Sustainable Furniture

Ecology's stands for greek οἶκος, "house" or "living relations"; and -λογία, " the study of". In other words, the study of the house. That is to say, the study of our home; the place where we all live. You mean the planet or my little apartment in down-town? The paradox of sustainability is to meet peoples need for products, and ecology. Taking this into account, À hauteur d'homme has used designer Louis-Phillipe Pratte creativity and hunger for eco-product design to introduce a bunch of extremely simple but aesthetically durable furniture. Take a look on some of their pieces.

From left to right, top to bottom:
Arthur: A simple but sturdy trestle.
Juliette: a chopping board
Mauricio: A low cabinet.
Arthur + Yamada: Combination of trestle and board.



Credits: www.hh.ca

All Hh products are made out of FSC local wood and are locally made. In 2009, the company has launched the fair is fair programme. 1 tree cut = 1 tree planted. Moreover, all products are available with no-finish, or ecological finishing. If you're a contractor, an architect firm or interior designer, you can claim for LEED points for your projects.

If only there were more companies like Hh. As their moto says: The tree in us!

By Dave

What is eco-design?

What is eco-design? What are designers asked to do for the environment? Are they able to help fixing what seems to be the hugest global threat of all times? Will they succeed if so? What does the planet need? More eco-designs or less junk products? Don't you feel that everything around shops and magazines is about green design?

Far from presenting here a two double-sided sheet explanation about eco-design, using therms like LCA (life cycle assessment) or cradle-to-cradle, I rather expose what are the advantages of tapping into designers expertise and creativity to produce smarter greener solutions.

There are two great ways to mix ecology and design, either within any kind of company or in general every day life. First of all, just to let you know that if you are a business owner, getting an eco-sensitive design team will help you to reduce your production expenses. The strategy will be investing to scan and improve the production methodology of a specific product, ending on a new green-product for a "eco-hungry" consumer. Let's say this is the engineering, the industrial way to put in practice eco-design.

On the other hand, there's the creativity that designers use during their practice. Business oppurtunity research, design thinking and innovation quest technics can also be used to reduce, recycle, reuse or even re-think a whole new world where sustainability meets society and economy.

Finally, as an example, check out Ideo's new web site, where they suggest short videos where ecologists and enthusiastics of design will have hours of pleasure while learning. But learing what? That design can improve our ways of purchasing.

http://livingclimatechange.com/

by david