Inhabitat

Candy-Inspired Toy Cars by Drill Design

At Milan’s Furniture Fair 2009, the Designersblock show was definitely not to be missed. It’s a world tour of design that showcases not only the freshest, newest designers but also a wide variety of approaches and methods. One of the standout exhibitors this year was Drill Design, a Japanese duo who came up …

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Milan 2009: 2000 Watt Living by GFRY Studio

The GFRY Studio at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago presented their “2000 Watt Living” project at this year’s Milan Furniture Fair. The ultimate goal of their initiative is to reduce the average American’s daily energy consumption to 2000 watts – just one sixth of what it is today. Definitely not your typical student work, GFRY students designed objects and systems that either reduce our energy consumption or allow us to generate our own electricity. While these projects may not be hitting store shelves just yet, they do serve to further deepen the discussion of developing more sustainable habits in our daily lives. Read on for some of our favorite projects!

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Milan 2009: PunkAlive Sustainably Sourced Furniture

Where can one go to find breathtaking landscapes, artistic scenery and people with unique character? Punkaharju, Finland is one place, and PunkAlive goes to great measures to incorporate these qualities in their new furniture line that recently debuted at Zona Tortona during the Milan Furniture Fair. We spoke with Jukka Lommi and Jukka Rissanen on the opening day of the fair and learned about how PunkAlive is getting closer to nature by combining style with sustainability.

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Moss Carpet Grows in the Heart of Your Home

Among all the great green designs discovered at the 2009 Milan Furniture Fair, this beautiful biodegradable moss planter at the Tokyo Fiber Sensware exhibition definitely stood out. Japan-based flower artist Makoto Azuma collaborated with Unitika Ltd. to create an indoor glade, populating the planter with an assortment of mosses. The result is an exquisite organic carpet that runs through the exhibition, passing round the furniture and the poles and stunning visitors with its delightful presence.

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Milan 2009: Euroluce Lighting Exhibition

We saw quite a few environmentally-conscious trends at the Milan Furniture Fair’s bi-annual showcase of lighting products, Euroluce. With energy use in mind, LEDs showed up from almost every company. As an extremely efficient and small bulb, the LED allows its surrounding fixtures to morph into innovative forms that highlight the beauty of light. Also in hot demand at Euroluce this year are shades made from natural or recycled fibers, whether strung, woven, or draped — or some combination of the above. The shades help to create soft, glowing light — thanks to their translucent material — but they are also nice to look at when the light is off. Euroluce is showing a variety of lighting options that differ in aesthetics and innovation, and we are happy to report that many of the designs are evidence that environmental responsibility is an important agenda item.

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Tono 8 All-Natural Cork Building Blocks

We found these awesome cork building blocks at the Milan Furniture Fair this week and love their simple and beautiful look. Designed by Tetsuo Tonouchi with safety and fun in mind, these lightweight building blocks are made from natural cork and non-toxic paints, and have super-soft edges. While they are a perfect eco-friendly toy for children, we know …

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Milan 2009: Philips Debuts Ledino Lighting Collection

As part of the Euroluce exhibition at the Milan Furniture Fair, Royal Philips Electronics showcased a wide range of cutting edge LED lighting products. Our favorite designs on display were part of their newly debuted Ledino collection, an extensive range of stylish indoor and outdoor fixtures that provide 80% energy savings over standard incandescent bubs. The lights have a very low wattage and minimal CO2 emissions, but it is much more than their energy efficiency that makes these lights notable.

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Bright Idea: Claudio Fiumicelli Hexagon LED Lamp

Claudio Fiumicelli really knows how to light up a room! The Studiodsgn artist presented his futuristic C60 LED modular lighting unit at the Zona Tortona design event to critical acclaim. Resembling an illuminated transparent soccer ball, the C60 is comprised of hexagonal pieces that attach to each other in a spherical or planar structure and 360 LED lights, C60 can be hung, mounted on a wall or displayed simply on a flat surface.

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MILAN: Our Top Picks From Zona Tortona

Zona Tortona is regarded as a sister show, or “satellite exhibit,” to the Salone Internazionale del Mobile; however, it was at Zona Tortona that I found some of the most innovative and forward-moving designs this week in Milan. Zona Tortona takes place in a neighborhood where the streets via Zona and via Tortona cross. Historically this neighborhood was an industrial area with rows of compact tenement housing placed in between factories. The transformation from commerce to creative space began in the early 80s when artists and designers were being pushed into the outskirts of the city at the same time that industry started moving further into the countryside. Today, Zona Tortona is known around the world as an art and design district and is universally recognized for the exhibit that runs concurrently with iSaloni.

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KARTON ART DESIGN: Cardboard Furniture

We’ve seen quite a bit of experimentation with cardboard on Inhabitat, but Hungarian husband & wife team Edith Szilvasy (formerly an artist) and Andras (Andrew) Balogh (a carpenter) have taken cardboard building to the next level by inventing a system of constructing furniture that uses only cardboard and ordinary paper clips. The development of the system has taken 3 years, but for Karton Art Design, that time has been time well spent. Andras developed a a method of folding and clipping the cardboard so that their finished products are as strong as wood and as light as paper — and can be integrated with existing wood products. Their work is currently showcasing at the Milan Furniture Fair in La Zona Tortona this week. Karton’s products featured at the fair include: shelving units, chairs, and even a restored hutch (featured below).

