To celebrate their new Pluma, Montessori, and Roll cradles, Woodly is planting a tree for each unit sold! Carried out in collaboration with Treedom.it , buyers can track their tree and even check it out with GPS coordinates. Even cooler are the cradles themselves! Check out the design details after the jump.
Roll:
A suspended cradle that swings and bounces, allowing your baby to sleep easier. A birch shell holds a padded nest in pure wool felt for a child’s total comfort. The hanging function allows it to swing side to side, or backwards and forwards. Four strong cotton ropes join together in a central wood ring connected to a hook on the ceiling. The inside can be pulled out and washed. Within, a cotton and biological spelt husk mattress gives maximum comfort with natural anti-suffocation quality.
Pluma:
For those who like things a little closer to the ground, the Pluma is a soft nest made of pure, non-treated, hand-sewn wool felt in saddle style on a light yet stolid wood structure. Pluma also uses a cotton and biological spelt husk mattress giving it maximum comfort with natural anti-suffocation quality.
Montessori:
A floor bed or cot for when your child is slightly older giving them total freedom to climb on and off. Soft side edges and low clearance ensure safety from night tumbles. A great way to transition to a big boy bed!
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (A Cradle for a Tree was originally posted on Yanko Design)
Last week, the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was filled with tech companies showing off their latest and greatest. While many booths featured updates to previously existing products, we stopped by one start-up that…
Water & Wisdom is a charity project that transforms the cardboard packaging for bottles of mineral water into a chessboard. The bottle caps become the chess pieces. Designed for areas of need, the thoughtful design not only provides fresh water, but an intellectually stimulating activity equally important for mental health.
Designers: Chou Wan Yun & Li Chao Hsiang
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Water and Wisdom was originally posted on Yanko Design)
For generations, the lightbulb remained a stagnant design—until 2010 that is, when the Plumen 001 was first introduced as the world’s first low-energy, designer bulb. Now today, Plumen again changes the game with the introduction of the new ,…
News: robotic tractors will create patterns across a field of crops on the roof of this pavilion that Italian architect Carlo Ratti has designed for the World Expo 2015 in Milan.
Working alongside engineering firm RecchiEngineering, Carlo Ratti Associati has designed the pavilion for agricultural brand New Holland, which plans to present an exhibition dedicated to sustainable farming at the international exhibition opening next spring.
Two self-driving tractors will be positioned on the gently sloping roof of the building, intended to demonstrate the growing role that robotics plays in agriculture.
“The idea of Earth Screening is not just about self-driving tractors that can draw patterns on the roof of the building,” said Ratti. “It is about how we can sense and respond to the conditions of the soil to a degree that was impossible before. This points to a future where an agricultural field could be considered as a giant base for ‘agricultural printing’, with major advantages foreseen in terms of plant biodiversity and resource preservation.”
Responding to the exhibition theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, the zero-emissions tractors will be powered entirely by electricity generated onsite.
“In the same way as self-driving cars are expected to revolutionise urban mobility, advanced robotic technologies are reshaping agriculture, with a new wave of innovations helping us to better respond to local terrain conditions,” added the architect.
Diagrammatic section
The interior spaces of the pavilion will present an exhibition of other agricultural equipment using large digital displays.
“While the roof uses real moving tractors, inside the pavilion we tried to reproduce the working conditions of other key pieces of agricultural equipment – from tractors to combine harvesters – in a physical and digital way,” said Walter Nicolino, an architect at Carlo Ratti Associati.
The pavilion will remain in place for the duration of the expo, which takes place between May and October, before being dismantled and reconstructed in a new location.
Urb-Garden brings gardening into small, indoor urban environments in a sculptural and aesthetic way! The unique form is actually the result of a design project focused around safety. Users will find that the pots are at an ergonomic height to prevent back strain and the materials used are thoughtfully chosen to be lightweight or heavy where it matters. Check out the vid to see an extra, interactive feature of this ingenious planter!
The team sought to bring the joy of gardening into indoor urban homes with limited outdoor space. Urb-Garden is a collection of modular pieces that fit together at the concrete bases, creating a continuous row of plants; specifically herbs; that could have as many or as little as the space and user saw fit. The design is minimal in form, however the construction techniques are significantly more complex. The bases and exterior pots are made of fibrous (fiberglass) concrete to ensure the best strength-to-weight ratio, while each stem is made from 8 steam-bent and laminated pieces of Ash which not only has high structural capacity but is also beautiful. As well as this, the weight of the pots allow the stem to gently bend and sway when the user interacts with the pieces which adds a dynamic element to the design. The inner pots, that house the herbs, are made from spun aluminium and are easily removable from the concrete pots. This allows the user to remove the pots at will and put them on their kitchen bench if desired. Urb-Garden is detailed by a red felt base and a red edge on the aluminium pots; a colour chosen to provide an effective contrast with the plants.
