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Showing posts with label eco-friendly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eco-friendly. Show all posts

100 Wooden Toy Cars By 100 Different Designers: TobeUs



Matteo Ragni has gathered together 100 masters of design from all over the world including Karim Rashid, Marcel Wanders, Barber Ogersby, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Jaime Hayon, Fabio Novembre and Setsu & Shinobu Ito to name but a few. With these globally renowned designers and the support of Alessi, Ragni created “100% TobeUs: 100 designers for 100 new toy cars.”

The Hidden House Project by 123DV Modern Villas. A Study In Modern ECO Architecture.





The Netherland's 123DV Modern Villas entered Polish architecture firm Mode:Lina's competition in which they were asked to design an ECO house. The challenge was to design a standard residential home in a standard location that performs sustainably and 123DV Modern Villas came up with the Hidden House.

The project explained in their own words:
"In a time when words like sustainable, ecological and green are almost an obligation, they are often only used as a label. That is why one of our latest projects proved to be challenging, but also very exciting: we were asked to design an ECO House. Thanks to our friends from Mode:Lina we were involved in a Polish design competition.

The assignment was clear and simple: design a house for a standard family, on a standard location, but with a highly sustainable performance.




We had faced this topic before in previous projects, but it had not yet been used as core of the design. For this competition we were asked to be bold, to push to the boundaries of sustainability.




It took us several brainstorm sessions to find the right strategy, but at the end we all agreed on one thing: our answer to the question should be architectural. Since we are not engineers, biologists or scientists, we had to look at it from an architectural point of view: does the house contribute to the quality of daily life?





As architects, we deal with space, organization, shapes, light, materials… So we took a basic shape (rectangle), used an age-old natural and ecological recourse (geothermal heat) and combined the two.





The house is a rectangle of 28 by 9 by 4.3 meters that for two thirds has been plugged into the ground under an angle of 21 degrees! With one gesture, we created both a strong visual statement and a high performance energy standard.





Simple, strong and efficient, but not without consequence. We also had to deal with the psychological impact of living in a sloped house, underneath the ground and with little natural light.



The task wasn’t easy, but in the end I think we managed to transform the problems into opportunities and create a unique and special ECO house." - 123DV



About 123DV:
123DV designs and realizes modern villas. Their goal is to create a sense of home in a modern villa. They translate your story, tailored to your needs, into the modern form, with attention to detail.

123DV Modern Villas focuses on both architecture and interior. From product design to realization. Their disciplines include architecture and interior design - from kitchens to furniture.

123DV

A Visual History Of Christmas Trees and What You Might Consider Buying Now For Next Year.



above photo courtesy of Jek a go go

Now that Christmas has passed and most of you are cleaning pine needles up off the floor and wondering how long your tree will last before drying out and having to be lugged to the garbage, you might want to consider a different sort of tree next year (now is the time, many of them are presently on sale).

First, a visual history of Christmas trees, followed by modern eco-friendly alternatives for 2012.

History of the Christmas Trees

One thing this infographic fails to reflect is the growing popularity of modern alternatives to Christmas trees that hit the market beginning in 2008-2009 and have steadily grown since. These include flat-packed, lasercut, wood, lucite, aluminum and metal versions. Below are some examples.

The Tannenboing Aluminum Suspended Tree:

Modern Lucite Acrylic Christmas Tree by Aaron R Thomas:

PossibiliTrees:

Silver Cocoon Modern Tannenbaum Tree:

The Filigree Tree:

Matteria Lasercut Tree:

Modernica Superstar Holiday Tree:

And a selection of wood trees from Buro North:

More wood alternatives



These aluminum, wood and lucite trees pack up easily and can be stored for future use - saving you trouble, preventing messy christmas tree lots (like the one shown above courtesy of Pardon Me For Asking) and saving some trees. Think about it.

Weaving Together Luxury, Comfort and Style - Turkish T Artisan Towels & Linens.






Turkish T artisan linens and towels are hand-loomed and environmentally friendly. Combining usefulness with luxury, they come in a rainbow of colors and can be used in the kitchen, on the dining table, by the pool, at the beach, as throw blankets, as accents on furniture and much more.






In the kitchen:



On the table:




Available in a multitude of sizes and various weights, the 100% unbleached cotton towels and linens turn a utilitarian product into one infused with style and luxury. Gaining softness with every wash, they are manufactured on ancient Turkish hand looms.




Absorbent and beautiful, they are great for poolside or at the beach:





The linen hand towels below are a favorite of Gwyneth Paltrow and featured on her blog, Goop:



The Bamboo Towel (50% Bamboo 50% Cotton) is for those that appreciate hand loomed turkish cotton but understand the need to be handled with care:




They make great gifts for others or yourself. With so many styles and colors, you'll find anything for anyone!
Check out all their styles, sizes and colors here.

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