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ChunWei Liao Elevates Common Cardboard to Design

At Milan’s 2009 furniture fair, Designersblock did not depart from its habit of showing the very best in fresh new design, and ChunWei Liao’s Transformer furniture and lighting collection is the perfect example of the show’s unique and innovative spirit. The Taiwanese designer presented a stellar catalog of work, but the most interesting product in the series was the lamp grandly named “Transformer Lighting Infinity.”

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Planter Wall Tiles Breathe Life into a Room—Literally

Made from recycled materials, Maruja Fuentes’ green pockets give new meaning to the term “houseplant.” Spotted at the 2009 Milan Furniture Fair, the super-cool ceramic tiles attach to any wall to create the illusion that whatever’s inside—herbs, plants, a flower or two—is growing directly out of a room’s surface. It’s the ultimate marriage of form and function: The pockets bring a soul-soothing dose of greenery and nature to an interior space, improving a room’s aesthetic and air quality.

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MILAN 2009: The Best of Green Design

The 2009 Milan Furniture Fair showcased an incredible assortment of furnishings, lighting, and housewares from all over the world, ranging from the well-established designers showcased in the main exhibition halls to the young designers and start-up companies exhibiting at Salone Satellite. Although in visiting the modern and contemporary halls of the fair I was disappointed by the lack of green design, it was encouraging to see that this year the fair is focusing on quality. Although the materials and construction of most of the furniture would not be considered sustainable, the intention is that the pieces will last a lifetime. Many of the designs also allowed for modularity, or reconfiguring over time. Read on for our favorite green design finds from the show!

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Milan 2009: Interni Design Energies

The Interni Design Energies exhibition at the 2009 Milan Furniture Fair doesn’t open at twilight for no reason. Indeed the exhibition, which features renewable energy–themed installations from designers and planners around the world, reveals its mysterious beauty only at night; it’s an intelligent and inventive commentary on energy and resource efficiency. Located in the buildings and gardens of the majestic Università Degli Studi, the show offers visitors a moment of pure magic!

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Toby Sanders Lights Up Milan with Beach Ball Lamps

Some of the most exciting discoveries from the Milan Furniture Fair 2009 can be seen at the Designersblock show, an exhibition of some of the edgiest experiments in modern design. That’s where Toby Sanders, from the design studio TOBYhouse, recently …

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Whirlpool & Elmar Debut Green Living Kitchen

The rules of kitchen design have just changed. Whirlpool and Elmar recently debuted the kitchen of the future at the Milan Furniture Fair, and it’s energy efficient, eco-friendly, and interconnected. Their Green Living kitchen brings together contemporary cabinetry, advanced appliances and systems that work together in a culinary-centered symbiotic relationship.

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MILAN 2009: Best of the Well Tech Awards

The Well-Tech Awards are one of our favorite annual exhibitions at the Milan Furniture Fair, showcasing an assortment of innovative projects that push forward the realm of green design. The year’s exhibition featured a variety of projects that focused upon integrating sustainable solutions into our daily lives. From products that pare down the resources we consume to innovations in energy-efficient lighting and projects that monitor our resource usage, we were thoroughly impressed with the designs on display. Read on for our favorite finds!

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MILAN 2009: Designersblock Show

Each year the Designersblock show at the Milan Furniture Fair brings together an incredible assortment of designs by a diverse range of designers, and their 2009 offerings did not disappoint. At this year’s show it’s back to basics with simple, raw and natural materials dominating the exhibition. Some of the designs appear to have come out of an afternoon spent in the woods or countryside. Others look like they were shaped by nature itself. Designers seem to have made it a point to give new value to worn out or overlooked objects and to work locally with traditional makers and manufacturers. Designersblock once again showcases some of the most relevant thoughts on today’s design.

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Ninetonine Zebra Crib

Looking for fun, modern furniture for the little ones in your life? We just spotted Spanish kids furniture designers Ninetonine at the Milan Furniture Fair, and we are as excited as kids in a candy store about Ninetonine’s playful, eyecatching designs. The Zebra Crib, shown above, takes the form of a zebra with some extra functional design features, such as a ‘head’ that can be used as a tray to holds bottles, and a ‘tail’ …

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Recycled Eggshell Stationary by Nicolas Cheng

Designer Nicolas Cheng of Studioroom906 is presenting this beautiful set of stationary made from recycled eggshells at the Milan Furniture Fair this week. In his “Childhood Memories” collection, Cheng uses wasted eggshells that undergo a “high pressure technique” to create a new material that utilizes the existing proteins and mineral crystals from the shells. 100 recycled eggshells are used per set which includes a pencil, pencil holder, eraser and A5 paper.

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Milan Furniture Fair Starts Today!

