Waiting for the spring: Ecology of Colour Pavilion in Kent, UK

UK-based Studio Wave created Ecology of Colour, a colourful pavilion for holding a variety of sustainable craft workshops within Dartford Central Park’s Ecology Island. This is the third Artlands public realm commission for North Kent. Made from local materials, was designed “to act as a jolly custodian" and encourage community involvement in a neglected corner of a public park.

In response to this unique context, Studio Weave have designed a small versatile structure with a semi-outdoor space at ground level and an enclosed area on the first floor with many windows that open wide onto the landscape. As well for bird watching and art studio the building will be used as an outdoor classroom, a dyeing workshop and simply as a rain shelter, as well as sun shelter, within the Ecology Island.

The colorful cladding was conceived by graphic studio Nous Vous who have created a cohesive graphic visual language for the exterior of the building. Prior to its installation, a team of local residents and artists worked together in a painting workshop to produce each of the 144 panels, which form the external cladding.

The building opened in September 2012, now a group of designers is working with a group of horticulturists to create a garden full of native plants for extracting natural pigments (including Golden Rod for yellow, Alder for red and Bugloss for blue), celebrating nature and color in a fun, inclusive way.

More info

website Studio Weave

website Art lands North Kent

facebook page

Photo credit © Studio Weave

 

 

Read more »

A poetic concept: making bikes from junked cars

The Spanish design studio Lola Madrid, owned by creative agency Lowe & Partners, has launched few days ago the platform LOLA Hace (LOLA Make), in order to design and manufacture products that make life easier for people or emotionally in touch with them. The first product that they have conceived is Bicycled.

Bicycled is new making bikes project that utilizes recycled cars as the main source for material. It is such a poetic concept, fewer cars and more bikes is a probably a dream for cyclists everywhere, in an effort to create the most efficient, ecological and healthy means of transportation.

Even though the line is not yet complete, Lola Madrid has just launched a video about the process of transformation and creation of models: the exclusive use of car wrecks different gives a unique look to any bike, which makes anyone proud owns one! Each hand-made bike is based on a consumer insight - which reflects on the emotional attachment from wrecked vehicles. Body metal is used for the bike frame, brake lights turn into reflectors, door handles become seat post clamps and so on.

Bicycled looks like a great way to give cars a second life, while also reducing the demand for new material for bikes. Add in that each creation is closer to art than a mass produced product and they seem to have a winning combination.

More info

website Bicycled

website Lola Madrid

Facebook page

Photo credit © Lola Madrid

Read more »

Upcycled Playground in Malawi's hospital by Sakaramenta

Sakaramenta is a social enterprise producing push and bicycle carts.

It is based in Blantyre, Malawi, and founded in 2009. Sakaramenta produces 5 different carts to transport patients, goods and other supplies behind the bicycle. The bicycle cars are designed according to high Dutch quality standards, at the moment 21 people are employed.

The reason to start up this business, is a believe in creating employment, stimulating entrepreneurship and local production in the best of way of bringing development to a country.

Getting things from A to B is not always easy in Malawi. The weather, shortage of fuel and quality of roads make carrying goods and people a though job. Sakaramenta takes the challenge to solve these problems.

Furthermore they make play ground, school and hospital equipment. Like glides, swings, school desks, trolleys. The focus point are: simple, strong and sustainable. All the parts can be maintained locally. Them workshop is in Blantyre, experienced and well educated staff are making high quality products.

The last project is born from an idea by Peter Meijer, founder and managing director of Sakaramenta. He has created a kids' playground on the site of a local hospital.

The simply wonderful intervention considers its site, introducing a scrapped ambulance, repurposing it as a playground clubhouse, with an integrated - where children patients (and grown-ups) can play having a fun together. Independent research concludes that playgrounds are among the most important environments for children outside the home. Most forms of play are essential for healthy development, but free, spontaneous play—the kind that occurs on playgrounds—is the most beneficial type of play.

