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Category Archives: eco awards
Giveaway: Double pass to screening of Waste Land
Who loves going to the movies? A new and thought provoking film named Waste Land is being released THIS week, documenting the story and amazing artwork created by the “catadores” in Brazil, who work on the worlds largest rubbish dump – Jardim Gramacho located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
The film follows the journey of renowned artist Vik Muniz who travels to his native Brazil to photograph an eclectic band of “catadores” – self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Whilst it was Muniz’s initial objective to “paint” the catadores with garbage, the collaboration evolved into them creating artistic images of themselves out of garbage. This incredible artwork created from all manner of waste materials have since sold for hundreds of thousands dollars, and the money returned to the community to help them transform their lives.
++GIVEAWAY DETAILS++
Thanks to Hopscotch Films, 5 Double passes are available to see a screening of Waste Land at Sydney Hoyts Entertainment Quarter commencing December 1, 2011. To enter, simply leave a comment below! The winners will be drawn at random on Wednesday 31 November 2011 after 7pm, and sent to you ASAP!
**Also showing at Cinema Lygon, Melbourne from Dec 1, 2011.
Posted in Competition/Giveaway, eco awards
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Bruce Springsteen provides inspiration for this year’s Fringe Furniture Festival 2011
If you were asked to design a piece of furniture using Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 hit Dancing in the Dark as inspiration, what springs to mind straight away? I personally can’t get a young Courtenay Cox dancing in the crowd and being pulled up on stage by the Boss out of my head. Thankfully our local artists and designers dug a lot deeper when presented with this challenge, and came up with an eclectic, inspiring and innovative furniture range that can currently be viewed at Melbourne’s premier independent arts event – the 27th Melbourne Fringe Festival.
Fringe Furniture Exhibition space
Creative Producer of Melbourne Fringe Festival, Neal Harvey explains “Dancing in the Dark” is a song “about frustration. About wanting something, but not knowing what that something is…. Bruce suggests you dance in the dark. It’s a small solution to a big problem – Each piece is a tiny dance step that leads us towards a smarter, greener, healthier, more sustainable and beautiful future”.
Lighting Design AND Best Fringe Furniture Design winner – Spring Collection III by Sally Hill
Sally Mill made her mark at Fringe Furniture scooping two awards for her artistic lighting made from bedsprings – Best Lighting AND Best Design Addressing the 2011 Fringe Furniture Theme Award.
Award for Sustainable and Waste-Wise Design – AIR by dale Hardiman & Andre Hnatojko
RMIT Furniture design students Dale Hardiman and Andre Hnatojko collaborated to design the AIR light made from inflated PVC and wire – winning the Award for Sustainable and Waste-Wise Design.
Emerging Designer Award – Tri by Elizabteh Bowtell
RMIT student Elizabeth Bowtell, may be one to keep an eye on, taking out the Emerging Designer Award for her angled “Tri” bench made from sustainable bamboo and stainless steel.
Many more cutting edge designs are on display at the Fringe Furniture exhibit, which continues to run to 8 October 2011.
Fringe Furniture
Dancing in the Dark: Small Solutions to Big Problems
Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford
22 September – 8 October, Thursday – Sunday 11:00am – 5:00pm
Posted in eco awards, eco living, sustainable furniture
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The Australian Timber Design Awards 2011 presents an impressive lineup
Be still my heart! Have you had a look at the entrants in this year’s Australian Timber Design Awards? Now in their 12th year, this annual competition encourages builders, designers, architects and engineers to showcase their outstanding uses of timber in both residential and commercial applications. To say the gallery is impressive is an understatement – it is jaw dropping viewing.
There is something about timber in architectural applications that makes me go weak at the knees. It evokes a sense of warmth, calm, relaxation and tactile beauty all in one. Mix in some natural stonework and I’m in heaven.
The range of entries in this year’s Timber Awards covers a wide range of applications. Equestrian Centres, concert halls, and outhouses (above) are just some of the entrants, amongst some spectacular residential houses, libraries, bars, spa retreats, retail shops and more!
