Furniture, lighting, floor coverings, and home accents conceived and produced with ecological concerns in mind are being featured at HauteGREEN 2007, a juried showcase timed to coincide with New York Design Week. The show features over 70 pieces, many if not most "one-off" prototypes, by an international group of designers who express concern with creating home furnishings that avoid negative environmental or health impacts.
Objects in the show, which we saw on opening night last Friday, are supposed to conform to at least one of the show’s “sustainability criteria” (download the criteria in Word format by clicking here):
Materials:Recycled/able. The product makes use of recycled or repurposed materials, it itself readily recyclable, or both.
Renewable. The product makes use of organic materials that can be regrown, is readily biodegradable, or both.
Substitute Materials. The product is less damaging as a result of toxic materials or components being replaced with safer ones.Stewardship Sourcing. The product makes use of raw materials from fairly-traded sources or low impact sources such as FSC-approved forests.
Manufacture:
Alternative Energy in Manufacture. The product is manufactured using a renewable energy source.
Efficiency in Manufacture. The product’s manufacturing process is efficient in its use of energy, water, and materials.
Transport:
Efficient Transport. The product is designed to optimize space and decrease energy use in transport.
Locality. The product is produced locally using only locally-sourced materials.
Use:Utility. The product has increased efficiency by providing greater utility for the user, such as multifunction products or rented products.
Durability. The product is more efficient in materials usage as it has a longer functional lifespan.
Efficiency. The product is more efficient in its use of energy, water, and materials.
Alternative Energy in Use. The product uses renewable energy to function.
Disposal:
Dissassembly. The product is designed to be easy to disassemble for repurposing, composting, and/or recycling.
Other:
Communication. The product communicates information that leads to a better environmental performance, usually by changing the behavior of users.
Social Improvement. The product is designed and/or manufactured by people that take social profit from the work and/or money created.
Conceptual. The product communicates a strong message about sustainability, consumption, and/or eco-design, through a conceptual framework. This category specifically applies to works/ideas that are not intended to be commercially viable products at this point.
Even the free vodka drinks provided to the press by the show's sponsors could not blunt our ambivalent reactions to HauteGREEN. It's exciting to see how far ecological and human health concerns have advanced on the agendas of these creative and sometimes influential designers (and the interests of those flocking to NYC for the week's assortment of design happenings). But the extent to which they were represented in these design objects ranged from a rich deep green -- with some items displaying great uses of reclaimed materials, attention to environmentally friendly finishes and dyes -- to rather pallid examples of over-reliance on bamboo (which, unless it is produced organically, is often grown using harsh chemicals that to some extent nullify the benefits of avoiding use of wood).
In future iterations of this effort, we'd really like to see more demanding criteria for "greenness."
That said, there were some objects that made us very happy for their combination of aesthetic and ecological cred. Here's our selection of the more interesting and inspiring pieces HauteGREEN had to offer:
My Secret Garden is a unique floor covering hand-stitched from discarded woolen blankets. It is part of a collection called "re: use | re: make | re: value," by Studio Jo Meesters. Amy feels she could definitely live with this wonderful one-of-a-kind piece, even if it isn't very practical. Emily despairs at the thought of keeping it clean, but knows her cats would love it immensely.
We had similar love-it-despite-the-impracticality feelings for another example of wool reuse: the Maltagliati Doubleface, a "flokati felt rug" by Illu-stration. Each piece of felt is hand-woven through a carpet weave, and could easily be taken out and replaced if it becomes soiled or damaged. Its designer, on hand to talk about her creation, likened its unique texture to "luxurious Italian pasta." We're not quite sure what that meant, but her enthusiasm made for one of the best conversations of the evening.
The Light (Gets In) Table and Chair by William Stranger of Stranger Furniture. Made from salvaged walnut in California, it features beautiful live edges and some excellent joinery. The white bowl and egg cups (also shown in top photo) are made from salt crystallized around a crocheted cotton structure. By The Home Project.
Look closely at the flower shapes that comprise these dreamy long lights, titled Cascade. Strung together with plastic price tag ties, they are not blown glass but the cleanly cut bottoms of water and soda bottles. British designer Michelle Brand sure has found a lovely way to recycle. We both loved these lights (and we're counting down until a version inevitably appears on instructables.com).
Our favorite piece in the show was this Tocador Dressing Table by Bill Hilgendorf and MC Rueda of Uhuru, a small furniture design/build company in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Using an old sewing machine treadle as the base, the top cabinet is lacquered a glossy celadon green with low VOC latex paint, and the interior drawers gorgeously crafted with brass hardware and FSC certified reconstituted ebony veneer. The dressing table was beautiful to look at, enjoyable to touch and use, and visually witty, a quality sorely lacking in the earnest world of green design.
Mirror, Mirror by Paul Loebach was another item with some thoughtful wit behind its conception. Using one piece of walnut to create two fabulous mirrors, "this product uses a single automated cutting operation to produce multiple objects with no waste or glue necessary," as the wall text states. Mirror, Mirror makes use of both positive and negative space, and represents the current rage for laser-cut precision in designs representing natural forms. In front of the mirrors, a pendant light by Propellor.
The classically-styled Common Chair by Covello Reesor is beautifully made from scrap hardwood and low VOC or waterbased finish:
Each drawer in this engaging piece is faced in a different sort of reclaimed wood -- like old carved Persian and Afghani scrap wood or repurposed shop cutoffs. One face is actually a photographic print of wood. Bridging many cultures and eras, the piece has philosophy as well as quirky style and great craftsmanship. "Our Flesh and Blood" by Art With Function.
By Amy Shaw and Emily Gertz
Photos: Maltagliati Doubleface, Our Flesh and Blood -- Emily; all others -- Amy
(Note: Jill Fehrenbacher, founder of Inhabitat and a contributor to worldchanging.com, was a co-organizer of HauteGREEN.)
