Kinnarps has furnished the new building for IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). The idea they have worked with has been, “if you don’t really need it, don’t build it”. A minimum of raw materials have thus been used during construction and renewable energy sources, such as solar cells, supply the office with power.
Photo from Kinnarps
How do we act with old and discarded clothes? What are the considerations behind the choice to throw, mend, donate or sell? Can we even imagine donate in return of a pawn? These are issues that a research team from University College of Boras will consider when they review the case of textile waste from a consumer perspective. The research project will last for three years and aims to contribute to a sustainable trade in garments.
If I had time I would consider going to this workshop:
“Biomimicry is a discipline with rapidly growing interest. It’s about studying functions, materials, structures and strategies in nature (species and ecosystems) and applying them i.a. in product development, design, architecture and organisational management. The source of inspiration is inexhaustible. With 10-30 million species there’s something to learn for all sectors, industries and organizations. We offer you a unique opportunity to participate in the first group of professionals trained in biomimicry in Scandinavia.
This workshop will give you the knowledge, tools and inspiration to boost innovative thinking in your organisation. Inspired by nature!”
The workshop is held in the beautiful sub-arctic surroundings of Arjeplog, northern Sweden, August 21st- 27th, 2010.
Read more and download a PDF on www.renfana.com
There are many ways that can lead to the same conclusion. Hacking is a culture not at all well known to me other than through media. The theory of hacking is Otto von Busch’s tool to pick the production and design apart and put them together again in new and unexpected ways.
His Doctoral thesis ”Fashion-able: Hacktivism and Engaged Fashion Design” is possible to read in many different ways and browse through parts and look thoroughly at others and to me the most inspirational part is where he tests his theories in the studies, most well known being the hack at Dale shoe factory.
“I wanted to take the concept of designing for clean water to a bigger scale. To make poetic water purifying for thousands of people instead of for one.” Says Jakob Uhlin about his graduation project Sweetwater. Sweetwater at first sight seems like nice drop shaped bottles, but then you see them compared to a blue whale – and you rethink.
The dilemma with graduation exhibitions is that each and every student have their own agenda and reasoning. When you look for specific criterias like design for sustainability you can easily feel a bit cheated as some of the most exciting looking things have nothing to do with sustainable thinking and will therefore be misjudged if you try to apply it.
Last Tuesday (25 May) Svensk Form and the Museum of Archtiecture arranged the first of a series of gatherings under the title HållBar. The main attraction at the event was John Manoochehri, Resource Vision and KTH, who talked about sustainable city planning under the heading Future Perfect – When do we reach the sustainable city? A few years ago sustainable city planning would probably have sounded hopelessly dry and boring, but with the current discussion of how we want both our society, the environment and not least our cities to be built this topic seem to draw big audiences each time it is discussed. And this time was no exception, the main room of the Mueseum of Architecture was filled with people, curious to take part in the debate.
Contemporary American green fashion is becoming hotter by the day, claims the Swedish Institute, right now setting up an exhibition about just that, the green part of fashion with a Swedish angle. The exhibition, called Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion, really opened in Belgrade two years ago and is now exhibited one final time in New York during the summer. It also coincides with an exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology called Eco-fashion: Going Green, looking at the last two centuries of fashion from an ecological and ethical perspective.”With two exhibitions at the same time treating the same topic from different perspectives, we hope that no one in New York will miss that the fast fashion of today is harmful for both human and nature. “ Says Anna Maria Bernitz, project leader at the Swedish Institute. “We do not only have many good designers in Sweden with a strong ecological perspective and ethical commitment, we also have many renowned theorists in the area.”
Abundance is not the first thing that springs into mind when thinking about the Red Cross. But what they do have a lot of is clothes and textiles that they can not use and volunteers with a hack for sewing. These two assets combined with the designer Amanda Ericsson from Dreamandawake have now been formed into a fashion collection.
Designer Amanda Ericsson has visited Red Cross “kupan” in the Region Västra Götaland and rummaged through the piles of discarded textiles that were on their way to the dump. From her findings she has prepared kits to sew dresses from and delivered them to the Red Cross sewing groups. After making sure the quality is up to standard they are put to sale in the online shop at Dreamandawake .
This month’s designer column is written by architect and interior designer Fredrik Kjellgren at Kjellgren Kaminsky, an award winning architecture firm based in Göteborg, Sweden. They work with architecture in its broadest meaning ranging from furniture to city planning, from theory to practice. The following text will be written in Swedish, but for those not knowledgable in the language I propose a look at their website, which is all in English. Besides having started his own Architect firm, Fredrik also runs a think tank called SuperSustainable City.
Polyeten bag attached to a key ring
Have you all heard about the continent of plastics floating in the Pacific Ocean? According to some estimates it has now reached a size greater than the United States. In many countries this has led to a ban on plastic bags. In Sweden, however, we are very good at recycling, so we don’t need to do drastic things like prohibit selling or using plastic bags. Or do we? There are also the small bits of toxic plastic waste in the Baltic Sea to take into account.
I find the topic rather confusing. There are many practical and good looking cotton bags out there, to take instead of the plastic ones, but then cotton is one of the worst materials when it comes to water usage, toxic pollutants, labour conditions… it needs to be used many many times before it’s better than plastic. And paper isn’t better as it is heavier to transport than plastic. Read the rest of this entry »
