A crowd that included actor/activist Don Cheadle gathered last week to celebrate the completion of the Upward Bound House Family Shelter in Culver City, Los Angeles, what is undeniably one of the prettiest and most cheerful homeless shelters we’ve ever seen. Once the site of a rundown motel with transient tenants, this 18-unit complex received a complete make over by an all-star cast of Los Angeles interior designers. With no budget at all, designers used their creative muscle to transform dark and dreary motel rooms into bright and uplifting spaces for homeless families in need.
Links Roundup of the Week: Seating
by Olivia Chen, 07/24/09
Summertime is fun, but can be tiring — and all you need sometimes is to sit your tush down on some nice, comfy seating. And if you are like us, you want to be locating yourself on a nice bench or stool that is sustainably sourced and constructed. There is certainly no shortage of functional and eco-friendly furniture to be found out there, and this is what we noticed this week in the blog-o-sphere.
Notcot features a modular and biodegradable lounging chair made of plywood, and a stool made of chopsticks and steamer trays.
Core77 tells us about a hand-woven aluminum chair.
Re-nest is highlighting chairs made from recycled whiskey barrels.
We’ve seen designers recycle airplane parts to create desks, tropical eco-hotels and a hostel, and now we can add couches and beds to the lofty collection! MotoArt is a team of designers who transform airplane parts into sleek, highly polished modern pieces of furniture. Based in Los Angeles, the 6 person design crew creates an impressive line-up of upcycled furnishings, sure to please every airplane enthusiast’s flight of fancy.
We’ve all heard of pieces of furniture that act as conversation pieces, but how about a table that not only starts conversations but actually looks like a giant speech bubble? Brilliant! Constructed entirely of scrap pieces of cardboard, Leo Kempf’s conversation table is sturdy, witty, and an excellent option if you’re looking for a coffee table that will get your guests talking every time they come over.
Recycled Fiber Furniture Filled With Air
Designed by Mario Bellini for Meritalia, an Italian furniture maker, the Via Lattea furniture line looks like a collection of homemade marshmallows. Light as air, these chairs and couches are made from steel mesh combined with recycled fiber sacks formerly used to transport grain, stones, and sugar. Bellini and Meritalia showed their new line this year at the Milan Furniture Fair and we’re fascinated by the glowing chairs and air-filled sacs.
Palo Samko’s “Only Men’s” Chest with Top Secret Surprise
How many times have you found yourself saying, “I sure wish I had a hidden drawer to keep all of my top secret documents”? Carpenter and designer extraordinaire Palo Samko must have heard you, because he created just that–an elegant chest of drawers with a cleverly concealed compartment for storing your most treasured possessions. Each bureau is made to order by Samko, who uses reclaimed materials such as plywood, pine and buttery tan leather. This chest and its secret drawer are so sweet, you may want to have a backup location for your valuables because you’ll probably end up showing all your friends!
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.
Greg Lynn’s Arty Recycled Toy Furniture
Architect Greg Lynn may be best know as the king of ‘Blobitecture’ – creating blobby biomorphic structures using computer-aided-design and mathematical equations. Now the blob-loving architect is taking a turn for the green with an interesting new project to turn recycled old toys into high-end, artistic pieces of …
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL: Zoe Murphy Upcycled Furniture
Young British design graduate Zoe Murphy is a rising star we discovered at this month’s TENT London design exhibit. Inspired by her seaside home of Margate, Zoe has created a collection of fabulous bespoke furniture and textile pieces. Zoe exhibited her ‘Margate Collection’ during this year’s London Design Festival, at ‘talentzone’and TENT London and was chosen as one of Dezeen’s most talented design graduates of 2008.
Jamie Ward’s Furniture Reborn
Dusty old furnishings often receive a second life with fresh upholstery and a new coat of paint, but rarely do we have the patience or skill to repurpose parts and fashion an entirely new piece of furniture. Jamie Ward, a design student in Manchester, England, takes cast off chairs and tables, deconstructs them, and rebuilds them into exceptional examples of functional art.
BKLYN SNEAK PEEK: Uhuru Recycled Bourbon Barrel Furniture
We’ve long been fans of Brooklyn green furniture team Uhuru Design. Every year at BKLYN Designs we eagerly look forward to seeing Uhuru’s latest work, from the beautiful recycled scrap wood Stoolen series that we spotted in 2006, to the clever Cutoffs Table from 2007, both of which utilize reclaimed wood as the main design concept. In fact, Uhuru’s most recognizable style seems to be their unique sensibility in finding innovative ways to turn old wood scraps into stunning pieces of contemporary furniture. So, what are we keeping an eye on for 2008? The answer is Bourbon Barrel Furniture. Uhuru will be launching a brand new line of furniture at BKLYN Designs 2008, featuring a chair, bench, table and stool, all made from reclaimed bourbon barrels.
