Tag Archives: energy saving

Open source design – the Sea Chair

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Great design is not highly polished. It is considered from start to finish. Great design adds to the world – for the better. Great design, to coin a phrase from Cradle to Cradle thinking – is elegant. And this very unassuming stool has to be one of the most elegant we have seen to date.

The Sea Chair has been created by Studio Swine and Kieren Jones and is one of the featured Designs of 2013 currently on show at the Design Museum in London.

The design is extremely simple. It is a stool created out of plastic, in a highly recognised and familiar form. But what is beautiful about this stool is the story of its creation.

Created by hand, each stool uses only pieces of waste plastic fished out of the sea – cleaning up our oceans whilst championing the beauty of the accidental and the hand made. It has a real raw beauty which we find stunning.

But the Sea Chair is not one of those very worthy designs which are made from recycled materials  by hand, but cost a small fortune to purchase.

The Sea Chair is also an open source design.

So, for anyone wanting to create their very own Sea Chair AND clean up a section of beach in the process, the full methodology of how to create the piece can be found on the Studio Swine website. Right down to how to create your own furnace and how to identify different types of plastic.

This type of project really gets us excited – using an otherwise waste material, a low tech process and a hand made finish to produce an item which will be different from the next.

Visit the Studio Swine website for full details on how to create your own Sea Chair.

(image via Studio Swine)

Monday muses – Brighton and Hove become the world’s first One Planet City

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Every Monday here on the Ecospot we look at a slightly meaty issue and today we just had to be talking about the fact that Brighton and Hove has been declared the world’s first One Planet City – very nicely timed as today is also Earth Day.

earth

BioRegional, an independent sustainable accreditation organisation awarded the title to Council leader Jason Kitcat at a presentation last week, which took place at a sustainable housing project in Brighton.

But just what does this award mean?

In essence, it means that Brighton and Hove Council’s Sustainability Action Plan has been recognised for it’s plans to enable residents to live well within a fairer share of the world’s resources.

The Sustainability Action Plan sets out clear goals for Brighton and Hove – including how we can begin to live within the resources of one planet, rather than the current national average of three and a half.

To date, this has been manifested in a number of ways, with the council investing in updated insulation for council owned properties to allow tenants to benefit from lower energy bills and therefore carbon outputs and community growing schemes.

But the Sustainability Action Plan aims to to a great deal more over the next three years – helping residents and businesses in Brighton and Hove to become more sustainably resilient whilst boosting the local economy.

Ten key principles for being a One Planet City are:

Zero carbon - Making buildings more energy efficient and delivering all energy with renewable technologies.

Zero waste - Reducing waste, reusing where possible, and ultimately sending zero waste to landfill.

Sustainable transport - Encouraging low carbon modes of transport to reduce emissions, reducing the need to travel.

Sustainable materials - Using sustainable healthy products, with low embodied energy, sourced locally, made from renewable or waste resources.

Local and sustainable food - Choosing low impact, local, seasonal and organic diets and reducing food waste.

Sustainable water - Using water more efficiently in buildings and in the products we buy; tackling local flooding and water course pollution.

Land use and wildlife - Protecting and restoring biodiversity and natural habitats through appropriate land use and integration into the built environment.

Culture and community - Reviving local identity and wisdom; supporting and participating in the arts.

Equity and local economy - Creating bioregional economies that support fair employment, inclusive communities and international fair trade.

Health and happiness - Encouraging active, sociable, meaningful lives to promote good health and well being.

Many of these have already been initiated by Brighton and Hove City Council, with an increase in recycling collected from communual points within the city (which, although very controversial, appear to be working as a 70% increase in weight of recyclables have been reported), the Food Partnership projects throughout the city as well as them signing up to become a Living Wage employer.

How this accreditation will continue to manifest itself over the coming months and years will be exciting to see – and how Brighton and Hove can continue to grow as a city founded on sustainable principles.

Monday thoughts – shipping containers as transitional housing

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A problem as complex as the housing crisis in the UK has so many associated issues that we can never hope to find one single solution. There needs to be alterations to the financial and banking systems to allow mortgages to first time buyers,  the issues with empty houses needs to be addressed and we need to ensure that any new development is both responsible and positioned in the correct locations with a fully supported infrastructure.

