Hasta La Ideas

A more transparent brand of social entrepreneurship showing you exactly how shoes change the world

Jojo, an altruistic Belgian shoe brand, picks up where philanthropic companies like Toms leave off. Designed to look like a bandaged foot, for every pair of Jojo shoes purchased, they plant one tree or provide one person with a year of clean drinking water. But you don’t have to just take the company’s word for it; the enterprising young pair behind Jojo allow customers to track the progress of their contribution well after the point of purchase.

With a “choose, act, check” tagline, Jojo co-founder Matthieu Vaxelaire explains that the last step—following the progress of your contribution—is the most important part. In the future they envision shoes labeled with unique code that buyers can use to locate via GPS the well or tree they helped fund, “to really see their personal impact.”

The passion that Vaxelaire, along with his friend and business partner Christoph Nagel, share for bettering the world shows in every aspect of the brand. The Jojo blog is filled with Instagram photos of current inventory and brainstorm sessions, outtakes from video campaigns (such as their inventive pigeon delivery video), business information and more.

While they set out to produce the shoes in Brazil (where they first conceived the idea), after four months of working with manufacturers, the twosome realized this was nearly impossible and almost gave up. Their tenacity led them to finding a producer in China, who now makes the shoes in a clean facility using fair work ethics.

They put that same undaunted enthusiasm into finding Tree Nation and The Water Project, the charitable organizations with which they partner. Vaxelaire explained the need for “reliable NGOs, because it takes months and months to find the right place to build a well and we needed to be with them on every step.”

To help with the replanting of trees in Niger or the building of water pumps in Sierra Leone, purchase one of seven styles of Jojo shoes (€80 per pair). Simply choose the color, decide which project to support and then check in online to follow its development.

This house near Brussels by architects Samyn and Partners has a glass wall at the front and a plant-covered wall by French botanical artist Patrick Blanc at the back.

Blanc, who is widely regarded as the pioneer of the green wall, created the flourishing facade and roof from a selection of exotic plants.

Completed in 2007, the four-storey house is both a home and workplace for a cinematographer and his family.

A deep furrow circling the house provides a glimpse down to another row of windows, revealing the basement studios below.

The fully glazed west elevation exposes the interiors of the ground, first and second floors, but can be screened by a wall of translucent curtains.

On the ground floor, partitions that separate the kitchen, hallway and family room were once the exterior walls of a single-storey house incorporated into the design.

Photography is by Marie-Françoise Plissart.

More information is provided by the architect:

This house for an artist includes the street level of an existing small house. It now houses the entry hall, a family room and a kitchen; the living-room and the stairway are in the extension to the building.

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The second floor includes the master bedroom with its bathroom, as well as five children’s rooms and sanitary installations. They are equipped with a mezzanine protected by textile netting that will lead to the glassed-wall facade.

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The house presents curved and vegetalised facades that are very private and closed to the neighbours to the north, the east and the south. In contrast, the west facade is entirely glass-walled as if it were one huge partitioned window.

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It is planned that Immense translucid white polyester curtains in widths of 1.6 m suspended from the top of the structure to the ground floor would run along this great « window »  to ensure shade in the summer months.

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Initially conceived as a wall of ivy with a patinated copper roof, the vegetalised facade is finally composed of a selection of exotic plants chosen by the botanical artist Patrick Blanc, and extends to cover the roof.

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We had to design the structure, the insulation, and the water-tightness of the envelope and resolve the building physics issues in order to receive the necessary support systems, irrigation and fertilisation systems for the plants that are set into a felt support stapled to rigid PVC panels.

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600 m², Nov. 1999 – June 2007; (01/390)

Services
Landscaping.
Architecture.
Interior architecture.
Structural engineering, in collaboration with Sagec.
Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing Engineering, in collaboration with FTI.
Quantity surveying.
Project management.
Construction site management.

See also:

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Vertical Living Gallery by Sansiri and Shma	La Maison-vague by Patrick Nadeau	Brooks Avenue House by Bricault Design

Plants adapted to thrive in rocky crevices will take over the facade of this tower for Nantes by French architect Edouard François.

Plants will grow inside stainless steel tubes on the Tour Végétale de Nantes.

The tubes will take up little space on each host balcony but will provide leafy surroundings for inhabitants while showcasing species collected by the local botanical gardens.