Attention all green design junkies! The 2009 Milan Furniture Fair starts today, and Inhabitat is on the scene to bring you all of the latest and greatest from this year’s event. We’ve assembled a team of design experts who will be bringing us up-to-the-minute coverage of the show, and we’re expecting a cutting-edge crop of green housewares, furnishings, lighting, and more. Don’t miss out …

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Reclaimed RE:cover Chairs by Fredrik Färg

In his project RE:cover, Exhibited this week at the Milan Furniture Fair, Fredrik Färg takes the idea of timeless fashion and applies it to furniture to give old chairs a new and glamorous life. Färg purchases old chairs from flea markets, restores them to their original condition, and then fits a new “textile dress/structure” to the frame. His work is classy, elegant and recycled!

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Shigeru Ban’s 10 Unit Modular Furniture System

This week Inhabitat favorite Shigeru Ban will be introducing his ‘10-Unit System’ for Artek at the 2009 Milan Furniture fair. Based completely on L-shaped units, the elegant modular furniture system allows you to bring a bit of your creativity into play to form numerous seating and tables of various sizes and design by the simple crossing and joining of axes. We were thrilled to find that what looks like a simple and straightforward do-it-yourself approach can in fact yield some complex and stunning results.

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Paper Wood Stools Sit Lightly on the Earth

Drill Design is set to unveil these new Paper Wood Stools at this week’s Milan Furniture Fair with the tag line that “off the rack” just will not do. Composed of wood veneer and recycled paper, these stools break the mold by moving away from the one size fits all paradigm. Not only are they light of weight and sturdy in strength but they come in a variety of heights to seat everyone from tiny tots all the way up to the towering Shaquille O’Neals in the crowd.

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Milan Furniture Fair Starts Next Week!

Your favorite furniture fair is about to begin! Starting next week on Earth Day, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile will be in full swing from April 22nd through the 27th. We have a team of European design experts headed there now to bring you full coverage of the great green designs on display – from new chairs and eco-friendly furniture …

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Want to go to The Milan Furniture Fair for Inhabitat?

Calling all European design geeks!
We are looking for a few great writers/photographers/design aficionados who are planning to go to Milan from April 22 – 27 to help us cover 2009’s Milan Furniture Fair for Inhabitat. We had great coverage last year and want to scour this year’s event for the best and brightest in contemporary sustainable design. Planning to go to Milan and want to be an Inhabitat scout? Shoot us an email to editor at inhabitat dot com.

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Postfossil’s Torre Pot grows with your plants

Zurich-based Postfossil Design Collective has been capturing our imagination this year with a host of eco-minded ideas that challenge convention. Postfossil designer Annina Gaehwiler’s Torre plant pot is one such example, and demonstrates a beautiful hands-on approach to plant-rearing. Individual earth filled units are attached to the base of the pot allowing seedlings to grow and flourish with freedom to stretch their roots.

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Postfossil’s Mechanical ‘First Light’ Reading Lamp

With a design which would easily fit in a 1970’s Stanley Kubrick film, Postfossil’s award winning First Light reading lamp is certainly cinematic. Powered entirely by a cog and wheel mechanism, the light remains lit once ‘wound’ by pulling the weighted cord. While the illumination relies on a relatively continuous input from the user, Postfossil’s Anna Blattert and Daniel Gafner have found a way to remind us of our energy consumption though the tried and tested method of action and reward.

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Flatpack Double Stray Lights by Inga Sempé

Smooth, sleek, sharp, and made entirely from paper, Inga Sempé’s Double Stray Lights for Artecnica, require no assembly and arrive flat packed. There’s not much we don’t love about these elegant paper lamps. Their ability to be so incredibly sophisticated, while retaining a tactile, vulnerable quality, has us absolutely captivated. Arriving compact, the Double Stray unfolds accordion-style to light up interiors with an intentional moiré pattern that gives both structure and ambiance.

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DEMOCRATIC DESIGN? Philippe Starck’s Designer Wind Turbine

A few months ago, prolific product design star Philippe Starck shocked the world with his proclamation ‘Design is Dead’, and the announcement of his pending retirement due to his frustration with the ethical/consumption issues inherent to product design:

“Everything I designed was unnecessary… and I am ashamed of this fact”

While we completely understand the sentiment, we were a bit frustrated about this pessimistic proclamation and subsequent retirement from the world of design. One would think that the most helpful and sensible approach to the realization that one has been wasting one’s time producing useless crap (like uncomfortable see-through plastic chairs and scarily alien looking lemon-juicers that can’t actually be used) – would be to STOP producing useless crap and start putting one’s talent to use to try to make a positive difference in the world.

And despite the melodramatic announcement this spring, perhaps this is where Starck is headed after all, despite the threats of giving up entirely. Recently Philippe Starck has brought an amazing idea for renewable wind energy to life through a sleek new mini wind turbine called ‘Democratic Ecology’.

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Fog & Dew Collectors for clean drinking water

Alon Alex Gross’s fog and dew collectors provide a low-tech way for people in arid, developing regions to collect drinking water. Gross uses design to show users how individuals can come up with their own answers to ecological and technical problems. His method fuses the ancient methods of fog harvesting and dew collection with modern improvements such as super light materials and internet connectivity.

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