award for unique ideas that challenge our post-fossil perception.
This lightweight, portable cardboard table aims to assist on-the-go creative types like designers and students, who are often limited to work on low desks or floors. Made by Sruli Recht from flatpack cardboard pieces, this lightweight, sturdy design offers creatives an ergonomic plane on which to cut, fold, draft or design. Adding even more appeal to this smart and useful design, the table is biodegradable and can easily be folded up to pack into a portable carrier.
We spotted a lot of great designs at ICFF this year, but one of the gems that really stopped us in our tracks was this gorgeous eco Echo Lounge Chair which boasts a customizable ergonomic cushion system and a sustainable attitude. The Echo Lounge Chair, designed by Carlos Fierro of Plug Design, is a simple, beautifully crafted metal framed chair that is built entirely without fasteners or adhesives. Timber slats fill the frame, and adjustable wool pieces inserted between each slat provide built-in cushioning. The best part is that the user can customize the profile of the woolen pieces to provide a plush, personalized fit to meet any ergonomic needs.
Being the Dutch design aficionados that we are, we don’t think we’ll ever get tired of playful Dutch design, especially when it’s as sustainable and delightful as Krejci’s ‘Let’s Grow Some Balls!’ chair, which is both a planter and chair all in one. A garden chair that IS the garden, users are brought closer to nature by being surrounded with it.
A confessed dumpster diver always on the look-out for abandoned treasures and grand-daughter to both a furniture designer and a scrap metal recycler, Emily Kroll was destined to launch EKLA Home. With a fresh new brand of sustainable sofas, Kroll’s green-minded design endeavor takes its eco-mandate very seriously. If you didn’t catch the Los Angeles-based designer’s off-Javits East Coast debut at Design Lush during ICFF, here’s a quick and delicious recap.
If you are a coffee drinker with a hard-to-kick habit, you are probably all too aware of how many coffee stirrers are wasted at places like Starbucks every single day. Day in and day out, millions of these single-use sticks go straight into the garbage and off to the landfill after a quick 10-second swirl of cream or sugar. You may have even wondered - like we sure have: “Isn’t there something that we can do to get better use out of all these toss-away coffee stirrers?” Well we are happy to report that there finally is answer to the java-waste woes: Portuguese design group Studio Veríssimo has just debuted a gorgeous eco-luxe chandelier that not only provides a glimmer of hope for discarded coffee sticks, but also created quite a stir at the recent Touch | NY exhibition during New York Design Week.
We are captivated by the lunar visions created in this glowing ‘Fullmoon’ credenza. Designed by Sotirios Papadopoulos for ENNEZERO, this intriguing piece brings a realistic recreation of the moon’s surface to light with a luminescent paint. Despite looking very chemical-intensive and unsustainable, the glow-in-the-dark paint is actually an ‘ecological powder’ that’s been modified into a substance called ELI, or ‘Ecolightinside.’
Herman Miller, the company behind the famous Aeron cradle-to-cradle chair, has just won another point for sexy sustainability by offering new takes on eight furniture design classics in eco-friendly fabric. The new Herman Miller Environment collection includes the Eames Aluminum Group Lounge Chair, the Executive chair and the Compact sofa. The selected eco-revamped designs will be stocked exclusively by ABC Home, which chose the range for its ability to integrate today’s sustainability agenda into designs with timeless beauty.
All green ID geniuses! All chair connoisseurs! Here’s your chance to conjure up an innovative armchair in keeping with the tenets of “good” (ie “green”) design. The One Good Chair Competition is looking for some smart new designs that balance beauty with comfort while letting sustainable forms shine through. The winning team will receive $4,500 to help realize their design as a prototype.
This spring’s ICFF brought some stunning new treats from one of Inhabitat’s perennial favorites, Iannone Designs. The star of Iannone’s ICFF booth was this wonderful Cork Mosaic Credenza that features a charming woodland tableau formed from variegated layers of sustainably harvested cork. Its sprightly reliefs of birds, deer and branches secures Iannone’s spot as the epitome of eco-chic.
Dozens of rolled up newspapers found their way back to functionality in the cleverly designed Newspaper Chair by Kimberly Kulka, a student at California College of the Arts. We love the smart thought process behind this chair - store your magazines and newspapers underneath the form for added structural stability and cushioning (and storage space of course). This is one of the most inspired takes on the magazine rack idea that we’ve seen in awhile.
Philadelphia-based design studio MIO unveiled their innovative rubber stool collection at ICFF this week. Fashioned out of recycled tires with a clean-lined steel frame, the Rubber Stool is ingeniously simple and surprisingly comfortable. The rubber seat is woven into the frame without any hardware and simple traction keeps it in place. No assembly required, just sit! Made from hardy materials, the Rubber Stool is perfect for either indoor or outdoor use.
We found many innovative designs at ICFF last weekend, but we were particularly impressed with the concept behind this beautiful table from MIO. Its streamlined form uses a waste reducing pattern that can be cut with little leftover material, and packed flat for efficient shipping. Dubbed the Origami table, the design was inspired by its namesake art form. Through an exploration of folding materials, MIO has created a functional and efficient eco-friendly structure that is self-locking and hardware free.