More info

www.sakaramenta.com

photo credit Sakaramenta

 

 

 

Read more »

Baguette table by Studio Rygalik

Two days ago was pubblished a post about the start-up Culinary Misfits, today take again the topic "food waste" with Studio Rygalik of Warszawa, Poland.

They realized a new project, the starting point is a statistical fact: food thrown away in Vienna could feed half of the population of Graz. This was presented for the first time at the Vienna Design Week.

"It was also to show that the materials to build from are all around us. The tables were made from stale baguettes that were supposed to be thrown away".

These bread structures were part of a "bread experience" created by Gosia and Tomek Rygalik, the founders of the Studio, at the Design Week Laboratory, where people were surrounded by bread, eating bread dishes from bread tables.

In their series of "Baguette tables", they cut the french bread to varying lengths, their exposed ends leveled to create the table tops, the longer pieces providing support and stability, functioning as multiple legs, as well as providing some tasty, visual appeal.

Studio Rygalik aims to develop a wide variety of limited edition projects for companies, that maintain a good balance between the commercial and the experimental.

Studio Rygalik develops a wide variety of comprehensive projects. The focus is on furniture, products and spaces. The scope is wide – from design, development and implementation of new products to site-specific installations and production of limited editions, as well as objects, dining experiences and workshops that explore the relations of design, food and eating.

More info:

www.studiorygalik.com

www.viennadesignweek.at

photo credits © Nick Albert /Kollektiv Fischka

 

 

Read more »

Culinary Misfits, a special catering service from Berlin

CulinaryMisfits is a design start-up born in Berlin, exploring the intersection of design and sustainability with a primary focus on food culture and how we can be inspired to rethink how we approach natural foods.

The founders are Lea Emma Rosa Brumsack and Tanja Krakowski. They create the first catering service to make its dishes using only ingredients discarded by supermarkets, farmers and restaurants

The idea is already explained in its name: misfits in fact means both "freak of nature" and "inappropriate", this word was chosen to challenge the widespread belief that the food is good only when it is looking good.

While it is true that the eye wants its part, it is equally true that appearances often deceive. So Lea and Tanja have chosen to use as ingredients only vegetables and fruits of the season because of their aesthetic inaccurate are rejected by large retailers and catering obeying strict criteria and aesthetic dimensions that determine a huge and unnecessary consuming food.

They collect veggies and fruits themselves and co-operate with two local organic farmers who let them have their abandoned harvest to a truly fair price- a substantial extra income for the farmers and a basis of business for Lea and Tanja.

With this second choice products Lea and Tanja create delicious dishes, minimizing waste and looking at the ingredients locally, thereby complying with the criteria of distribution at zero kilometers, without depriving their creations of quality and good taste.

After starting in early 2012, Culinary Misfits has at the moment a provvisory home in Kreuzberg. Now a crowdfunding campaign is underway to allow Culinary Misfits to have their own place for cooking, experimenting, lecturing and selling the little misfits.

More info:

www.culinarymisfits.de
Facebook page

photo credits Culinary Misfits

 

 

Read more »

Terra Stools: Adital Ela makes products from compressed earth

AditalEla, Israeli-born eco designer, in her new line "Terra" uses natural materials 100% organic to create pieces of furniture.

The main raw material is pressed earth and natural fibers, hence the name of the project, the first product for her line Terra is "Terra Stools".

They are made using a unique compression process that was developed based on a long term study of materials and of ancient building methods, inspired craftsmanship techniques commonly used in India or the Middle East. On this process she learned from Daphna Yalon, Tal Bashan, Um Ajaj, her Iraqi grandmother (that made her own oven from dirt turned to clay) and many more.

In this project she acts as a “designer-gatherer”, all materials were gathered from construction and agricultural waste, including faeces and dung, and from the natural environment. 

 After having pressed the materials, giving it a form, each object receives a natural finish, is necessary to protect that to polishing, which is carried out by the use of oil of linseed.

