Pre-built homemakers extraordinaire, Marmol Radziner Prefab were in the news this week once again introducing their newest custom prefab home. High up in the hills above Los Angeles sits the new Hollywood Hybrid, a 2576 sq. ft. sustainable, modern prefab home with killer views and a minimal carbon footprint. Inhabitat went up to the site where the home was being built for a peek.

Read the rest of Marmol Radziner Prefab’s Hollywood Hybrid Takes Shape in the Hills

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: "prefabricated housing", dwell home collection, hollywood, hollywood hybrid, Los Angeles, marmol radziner, Prefab Housing

We’ve seen designers recycle airplane parts to create desks, tropical eco-hotels and a hostel, and now we can add couches and beds to the lofty collection! MotoArt is a team of designers who transform airplane parts into sleek, highly polished modern pieces of furniture. Based in Los Angeles, the 6 person design crew creates an impressive line-up of upcycled furnishings, sure to please every airplane enthusiast’s flight of fancy.

Read the rest of MotoArt Recycles Airplane Parts Into High-Flyin’ Furniture

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: airplane, airplane parts, eco furniture, Furniture, recycled, recycled furniture, upcycled

Imagine inviting a dinner party of six into a formal dining room with only 3 chairs. The horror! Well, it’s really no problem with the Guarda Inside-Out Chair by Zanic Design. At first glance it’s a sleek, modern piece that is so slim, it can’t possibly have room to hide a box of chocolates, let alone a whole other chair. That is unless the other chair is molded right around the first chair like a second skin - hidden in plain sight. When you slide the white outer chair off, it “gives birth” to the inner one nesting doll-style. What a great way to psych your dinner guests out!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2 in 1 furniture, alberto villareal, guarda inside out chairs, silla guarda, Transforming Furniture

We all know that food and water are basic human needs, but what about something as simple as a place to sit? Right now, there is a pressing need for nearly 2 billion basic, low-cost seating units for schools hospitals and houses in underdeveloped countries around the globe. In response to the shortage, students Alon Tal and Fabio Alvarez teamed up with Zilca, a company that specializes in recycled materials, to find a solution. First presented last September at design fair Habitat Valencia in Spain, their senior thesis, the Reverse Project, makes cushions from re-purposed car foam for seating that is easy on the eyes, earth, and the behind!

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alon tal, CasaDecor, Fabio Álvarez Hernández, Habitat Valencia, NUDE, Recycled Materials, reverse, reverse cushions, reverse project, reverse_baby, Seating

There is nothing we love more than good design meeting up with a good cause. That’s why we love this student humanitarian design project on the Thai Burmese border: it combines beautifully designed (and super efficient) vernacular-inspired architecture with social responsibility in aiding the plight of Karen refugee orphans. Five students in Thailand are using architecture to make new lives for 24 orphans by providing them with homes to call their own.

Read the rest of Butterfly Bamboo Homes Are Hope for Thai Orphans

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: butterfly hut, nust, pre-fab housing, soe ker tie, Sustainable Building, thai dorm, thai kids residence, thai orphanage, tyin tegnestue

Scrap Lab is a group of designers based out of Bangkok’s Kasetsart University’s Architecture program that creates fun and innovative furniture out discarded industrial scraps. The group makes an eclectic variety of furniture, from a funky shaggy lamp to a lounge chair with a quilt-block pattern — all masterfully re-purposing materials that were once considered waste. While their list of materials includes traditional materials such as wood and metal, it also includes less traditional items such as foam and rope. The purpose of the group’s work is to not only create physical products, but also to collect research on how discarded materials can be used effectively to design functional and aesthetically pleasing pieces.

Read the rest of Scrap Lab: Furniture Made of Industrial Scraps

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: "green furniture", eco-friendly furniture, industrial scraps furniture, leftover scraps furniture, re purpose waste, reycled materials furniture, scrap lab, Sustainable Materials

Talk about bringing the outdoors in! This Chaise Lawn Chair is perfect for citydwellers who want that fresh cut grass feeling without the hassle of a full lawn. Designed by Deger Cengiz, the lounger is sure to elicit a chuckle from your friends. And if you really want to show them a good time, cart them around and take full advantage of the human transporter (wheelbarrow) functionality. Note: It is not recommended for use on stairs.

Read the rest of Living Lawn Chaise is a Grassy Human Transporter

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: best chairs on broadway, chaise lawn chair, deger, green chairs, green seating, voos, wheelbarrow chair

In certain cultures, it’s customary for the dead to be buried with their possessions. For a change, how about being buried in your possessions? That’s the twist that William Warren put on his cheeky Shelves for Life, which function as sleek storage space during a person’s life and transform into, well, an equally sleek coffin for the person when this life comes to a close. Talk about the gift that just keeps on giving!