But could great design and a bit of sideways thinking help a fraction of those who are currently without homes?

A project in Brighton is aiming to be one of the first in the UK to address this issue with a temporary housing project constructed entirely from shipping containers.

shipping containers

The Brighton Housing Trust and developers QED have submitted plans to Brighton and Hove City Council for a project which would see 36 shipping containers converted into self contained studio style flats. Complete with solar panels and green roofs, the container flats are well designed, spacious and are a very effective use of space.

Located on an inner city brownfield site, the shipping containers would be used as temporary transitional, ‘halfway’ housing for homeless within Brighton and Hove. Affordable rents would allow residents to find stability, eventually moving on to housing elsewhere in the city.

We are huge fans of the shipping container at the studio – they are a very efficient form of construction as they are modular, easily transported and therefore easily relocated. They are not often seen in the residential sense in the UK, but projects such as these are seen readily, and accepted elsewhere in Europe.

The model that the BHT proposal is based on comes from the Netherlands, where flats within shipping containers are often used in development. One project near Amsterdam uses 250 shipping containers as a huge, stacked student accommodation and they have also been used as boutique hotels.

shipping container W300 Shipping Containers Provide Temporary Accommodation

But the main beauty of a proposal such as this is the highly adaptable nature of the construction. The containers are converted off site and arrive mostly prefabricated, are quicker to ‘build’ than houses using standard construction methods, so site down time is incredibly low and when the site they sit upon is to be redeveloped, they can be unstacked and relocated.

Although the jury is still out on the use of shipping containers as a long term solution to low cost housing in the UK, we believe that projects such as this show real promise for many locations – and potential residents in the UK.

(images via sxc and Brighton Housing Trust)

Wednesday Walls – the Flax Lamp

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This week on Wednesday Walls we are featuring a beautiful light we spotted at Hotel Droog whilst on a recent trip to Amsterdam. We are calling this a wall light, but really, it is so much more and could hang just a happily from the centre of the room.

The Flax Lamp by designer Christien Meindertsma is quite simply, a light with a flex contained within the core of a large rope. It looks very utilitarian and industrial. And we loved it.

IMG_2015

What is also lovely about this light is that the flax which makes up the rope is grown, processed and constructed into the rope in the Netherlands itself.

Flax was a very important material for the Dutch in previous years, with the fibres being a real backbone to the native textile industry, but now it is farmed on a smaller scale with the majority of the product being shipped to China.

The Flax Lamp uses a traditional process, a traditional rope maker and traditional material in a way which is relevant to 21st century design and way of living, just like the Godogan Table we featured yesterday.

This reinvention of craft is how we can ensure that skills are not lost, but reinterpreted with modern design.

(image by claire potter design)

Monday thoughts – CRASH – Constructing a Future for Homeless People

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CRASH

Even though we had heard about CRASH, it was not until very recently that we learnt a great deal more about the fantastic work that they do as the construction and property industry’s charity for homeless people when we met them at EcoBuild 2013.

 

CRASH is a charity which functions at the very heart of the construction and property industry which through patronage in different forms, helps to create positive change for homeless people.

CRASH

CRASH achieves this in three ways:

  • Providing pro-bono professional expertise courtesy of their patrons
  • sourcing free building materials from patron and supporting companies
  • awarding cash grants for projects

Through these types of direct industry partnerships, CRASH is able to help an average of 80 homeless projects each year – including the building of new hostels that are well designed, clean and safe.

As well as expertise, supporters work with CRASH to donate materials to projects, making a really big difference to many peoples lives at a point where a stable and safe environment in critical to moving on.

St Pauls Homes Completed 024

We all know how buildings effect our lives – the way we work, how we live and those we interact with on a daily basis, but sometimes we can all miss exactly how important the function of our built environment can be.

The great work of CRASH highlights exactly how the building industry can create direct, positive change for those who really need it – in a way that actually makes a huge difference.

