If you’re looking for unique home accessories that are environmentally friendly and have a clean and elegant design quality, you’ll want to check out Corque’s new collection crafted with – you guessed it – cork! From the fun Rolha candle holder which allows users to turn old bottles into candelabras, to funky Topography placemats, which bring rough terrain to the table, their “Designing Living Objects” line truly showcases the versatility of cork.

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Post tags: "green furniture", cork furniture, corque, eco furniture, portugal, renewable furniture

Every year millions of tourists and locals descend upon Tibet’s temples and spin the prayer wheels contained inside. If the mechanical energy generated by the movement of these spinning wheels could be harnessed, we could potentially reduce the size of our current carbon footprint and supplement an inadequate and unreliable electrical grid for numerous individuals. The Prayer Wheel Energy Generator, designed by Taikkun Yang Li does just this by transforming all of those good vibes into electricity that could be used to provide reliable energy for daily needs such as evening lighting.

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Post tags: alternative power, gfry studio, green design, kinetic energy, prayer wheel, renewable, school of art institute of chicago, sustainable design, taikkun yang li

One of our favorite finds at this year’s Milan Furniture Fair were these beautiful modular felt One Cut stools by Swedish designer Britta Teleman. Each one is composed of a stack of matching pieces of felt that once assembled becomes a set of design-savvy, comfy furniture to sit on. The felt of each stool is cut into different shapes and colors allowing the owner to mix and match each layer, building their personalized stool.

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The Parapu chair by the Swedish architecture studio Claesson Koivisto Rune was certainly one of the most cheerful green designs of Zona Tortona 2009. The trio designed a children’s chair made with DuraPulp, a fully compostable new paper product created in the PulpLab (a research laboratory based in Sweden). The KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the companies STFI-packforsk and Södra have been collaborating since 2003 to create DuraPulp, which combines paper pulp and PLA (a biodegradable plastic) to create an incredibly resistant paper. Only two millimeters thick, DuraPulp can bear weight, tension, and humidity, as well as temperature changes.

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Post tags: Claesson Koivisto Rune, Milan Furniture Fair, paper and plastic chair, paper and plastic furniture, paper pulp chair, PLA furniture, pulplab, sodra, wood conservation

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 with a collection of amazing products made with laminated wood. We covered their beautiful striped wood-and-veneer stools here, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention their awesome decorative toy cars and trucks, inspired by a traditional and very popular Japanese candy called Kintaro Ame, which roughly means the “sweet of a fairytale hero.”

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For more coverage from Milan, click here. And don’t forget to check out our photo gallery!

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Post tags: acrylic and wood toys, contemporary children's toys, drill design, Toy Yusuke Hayashi and Yoko Yasunishi, wood conservation

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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Post tags: 2000 watt living, energy technology, gfry studio, green design, milan furniture fair 2009, school of art institute of chicago, sustainable design

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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Post tags: "sustainable furniture", green design, green Interiors, kerto, locally sourced wood, milan furniture fair 2009, punkalive, sustainable design, zona tortona

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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Post tags: biodegradable planter, Gardening, green design, makoto azuma, Milan Furniture Fair, moss planter, sustainable design, terramac, tokyo fiber 2009, unitika

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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Post tags: energy efficient lighting, Euroluce, green design, LED lighting, milan furniture fair 2009, sustainable design

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 we would have a great time building model cities, cars and other designs out of them too.

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For more coverage from Milan, click here. And don’t forget to check out our photo gallery!

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Post tags: all-natural cork, building blocks, eco toys, eco-friendly paint, Inhabitots, nontoxic paint

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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Post tags: "energy efficiency", 2009, energy efficient lighting, Euroluce, green design, LED lighting, Milan Furniture Fair, sustainable design

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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Post tags: C60, claudio fiumicelli, LED bulbs, Milan Furniture Fair, modular lighting, PMMA, studiodsgn, 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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Post tags: cardboard chairs, cardboard furniture, cardboard shelving units, contemporary furniture, eco friendly chairs, eco friendly shelving units, eco-friendly lighting, green architecture, milan furniture fair 2009, recycled cardboard, recycled furniture, recycled materials chairs, recycled materials shelving units, resource conservation furniture, restored furniture, sustainable lighting, wood conservation, zona tortona

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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Post tags: cardboard chairs, cardboard furniture, cardboard shelving units, contemporary furniture, karton art design, Milan Furniture Fair, recycled materials chairs, recycled materials shelving units, restored funiture, zona tortona

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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Post tags: cardboard, Chunwei Lioa, designersblock, green lighting, recyclable materials, Transformer lighting