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Say Hello to Urb was originally posted on Yanko Design)
This “bioclimatic” house on the edge of Lyon in France features a timber frame, cladding of larch and composite timber, and a planted roof (+ slideshow).
Lyon architects Tectoniques introduced a range of measures to maximise the environmental and thermal performance of the house -called Villa B – along a north-south axis, with plenty of glazing on the south facade helping with solar gain.
The house is built using dry construction methods and features a prefabricated modular timber frame built on a concrete slab with larch cladding covering the exterior.
Floor-to-ceiling windows on opposite facades provide uninterrupted views through the ground floor of the house and incorporate the doors that lead to patios on either side.
“Consistency is created between the building and the external spaces, which enhance each other,” said the architects. “Thus the living area becomes larger than the space delimited by the walls.”
Adjoining the building’s west facade is a garage covered in black composite timber panels that extends to create a canopy above the entrance to the main living space. Adjustable shutters function as a brise soleil to regulate the amount of sunlight reaching the interior during the warmer months.
An island in the centre of the open-plan ground floor houses utilities including kitchen appliances and units, a bathroom and access to the basement. Built-in storage covers the full length of this room, freeing up the rest of the floor space.
Wood is used throughout the interior, with furniture and storage constructed from pale wood panels. The floors are made from poured concrete and white plasterboard walls keep the spaces bright.
Four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs are organised around a central circulation space at the top of the stairs.
For architects, designing a house is an adventure, but reality is often not as easy as foreseen. The site is complicated, the neighbours are unhappy, the unforeseen factors are really not foreseen, construction work is not as fast as planned, the ecological goals are difficult to reach, and the contractors are not as qualified as specified, and so on – the list is long. In this situation, the architect will be the arbitrator and the ground-breaker. In the end, the construction seems simple and natural.
The story of the Villa B. follows the classic scenario of construction on a bare site, at the edge of a city, in the middle of market gardens, on a strip of land that is well-oriented.
Averse to the stereotypes of the private housing development on the edge of which it is located, and inspired by the image of F.L. Wright’s Usonian Houses and Case Study Houses, the designers make use of the site’s potential to apply the basic principles of the bioclimatic approach. The house quickly takes the shape of a compact whole that presents a simple timber cube very open to the surrounding landscape. As always, Tectoniques avoided the temptation of designing this scheme with a predetermined form to match a desired image, but instead asserted a principle of “no design”.
The bioclimatic approach, a pure attitude to architecture
Benefiting from a long experience of dry construction and timber frame construction, and well-versed in environmental questions for more than twenty years, the firm chooses to design with a bioclimatic approach. It experiments with several options and technical solutions with which it builds a strategy.
Looking into different options for construction and thermal aspects, the firm investigates different technical possibilities for insulation, heating and air handling, from which it chooses a consistent solution that is appropriate for the family’s ways of life and their ability to adapt to induced behaviour.
Priority is given to a house that serves the users, the idea that they have of it, how they plan to live in it and how to make the site their own. This is the basis of the architect’s work: then the technology follows.
The scheme takes the form of a compact house, well placed in the middle of its site, with a high-performance envelope. Oriented north-south and very open on the south side to benefit from solar gain, the house divided space in two gardens with terraces with very differents and complementary uses and atmospheres.
The plan: through views and transparency, intermediate and multipurpose spaces
The plan is efficient, almost square, measuring 10 x 11m. Along the west of the ground floor is a garage finished in black pannels timber composite, extended by a canopy. Free and open, it is organised around a central core that contains the services: cellar, networks, shower/bath room, and kitchen. All the rooms form a ring around this hub. Uninterrupted through views and continual contact with nature are maintained by using sliding partitions and large glazed areas facing each other.
A strip of ancillary and storage areas runs along the full height of the west wall. The overall scheme creates a multipurpose space, open onto the south and north gardens and the patios. Consistency is created between the building and the external spaces, which enhance each other. Thus the living area becomes larger than the space delimited by the walls.
The house faces due south. Largely glazed, it benefits from solar gain, while being protected by brise-soleil adjustable louver sun breaks to control stronger sunshine in the summer, spring and autumn. Open onto the south and east, its upper floor is closed on the north, and the west side only has small openings for the showers and bathrooms.
Since the local climate is strongly contrasted, with peaks of heat and cold, this plan layout allows maximum occupation of the patios according to the seasons, sheltered from the wind. In the long term, a variety of intermediate and peripheral elements may enhance the existing and vary the spaces, according to the weather and the seasons, such as arbours, canopies, pergolas, etc.
