Clothes hangers are clogging our landfills at a rate of nearly 8 billion per year. We’ve recently brought you designers who have been developing brilliant ways to tackle the problem through eco-friendly materials and innovative new designs. Now industrial designers Alex Witko and Courtney Hunt at Organelle Design have hit upon another great idea — Hangeliers, wonderful chandeliers made from off-the-shelf plastic and wood hangers.
One of our favorite shows from the 2009 London Design Festival was Corn Craft, a beautiful showcase of sustainable materials hosted by Gallery FUMI and Studio Toogood. Held in Gallery’s FUMI’s personal live/ work space on Hoxton Square, the exhibition hit all the right notes with tactile, emotional art-design pieces by Max Lamb & Gemma Holt, Nacho Carbonell (above) and Raw-Edges Design Studio.
The London Design Festival is in full swing, and Inhabitat has been on the scene to give you the scoop on the dazzling examples of sustainable design presented at this year’s event. Read on for our favorite products and innovations that we spotted this year.
Fans of fine Scandinavian design rejoice – Copenhagen Design Week is currently taking Denmark by storm and Inhabitat is on the scene to bring you all of the freshest designs and most exciting events! Running from August 27 – September 6th, this annual celebration of social and environmental design explores cutting-edge ideas, products, and services that stand to change the way we live. From the unveiling of this year’s INDEX Awards to showcases filled with fresh green furnishings and energy-efficient lighting solutions, to the official launch of CLEAR Village tomorrow we’re looking forward to an incredible week, so stay tuned to Inhabitat for all the latest from the show!
Have you ever thought to yourself, “you know, I really dig x-rays from an aesthetic standpoint, but I only ever see them at the dentist or after some kind of injurious catastrophe. What a shame.” Perhaps not. But if you’re thinking that now, then check out this cool umbrella concept from Anastacia Spada. Composed of water-repellent sheets of skeletal film, her brilliant diy project is sure to cast rainy nights under a different shade.
In answer to the ever-intensifying global water crisis, industrial designer Talia Radford has created the AquaIris, an elegant, portable water purifier for developing countries with tropical climates that is simple to use and requires no electricity! How does it work? Contaminated water enters the AquaIris, passes over a removable/re-usable filter, then travels under a layer of ‘converter crystals’ where germicidal UVC rays purify the water molecules as they pass by.
It’s already time for the One Good Chair Competition again, and this year we couldn’t be more excited about the theme – local and regional furniture. The annual competition, sponsored by The Sustainable Furnishings Council and World Market Center Las Vegas, will award fabulous cash prizes and publishing opportunities to the best and brightest designs that embody and enhance a particular place. So pick a place, any place, and design a chair that exemplifies it. Final registration for the competition closes this weekend on June 15th, so register today!
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.
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.
Dwell on Design is back in Los Angeles this month, showcasing an incredible array of modern design from June 26-28. Now in its sophomore year at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the three-day design festival brings together the best and brightest from the design industry to offer visitors “real live modern design” in the form of an expansive exhibition, design conference, home tours and special events. For fans of all things sustainable, we’ve scoured the schedule to find the show’s green highlights. It looks like there will be a lot to check out, and there are of course a few familiar Inhabitat faces in the line up.
Thousands of you tested out your virtual home renovation skills in our Comcast Town Contest but only 4 talented apartment designs made the final cut. Now it’s time for your vote to decide the winner of a ginormous jackpot, including a 40-inch Sony BRAVIA® HDTV, a Sony VAIO® AW laptop and a Philips digital phone as well as a REAL room remodel worth up to …
Have a vision for your dream apartment? Great – Comcast recently rolled Comcast Town, a blue-sky space to live out your wildest interior design dreams! It’s a bit like Google Sketchup, except that you can customize your virtual apartment with everything from Eames-like desk units and Aarnio-esque ball chairs to growing grass carpets, alien rugs… and… squirrel phones. Best of all, Comcast is hosting an online design competition for the best room, and the winner will receive a REAL room remodel to their actual house worth up to $30,000 and done by our very own Jill Fehrenbacher! Getting started is a snap – just check out the video above and head over to Comcast Town to create your dream apartment!