As continuation of our TOUCH | NY coverage of eco friendly furniture, lighting and accessories design from this inspired Brazilian collective, we were excited to discover the handcrafted work of Patricio Lix Klett and his La Feliz Collection. We love the organic and clean functional vocabulary of his designs, and particularly like that his latest plastic wicker creations now come in a recycled version. Part sculpture, part durable furniture and retro style lighting, La Feliz is an extremely stylish collection with a luminous personal touch.
This super smart chair design from Cate & Nelson was one of the most clever ideas we found at ICFF this year. The Oz Lowchair, by designers Nelson Ruiz-Acal and Cate Högdahl, is an exercise in design versatility. Multiple layers of felt fill the chair and can be flipped like the pages of a book to create a new color combination. Mixed or monotone, the felt ‘flips’ allow the user to adjust the cheerful assortment of colorful fabric to fit a multitude of moods.
Turn your garbage into something useful with Nick DeMarco inflatable garbage sofa chair. The more trash and recyclables you can stuff into this clever chair - the more puffy and comfortable it becomes. A California College of the Arts student, Nick DeMarco exhibited his ‘XS Chair’ at ICFF this weekend. Industrial plastic sheeting filled with Oakland’s excess garbage and recyclables turns into an overstuffed sofa chair giving reuse and recycling a new face. DeMarco’s XS Chair is a part of ‘Sustainable Design for Mass Production’ presented by CCA, a exhibition of eco-chair designs and environmentally-minded ideas.
Inhabitat is at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in NYC, and we’ve been scouring the show all weekend for the hottest sustainable design finds. We’ve had a great time catching up with some of our all time favorite designers, and discovering a bounty of fresh ideas from this year’s new innovators. We’ve been most inspired by the work coming out of students and recent grads from the CCA (California College of the Arts) Eco-chair competition, as well as BVDcollective’s Waste Not collection made from recycled materials. Trends we’ve noticed so far include intricate lasercut lighting, lasercut aluminum tables (does the world need any more of these, really?), and eco-friendly children’s furniture. We will be bringing coverage on all of the exciting designs we’ve found from this four day design extravaganza, so keep it tuned here for the best sustainable design coverage from ICFF.
While we’re looking forward to all of New York Design Week this year, there is one event in particular has piqued our interest. We’ve got our eye on TOUCH | NY, a three day design exhibit that will showcase sustainable works made from recycled materials by up and coming Brazilian designers. The TOUCH | NY exhibit begins this Sunday, May 18, in Chelsea, with an opening reception at 7:00 PM. If you are in town, be sure to join us at what is sure to be one of the most interesting highlights from New York Design Week 2008!
The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) kicks off today in NYC, and the Inhabitat team is on the scene! We’ve got four Inhabitants at this year’s event poised to scope out the greenest designs among the fresh finds at ICFF 2008. Mike Chino, Ali Kriscenski, Jason Sahler and Jill Fehrenbacher are at ICFF with eyes wide open, ready to get the sustainable scoop and bring the best photos and reports back to Inhabitat. We’ll start coverage today on the most interesting new furniture, lighting, products and presentations from ICFF 2008. Stay tuned to Inhabitat as your source for green design at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair 2008!
Every year we get excited about the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), which hits New York City’s Jacob Javitz Center in the middle of May. For New York design fans, ICFF is always the best way to discover the hottest new furniture and interior designs - and every year we are discovering more and more to write home about in terms of sustainable design. The ICFF gets underway in New York this Saturday, and runs May 17th - 20th. Our intrepid NYC Inhabitat team of Mike, Ali, Abigail and Jill is heading over to Manhattan, fresh from the scene at BKLYN Designs, to carry on coverage of springtime eco furniture design in NYC. Stay tuned! We’ll be at ICFF on Saturday and reporting live all weekend on the freshest, greenest designs from this year’s furniture fair.
Solar power is taking the world by storm, and these days its easy to find solar powered chargers, solar powered lights and solar powered laptop bags. So you know it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a solar power work table. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense - what better place to charge your gadgets with renewable energy than the table you are working at. The SOLo Lounge Table, by Intelligent Forms, is a sleek, chic outdoor table that not only looks fantastic, but comes with a built-in solar panel surface in order to power all of your electronic gadgets!
WIS Design’s Decades chest of drawers stopped us dead in our tracks at Salone Satellite. Dramatically positioned before a hot pink background, its combination of drawers were selectively rescued from local Stockholm flea markets. “Decades” was first launched at last year’s Casa Cor exhibition in Stockholm, where WIS Design are based and have a showroom. This is the first time the products have been shown at an international exhibition such as Salone Satellite and the debut made some seriously sustainable waves throughout Milan.
One of the show-stoppers at this year’s BKLYN Designs was the Pratt Institute’s student exhibition. There’s no better place to catch great new work by young designers, and we were particularly impressed by Ian Collings’ reclaimed wood “Urban Driftwood” stools. They’re beautiful pieces that balance reclaimed natural and man-made materials in a design that is simultaneously rough and refined.
This stunning LED chandelier lit up this year’s BKLYN Designs with a stellar low-energy lighting solution for light emitting diodes. Recent Pratt graduate Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn wowed attendees at the BKLYN Designs show with his constellation chandelier, which takes the form of a gorgeous starburst, breaking LEDs free from their circuit-mounted domain.
