TONDA

Capolinea Design created TONDA as a sustainable armchair made with recycled cellulose tubes cut following the customers specifications. All materials are ecological and 100% made in Italy.  The Nature chair shown above has a transparent finish, preserving the original kraft paper color.  The cushion fabric is fully customizable.

Happy Earth Day!!

In honor of earth day, I had to post these amazing photos of Anthropologie's Cork Counts Contest, such amazing window displays of cork!! For more info on the contest visit here, and for more photos visit here.

Images via anthropologie+you

Oh What Photos... Nature

clouds | hazelcholes

Bill Swindaman

beautiful like flowers | Blue eYes Art

Pang-Oung | loliloop

8/365 - Vintage look | Karen Götzl

Nature greatly inspires design. Design involves texture, pattern, light, color, and mood... these things are collectively what effects us when we experience nature. Design, whether inside or out should be taught to us by what moves us and inspires us about nature.

Way Cool Products | Fireclay Tile

Debris Series - Kelp - 3x6: 1902 Colonial Revival in San Francisco designed by Josh Mogal. Photo courtesy of Michael Keeny.

Vitrail installation at Urban Archaeology (Franklin St., New York City)

Claymonde installation at Whole Foods

Fireclay Tile, is a ceramic tile manufacturer that focuses on using recycled materials and sustainable manufacturing processes in all their tile designs. Their product ranges from traditional style, reproductions, and modern designs. Please check out their blog to find out about events, interesting facts, and product introductions.

Eric Corey Freed | organicARCHITECT

I had the pleasure of going to a lecture by Eric Corey Freed yesterday as a part of the USGBC Idaho Chapter Monthly Meeting. Eric is a is Executive Director of Urban Re:Vision and Principal of organicARCHITECT, an architecture and consulting firm in SanFrancisco. Eric also teaches the Sustainable Design program at the Academy of Art University and University of California Berkeley Extension. He is on several different design advisory boards, and has authored Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies. He has also contributed to many publications such as Metropolitan Home and Luxe.

His lecture ‘Detroit, Dallas & Despotism: a 3D view of Sustainability’ showed how the decline of a city, "Detroit" can have a positive up-rising. By the example of using vacant land in the city to produce food through gardens. He explained how he organizes groups of people involved in the framework of various cities through Urban Re:Vision, and together they come up with a green multi-use building or park area idea to connect the city. Their idea is then developed by designers as part of a design competition.

Eric has a very creative way of showing off his work, processes, and statistics... with a bit of humor. Check out his dates for future events here, and the organicArchtect blog. Below is a video on the Urban Re:Vision Process.

Recycled to furniture....

Tejo Remy and Rene VeenHuizen are Dutch Designers with a great idea. They have created furniture made from recycled products such as tennis balls and old blankets to become benches and rugs. Such a great mix of colors and a unique look with both products.

Images via Greenopolis

Recycled @ Etsy

I work on a daily basis to better my environment and contribute to other peoples built environment by using green products. So I was excited to read a fantastic post on The Daily Green, which talked about sellers on Etsy.com who are producing recycled goods while trying to up-cycle these products as well. Below are some great sellers who are creating items to be uniquely one-of-a-kind. If you want to do more research on this idea, the Etsy Earth Team is a group that promotes these kinds of sellers.

Top: EyePopArt | Iron - a Mandala Record Bowl, jehnepenne | Shabby Reclaimed Wood Box, hilarycosgrove|Alphabet Pillow, ParadiseHillDesigns | TEALIGHT BENCH
Bottom: ErdeDesigns | Beautiful Poplar Planter, YAVAglass | Soda Bottle Glasses, vintagerenaissance | Suitcase Pet Bed

Interface Carpet | New Product

Interface is my favorite carpet company because of their sustainable practices, culture, and their unique designs and colors.

I toured their facilities in April 08' and we got to see how the carpet tiles are made. They recycle carpet by separating the backing and fiber, the fiber is recycled off-site while the backing is recycled on site. It was a very unique process.

The InterfaceFLOR Commercial website has great interactive tools where you can select an image of a particular space and apply the carpet to the image. You can also use a wire-frame image, so there are no specific colors in the space. Its a great tool to show clients or to apply to your finish board.

If you are looking for residential carpet tiles, you can check out their FLOR site. Where you can mix and match to create your own patterns.

Last month they released new patterns at Neocon, and they will be great to use in new spaces. Here are a few of the new introductions below.

Product: Cap and blazer™ / Color: 100884 Trinity/Installed: Quarter-Turn


Product: Vermont™ / Color: 100628 Travertine / Installed: Non Directional

Collection: Board Games™/ Product: Across the Board™ (1/2 Tiles) / Color:
100073 Ebony/Ash / Product: On Board™ (Full Tiles) / Color: 100737 Ebony

Left: Collection: Colonial™ / Product: Ragtime™ / Color: 100660 Sheffield / Installed: Quarter-turn

Bottles = Drinking Glasses & Countertops

Sustainable Futures in Boise, Idaho has been taking wine and liquor bottles to turn them into drinking glasses and filler for counter-tops. As part of their non-profit organization they employ incarcerated women to teach them how to make these products.

Here is a link to a great article about them and what they are doing.

I had purchased some glasses from the Bistro awhile back for some friends, and was so happy to hear about it becoming such a big deal. You can purchase the glass ware at some of the local eateries who are using them in their establishments. The can be found at the Dream Cafe, Red Feather Lounge, Bittercreek Alehouse, Pair and the Brick Oven Bistro.