Ikea showcased its brand new PS Collection at this weekend’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair, and one of our favorite designs on display was this beautiful pendant lamp made from carefully folded palm leaves. Designed by Wiebke Braasch, the Vava lamp is inspired by an image from her childhood of dried sea urchins. Braasch wanted the spiky weave of the palm leaves to create a contrast to the soft discus shape of the shade.
Lots of up-and-coming and established designers will present new collections at BKLYN Designs this weekend, and we don’t want to miss a single, solitary piece of work—which is why we love getting an advanced look at what’s to come! Bill Higendorf, co-founder of Brooklyn–based furniture company Uhuru Design, sent us a sneak peak of the three new locally and sustainably produced designs he and partner Jason Horvath are debuting at BKLYN Designs this week. While they’re every bit as functional as Uhuru’s previous products, the limited edition Stitched Table, Standard Chair and Metal Stoolen have a little added oomph that sets them apart.
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.
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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!
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Spring may have sprung, but we’re still captivated by the lofty lilt of this “Mora” fallen leaf mobile by San Francisco based Brian Schmitt. We’ve been longtime fans of Brian’s work, ever since we first discovered his beautiful eco-friendly Adrift Mobiles back in 2005. His lighter-than-air creations perfectly balance sleek forms with sustainable construction, and he’ll be exhibiting a collection of pendants and mobiles for the first time at this year’s ICFF.
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The kitchen is truly the heart (and soul) of any home so we are always on the look out for future-forward brands that fuse a sleek modern aesthetic together with sustainable materials and advanced technology. To date, European design has led the field, but newcomer Bazzèo by NY Lofts is the first US contender to convincingly woo American homeowners over to the green side. Debuting this year at ICFF, Bazzèo is definitely worth a second look. Even if you’re not in the market for a new kitchen, these mean green sexy cuisines will make you wish you were.
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Inhabitat was on the scene all three days of BKLYN Designs this weekend and we have a lot of great finds to report back to you. The BKLYN Designs furniture exhibition, which is held in DUMBO every year in May, is not a large event by any means (unlike the upcoming International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Javitz center this weekend). However, what the small, carefully curated show lacks in scale, it more than makes up for in the quality of the work on display. Every year there are a handful of designers that knock our socks off, and the best part is that they are always local designers, using locally-sourced materials, sustainable production methods, and high-quality hand-craftsmanships.
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Given the overwhelming success of the HauteGREEN show this year, and the increasingly large numbers of designers participating, we felt it was time to apply our ‘editors-choice-awards’ model to HauteGREEN and give a shout-out to the designs that really stood out as shining examples of good green design. Given how many designers participated in this year’s HauteGREEN, it’s hard to narrow down all the awesome green designs to just a few worthy of a Best In Show award, but a few do stick out in our mind as truly exceptional.
Here are our Inhabitat-editor-chosen awards for HauteGREEN 2007 Best In Show…
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Molo Designs’ flexible honeycomb paper furniture has been a long time favorite of Inhabitat, starting back when we first discovered them in 2005 at ICFF, all the way to the Inhabitat Editors Choice Award they won at last year’s design week. And now they’re adding another item to their stellar resume- they’re one of the participants in the upcoming HauteGreen exhibition and our next sneak peak!
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In case you missed it last year, the sustainable design show HauteGREEN debuted last May in Brooklyn, highlighting the beauty of ecological design – and it was a smashing success. This year, we are happy to announce that HauteGREEN is back and promises to be even bigger and better than last year. This year’s HauteGreen, which coincides with ICFF and Design Week, May 19-22nd, is going to be held in Manhattan’s Union Square, and will showcase 75 emerging stars of green design. This is more than double the number of works on display last year, so its a good indicator that good green design is on the up and up.
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It’s officially April now, so that means New York Design Week is right around the corner. The green design satellite show HauteGREEN debuted last year in Williamsburg, and wowed us with their fabulously curated exhibition of stylish sustainable design. This year, we are happy to announce that HauteGREEN is back and better than ever! HauteGREENIES Kimberly and Rebecca are currently planning this year’s lineup, and are accepting submissions for what is sure to be an even bigger and better show than last year….and that’s saying a lot.
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