Read the rest of COFFIN SHELVES: Furniture for Life (and Death)

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: coffin shelves, repurposed furniture, shelves for life, sustainable shelves, ww.modcom

When we first saw this living, growing Garden Chair we quickly found ourselves captivated by its whimsical nature and perfect union between pure green design and functionality. But don’t be confused. What looks like something straight out of Narnia, is in fact the product of an ingenious method of tree shaping developed by a couple of artists at Pooktre!

Read the rest of LIVING FURNITURE: the Pooktre Tree Chair

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: "sustainable furniture", garden chair, growing furniture, living furniture, Pooktre, tree chair

In the ongoing quest to dovetail sustainable style with carefully sourced materials, it is refreshing when a designer makes it easy to fall in love with and feel good about soulful green design. Add to this, lyrical lines and soft contours that envelope and rock your world, and you have the perfect home furnishings solution. Northumberland designer Jolyon Yates has mastered the art of design poetics and visual lullabyes with his latest Series 3 ODEChair and Stingray Stools. Exquisitely handcrafted from renewable wood that the artist lovingly selects, these are elegant design pieces meant to last for generations, in an ode to form and function.

Read the rest of Jolyon Yates’ Beautifully Curving ODEChair and Stingray Stools

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: eco friendly rockers, eco friendly rocking chairs, eco friendly stools, Jolyon Yates, Northumberland craft, Northumberland furniture design, ODE chair and stools, renewable wood design, Scandinavian birch furniture, Series 3 ODE Chair, wood craft, wood furniture

Austrian designers mischer’traxler have created a solar powered machine that makes an incredible array of furnishings that vary based on how much sunlight it receives over the course of a day. Titled “The Idea of a Tree“, the machine spins spools of thread into stools, benches, containers, and lamp shades that wax and wane as the available sunlight shifts. Variations in weather, the time of year, and other environmental factors create pieces of different shape, color, and size, instilling the furniture with growing, seasonal qualities that mimic photosynthesis.

Read the rest of Solar Powered Machine Spins Furniture Shaped by Sunlight

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Furniture, green design, industrial design, misher'traxler, renewable energy, Solar Power, sustainable design, the idea of a tree

As one of Tel Aviv’s most thought-provoking new companies, Junktion, a young, edgy and innovative design studio, is breathing new life into the trash their city has cast aside. Junktion began in 2008 and has made their presence know in the contemporary furniture market with their unique approach to function and unwavering conviction to challenge how people regard junk.

Read the rest of Junktion Transforms Trashed Furniture into Treasure

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chandelier, Furniture, green design, industrial design, junction, junktion, phonelight, Reclaimed, Recycled Materials, reuse, sustainable design, Tel Aviv, telephone light

With the chaotic lineup of professional design events that take place throughout the year, student shows are always such a refreshing reminder of the raw talent and ingenuity that future designers bring to the table. The 2009 Pratt Student Show in New York was no exception, and several clever kids designs caught our attention. From a smart children’s chair made out of a slide to a colorful stacking chick with hidden surprise, check out our favorite gems from the show.

+ Knit Nesting Blocks by Elizabeth Pavese

+ Playground Slide Chair by Evan Dublin

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's toy, kids design, pratt 2009 student show, student designs

More ironic than practical, Swiss designer Michel Bussien’s Growing Chair evokes pertinent ideas for the 21st century: nature trapped within the confines of man, manicured at his whim, or a specimen preserved behind glass - like fossils in a museum. On the other hand, when I look at the Growing Chair, I see the proliferation of life despite artificial boundaries. But, perhaps it’s something much simpler than that - a lush little greenhouse with a seat to enjoy it?

Read the rest of Michel Bussien’s Growing Chair is Deep-Seated in Nature

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: growing chair, michel bussein, plant chair, swiss design, tree chair

London-born designer Tom Price was commissioned by Arts Co. to produce a piece of work for ‘From Now to Eternity’, an exhibition celebrating design, and focusing on plastic as a versatile material. Addressing concerns over our increasing piles of wasted throw-away plastic products, he chose to create an ingenious series of chairs formed by strategically melting piles of polyester fleece.

Read the rest of Tom Price’s Melted Polyester Fleece Chairs

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: arts co, Chair, fleece fur, from now to eternity, Furniture, green design, London Design Festival, plastic chair, Recycled Materials, sustainable design, tom price