You can vote for your favourite design in the People’s Choice Award – With just under 100 different designs submitted, you are SURE to find one that resonates with your sense of style. Now before you click on over, get yourself a cuppa and sit in a comfortable chair, as you’re going to be there for a while …….
Photographs Courtesy of Australian Timber Design Awards 2011.
Posted in eco awards, eco living, sustainable architecture
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Reclaimed Foam upcycled into award winning designs
It’s always fun buying the latest and brightest technical appliance and bringing it home. You pull it out the box, toss the reams of packaging over your shoulder, then turn it on! The dull part, is gathering up all the cardboard, plastic bags, ties and polystyrene foam packaging and filling your bin with it. Whilst most of us discard this rubbish, innovative Australian industrial designers Andrew Bezzina and Justine Smith take the packing foam, and re-create it into something far removed from its original form and function.
Foamboys Tea set exhibited at Workshopped as part of Sydney Design 2011
At first glance, and most likely your second too, the Foamboys homeware collection looks like a solid modern silverware set. Instead, this collection was created from reclaimed foam and metal castings to produce a very smart double walled aluminium tea set.
The delicate process of making these vessels incorporates finely turning each piece, packing it in sand and then casting in aluminium. Not for the faint hearted, this arduous and very technical process must be taken with care, as the slightest presence of moisture during the aluminium pour results in the mould and foam exploding!
It is evident Andrew Bezzina from Chunk! Design has a way with foam. Prior to collaborating with Justine Smith for the recent “tea set”, he has experimented with foam in various forms, including his award winning Tooth Stools which were appropriately sealed with an enamel finish (see below)! Earlier this year, the stools won the Edge Green Award at the Australian International Furniture Fair for the most sustainable new product, where judges commended the design for “taking waste hazard material and transforming it into a quirky, fun product with commercial appeal”.
Inspired? Next time you buy that new appliance and go to discard the packing foam, take a second look at it. Your inner designer (no matter how hidden you think it may be) may just be able to breathe/craft a whole new second life into it!
Posted in eco awards, eco design, eco living, sustainable furniture
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Chapman & Bailey’s Sow’s Ear Challenge showcases sustainable design in a new light
Here’s your brief: Create a beautiful and practical piece of furniture using off-cuts of short hoop-pine. This was the challenge put forward by frame makers Chapman and Bailey as part of this year’s “Sow’s Ear Challenge”. The objective of the competition was to provide an sustainable design solution for the mountain of timber off-cuts produced by Chapman and Bailey when making their stretcher frames for paintings.
This year, Hayley-Anne Brown won the top prize for her “Hooped Light” creation, which when lit up, illuminates the room in decorative hooped shadows. Drawing on the spikey fruit produced by the Hoop Pine tree for inspiration, Hayley-Anne’s creation is both elaborate and simple. Over one thousand small timber off-cuts with small drill holes have been painstaking threaded onto individual hoops, to form impressive balloon shaped light shades, with a warm splash of red throughout its centre.
The winning entry was judged by Mark Chapman and (Inside) Magazine, and exhibited at the Design:Made:Trade Show in Melbourne, as part of the State of Design Festival last weekend – We LOVED it!
Posted in eco awards, Eco Events, eco living
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The Ajiro bamboo vehicle is home grown in more ways than one
How cool is the Ajiro – a bamboo tricycle created by Monash University industrial design student, Alexander Vittouris? On looks alone it is impressive, but upon delving a bit further its whole design approach may just revolutionise the way in which products are made in the future.
Rather than using energy intensive processes to bend sustainable bamboo into shape post harvest, Alexander’s unique approach involves manipulating the bamboo stalks during the plant’s growth process. Tension is applied to the bamboo stalks as they grow over a reusable skeletal sub structure, that forms the structural basis of the vehicle. The natural energy from the plant does all the rest!
The Ajiro is functional too – Part bike, part vehicle, it provides a roof over your head to protect you from the elements, there’s a storage section in the under carriage and your legs provide the pedal power.
