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 biomimetics is the examination of …
Eco Home Composting: future designs on home food waste
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 compost. It’s all hard work, …
My favourite Eco-Friendly Christmas Decorations for this Year
What’s not to love about this mid winter festival of ours, although every year I get hit with a pang of just how am I going to do all this decorating and Christmassy stuff and still make it sustainable. Creativity, inspiration and upcycling is what’s called for. When it comes to decorating my own tree I’ve opted for a simple …
Sofa, So Green
Choosing eco home furnishings can be really tricky. Particularly for items that are a little more complex in their manufacture and don’t necessarily have a daily energy use. Subsequently, the provenance of manufacture and materials, embodied energy and durability of these pieces really comes into question. Sofas are a prime example of a high-ticket, key item of furniture that …
Eco homes need eco heating: My Top Five Favourite Wood Burning Stoves
With winter setting in and chilly temperatures just around the corner (this mild spell can’t last forever), I thought I’d share my favourite wood burning stoves with you. Come the winter, there aren’t many inanimate objects in my house that I love as much as my wood burning stove. There’s nothing like cycling home in the dark, pouring rain …
Edible Household – Playing With Your Food
So if we can’t explore a few crazy ideas in this blog, where can we? And with that liberating and mouth watering thought in mind, I thought I’d share with you a few designers who are cooking up a storm with their edible furniture and accessories. It’s clear, if you watch TV on ANY given evening, just how important cooking …
Never Felt Better: The Many Uses Of Pressed Wool for eco homes
Felt is one of those under-used but “designers’ favourite” materials. And as one of the earliest fabrics created, it has been for a very long time. Natural felt is made using wool in a wet or dry process and utilises the wool fibre scales and kinks to bond or matt the fabric together. For me, it’s the density of …
A Million Little Pieces: The Magic of Mosaics
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 can be very wasteful. Mosaics …
Vertical Environments – Not Just Tall Stories
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 to be reclaimed by nature. …
Log in and Branch Out: Natural Wooden Furniture In The Home
Bringing nature into the home can mean so much more than just treading mud into the hallway carpet. What we’re seeing at the moment is a new generation of designers finding ways to create furnishings from unprocessed materials. This allows the softness and elegance of natural forms to add a unique organic richness to your home. Perhaps this is part …