Swedish experimental design group APOCALYPSE presented four new products made from materials with history at the DMY design festival in Berlin last week.
The Pot and Shelf Torso uses a few of the 360 million tires consumed yearly in the EU. As pots and shelves, the tires get a new life. The material is made by granulated tires ground into a powder which is mixed with recycled plastic. The binding is reinforced with a patented molecule. More than 95 % of the content is made from recycled materials and it can be recycled over and over.
The Lamp Blob is made from start clumps from the plastic industry. In order to adjust the the machinery some of the melted plastic becomes waste and is by APOCALYPSE given a second life as lamps.
The Parquet Multicolour Herringbone is also made from recycled car tires and plastic packages. This new version comes in five different colours.
The Soap Original and Perfume is made of reused cooking oil from falafel kitchens. The Soap is redefining the concept of luxury and questioning animal and other dubious cosmetic ingredients. The Soap Original is neither perfumed nor coloured and has a light old-fashioned soap scent thanks to the saponification process. The Soap Perfume is scented with our own organic perfume Ultra Fresh Bakery Bouquet.
UFO (Unidentified Feeding Object) is a mono-use disposable plate designed by Andrea Ruggiero for InDisposed – an exhibition which invited designers to address notions of disposability in everyday products. Lightweight and rigid, UFO is designed to to be used at picnics, garden parties, beach parties or barbeques and disposed of by launching it into the bushes – exactly like a frisbee. Upon impact, the plates break into smaller pieces and then serve to feed birds, squirrels or rodents, referencing the waste=food principle. The very act of launching the plate makes its disposal shameless and fun (a cross between an olympic discus event and a Greek wedding) and the impact of the plate becomes a necessary component of the process. In Italian, such mono-use objects are referred to as “usa e getta” or literally, “use and throw” in English. Though semantically disturbing, this was the inspiration behind the UFO concept. UFO is made of a unique composite of blended bird seed, potato starch, guar gum, and a seaweed-like binding agent. The plates are highly resistant to wet foods, vinegars and sauces, yet completely biodegradable, non-toxic, and vegan.
Above is another filmed interview by Designboost from the MiniBoost at Milan Desgin Week. This time you can listen to designer Tom Dixon and his thoughts about sustainability and city development.
Listen to designer Ross Lovegrove talk about his philosophy of sustainable cities.
My company Designboost went to Milan and made thirteen filmed interviews on the topic of sustainable cities. We met up with some of the worlds most acknowledged designers. This week the interviews with Ilse Crawford, Tom Dixon, Konstantin Grcic, Arik Levy, Ross Lovegrove, Katrin Olina and Satyendra Pakhale are released. Next week we will release six more interviews with Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Kristina Dryza, Richard Hutten, James Irvine, Tim Power and Patricia Urquiola.
The Knowledge company Designboost is interested to explore the personal viewpoint of sustainable cities of some of the worlds most acknowledged designers. To find out Designboost went to Milan Design Week and made a MiniBoost. The MiniBoost resulted in thirteen unique interviews. The seven first interviews are released today and include personalities like Ilse Crawford, Tom Dixon, Konstantin Grcic, Arik Levy, Ross Lovegrove, Katrin Olina and Satyendra Pakhale.
The questions asked look at sustainable cities from a holistic point of view and touch among other subjects sustainability according to cultural life, emotional amplification and the personal stories of the inhabitants. The questions are written by different Boosters at the DesignBoost 2008 key event “Long Live the City” in Malmö, Sweden. One may say that the MiniBoost is like a relay race with questions as batons passed on to new Boosters.
Next week Designboost will release six more interviews from the Milan Design Week MiniBoost including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Kristina Dryza, Richard Hutten, James Irvine, Tim Power and Patricia Urquiola.
Plastic bags are made from fossil-based petrochemicals. And then they’re thrown away. At best, in to the trash, but for some reason also in to the oceans. This leads to the death of tens of thousands of seabirds every year. But the obvious solution is not spelled Paper Bag, as one might believe. Just the higher weight of the paper bag alone leads to seven (7) times the fuel consumption (of fossil-based petrochemicals) in transport when compared to the plastic bag. Best of all is to use some sort of reusable bag when shopping.
The simple idea from the design and architect trio Claesson Koivisto Rune is to combine. The design of the plastic bag is optimal. One front side and one back, both with double-folded integrated handles, joined together, makes the bag both roomy and sturdy. At the same time, the non-profit organisation Stockholm City Mission, receives 16 tonnes every year of donated fabrics and clothing that are not suitable to be sold. Combined – an existing construction design and an existing eco-friendly raw material – they make a new, greener alternative to the plastic bag.
Finite natural resources are spared. The mountains of excess textiles that otherwise would have been disposed of find a good use. The homeless get an opportunity to work. (In a non-repetitive process, through the unlimited choice of creative fabric combinations.) And the Stockholm City Mission can create some revenue to help run their organisation… Claesson Koivisto Rune says that they can only see up-sides to this project. That is their reward.
RE/DO installation was born from the collaboration between Milan based architecture practice Piuarch and PSLAB Beirut which since 2004 explores new ideas pertaining to light designing and building site specific light solutions. The installation took place at Piuarch studio in Brera area during Milan Design Week in the context of Fuori Salone 2009 (21-27 April).
The conceptual installation expresses shared thoughts between Piuarch Milan and PSLAB Beirut on light and architecture, on design and rethinking an object or a building from a different perspective giving new life to existing objects.
An idea, 3 weeks to make it happen, 702 plastic gallons reinterpreted as lighting objects, wired and assembled as modules in Beirut and with these a 5,5 x 8 mt light wall built on site in Milan during a weekend as an intervention on the façade of the building and in the context of the courtyard where Piuarch studio is located.
Finally some thoughts behind the project:
(CONSIDER IT AGAIN)
THE NEED FOR MORE DESIGNED OBJECTS. HOW LONG WILL WE STILL DESIGN OBJECTS? WHAT IS THE USE OF THE NEW VERSION VERSUS THE OLD ONE?
(TO CONSUME)
DESIGNING
THE RECYCLING PROCESS, LIKE DESIGNING THE LIFE OF ANY OBJECT, FROM ITS PRODUCTION DATE (DATE OF BIRTH) TO ITS FIRST LIFE/FIRST USE, GIVING IT A CHANCE TO A NEW LIFE WHERE IT CAN EXIST AGAIN.
(SHIFT FUNCTION)
BETWEEN THE FIRST LIFE AND THE SECOND ONE, A REINCARNATION OF AN OBJECT. DESIGNING IN THIS CASE CONSISTS OF PRESENTING TO THE PUBLIC WHAT HAS BEEN ALREADY DESIGNED. DOING AGAIN AND DIFFERENTLY DEFINES THIS PROCESS.
There is a nice group exhibition opening tonight at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. The show is called ‘Design For A Living World‘, a project of the Nature Conservancy, showcasing the work of 10 designers including Stephen Burks, Hella Jongerius, Yves Behar, Ted Muehling and Isaac Mizrahi that explores our connection to the natural world through sustainable materials, products and design.
As an example Stephen Burks spent a week in Australia working with an aboriginal community, the Noongar people, to explore their return and connection to their land. Hella Jongerius went to the maya forest in Mexico and Isaac Mizrahi to southwest Alaska.
