I’ve seen a lot of shoes lately. Colourful, crazy, cute. Sexy, strange, simple. Irresistible, irresponsible and insidious. But none which were recycled, reused or returned to life, not to mention visually appealing, like those found on Terra Plana, and its family of shoe brands including Worn Again, Vivobarefoot and Dopie. Winners of The Observers Ethical Fashion Product of the Year Award in 2007, Terra Plana bids to develop ‘the best feeling designer shoe brand in the world’. With processes including souring locally available resources such as bicycle tyres, car seat belts and reclaimed jeans, utilizing a unique stitching design which cuts down on the need for solvent glues and aiming to make the shoe as light as possible, Terra Plana’s range of shoes have a blueprint to create a very light footprint indeed.
I wrote about designboom’s “love your earth” competition back in July. The results are now in and you should go see the creative winners and shortlisted designs. As part of 100% Design Tokyo 2007, the competition sought graphic artworks that would raise awareness about environmental issues and provoke positive change. There are some great entries ranging from simple graphics to photographs, and from the funny to the very serious. The winner was Savio Alphonso (USA) whose simple symbols are concise visual abbreviations that speak about energy issues.
It is building awareness of the good quality institutions among us who aim to deliver a hit of entertaining/ethical/technological/educational love to Brisbane’s arts and cultural scene. Brisbane’s annual Riverfestival floods our city’s cultural and academic crevices from this Friday August 31 to Sunday September 9, once again improving on its ability to draw together both local and international talent to demonstrate our love of the river through many mediums.
Show your support for the festival at events like the Liquid Lens short film awards, goa’s Advertising Challenge - pitching the concept of Odds & Evens Shower Days to the public, the Greening our City tree planting day, Pieces of a City program art exhibition by Jonathon Oxlade, Surf ‘n Symphony at the River Stage and the high-tech treasure hunt - dubbed The Amazing Race for mobile phones - Scoot, played at the South Bank Precinct. The International Riversymposium is in its 10th year too, welcoming around 1000 international delegates who are experts on the world’s water management - that is something to be proud of.
Sure, there’s the fireworks. But I assure you that’s only the beginning.
Cities are getting smarter, realising that ‘being green’ is not just an environmental imperative but it’s a competitive advantage. It sets them apart, makes them work better and influences why people choose to live there or why businesses invest there.
The 10 greenest cities in the US and the good things they’ve been doing include - Continue reading ‘greenest cities’
Wallpaper* EcoEdit, is a current online exhibition of the best eco innovations on the planet. It brings together 101 designs from architecture, beauty, fashion, food, packaging, product design, transport and travel. It features ideas from across the globe including a few ones from Australia. Some of the ideas have already been featured here on street editors, but there’s just too many other cool and interesting things to mention so I can only say - go check it out for yourself!
It celebrates Eco-chic, which brings together indulgence and pleasure as well as addressing some of the world’s bigger issues. The overriding message from EcoEdit is that creativity and conscience work exceptionally well together. Pretty great message, I say.
Everything associated with climate change is telling us that our cities will fundamentally change in the future, but what does that actually mean? What will New York look like when sea levels rise? How will water scarcity shape Chicago? These are just some ideas explored in “The City of the Future”, a national competition that the History Channel ran in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. It asked designers to imagine their cities in 2106 and results were a fascinating set of ideas, ranging from the simple to the completely sci-fi. But, the ideas reflect grounded thinking of current issues and so even the craziest ideas show good, relevant principles that should be applied in our cities today. The national winners were UrbanLab’s Chicago, followed by Architecture Research Office’s (ARO) New York and Eric Owen Moss’ LA. Continue reading ‘the city of the future’
The striking concept for the Cor building in Miami looks like swiss cheese but on closer inspection it is a very clever building. Oppenheim Architecture + Design came up with this distinct exoskeleton which provides building structure, insulation, shading and cooling. The most stunning feature is the roof where advanced turbine technology is incorporated into the building structure to utilise breezes off the ocean. Additional features will include solar panels to utilise Miami’s sunny climate, the use of concrete made with fly ash (a waste product of coal power plants), all bamboo floors, special programmed elevators that reduce energy use, recycled glass tiles in bathrooms and of course highly efficient appliances and fixtures. It is set to be completed in 2009.
Tall buildings that maximise their coastal locations – sounds like a perfect idea for the Gold Coast.
Arup UK with WaterAid have been running the “drawing water challenge” competition to find innovative solutions to help people access clean water. These ideas tend to be more targeted for developing nations, but as we face water restrictions it’s increasingly relevant in our cities that we think of water in new ways. The winning design “WatAir” was inspired by spiderwebs and the dew-catching properties of leaves and uses lightweight panels to funnel moisture to one collective source. The panels are flexible, movable and also provide shade and some shelter.
WatAir is a nice example of biomimicry. Biomimicry is based on the idea that there are lessons and inspirations in plants, animals and nature that can help us design better and more efficient solutions. It can result in both low-tech solutions or highly sophisticated designs – but it seems that any idea taken from nature has this great certain logic, integrity and grace. Last year I heard Janine Beynus speak about it and she mentioned how all university design courses like engineering and architecture should study biology as a compulsory unit - I think that’s a great idea.
I have a guilty secret. Despite knowing the highly detrimental effects its interior will cause to the planet, I desperately want a beanbag. Yes, I know Styrofoam is evil and causes all sorts of problems for the environment, but beanbags are just so comfy and mould so nicely to every position you could ever imagine. So a continuous battle rages inside my conscience – ‘environment or beanbag, environment or beanbag‘ – and so far my eco-conscious side has managed to quash my consumerist desire. The good news is that I recently came across the Spanish designers, Waste, who have come up with a beanbag concept that’s not so eco-unfriendly. Waste’s mission is to reduce industrial waste in a unique and sustainable way, by combining attractive design with environmental and social consciousness. One of the fruits of this altruistic ethos is the Waste Pouf – an ultra-stylish beanbag made from discarded automotive upholstery. The limited-edition poufs are handmade in Barcelona, in coordination with a tailoring workshop dedicated to women’s social reintegration, and are highly resistant to light, humidity and temperature, which means they’ll last a whole longer than the traditional corduroy ones. And while the team from Waste have not yet discovered an eco-friendly alternative to the Styrofoam pearls (though they’re open to suggestions), they’ve still managed to add some positive karmic value, not to mention a more stylish design, to the original beanbag. So…can I have one now?
Sustainability for not-for-profit organisations is an issue that keeps most of its CEOs awake at night. It involves knowing where the cash is coming from each day to keep the organisation running, and hopefully not relying too heavily on grants and good will. If an organisation can create its own wealth and inject funds back into the business in an enduring manner, then it is sailing in calm waters. Elephant sanctuaries in Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand are working towards sustainability by creating wealth from one of their most common waste products - elephant dung. Apparently, dung makes great paper and it doesn’t smell like you’d expect it to. The Millennium Elephant Foundation, located near Kegalle in Sri Lanka, scoops up its elephant deposits which adds up to on average 180-200 kg of dung per elephant per day. The dung might originally be stinky and steamy, but it’s also extremely fibrous – making it perfect for use as a paper product. The dung is delivered nearby to Eco Maximus, the paper making plant, to make note books, diaries, cards, calendars and other paperly products. The project has been running since 1997 and won the World Challenge 2006 competition for bringing economic, social and environmental benefits to its local community. Continue reading ‘waste not, want not’