Each stool is handmade and is an almost unique piece, is completely natural, eco-friendly and completely free of pollutants. Making a Terra stool creates no pollution. It requires no energy and uses only local and organic materials. If a stool is no longer useful, the owner can simply leave it in the garden and let it deteriorate back into the earth. Or they can add water and mold it into another functional object.

Adital Ela believes that its objects can adapt to any type of furniture that too from outside, where too often makes use of the ubiquitous plastic.

She is also preparing to launch a pilot program in Jerusalem of Terra workshops, which she hopes will spread in a franchise-like manner, Eventually, she wonders: could this be a source of income for income deprived communities?

Adital Ela is the founder and the director of S-Sense Design Studio.

The studio's work is based on three pillars:

Planet - Design of products and services that support sustainability.

People - Design that empowers people and communities.

Value - The promotion of sustainable design thinking action and education.

More info

www.aditalela.com

Read more »

Humanitarian Design: Catapult Design, a non-profit firm

Catapult Design is an interdisciplinary design practice that brings engineering, technology, and products to resource-limited settings.

They are engineers, designers, implementers, and educators. They design products, introduce technologies, and foster trends that are appropriate, self-sustaining, socially responsible and culturally sensitive.

"The majority of our world’s population lacks access to life’s basic needs. We develop and implement human-centered products to help them thrive".

Catapult Design focuses on delivering culturally sensitive, environmentally friendly, location-appropriate solutions for communities in need. Technology can empower and liberate. A single, effective product has more potential for worldwide impact – by providing clean water, food, shelter, or income – than any other existing development approach. Through the introduction of inexpensive and simple yet life-altering products the lives of more than 2 billion poverty-stricken people around the globe can be dramatically improved.

With the philosophy that successful products require local knowledge, Catapult Design ensures that these products are accessible, meaningful to local individuals and culturally sensitive to the end-users.

Founded in 2009 in San Francisco, in a few years their list of accomplishments is impressive from harnessing wind power in rural Central America to dealing with water scarcity in arid regions of Africa.

All of its work is undertaken on a fee-for-service basis, providing engineering and implementation support to nonprofits as well as governments, social ventures, and even 500 companies.

More info

www.catapultdesign.org

Read more »

Synoikia, a communal lighting installation from donated fixtures

Located in the heart of Athens, Ittaki is a small street in Monastiraki area, one of the most characteristic quarters with narrow and winding lanes and small buildings that date back to Byzantine and Ottoman period. This street hosts only few small shops, very few residents and an amazing lighting installation.

Beforelight, a Greek based creative Studio that experiment with the use of light, in collaboration with Imagine the city, a cluster for city branding and urban renovation, has invited and mobilized the residents to donate their old luminaires, fixtures and lamp shades in order to transform the abandoned street of old central Athens into a homely space, with the site-specific installation "Synoikia", that means neighborhood.

An empty shop was temporarily transformed into an open workspace for people to gather, observe and participate in the development of the project. A process of repairing, testing and waterproofing the lamps engaged volunteers that, in collaboration with greek creative studio beforelight, prepared more then 150 lamps to create a colorful ceiling over the street, in an effort to encourage the public collective experience with artificial light.

This effort was supported by the City of Athens and sponsored by Coca Cola.

More info

www.beforelight.gr

www.imaginethecity.gr

photo credits © Beforelight – Imagine the City

Read more »

The Green Bike project, Fuori Salone - Milan Design Week 2013

From the desire to increase the use of bicycle Claudia Zanfi, founder of aMAZElab, a non-profit cultural lab which works for the diffusion and knowledge of contemporary cultures active since 2000, created in collaboration with the Embassy and the Consulate General of theKingdom of the Netherlands in Milan on project THE GREEN BIKE.

The event will be realized in April at the next edition of the Fuori Salone - Milan Design Week 2013.

The project idea - new in its kind - comes by the urgency of extend the city of Milan and practices sustainable lifestyles, the need to take concrete action within the urban reality and offer incentives able to engage the public and targeting it towards virtuous models of urban mobility, following the example of 'best practice' Dutch, together with the diffusion of green areas in the city.