Whether the Ajiro is accepted as a viable mode of transport is not important. What makes the Ajiro a winner in our book is this new approach to product design, taking the full cradle to grave product lifecycle thinking to a whole new level – Can’t wait to see farmlands full of bamboo manipulated over various structures!
The Ajiro is a current finalist for the James Dyson Award, as part of the Australian Design Awards. The winners will be announced this Friday.
(Images courtesy of Australian Design Awards)
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Posted in eco awards, eco design
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The Joeycan offers a simple solution to save and reuse water
We are all familiar with the jerrycan – the steel or plastic receptical used to store fuel or water. But have you heard of the Joeycan. It may soon become part of the common vernacular, particularly in hot drought ridden zones where water is a precious commodity. Part bucket, part watering can, the joeycan collects that first freezing cold spray of shower water, ready for re-use wherever you please.
Every morning, how many of you stand outside your shower for the first minute adjusting the temperature and waiting for the water to warm up? My hand is up-guilty as charged. The Joeycan is designed to be placed on the floor of your shower, to collect those precious clean drops. With a capacity of 6 litres which weighs 6kg when filled, all members of the family can put it to use after their shower – fill up the kitchen sink, water your pot plants, fill the kettle or even pour yourself a refreshing drink! Remember, this water has no soap or shampoo in it – just clean fresh water.
A lot of thought has gone into the design of the Joeycan. No valves or doors are incorporated into this piece. Instead the curved spout which is integral to the design allows the Joeycan to lay whilst collecting water and stand for storage and pouring. The catchment area with protruding ribs help to direct water follow, and the large handle helps displace the weight when full and allows two hands to carry if required.
The Joeycan has been nominated as a finalist in the Australian International Design Awards – It is a big winner in our book. What do you think?
(Images: Courtesy of the Australian International Design Awards, a division of Good Design Australia.)
Posted in eco awards, eco living
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GIVEAWAY: Wrapped By House Mouse
The award winning Melbourne based design studio House Mouse, have it all wrapped up when it comes to designing and printing eco friendly paper products. In addition to their design consultancy, directors and grahic designers Nancy Bugeja and Miguel Valenzuela design a funky range of eco friendly wrapping paper that will make you say WOW even before you open the present, and they are kindly giving away a set of their range to a State of Green reader!
Apart from the stand out design, the Wrapped by House Mouse range has a wonderful designer tactile feel – Printed with vegetable ink onto uncoated recycled paper it does not possess that glossy plastic look of many other wrapping papers. House Mouse go that extra step in earning environmental design points by using a printing company who use wind and hydro power, making this range attractive in SO many ways.
The Wrapped by House Mouse range is available in three colours: Orange typography “Wrapped in Type; Cyan Symbols and Magenta Symbols.
More than just a wrapping paper, we think Wrapped by House Mouse would look great as poster art (841mm x 594mm) on your wall, and if you’re brave enough a dress too! (see below)
++GIVEAWAY: SET OF WRAPPED BY HOUSE MOUSE WRAPPING PAPER++
To go in the running to win a set (3 pieces) of the Wrapped by House Mouse Range please pop on over to the Wrapped by House Mouse Facebook and “Like” their page, AND leave a comment on our blog below letting us know what you would do with the set!
Winner will be drawn at random on Monday 30 May 2011 after 7pm.
Posted in Competition/Giveaway, eco awards, eco brands, gifts, stationery
22 Comments
Phillip Johnson Landscapes set global benchmark for vertical garden maintenance
Everything Phillip Johnson Landscapes touches seems to turns to gold – with an incredibly good dose of green. At the 2011 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show last month they won the Most Sustainable category, and bronze for their Show Garden. Just six weeks later, Phillip Johnson Landscapes have clinched the industry’s highest award for Commercial Project Maintenance at the Australian Landscape Excellence Awards.
The award was not provided for the maintenance of the usual horizontal garden variety. Instead it was awarded for the maintenance of the tallest green wall in the world, which just happens to be on the TRIO apartment building in Camperdown, Sydney. Designed in collaboration with famed vertical wall designer and botanist Patrick Blanc, Phillip Johnson Landscapes have been responsible for the incredibly challenging task of maintaining this garden wall since its inception in 2009.