The building will comprise a plinth containing retail and parking, offices enclosed in a black rubber cube and the residential tower with shifting, elliptical balconies.

François is renowned for architecture that incorporates plants, including the Parisian Eden Bio social housing development completed in 2009. More details in our earlier story.

More stories about plants on Dezeen »

The information below is from Edouard François:

This operation situated in the future eco-neighborhoods, Prairie-au-Duc, in Nantes, is unique in particular because of its height. Its main challenge is to (re) create the desire to live in tall buildings, in a remarkable setting in the heart of the town.

This mixed project consists of a base of shops and parking, on which is placed in a black rubber cube of offices and a housing tower of 17 storey (60m).

The tower consists of a main body ringed by elliptic balconies. The balconies vary from floor to floor to form a giant organic silhouette.

The tower is the support for a collection of chasmophites plants coming from the collections of the botanical gardens of Nantes. These plants have been collected by scientists from the whole world and frozen. The building will show the plant collection of the city.

The originality of the plantation is to grow in long stainless steel tubes (diameter: 12cm/length: 4meters ). These tubes recreate the natural conditions of the chasmpophite plants that grow in rocky mountain flaws. A scientific experiment is currently underway for over a year in the botanical gardens of Nantes, to test the viability of the plantation process. The result of this experimentation shows that the growth of plants is exceptional for a very low water consumption.

The impact of the tubes on the balconies is minimal. On the other hand on the facades, they form vertical dynamic lines.

Tour végétale de Nantes
Architect : Edouard François – int. FRIBA
Botanist : Claude Figureau
BET : AIA-SERA
Client : Groupe Giboire
Ilot A2 – Prairie aux Ducs – Ile de Nantes – Nantes
Planning : Concours Déc. 2009 – Livraison 2012
Program 9150 m² :
7500 m2 – appartments 6 240 m² (85 à 90 units)
2000 m2 – office,
350 m² – activity
91 parking places
Phase PC

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Urban Forest by MAD	Beirut Terraces by Herzog & de Meuron	Gwanggyo Power Centre by MVRDV

Swings serve as shelves in this Tokyo shop by Japanese designer Hiroaki Matsuyama of Minorpoet.

Minorpoet were commissioned to show off the new collection of planters and accessories by stainless-steel company Steor.

Enormous rolls of material serve as seats either side of a small table in the middle of the concrete floor.

Photographs are by Satoshi Shigeta/Nacasa & Partners.

The information below is from Minorpoet:

Play on the swings.

We created the setting for the exhibition ‘STEOR Spring Collection 2011′.

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STEOR is the stainless steel product brand from Japan. All items are worked with Japanese artisans.

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On this collection, they produced various products for houseplants and flowers.

We proposed the swings hanging from the ceiling as shelves.

By this swings, a wide variety products and green are organised into a one space.

This familiar form for all the ages goes well together with simple and playful products.

STEOR http://steor.com

STEOR Spring Collection 2011
Size: 41.55 sq m
Client: STEOR MARKETING Ltd.
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Exhibition period: May 2011
Design: Hiroaki Matsuyama / Minorpoet

See also:

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Aktipis Flowershop by Point Supreme Architects	Moving Forest by NL Architects	Garden by Kazutoyo Yamamoto

London designer Nick Fraser presents these faceted terracotta plant pots at Clerkenwell Design Week in London this week.

Called Herb, the design for growing herbs on a kitchen windowsill will be on show with food and design collective DesignMarketo in association with the Barbican at the Farmiloe building.

Visit our latest Dezeen Watch Store pop-up at the same venue – more details here.

Clerkenwell Design Week takes place 24-26 May.

More about plants on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from Fraser:

Over the next three days, we will be joining the Barbican, in partnership with DesignMarketo, at Clerkenwell Design Week to introduce our new product, Herb, as well as showcasing Three Oak Trees. The Barbican has a room on the second floor of the beautiful Farmiloe building, the central hub of the festival.

Herb gives a fresh take on the classic terracotta pot, finding a perfect balance between striking contemporary design and traditional material.

When displayed in multiples, Herb’s irregular form gives the illusion that each pot is unique, creating a landscape of contrasting shapes.

Ideal for growing herbs and other small plants, Herb was designed with the windowsill garden in mind and will soon be available to buy.

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Hall Stand by Nick Fraser	Crystal Collection by Pour les Alpes	Plant pot by Uli Budde