The contest deadline is Thursday May 14th at 11:59 PST, so submit your design today!
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!
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!
It’s hard to believe another year has gone by since we marked Earth Day here at Inhabitat, and yet so much has happened. From the monumental highs of Obama’s election to the equally remarkable lows of the economic downturn, plenty of major factors have influenced the directions of both sustainability and design.
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 …
DRUMROLL PLEASE…
Spring has sprung, the votes have been cast, and we’re excited to announce the winners of our Spring Greening DIY Design Contest! We feel fortunate to have such an incredibly talented reader base – you guys wowed us with some truly impressive examples of DIY design. Thanks to everyone for submitting their incredible Spring Greening projects, and to all our readers for supporting them throughout the voting process… read on for our winners…
We were glad to see that we’re not the only ones that, upon unpackaging our shiny new macbook, thought it was such a shame to use such a lovely case just for packaging material. Rather than ditching or storing the quite useful cardboard box, Spring Greening finalist Alison Cromie decided to cover it with fabric and turn it into a case for crafting supplies. We loved her simple act of turning future garbage into a …
Another inspiring finalist in our Spring Greening Contest is Kumvana Gomani, who created this beautiful little bird brooch from recycled aluminum. To make it she took an aluminum can, flattened it, cut out the shape, sanded the aluminum and finally attached a pin or hair clasp. Gomani is based in Sweden, and her creative use of recycled materials makes for some adorable jewelry – check out her crystalized leaf necklace made from recycled plastic bottles as well. Our polls close today, so make sure you vote now for your favorite DIY Design!
One of fifteen finalists in our Spring Greening DIY Design Contest, Nibha Jain and Srikanth Jalasutram’s “Orange” dish drying rack puts wet dishes to work by using their droplets to water a mini herb garden. Clothes pins attached to one side hold flatware and smaller items while the built in rack is suitable for anything you can throw at it (but the kitchen sink!). The tray has an inclined base which funnels water drips towards a small plant of your choosing, making this an ingenious invention for keeping cooking herbs close at hand. If you agree, be sure to vote for it in our Spring Greening Contest!
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE SPRING GREENING DESIGN >
San Francisco’s James Sampayan offers up a bright idea for the Spring Greening DIY Contest that combines old and new to create a lovely pendant lamp that gives the lowly light bulb a second life during which to “live long and prosper.” James’ design snaps ten standard bulbs between two acrylic plates along with a single CFL bulb that illuminates the rest. Simply crafted using bulbs, scrap acrylic, and miscellaneous Ace Hardware bits and bobs, this pendant is functional and economical. If you’re a fan of this design, be sure to vote for it in our contest post!
We tend to run through umbrella’s pretty quickly in New York and there isn’t much to be done with them when they die. But Taryn Zychal, a Philidelphia-based industrial designer, is taking broken-down umbrellas and making raincoats for dogs out of them. These super cute coats are made from stripped-down umbrellas, scraps of fabric, thrift store buttons, and contrasting stitching. Taryn’s pugs, Betty and Hurley, love their cozy raincoats, which are both stylish and functional. Her submission to our DIY Spring Greening competition is inspiring and fun, and you should vote on it now.
With Easter on its way, those of us who engaged in egg-dying festivities are likely to have lots of empty egg crates lying around. Rather than tossing them in the trash (or compost bin!), why not follow Federico Otero’s example and transform them into elegant examples of DIY design. One of fifteen finalists in our Spring Greening Contest, the Origen lamp is formed from several 30-pack egg crates interlocked around a light bulb that gives off a soft, warm glow. If you’re a fan of this design, be sure to vote for it in our contest post!
Ben Light’s namesake shines through in this brilliant lamp born from his resolve to salvage his grandfather’s old Electrolux vacuum cleaner. One of fifteen finalists in our Spring Greening Contest the project is based upon the original casing and retains the vacuum’s automatic cord return while providing an extra cool retro vibe to any interior space. The remainder of the wood is built from oak scraps from a variety of his old woodworking projects. If you’re a fan of the Vacuum light, be sure to vote for it in our contest post!