We are very lucky to have worked with the local homeless charity, Emmaus Brighton and Hove on a variety of projects and we know from working and speaking to the companions that safety, security and stability are three of the main aspects that provide a starting point for rebuilding their lives.

CRASH is a fantastic charity that as well as supporting the building of projects, are supporting the rebuilding of peoples lives.

As they aptly put it, CRASH are ‘constructing a future for homeless people’. A positive thought for the whole construction industry.

(images via CRASH)

the edible city – the future of our workplaces?

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This week we have been preparing for a talk we are giving at the University of Brighton for the Brighton Interior Architecture and Architecture Society, about the work of the studio and stuff that inspires us. One such element is the integration and development of the edible city and how this can inform public landscaping and workplace design.

When putting together the lecture, we were aware of just how many concepts there are for the integration of food growing, particularly beautifully rendered, high technology concepts, but just how little are actually built.

Is it that we are just thinking about the edible city but have just not got around to building it yet?

Also, the vast majority of the concepts are new build projects, usually in the vertical format. Towers, Sky Farms, layered buildings with horticulture and agriculture combined.

There is, of course a certain amount of building efficiency which can be planned into a new structure, but it does not necessarily mean that our existing buildings cannot be adapted to integrate localised growing into their footprints.

Dalston 1

We wrote about one such project here – the FARM: shop project by Something and Son in Dalston, London, which uses a standard retail location to produce fish through aquaponics, salads and even eggs from rooftop chickens – all of which is used in the on site cafe. They also run educational programs to encourage other people to grow.

But thinking of the larger, city workplace format, there is one project which is a very interesting example of what the future of our offices could be – and not in a new structure.

The Pasona HQ in Tokyo is based in a retrofitted 50 year old building, which has been adapted to be not only a working environment, but an urban farm.

Pasana hq1

Designed by Kono Designs, the building grows most of the food required to feed its employees, from broccoli, squash, tomatoes and even rice, through a variety of interior and exterior growing methods.

There are growing areas included throughout the building, from the main lobby to private offices and meeting rooms, with both soil based and hydroponic systems being employed.

Pasana hq2

Outside, the exterior of the building has a living facade which includes orange trees, which provides valuable seasonal solar shading and improves the air quality as well as being productive.

What is also great about the Pasona HQ is that the employees actually tend to the crops themselves  and are encouraged to spread the word about growing to other city goers through education – leading by example. The sight of someone cutting the rice paddy in the office reception is a welcome change to the usual piece of sculpture.

Pasana hq3

Overall, this existing building has been redesigned to include 43,000 square feet of ‘farmland’ with over 200 species being grown.

Could this become a model for the development of our edible city and workplaces?

(images via Inhabitat fron Kono Designs)

stunning recycled wine glass lights

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Sustainable and ‘eco’ design comes in a great many forms, but the material decisions which are taken at the start of any project are key to how the final piece will emerge in the green stakes.

This is particularly relevant when working with reclaimed or recycled materials - a source needs to be identified before the selection is made or your design could not finish up as intended. The integrity of a piece is drastically reduced if you have to source new materials to construct your design.

This is both the excitement and responsibility that comes with being a sustainable designer.  We do not pick things from a catalogue. We hunt things.

And this is why we are always interested in designs which clearly identify a source material  but have a flexibility which allows them to be altered slightly and adapted to the found but constantly fluctuating recycled materials.

These BIPOLAR lights fron Canadian designer Tat Chao are a great example of a simple yet highly flexible design.

Using wine glasses found at charity shops and thrift stores, Chao grinds off the bases (which are then made into glass yo-yos) and sections of stems before linking two glasses together with a nice industrial metal band. A strip of LED lights along the inside edge of the band illuminate the glasses with a lovely glow, whilst also being highly energy efficient.

The upcycling of found pieces and materials is a key element of contemporary sustainable design – especially when it is completed in such an elegantly simple way as shown above.

(image via inhabitat)

wrap up with a woolly blanket

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For those of us who were lucky enough to get a covering of snow at the weekend, there was surely nothing better than getting cosy inside after getting chilly outside. Wrapping up warm with a woolly blanket and settling on the sofa with a cuppa just feels so much better when everything outside is carpeted in white. It sort of feels allowed.