From the outset, it is easy to see this is no normal clip, prune and fertilise job. Stretching across 12 stories, the 33 metre high and 5 metre wide living wall features 4,528 native Australian plants. Requiring an innovative approach to maintaining such a huge vertically challenging site, Phillip Johnson Landscapes have incorporated impressive features into its design. A bespoke dripper-irrigation system draws water from a 36,000 litre tank that collects the building’s storm water run off. Fertiliser can be tested and fed through an automated process, and the irrigation system can be remotely accessed.
Phillip Johnson says “TRIO was our most challenging project to date and we are thrilled to be recognised as leading the way in developing systems that increase the sustainability of green walls“.
Setting global benchmarks with the TRIO vertical garden maintenance system, it will be fantastic to see more of these walls adorning concrete structures around town!
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Posted in eco awards, eco design
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Stuart Williams sustainably focused designs draw on the wonderment of nature
What is in the air and water in Tasmania? Incredible talent just keep coming forth, with our latest being environmentally conscious designer Stuart Williams. Since completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (major in furniture design) at UTAS in 2004, he has exhibited his beautiful eco sensitive furniture pieces at leading design events from Tasmania to Milan, has been shortlisted and won a number of design awards and has been commissioned to design a number of public pieces. You may well have sat on one of his bar stools at the Henry Jones Art Hotel in Hobart, at one of his reading tables in the State Library of Tasmania or on an outdoor table at Baker D.Chirico Bakery in St Kilda.
Lake Burbury (2009): Hoop Pine Marine Plywood, celery top pine, biodegradable organic oil
(Personally, I am coveting the Lake Burbury sideboard).
Buttongrass Tallboy (2010): Celery Top Pine, Marine Ply, biodegradable organic oil
Stuart Williams affinity with nature and focus on sustainability is evident throughout his work. Sustainable timbers and biodegradable organic oil are used in his designs, and he says his “work is about finding a sense of place within the urban landscape… it is the wonderment of the natural world that inspires my creativity. For me it’s about reminding people to think about their environment, their place, the space they live in, and about finding peace”.
Standing Lamp (left) and Light 67 (right)
We have been hounding Stuart Williams for a little while now, and he recently caught some precious spare moments during an exhibition in Hobart to answer our questions (for which we are very gracious!):
1) What inspired you to use salvaged and sustainably sourced materials in your designs? Well firstly I find it hard to justify making anything in a world full of so much all ready… the only way I can is to try and be as responsible as I can, be conscious of the materials I use, how much I use and how much waste is created or minimised.
2) Your most recent designs are your Lake Burbury sideboard and tallboy – Can you share with us your design philosophy behind these pieces? These cabinets are a way of documenting my relationship with Tasmania and its wild places – of capturing the wildness that I love, and the wonderment that it conjures in me. This enormous fear of the unknown draws me into it repeatedly, building anticipation, and holding me in its isolation, they are about finding a sense of place within the urban landscape and reminding people to think about their environment, their place, the space they live in and about finding peace.
3) What has been your career highlight so far? I guess it would be exhibiting in Milan and realizing that Australian design is just a good as anywhere else! Then it would be my first solo exhibition in 2007 where I got some great positive feedback and enough confirmation to believe in myself.
4) What can we expect to see from Stuart Williams in 2011? A new house! I am currently building a new house in South Hobart and should be completed by the end of May 2011. I also have a solo show at Handmark gallery in Hobart in November 2011.
5) Please share with our readers your easy eco living tip! Think before you buy!
You can check out Stuart Williams current exhibition at Designed Objects Tasmania online. And if you are reading this Stuart, we think if your sustainably focused designs are anything to go by, your soon to be completed house must have some special features too …. we’re giving you lots of warning – photos hint hint …..
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Posted in eco awards, eco design, eco living, Interviews, sustainable furniture
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