On the upper floor, the system is reversed: the layout organisation starts from the core and opens onto the bedrooms. Following the principle of separation of daytime and night- time areas, the upper floor is occupied by four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The bedrooms face south and east, while the bathrooms open to the west.
In addition to the clearly-identified living areas, the house has intermediate and multipurpose spaces. This is the case on the ground floor, which, with its sliding partitions, can have several layouts; also, some rooms that are not set aside for any specific purpose can be reconfigured according to the time of day e.g. study-laundry-computer room or guest bedroom-study-music room. This adaptability is a response to the need to manage both privacy and communal life within the family home.
Simple structure
The construction is simple. It is a timber- framed house, erected on a concrete slab, with a concrete topping laid on the upper floor. The structure is a prefabricated modular system. The roof insulation consists of 40 cm thick expanded cellulose wadding, and the wall insulation consists of mineral wool with woodwool on the outside, giving a total thickness of 32 cm. The woodwool slows down warming and cooling of the house by a lagging effect.
On the ground floor, three large triple-glazed panels – with a fixed part and a translating (tilting) opener – run along the elevation at ceiling height and frame the landscape. They avoid interrupting the views by door and window frames, and they draw the eyes towards the outside. On the upper floor, in the bedrooms, low tilt-and-turn windows have a fixed window-breast at bed height.
On the facades, perforated larch cladding is fixed to double 5 x 5 cm wall plates to further increase the ventilation effect. The cladding gradually greys naturally, without any treatment, with uniform silvery tinges. Inside, a lining of knot-free, light-coloured polar panels is used with great uniformity for built-in cupboards, furniture and storage elements. Elsewhere, white plasterboard adds to the soft, brightly-lit atmosphere of the house.
South facadeNorth facade
Thermal strategy
Space heating is mainly provided by floor heating on the ground floor and the upper floor. It is supplied by a condensation gas boiler and solar panels. The double- flow ventilation system is connected to a glycolated ground-air heat exchanger laid at a depth of between 2.00 and 2.50 m to the north of the house, which supplies air at a constant temperature of 12°C. When necessary, the exchanger can provide additional ventilation at night. During cold peaks, wood-burning stove covers additional heating needs, calculated for the overall volume and instantaneously, particularly
for the upper floor. Waxed concrete and floor heating provide very pleasant thermal comfort. The concrete topping, which is chosen despite the timber structure, provides uniformity of floors on the ground floor and upper floor, in bedrooms, showers and bath rooms. In addition, the roof is planted with a sedum [stonecrap] covering, and rainwater is collected in an underground tank.
All of these systems require some control to function as well as possible. This is a technical matter that needs a certain degree of mastery, which is acquired empirically and requires the occupants to take an interest in them and to change their habits.
With lofty goals set firmly in their sights, nutrition supplement maker and healthy living advocate ALOHA launches today, 19 November with two products for daily consumption: a whole-food powder green…
Designed around EngineAir Australia’s compressed air powered rotary engine, this concept scooter was developed as a green solution for casually zipping around town. Focused around ecology and utility, with the design cuts the bike down to its bare essentials. Steam pressed bamboo is used in place of plastic for all of the fairings, to give it a unique, raw aesthetic that draws viewer’s eyes to the unconventional engine design as well as the air tank that replaces the fuel tank.
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (EcoMoto was originally posted on Yanko Design)
Aagje Hoekstra took the armour of dead Darkling Beetles, which grow from larvae known as mealworms, to create the Coleoptera bioplastic that she showed at the Klokgebouw building during Dutch Design Week earlier this month.
“In the Netherlands mealworms are bred for the animal food industry but they transform into beetles,” Hoekstra told Dezeen at the show in Eindhoven. “After laying its eggs the beetle dies, so insect farms in the Netherlands are throwing away 30 kilograms of dead beetles every week.”
Before the beetles are disposed of, Hoekstra peels them so she is left with just the shells, which are made of a natural polymer called chitin that is also found in crab and lobster shells.
She uses a chemical process to transform the chitin into chitosan, which bonds better due to a variation in the molecular composition.
The material is then heat-pressed to create a plastic, with the oval-shaped shells still visible. “I wanted to keep the structure of the beetle in the plastic so you know where it has come from,” said Hoekstra.
She claims the plastic is waterproof and heat resistant up to 200 degrees centigrade.
Items Hoekstra has already produced from the material include jewellery and decorative pieces, but she hopes to develop the plastic for more practical applications. “In the future I want to make functional products such as plastic spoons and cups,” she said.
She is one a number of graduates experimenting with ways to create bioplastics from animal products that are normally thrown away. Other examples include a
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