Sustainable design

Furoshiki – Wrap holiday presents in the green, Japanese style

December 18, 2009

This is a Japanese tradition we desperately need to adopt in North America – re-using textiles to wrap presents. It’s an art form, but it’s worth learning because it dispenses with all the annoying and wasteful tape and paper and ribbon, it’s a fun skill to learn (for kids too), and it’s an educational conversation piece – you might have to explain to the recipient what it is, but that’s probably worthwhile.

Categories: design, Uncategorised

Chen House in Taiwan by Marco Casagrande/Frank Chen

May 20, 2009

The Chen House in North Taiwan, design and constructed by Finnish architect Marco Casagrande and Taiwanese architect Frank Chen, was built for an older couple who wanted to retire to the country and grow bamboo and cherry trees – on a flood plain also beset by hurricanes and earthquakes.

Categories: architect, architecture, art, design, favourite, landscaping, Uncategorised

Japanese interiors – updated traditional farmhouses

April 2, 2009

The photo above shows the central living area of a rural farmhouse on the border of Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures. The house was restored by Kenji Tsuchisawa who bought it as a rundown heap when he was only 20, after seeing a photograph of a traditional Japanese farmhouse on a Tokyo magazine cover.

Categories: architecture, design, favourite, interiors, Uncategorised

The “What’s In, What’s Out for 2009” list thing.

January 4, 2009

The “What’s In and What’s Out in 2009” lists are starting to appear. Not to be too protestant about it, since environmentalism in its more puritanical moment can make you want to stab yourself in the eye with a fork—a plastic fork—but these lists can get anxiety-provoking.

Categories: design, interiors, politics, Uncategorised

Furoshiki: how-to videos.

December 14, 2008

Making a “drop bag” at Kakefuda, the famous Furoshiki shop in Kyoto where Mick Jagger bought a furoshiki last year. Also see How to tie up two Bottles and Furoshiki – Reusable Grocery Bag.

Categories: design, Uncategorised

Designers and Nobel scientists make energy-collecting textiles.

October 25, 2008

This compelling structure is an example of biomimetic architecture – architecture that mimics biological structures and/or functions. It is part of a project called Metabolic Media whose structures model the molecular structures and energy metabolism in living cells.

Categories: design, Uncategorised

Mandula.

October 16, 2008

Vancouver clothing designer Hajnalka Mandula has some dedicated devotees in our studio. Hajnalka (pronounced High NAL ka) produces a hybrid look that’s part urban nomad, part steampunk, part Hungarian schoolboy, part post-apocalyptic Girl Guide, all this and yet the effect is sexy and pulled together.

Categories: design, Uncategorised

Grass knuckles.

September 28, 2008

It’s actually Icelandic moss, not grass. The Growing Jewelry collection is by Icelandic product designer Hafsteinn Juliusson. Kinder and gentler than brass knuckles and nicer than a green thumb.

Categories: design, Uncategorised

Finland!

August 27, 2008

Magical kindergarten in Tromso, Norway, by Norwegian architecture firm 70° N. Via contemporist via trendinsights.

Categories: architect, architecture, design, Uncategorised

What to do with all those doilies

August 22, 2008

This somehow manages to de-doilify doilies which is almost achieving the impossible. It makes the lace more reminiscent of bark or lichen or something from the bottom of the ocean—another example of how re-purposing a thing can actually improve on the original.

Categories: design, furniture, interiors, textiles, Uncategorised

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This blog is a long, somewhat messy photo essay on the history and politics of design. Design's socio-historical context—that is, the constraints and influences on the way we make objects, dwellings and cities—seems too often ignored. We no longer know where our styles, tastes or objects really come from, and this damages our creativity and sense of meaning. Historical knowledge is so fugitive in the New World, with everything so decontextualized in the rapid flow of commodities and images. Don't even get me started on tumblr and pinterest. As Fran Lebowitz said, "Designers now, they all have these things called mood boards. I suppose they think a sense of discovery equals invention. It would be as if every writer had a board with paragraphs of other writers—'Oh, I'll take a little bit of this, and that, he was really good.' Yes, he was really good! And that is not a mood board, it is a stealing board." As for the sort of design I'm personally interested in, full disclaimer.....read more ____________________________________

To read about my book project on Vancouver's UN-Habitat Forum event of 1976 concerning just and sustainable urban settlements, click here. Few know that Buckminster Fuller, Margaret Mead, Mother Teresa, Paolo Soleri and Maggie & Pierre Trudeau, along with many thousands of others, came to Vancouver in 1976 to talk about better, safer, fairer and greener cities worldwide. In fact it was the founding conference of UN Habitat, an agency built around a foundational document called The Vancouver Declaration. My book is about what happened that year and is a snapshot not just of Vancouver but of how people around the world began to view cities and themselves differently in the wake of, among other things, the first oil crisis. ____________________________________

Sustainable design

Furoshiki – Wrap holiday presents in the green, Japanese style

Chen House in Taiwan by Marco Casagrande/Frank Chen

Japanese interiors – updated traditional farmhouses

The “What’s In, What’s Out for 2009” list thing.

Furoshiki: how-to videos.

Designers and Nobel scientists make energy-collecting textiles.

Mandula.

Grass knuckles.

Finland!

What to do with all those doilies

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