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Clicking through Hofmann Architecture's portfolio of projects, you'll find plenty of palatial homes designed for rich clients. But one project stands out, and that's firm principal Matt Hofmann's own home. The Santa Barbara, CA architect recently renovated a vintage Airstream trailer to create a live-work space for himself and his girlfriend. As with all his projects, sustainability was the......read more
Are you a disorganized person? Do you lose stuff all the time? When people see you, do they say, "Christ man, you're a bloody mess!" with some regularity? Same here. Fear not, we've found the answer for our scatterbrained woes in the form of the Nau Fluent Stash, a folding carrying case for cords, chargers, gum, glasses, notebooks, and, uhhh, narcotics (why else would they call it a Stash?).......read more
Worn out sneakers are some fairly nasty business, and not just 'cause they stink. Rubber, leather, and ink aren't the most compostable things on the planet. There's not a ton of options for recycling shoes either. Enter Dutch footwear brand OAT Shoes, which recently dropped a 100% biodegradable series of kicks that rightfully won the company a green design award at Amsterdam Fashion Week. Called......read more
Folded Roads: Google Earth images become surrealist artworks in Clement Valla's series Postcards from Google Earth, which depicts bridges and roads that appear warped when you zoom in just the right way. T-Shirt Upholstery: Swedish eco designer (and mega babe) Maria Westerberg won first prize at the 2011 Green Furniture Awards for the T-shirt Chair, made of recycled textiles and bent wire fence.......read more
At the end of its, ahem, "useful" life, billboard vinyl typically heads to the landfill, where it slowly leeches toxins for the next gazillion years. ReMakes intervenes in that nasty cycle, using the spent PVC vinyl to make these handsome and functional placemats. Each placemat comes adorned with a QR code, which you can scan with your smartphone for a daily eco-factoid. ReMakes Placemats come in......read more
Whether you use it for business cards, recipes, or personal projects, staying organized has never been as artful as it is with lovelydesign's rolodex-inspired filing unit. Made in Vancouver, B.C., the address file features handcut, removable cards made from recycled paper (library cards, graph paper, order forms) snugly fit in a Canadian maple base. Clean, simple, and lovingly made. Just file it....read more
Sustainable designers Kenneth Cobonpue and Albrecht Birkner have joined forces to shape what's being touted as the world's first biodegradable car. The Phoenix is a superlight roadster built from rapidly renewable bamboo and rattan, along with steel and nylon. Borrowing design principles from Mother Nature herself, the exterior structure is built like a leaf and the interior is a single woven......read more
Grab Your Shades: The future looks bright for concentrated solar power. Google announced a $168 million investment in Brightsource Energy's Ivanpah Solar Plant in the Mojave Desert, which will be the largest concentrated solar plant in the world. (via GOOD) Fancy Footwork: Dutch designer Diederik Schneemann crafted a colorful collection of vases and lamps made from recycled flip-flops found......read more
Domingos Totora's work rests comfortably in the fuzzy area where art and design intersect. From his studio in Maria da Fe, Brazil, Totora and a team of twenty artisans create sculptures, furniture, and home accessories from recycled cardboard pulp. Each piece is molded by hand and dried in the sun before being finished. The operation is sustainable on every level, from the creation of jobs to......read more
For a long time, Senegalese-French furniture designer Bibi Seck, one half of product design duo Birsel + Seck, wanted to produce local furniture in Senegal. But it wasn't until he linked up with Transtech, a maker of cisterns and septic tanks using recycled plastic, that the project became feasible. The fruit of the partnership is the Taboo Collection of furniture, made in Dakar,......read more
