As a designer, there’s really no greater inspiration than the marvels of nature. Increasingly we’re seeing science taking its cues from the natural world in an effort to solve complex design issues in a more organic way. Hopefully creating better spaces for us to live in. In a nutshell (nice idiom right?), biomimicry or [...]
Category Archives: Healthy spaces
Bored Of Cotton? Here Are Some Brilliant New and Unique Sustainable Fabrics For The Home
March 1, 2012 – 4:24 pm
It has has been said that the battle for greater sustainability in the home will be fought on a material front. I for one am always appalled at the hidden damage many conventional materials that we use create and am similarly thrilled to find new materials that tackle the same functional issues but without [...]
Eco Home Composting: future designs on home food waste
February 8, 2012 – 10:33 am
Ok, so my guilty secret is out. I really find it tough to recycle food waste and scraps from my kitchen. And I suspect I’m not the only one. It’s the smells coming from the compost caddy, the emptying into my enormous outdoor composter, and then getting stuck in to turn and farm this ready-made [...]
Eco Drying At Home: Hang Your Tumble Dryer Out To Dry
January 25, 2012 – 1:57 pm
Statistics show that of all our domestic appliances, tumble dryers are the most energy hungry, with power consumption ranging from around 2 kWh to 5 kWh per cycle. This can result in CO2 emissions of around 330 kg to over 800 kg per year. According to statistics, out of nearly 25 million households in [...]
Water, water everywhere but…how eco homes can cut their water use
November 25, 2011 – 12:14 pm
A recent survey carried out by Unilever suggested that the amount of water used in showers is significantly more than had been imagined. The survey, which was carried out by data loggers, compiled information from 2600 showers from 100 families over a 10 day period, suggests that average shower times are in the region of [...]
A Million Little Pieces: The Magic of Mosaics
November 1, 2011 – 12:00 pm
Patchworks are a key way to use materials in the world of eco design. And I just love them. Simply put, they offer the opportunity for small, otherwise unusable parts of material to have a new and useful life. Whilst big slabs of materials might look bold and impressive, they are also inefficient as they [...]
Vertical Environments – Not Just Tall Stories
October 26, 2011 – 8:42 am
Recently I was asked to get involved with a TV proposal looking to create an urban vertical farm from a disused tower block – codenamed ‘Pigs in Penthouses’. Sadly the show didn’t get commissioned, which is a real shame as it was brilliantly bonkers. But it’s thought provoking just how much aerial space has yet [...]
Active Homes – Eco Designs, Fit For The Future
October 21, 2011 – 1:55 pm
It’s really exciting to see new ideas in homebuilding rising up. Ideas that buck the trend of lame developers and their identikit, pastiche ‘olde worlde’ style housing. Like all technology, developments in housing are happening all the time and there are some fantastic examples of truly contemporary and sustainable housing popping up. I recently took [...]
Get On (And Off) Your Bike: The Best In Indoor Bike Rack Design
October 14, 2011 – 2:00 pm
I’m a regular and passionate cyclist and, like Boris Johnson, I think more of us should be getting on our bikes every day. Not just in an effort to cut down on smog and CO2 emissions (although this is obviously great news) but because bikes are incredible pieces of engineering and deserve to be properly [...]
Eco homes need a bit of breathing space
September 15, 2011 – 2:15 pm
Build tight, ventilate right. With the weather turning just a little my mind is sadly turning towards getting the home ready for winter. With the cooler weather, comes the closing of doors and windows, so the house is getting noticeably less natural ventilation, it’s not just that the smell of my cooking is sticking. But [...]
