PSFK LogoTopic: Sustainable Design

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Second Life: Bowling Lanes Reclaimed as Furniture

Second Life: Bowling Lanes Reclaimed as Furniture

William Stranger’s “Second Life” uses reclaimed wood from a local LA bowling alley to create a number of different works including a coffee table, a bench and a diptych.

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Wooden Building In Norway Will Be Tallest Of Its Kind

 Wooden Building In Norway Will Be Tallest Of Its Kind

The world’s tallest wooden building is being constructed in Kirkines, Norway, and will serve as the town’s cultural center in addition to housing energy-efficient offices for the Barents Secretariat.

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DIY Insulating Cork Placemat

DIY Insulating Cork Placemat

The Salvamanteles Bakus from Ciclus aims to curb dining waste by converting discarded bottle corks into an insulating countertop mat. One simply takes leftover corks and sticks them atop the spiked metal tray, filling in the surface and replacing worn out corks as needed. The modular design means the insulating surface itself will never wear out—provided the owner continues to imbibe—making the Salvamanteles Bakus far more reasonable (and affordable) than similar pre-manufactured kitchen mats.
[via Wired]
Related Post: Wine Box turned Lamp, the Gift that Keeps on Giving

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The Bamboo Bicycle: Lightweight, Flexible and Sustainable

The Bamboo Bicycle: Lightweight, Flexible and Sustainable

We recently wrote about Brooklyn’s Bamboo Bike Studio, and now the Guardian points us to a similar venture lead by  Craig Calfee, a California based bicycle designer and early pioneer of carbon fiber, who since 2005 has begun to turn his attentions to the use of bamboo in frame construction. Given bamboo’s numerous advantages – lightweight, flexibility and when grown under the right circumstances, sustainability – as a raw material it is virtually unmatched. Not to mention, it requires a less energy-intensive (and environmentally intrusive) process to harden. So why has it yet to catch on as the smarter alternative to [...]

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NYC’s New Vision for its City Streets

NYC's New Vision for its City Streets

Last week the Bloomberg administration released New York City’s first street design manual in an effort to rethink the current car dominated landscape in favor of a plan that considers alternative modes of transportation and pedestrian-friendly public spaces. The guidelines are a culmination of nearly two years of research and are meant to reflect a push for greater sustainability in our urban centers, both in terms of environmental concerns and community interactions. In addition to providing a new vision for the city’s streets, the initiative hopes to streamline the design process – currently a typical street can involve multiple city [...]

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“Design for a Living World,” Sustainability Meets Aesthetics

"Design for a Living World," Sustainability Meets Aesthetics

Fast Company recently provided a sneak peek at 10 sustainable products created as part of The Nature Conservancy’s “Design for a Living World,” an exhibition on display at the Cooper-Hewitt now through January 2010. The show features work from top designers from the worlds of fashion, textiles, furniture and packaging in order to highlight that good design and sustainability are no longer mutually exclusive practices. In an effort to get consumers to rethink the ways their buying decisions impact the world, the project sets out to tell the stories behind these products, giving viewers a glimpse into the entire life-cycle.
On [...]

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The UK Sustainable Cities Initiative

The UK Sustainable Cities Initiative

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) recently launched a new initiative designed to address the design and management of cities across the UK.  The Sustainable Cities initiative gathers data from two years of research by a team of 30 experts and the English Core Cities group.  The goal to make cities low carbon has grown to a massive project addressing affordable housing, energy security and job generation.  The group has identified climate change as a direct challenge to the efficency of managing a town or city and have created this initiative as a framework of priorities for [...]

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Learning From Patagonia’s Sustainable Model

Learning From Patagonia's Sustainable Model

The Guardian recently sat down with Rob Bondurant VP of Marketing at Patagonia and asked him to discuss their sustainable model and how they will continue to innovate for the future. Beyond simply furthering the reach of their own brand, we found Patagonia’s desire to provide leadership in the areas of ethical business practices to be particularly noteworthy.
During 2008, the company started the Organic Exchange with the sole purpose of training other companies to source and manufacture organic goods. In an effort to provide their customers with greater access to information and promote transparency, they created the Footprint Chronicles, a study [...]

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Sustainable Design in India by Architecture Brio

Sustainable Design in India by Architecture Brio

On a slope near the village of Karjat, India, an international team of architects has begun to envision a modern, 3-story building that will use bamboo as a primary supporting material.  Intending to spur eco-friendly changes within the Indian construction industry, the ambitious Dutch architect Robert Verrijt and Indian architect Shefali Balwani of Architecture Brio have created an exciting example of engineering prowess, innovative aesthetic, and altogether- sustainable design.   Combining natural and local materials such as bamboo with wood, concrete and steel, the project has been designed with the help of engineer Vilas Gore of GeoScience Services. The building will [...]

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Sustainable Recopacks Aim to Make Cardboard Boxes Obsolete

Sustainable Recopacks Aim to Make Cardboard Boxes Obsolete

Rentagreenbox is sparking a revolution in the moving industry with an arsenal of sustainable packaging tools. Leading up the roster is the recopack. Made from 100% recycled plastic, the sturdy moving box comes in 3 sizes and can be used over 400 times before it’s recycled back into another recopack. Replacing the messy and unsustainable Styrofoam packing peanut are recocubes, which are made out of paper sludge (usually a throw-away by product of paper making), which can also be reused, or returned to the earth as compost when they’re done. Rentagreenbox also make a paper-based bubble wrap and a host [...]

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