Wood Design from Spain: Fab Lab Houses, Wooden Islands and Spanish Guitars - Part 2 (Photos)
by: TreeHugger Design, 2011-05-12 13:09:24 UTC
Image Credit: Vicente Guallart
Last week I posted
a stunning wooden bicycle, and the beautiful heritage of wooden ceilings in Andalusia from a series of wood design from Spain that
Confeadera put together. Other works include
the Fab Lab House, some micro-islands perfect for sunbathing on rocky beaches and of course, the Spanish Guitar!...
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How Your Recyclables Are Sorted (Video)
by: TreeHugger Design, 2011-05-13 13:16:26 UTC
Image credit: Re3org
Ever wondered how your plastic cartons are sorted from your aluminum cans?
High-tech recycling centers called Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) are key to grading, sorting and directing waste streams and turning them into commodities, not to mention weeding out any contaminants or trash.
But how do they work? And what is the single biggest challenge they face that you can help eliminate? ...
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NY Design Week 2011: Nightwood's Primitive line at Zero + Maria Cornejo
by: Core77, 2011-05-13 23:00:00 UTC
Nightwood's Primitive line
2011's NoHo Design District features Brooklyn-based Nightwood designers Nadia Yaron and Myriah Scruggs' Primitive line. Housed in Zero + Maria Cornejo (the eponymous architectural fashion designer's boutique on Bleecker Street), the Primitive line features subtle and hand-painted pieces constructed with delicate detail and sturdy simplicity.
The design process consists of Scruggs, who functions as the woodworker, gathering a variety of pieces until the perfect mix and match emerges, while Yaron deals with the fabrics, textiles and coverings involved, favoring vintage, organic and sustainable materials.
Both the contemporary shapes and natural pallet of dyes and hues combined with the hand-painted textiles and fabrics breath new life into these salvaged and reconfigured pieces, creating a completely modern appeal.
Nightwood
NoHo Design District
Zero + Maria Cornejo
33 Bleeker Street
Nightwood, Primitive line "Spirit Cabinet"
(more...)
United Nude Flat Pack Shoe for "Moon Life"
by: Core77, 2011-05-13 19:00:00 UTC
United Nude is a classic case of modern mythology: Rem D Koolhaas (not to be confused with his uncle of OMA) and Galahad Clark—of the storied British bootmakers—launched the forward-thinking shoe brand in 2003 as a new synthesis of design and fashion.
Spanish performance artist Alicia Framis invited them to create a "shoe suitable for outer space" for her "Moon Life" project, a multidisciplinary speculation about intergalactic travel and living in space. True to its unconventional nature, United Nude arrived at a flat pack platform heel:
...a high-heeled shoe both elegant and sexy while not be limited by the extreme conditions of space such as temperature and pressure. Additionally, United Nude's goal was to create a shoe that can also function in a gravity rich environment.
The further the journey, the more it will cost to transport by weight and volume. Therefore United Nude formulated their own criteria for their Moon Life Shoe: to create something as light and compact as possible while remaining fashionable. The outcome is the United Nude Flat Pack shoe.
(more...)
Mexican Designers and Artisans Bring Innovation to the Pottery Tradition of Oaxaca
by: Inhabitat , 2011-05-13 17:45:34 UTC
A group of designers are teaming up with artisans from the Oaxaca region of Mexico to host a program that will provide training, collaboration, promotion and fair commercialization of their work. This social design project titled “Innovating Tradition” was started by Kythzia Barrera as her thesis at the Man and Humanity masters course at the Design Academy of Eindhoven
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Post tags: ceramic, eco design, green design, innovando la tradicion, innovating tradition, kythzia barrera, mexican craft, mexican crafts, mexican design, oaxaca, pottery, social design, tradition, traditional
Yves Behar and Fuseproject Offer Yummy Hot Cacao System to Benefit Rainforest Conservation
by: Inhabitat , 2011-05-13 18:27:15 UTC
Attention chocolate lovers! The Nature Conservancy and Yves Behar have just come out with a new sustainable hot cacao system to make the traditional drink right in your own home. Following the tradition of the Bribri women of Talamanca in Costa Rica, the product includes a mug, raw pressed cacao and a stirring tool, which hooks nicely onto the mug. The system not only provides sweets , but also educates on the sustainable history of cacao.
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Post tags: Biodegradable, burlap, cacao, Costa Rica, eco design, green design, Rainforest preservation, sustainable design, The Nature Conservancy
Algae Powered Building Retrofit Wins Metropolis Mag’s Next Generation Design Competition
by: Inhabitat , 2011-05-13 22:01:06 UTC
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SolidWorks Green Design Contest
by: Sustainable Design News, 2011-05-03 07:04:41 UTC
SolidWorks launched a new Green Design Contest, inviting its users around the globe to demonstrate their creativity by re-designing one of the world's most ubiquitous objects - the airport terminal chair.
"Imagine a five percent reduction in the environmental impact of a chair at every stage of its lifecycle-from raw materials through manufacturing, distribution, use, disposal, and recycling," said Asheen Phansey, product manager for SolidWorks Sustainability.
Antares: Photovoltaic Charging Station Designed by Pininfarina for Metalco
by: Sustainable Design News, 2011-05-13 09:41:15 UTC
Pininfarina introduced Antares, a photovoltaic charging station for Metalco, during the MoTechEco of Rome, the Sustainable Mobility Show hosted on the premises of Rome's Environment Department.
Equipped with a tree to hold the electric car charge point, the Antares station is being exhibited along with the Nido EV, a working electric prototype entirely designed and built by Pininfarina.
The Antares is the ideal, completely sustainable, solution for the parking and charging of electric cars.
A Train That's Part Plane, Flying Inches From The Ground
by: fast company, 2011-05-13 16:34:13 UTC
Instead of finding ways for our track-tethered trains to go faster, we could just eliminate the track altogether.
Friction--it's a real bother, especially for trains. Even as we make our rail faster, it's still tethered by the fact that their wheels must grind along a track. This is the problem that maglev trains are supposed to solve, but maglev trains are expensive and haven't caught on. But a new prototype from Japan would eliminate friction, and all the pesky technological requirements of a maglev: It would simply fly very close to the ground.
It's being called the Aero Train and it's prototype was developed as a proof of concept for a paper given at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. It works on the principles of the "wing-in-ground effect," which is that as planes get very low, drag decreases significantly. Take one of these planes and attach some passenger cars to it--voila!--you have yourself a very efficient flying train that doesn't require that much energy to move. Here's a video of the prototype in action, flying just inches above the ground:
[youtube EaN7Kxk1_e8]
It requires a pilot--or a computer--to control roll, pitch, and yaw, a far more advanced skill set than normal train driving. And, of course, it's many years away from any sort of completion. But it's efficient enough that it could be powered with just wind turbines or solar panels, while still zipping along.
When you think about our technological future, don't forget we probably have no idea how things will work in 20 years. They probably won't be what we expect. On the other hand, decades ago the Soviets developed a ground-effects plane called the Ekranoplan that was supposed to "eliminate cargo ships," and we still have a lot of cargo ships plying our waters.
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Read More: Amtrak's Incredible Shrinking Service
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