These bottle tops were created by Korean industrial designer Junggi Sung as part of a collection named ‘Positive Piece’. The collection aims to encourage viewers to think more deeply about the fundamental elements we take for granted in our daily lives such as air water, wind and earth.

The top of Sung’s ‘Uncomfortale Bottle’ imitates the shape of a conventional water tap and was designed in order to make people think more carefully about how they use tap water. Sung explains; “Recently, drinking water out of PET bottles has become the norm…yet we can still easily drink water out of the tap. This design aims to inspire us to be more cost and energy-efficient and also to take simple actions for our environment. This is a positive piece.”

Find out more at www.junggisung.com

One of the most popular hot spots at this year’s 100% Design exhibition has got to be the Re-Loved Lounge, a communal cafe space for guests to take a break from the busy exhibition trail. Far from simply being a dining area, the Re-Loved Lounge is an interactive exhibition space showcasing vibrant pieces of work by a selection of African and African-Caribbean designers.

The lounge was commissioned as part of the African & African-Caribbean Design Diaspora, a festival of events taking place as part of London Design Week. The Festival is a celebration of diversity, highlighting creative talent within the African and African-Caribbean community in the UK. As Clemens Hackl, Creative Director at AACDD puts it; “There is such an incredible array of creative talent within the black community…Let’s see it!”

The Re-Loved Lounge is just one of several AACDD exhibitions on display over the course of the festival. The brief for the designers was to ‘re-love’ and ‘up-cycle’ discarded furniture, transforming it once again into desirable objects for the home. These recycled works take on African and African-Caribbean design inspiration in fabrics, colour schemes and accessories and in their resulting beauty, challenge the ethos of our throw-away consumer culture.

Rather than showcasing these pieces in the sterility of an exhibition stand where they would become spectator pieces, curators of the space were keen to put together an exhibition that allows guests to interact with the work, to touch, feel and utilise the pieces. Laurence Kanza, who’s own work makes up parts of the collection explained; “these pieces are vibrant and colourful and it makes sense that they should be part of a living space”. These ‘vibrant’ colours and patterns are reflective of the warm and joyful culture that inspired them, resulting in one of the most inviting areas of the exhibition.

Designers whose work makes up the Re-Love Lounge include Laurence Kanza (La Petite Congolaise) and Emamoke Ukeleghe, whose daringly colourful fabric designs make a bold and beautiful statement throughout the space. The large central banqueting table was created by Alexander Mulligan using recycled wood and the string of hanging lights above the table were made using recycled wine bottles, designed by Taslim Martin.

Above: “Rescuing The Supermodel” by artist Adjani Okpu-Egbe, on display in the Re-Loved Lounge.

Website: www.jernhusen.se

Obsolescence is a crime from Vitsœ on Vimeo.

Vitsoe have produced a film attacking the practice of inbuilt or planned obsolescence. they say;

“The result is that you are forced into an everlasting cycle of repurchasing and repeating. For 50 years we have stood by our common sense approach of living better, with less, that lasts longer.
This single-minded, avowedly long-term, philosophy takes on physical form as our 606 Universal Shelving System – a product that is a flexible and faithful servant in the face of a turbulent world, one that minimises its inevitable impact on the world’s environment and resources by being useful for as long as possible.”

Join the debate www.facebook.com/vitsoe twitter.com/vitsoe

In September TEN PLAN was Highly Commended by the Judging panel for the Blueprint / 100% design Awards. This year the TEN designers produced downloadable plans enabling the public to make designs by the collective. We constructed a Flowerpot Furnace, smelted scrap aluminium that we had collected and cast components for an adjustable task lamp called C-Lamp.

VENTILITE
Ventilite received an Honourable Mention at the Surplus & Creativity Exhibition in Wellington, NZ. Ventilite coupled water jet cut aluminium legs with re-appropriated housing vents to produce a small industrial table lamp. The judges included Professor Jim Kaufman, Treasurer of the Industrial Designers Association of America.

www.northwards-design.co.uk/

MMXI UTILITA MANIFESTA – FIGHT POVERTY DESIGN COMPETITION

Announced as one of Ten Finalists in the Utilita Manifesta Fight Poverty Competition. The competition, supported by Iconograda and the AIAP, called for Industrial & Graphic Design entries that attempted to deal with the issues of sustainability and social change.

Fat Lip is a collaboration with ethical manufacturer Bodj who work with local people in Cambodia to enhance their quality of life through empowerment. Utilising traditional Khmer craft techniques we designed as a log basket that uses the rim of the basket as the handle, constructed from woven rattan on a light gauge coloured steel frame.

northwardsdesignstudio.posterous.com/

FAT LIP FOR BODJ
As stated above, FAT LIP is the first collaboration with ethical manufacturer Bodj. Fat Lip will be officially launched later this year, with the Design Royalties from the project being directed back to the villages to help support child education and assist the makers who produce the product.