TRANSPLASTIC Furniture by Campana Brothers
Fernando and Humberto Campana, the Brazilian brother design duo, have long been known for their unique combination of craft-meets-contemporary, recycled-meets-high design furniture. This past summer, they debuted their latest creations, called TransPlastic, at London’s Albion Gallery, which showcased their wicker and plastic crafty yet modern furniture designs. We love the super-cool take on a vernacular form, made hip and new using traditional materials in a cocoon-like encasing technique.
Bathtub Couch by Max McMurdo of Reestore
Bathtubs are places for relaxation, and here’s a new interpretation- turn your tub into a sofa! This clever design by Max McMurdo breathes life into an antique fixture, and turns what was headed for landfill into a smart, provocative, and comfy conversation starter. Founded by UK product designer Max McMurdo, Reestore is a line of green products based on the recycling of old home products. Taking everyday waste objects and turning them into charming yet functional pieces of furniture and accessories, Reestore attempts to “avoid traditional eco materials in favor of contemporary finishes, fabrics, and, above all, style.”
KNOOP Rope Table from Josh Urso
Ever wondered what could be done with a 1,200 foot spool of rope? Designer Josh Urso answers the question with this marvelous innovation in table design: KNOOP (Dutch for “knot”) is his latest line of table designs, which uses resin-impregnated military-grade rope to deliver wonderful inspiration to often discarded materials.
STRATA RECYCLED FURNITURE by Ryan Frank
Inspired by London’s heaps of discarded furniture and usable timber, Ryan Frank’s Strata line turns deconstructed old office furniture and FSC wood into new, sleek chairs and tables. Following the success of his other recylcled-chic designs like Inkuku, made from recycled plastic bags, and the Hackney Shelf, Ryan has once again proved that trash can be treasure.
ONCE A DOOR Recycled Door Chair by Claire Danthois
Claire Danthois wowed us with her chair made from a recycled door at the [re]design stand at 100% Design this year- her Once A Door chair turns a reclaimed door into sculptural chaise that is as environmentally friendly as it is thought-provoking. Driven by an interest in people and their relationship with the world around them, Claire is fascinated with the story embedded in reclaimed materials, and custom makes all of her pieces for a specific individuals, using materials found in that person’s life.
ARTEK 2ND CYCLE FURNITURE with Tom Dixon
At our recent Reclaiming Design event, we were thrilled to see such amazing work and general interest in the integration of reused and recycled materials in the design process. But super-kudos go out to Mr. Tom Dixon, who spoke at our Inhabitat-sponsored HauteGREEN event about his recently-debuted 2nd Cycle line of furniture that is literally bringing vintage modernist furniture back into a new market.
CHRIS BURTON’s UPCYCLING: Stellation Chairs
Our last installment of Chris Burton’s “upcycled” furniture is his Stellation chair series, which is both simple in form and poetic in concept. Constructed from the abundant short wood cut-offs from construction sites, Burton repurposes an overlooked resource that would otherwise be discarded and sent to a landfill. The three chairs shown at his exhibition at Red Kite Studio are made from pine 2×4’s, heart pine, and a glue-laminated beam.
CHRIS BURTON’s UPCYCLING: Repose Lounge
The next time you pass by a construction site, take a closer look… you may find designer and Savannah College of Art and Design MFA student Chris Burton scouring through the debris, hunting for material for his next chair or table. His recent exhibition at Savannah’s Red Kite Studio, entitled “Upcycle of Waste,” features clever designs that utilize construction waste, dumpster debris, and other urban detritus as raw material for some lovely pieces of furniture. His Repose Lounge chair, for example, is “designed to utilize all lengths of wood used in construction.” It combines plywood with PVC piping cut-offs, which form the slats of the seat and back. Despite the discarded materials, Burton is clever in his material applications, making the most of the PVC’s flexible nature to provide a surprisingly comfortable seat.
UHURU DESIGN STOOLEN CHAIR
One of the best new things I saw at BKLYN Designs over the weekend was Uhuru Design’s Stoolen chair. Reminiscent of a tree stump, this awesome cylindrical seat is actually composed of recycled wood scraps held in shape by a pressurized aluminum bicycle rim (also recycled of course). The whole chair is 100% recycled – and manages to be as beautiful and evocative as it is environmentally friendly.
The Stoolen is available in a couple different sizes and types of wood.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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