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE SPRING GREENING DESIGN >
One of our fifteen finalists in our Spring Greening Design Competition, this clever DIY project takes two types of plungers and transforms them into a stylish table lamp. To create it, New Jersey-based industrial designer Michael Andrulewich wired a normal black rubber plunger with an electrical socket and then added an accordion style plunger on top to act as a shade. If you love this plunger lamp as much as we do, vote for it now in our DIY Spring Greening Competition!
While we’re not sure if this book shelf made from books constitutes literary cannibalism, you can rest assured that Yann Martel and Nick Hornby would appreciate seeing their works put to such creative and pleasing reuse. The folks at not tom. came up with this Spring Greening Contest finalist when they saw a box of books being thrown out and “couldn’t bear the thought”. The Book Book Shelf is a definite talking piece and a great way to show off all the titles you (might) have finished. If you’re a fan of not tom.’s whimsical and eye-catching use of recycling in design then be sure and vote for them in the Spring Greening Competition!
One of fifteen finalists in our Spring Greening Design Competition, this cozy looking chair was made by Camilla Hounsell Halvorsen, a Norway-based furniture designer. Dubbed the Drops chair, it features a four-legged stainless steel frame that holds an inner tube covered in recycled upholstery material. The inner tube isn’t attached to the frame so the chair can be adjusted to the desired position of the sitter, or it can be taken off and placed on the ground to be used as a pouffe. If you’re a fan of this design, show it some love and vote for it in our DIY design competition!
Have an extra blender, toaster, or waffle maker lying around? Why not reclaim these old appliances by turning them one into lamps like Virginia-based Melinda Merinsky does. One of fifteen finalists in our Spring Greening Contest, her functional updates on vintage appliances range from toasters to cameras and waffle irons, but this blender table lamp is one of our favorite finds. It takes a 25-watt bulb, and its base has been rewired so that the on/off switch controls the lamp. If you’re a fan of this design, be sure to vote for it in our contest post!
Design firm Aquaovo have created a whole new reason for water cooler talk with the OVOPUR, an environmentally-friendly water filter. Shaped like a sleek egg, the OVOPUR uses an Aquacristal filter, made of activated carbon, quartz, copper and zinc. The filter last four months and can clean about 530 gallons of water. The oval dispenser holds 3 gallons at a time and is made of white lead-free glazed porcelain and recyclable and non-toxic parts like silicone and polypropylene. The unit can also be used without the filter as a simple drink dispenser — and is sure to be a conversation starter on any occasion.
The 2009 Emerging Technology Conference offered an incredible opportunity to catch some of the cutting edge ideas that are shaping the way we look at the world. Several recurrent green themes formed bridges between luminary speakers from a variety of backgrounds, as Alex Steffen, Mary Lou Jepsen, Jeremy Faludi, and others reinforced the need to create repairable, open-source, long lasting products, reveal energy usage, and pursue forward-thinking strategies for a greener tomorrow. Read on for our highlights from the conference!
Design students Jeffrey Gerlach and Andrew Stanley have instituted an informal furniture catch-and-release program. With just a few steps, they have discovered a way to construct a clever and stylish Adirondack chair using Department of Public Works roadblocks that are simple, easy-to-assemble, and instantly returnable to the urban wild.
This year’s London Design Festival was an incredible event that showcased some of the world’s most acclaimed designers in addition to a host of upcoming talents. From innovative furnishings and lighting solutions to clothing and accessories, this year’s event featured a variety of cutting-edge concepts in sustainable design. Read on for our highlights from the event!
The good people at Core77 have just launched a new and improved iteration of Coroflot, their career and community network for design professionals. At Coroflot, you can create your own portfolio that gives you a personal URL and the ability to network with other creatives, seach for employment, or scout for new talent.
It also features “CoroSpy,” a real-time feed of activity across the Coroflot horizon. Check it out, build a portfolio, browse the more than 34,000 …
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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