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.

Read the rest of Hangeliers: Clothes Hanger Chandeliers by Organelle Design

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Post tags: eco design, green design, green furniture, green Interiors, industrial design, Recycled Materials, sustainable design

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.

Read the rest of Art and Design Converge at the 2009 London Design Festival

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Post tags: green design, green furniture, industrial design, London Design Festival 2009, Products, Recycled Materials, sustainable design

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.

Read the rest of Inhabitat Reports from London Design Festival 2009

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Post tags: "lighting design", art installation london, eco-art, eco-friendly products, green design, industrial design, London Design Festival 2009, London Design Week, sustainable design, sustainable industrial design

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!

+ Copenhagen Design Week

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Post tags: copenhagen design week, green design, Green Design Events, industrial design, Products, sustainable design

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.

Read the rest of X-Ray Umbrella Keeps You Dry as a Bone

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Post tags: anastacia spada, green design, industrial design, rain, Recycled Materials, sustainable design, x-ray umbrella

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.

Read the rest of Stunning ‘AquaIris’ Water Purifier by Talia Radford

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Post tags: AquaIris, green design, industrial design, Talia Radford, water filter, water purifier

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!

Read the rest of Register Now for the One Good Chair Competition!

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Post tags: "one good chair competition", contest, green design, industrial design, sustainable design, sustainable furnishings council

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

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Post tags: green design, green furniture, 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

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Post tags: Chandelier, green design, green furniture, industrial design, junction, junktion, phonelight, Reclaimed, Recycled Materials, reuse, sustainable design, Tel Aviv, telephone light

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.

Read the rest of Dwell on Design 2009 is This Month!

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Post tags: conference, dwell home tours, dwell magazine, dwell on design 2009, Exhibition, industrial design, Los Angeles, modern green design, sustainable design

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 $30,000 and done by our very own Jill Fehrenbacher! Will the winner be Bobventuri’s window-full minimalist room, Greenminute’s outdoor/indoor space, Howard J Dudy’s beachy lair or Adagio’s city loft apartment? Your vote decides!

Hurry! Voting ends on June 15th, 2009 so VOTE HERE NOW >

+ Comcast Town

+ Inhabitat’s Apartment in Comcast Town

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Post tags: comcast town contest, Green renovation, industrial design, interior design, room remodel, sustainable design

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!

Comcast Town >

Read the rest of Create a Virtual Room in Comcast Town and Win a Real Remodel!

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Post tags: comcast town contest, Green renovation, industrial design, interior design, room remodel, sustainable 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!

Read the rest of MILAN 2009: The Best of Green Design

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Post tags: best of green, eco-friendly materials, energy efficient design, green design, green furniture, Green Lighting, industrial design, milan furniture fair 2009, Salone Satellite, sustainable design

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!

Read the rest of MILAN 2009: Best of the Well Tech Awards

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Post tags: alternative energy, eco-friendly design, green design, industrial design, milan furniture fair 2009, Solar Power, sustainable design, well tech awards showcase

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.

Read the rest of Earth Day and the Past Year in Green Design

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Post tags: allan chochinov, compostmodern, earth day, green design, industrial design, sustainable design