But the woolly blanket does not have to be confined to snow days on the sofa – take off the chill in the evening, or use them as an additional layer at the bottom of the bed. Folded precisely, woolly blankets can be great decorative items for the bedroom or living room with the advantage of being useful as well.

We have a particular love for the simple, utilitarian style British wool blankets from the 40′s and 50′s which can be readily found in charity shops – pale cream with pastel stripes across the bottom - and you can still find for them very little money indeed.

But, there are also some beautiful wool blankets which are made from recycled or reclaimed wools. Here are a few that we think would make beautiful additions to the winter home.

Welsh Wool Picnic Blankets

 

 

 

 

Recycled welsh wool blankets by Ella James – £19.50 each

 

 

Green reclaimed throw

 

 

 

Reclaimed Scottish wool blankets from Biome Lifestyle – £60

 

 

Picnic blanket

 

 

 

 

Tartan style rugs made from recycled yarn in Wales, from Hen and Hammock – currently on sale at just £12.00 each

 

 

 

morse code blankets, which spell ‘LOVE’ from Holly Berry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vintage tapestry Welsh wool blankets from Welsh Blankets - example shown £79

 

(images via links)

the Plumen – possibly the most beautiful energy saving lamp in the world

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Sustainable design, as we all know, can be found in a great many guises - from the specification of reused materials from the site itself, recycled pieces and locally crafted items. But sustainable design also covers the energy-saving pieces which sometimes you do not see at all – energy-saving appliances and efficient bulbs, like the stunning Plumen.

Plumen 001 - Bayonet Fitting

But some bulbs you want to see. Some are just too beautiful to hide away and beg to be drooled over.

Ok. maybe not everyone gets as excited about energy saving bulbs as we do, but the award winning Plumen bulb may just change that. With its beautiful sculptural qualities you can be sure of not only an energy saving bulb, but one which can happily go completely unclothed in your interior with no worries at all.

We have been using the Plumen for a while in our projects, teaming it with simple drop down fabric cable pendants which we constructed in the studio – and now you can buy something very similar from the Plumen shop itself in a range of colours.

We are particularly in love with this stunning copper set. Beautiful.

Drop Cap Pendant Set - Copper

So next time you are thinking about a new light fitting, why not think about making the bulb itself the focus of the room?

(images via Plumen)

can fishing be more sustainable with the use of good design?

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Fishing is an extremely complicated issue when it comes to sustainability. So much depends on your location, where you shop, the seasons. One report says we should not be eating cod, another source reports that is not that easy. There are of course, requirements and standards which should be met by any fish gracing your plate, but generally, sustainable fishing is a multi faceted issue.

Two parameters which should be tackled (and are being tackled by the River Cottage Fish Fight) are the issues of the quota system and the catching of fish regulated as being too small for the plate.

Currently, all species are caught together, which inevitably results in lots of by-catch, which is mostly thrown back, dead, into the sea. This is a quota system issue but it could perhaps be relieved slightly with good design.

The ‘Safety Net’ is a new design which has been developed by RCA graduate Dan Watson and has recently been awarded £10,000 by the James Dyson Awards 2012.

The premise is simple. The usual net has an open mesh which is designed to let smaller fish through, however this is not always effective due to the dragging motion through the water. Watson’s design opens this mesh with a  circular plastic ‘collar’ which houses LEDs to guide the smaller fish through, thus cutting down on the juvenile fish by-catch. A kinetic energy system linked to the collars ensures that the lights remain on throughout the trawling to guide as many smaller fish through to safety.

As well as cutting down on the by-catch, it is possible that the time wasted sorting the fish would be reduced, thus proving a much more efficient as well as sustainable system for the fishermen themselves.

The £10,000 prize awarded to Watson will be used to develop the design, so we will be very interested to see whether this system can be retrofitted to larger amounts of test trawlers and data can be produced.

Design can save the world.

(image via SafetyNet and Inhabitat)