This is the first in a series of exciting collaborations with Bodj. Look out for more news on the project in the future and images in the Northwards Design Studio website soon

www.bodj.co.uk/.

YIELD
Earlier this year TEN were asked to design the exhibition for a new show by sustainable fashion designers Holly McQuillan and Timo Rissanen.

YIELD will show the best of Zero Waste and maximum Yield fashion design. The show will be at The Dowse in Wellington in March and Parsons New School in New York in September. Exhibitors include Zandra Rhodes, Julian Roberts and Yeohlee Teng.

Collaborating with Graphic Designer, Gerbrand Van Melle, we have designed an exhibition experience that uses QR codes to give a mixture of static and dynamic information. The exhibition attempts to convey the transition from two to three dimensions in the zero waste design process by exhibiting the finished garments over the full size flat pattern. Furniture for the exhibition will be made from test prints of the pattern on the recycled cardboard honeycomb substrate that will display them.

The project aims to deliver an exciting contemporary exhibition in the most sustainable way possible.

We are giving an insight into the design process in a completely transparent manner, which you can view on the YIELD blog.

yield.posterous.com/

northwardsdesignstudio.posterous.com/

The company, Jagnafalt Milton, suggested that existing and new railroads could be built to provide the base for buildings that could be positioned differently depending on the seasons and on the weather. It proposed designs for rail-mounted single- and double-birth cabins, along with a two-storey suite. It also imagined lookout towers, kitchens, lifeguard stations, changing rooms, and — in true Swedish spirit — a sauna.

The idea, says the agency, was to use the city’s railway infrastructure — left behind from the days when it was an maritime construction town, building oil rigs — as a basis for its future. Konrad Milton, one of the partners in the company, told Wired.co.uk: “As we see it there are two major benefits. First, it’s easier to put buildings on existing train tracks than to demolish the tracks and build regular building foundations. Secondly the city of Åndalsnes has different needs depending on season.”

He continued: “Summertime the city is full of tourists from cruise ships and hikers — during this time there is a need for hotels and shopping. Wintertime the climate is harsh and there is less activity but a need for climate shelters and public indoor activities. By changing the building line-up according to seasons and events the city can become truly flexible.”

The jury agreed, saying that they were “impressed and charmed by the proposal’s aesthetic and visual qualities”. They added: “The light-surreal mood of the visualisation with a magic and Tarkovsky-esque atmosphere contrasts well with the sober and technical qualities of the plans and axonometric drawings. All in all it is a proposal that is consistent in its study of a single element’s potential to develop the city of Åndalsnes into a dense, integrated and ever changing scenography of rolling, cubic volume.”

Why rail and not roads? Milton says: “In this case the railtracks are in such abundance that it’s the obvious choice, but the idea with rolling buildings could work very well in situations where roads and other hard surfaces are in abundance — like old military airfields, harbors or over sized highways.”

Jagnafalt Milton has previously won awards for the design of a culture centre in Galway in Ireland, and for the design of a Sami parliament building in Finland.

Website:www.jagnefaltmilton.com/

Made of cement and fibers this material is used for moulding tiles for architecture, flowerpots or some outdoor objects. Tons of left over material is thrown away every year and the purpose of the Trash Cube was to find a way to recycle most of it. The idea was to design the most basic mould in which the workers would throw scraps as soon as they have finish to mould the other pieces in production. Via:[PSFK]

Website:www.nicolaslemoigne.ch/

Nike has released an open source application to help apparel manufacturers design their clothes in a more sustainable manner. The Environmental Apparel Design Tool encourages collaboration and sustainability among various manufacturers by evaluating the waste, energy and toxics found in their manufacturing process. This helps designers make real-time decisions right at the start of the product creation cycle to minimize their environmental impact.

The apparel design tool had a big role in helping the company create its greenest football kit, made from recycled polyester, during this year’s World Cup.

Nike regards the tool as a building block and hopes to involve other manufacturers in improving it and eventually create standard sustainable design practices in the industry. Via:[PSFK]

Website:www.nikebiz.com/

Addressing this, Lucy has created ‘Light Reading Chandelier’, a striking light shade where every page is folded in half producing a circular arrangement which hangs around a ceiling light.
Astrid Limal loves the shade too: “I think it looks astonishing and I love its shape. Its timing is also perfect with home interiors taking a vintage recycled theme – it would look fantastic in a contemporary house to give a more ‘homey’ atmosphere.”

Website:www.culturelabel.com/
More of Lucy Norman’s work is currently on show at the Science Museum in London and the Museum of Design in Plastics in Bournemouth.