Monday, April 8 opens to the public a week of shows, meetings and conferences in various areas of the city and dedicated to the philosophy of the bicycle. Were selected three Bike Stores marking a sort of "green line" in the three major points of passage of the city: Urban Balance, Island neighborhood, Nord Milano; Rossignoli, Via Garibaldi, Downtown, Elm, Piazza Vetra, South Zone Milan.

In these three areas will be presented works of art and design from the world of cycling, made by famous designers such as: Jan Gunneweg (with its original wooden bicycles), Max Lipsey (with sculptures made from recycled bicycle parts ) and Maarten Kolk (with its lightboxes of images dedicated to trees and soft mobility).

Wide space will be given to young creativity. In fact, all the installations will be created by young designers and landscapers Italians from Milan Polidesign whose task will be to set up "green urban landscapes" in the three exhibition spaces. By partnering with the Flower Council of Holland, the installation will be carried out using special types of vegetable with sound absorbing properties and anti pollutants tested by NASA. The project will offer the public an idea of new green spaces, installations able to combine the design with the beneficial properties of plants. Will be presented systems made with soundproofing products that integrate with moss particular plant species and varieties of plants can purify the air as the Boston fern, the Areca, the Anthurium, the Ivy varied and many others, produced by the Air So Pure.

Within the various conferences will be presented the design of the bike path that will connect the city center with the future area Expo 2015, and the project "Orti Urbani" for the recovery of urban green spaces into disuse. In order to stimulate the public as much as possible every day citizens are being organized Bike Tours, bicycle led by art historians to discover hidden gardens, anecdotes and stories of Milan less well known. The project will focus on the new technologies at the service of cyclists, with a special application for smartphones and tablets designed exclusively for the occasion by the Bikedistrict, winners of the Sustainable Urban Innovation Award, organized by Legambiente, Chamber of Commerce, University Bocconi, government partners of Green Bike.

More info

www.amaze.it

Fuori Salone - Milan Design Week 2013

Wooden Bicycles by Jan Gunneweg

From the series Acciaio 2 by Max Lipsey

Temporary Trees, lightbox, by Maarten Kolk

Read more »

Temporary Fire Shelter in Copenaghen, by Shjworks

The project Fire Shelter by Danish firm Shjworks consist of a built structure, located in Sydhavnstippen - Copenhagen, and an open letter.

"The starting point for the design emerged from a fascination of the place. It´s a temporary project and a design experiment that wish to celebrate the place. The project has public access, and it establishes experiences of spatial and social character. In the creation of it nobody has been asked of advice, neither has it been possible for anyone to tell his or her opinion. It is simply thought of as a gift."

Sydhavnstippen is an amazing place by a 20-minute bike ride from the city center. After the second world war it became landfilled with building materials, until 1973. Today it is a habitat for a variety of animals, since the landfill plants, bushes and trees have taken over the area. The “wild” appearance of the nature on top of the building materials, which are visible some places, makes you think of a “post-apocalyptic” nature.

Fire Shelter was totally constructed and conceived by Shjworks and the people that helped, that wished to act independently. If bureaucracy had been taken into account, the project probably wouldn’t have happened.

The shelter is a unique and specific project. It is realized with plywood floor, polycarbonate structure and all the different parts are fabricated using CNC technology. Inside is a fire place surrounded by a bench filled with building materials found on the site. It´s about being in the company of good friends, in a fantastic place, around a fire during the dark time of the year.

The design influenced by the vernacular buldings of ethnic and nomadic people, consisting in a shape stretching around the sky, one hole in the top and two openings at the bottom create a flow of ventilation. After dusk the light from the fire will shine through to the exterior, alluding to old time lighthouses.

Hopefully the shelter can stand for a year.

More info

Simon Hjermind Jensen

photo credit Simon Hjermind Jensen and Christian Bøcker Sørensen

Read more »