Trying to be an ethical consumer – let alone a manufacturer or designer – isn’t easy. Terms such as “eco-friendly”, “organic” and “sustainable” are now an essential part of any halfway decent organisation’s sales patter, and knowing when those words actually stand for something real is tricky. Which is why “transparency” is becoming the buzz- word these days in the world of design just as much as in the Houses of Parliament.
Take a company such as Mater (www.materdesign.com), from Denmark, which was recently given Wallpaper* magazine’s special award for best new interior design company. Mater, like every other savvy design company, is grappling with the problem of how to justify bringing new designs into a world already saturated with products. As its founder, Henrik Marstrand, puts it: “For every one of the millions of products we use to improve our lives, there are associated environmental, ethical and social consequences.” Mater’s powerful mission statement declares that it is “the home accessories brand that makes social responsibility timeless and alluring to consumers all over the world”. (more…)
This spring, Kate and Brent Halfwassen plan to build a storage shed with a green roof behind their 1,600-square-foot 1890 Victorian home in Riverwest. Because the roof is level with an adjacent slope and can hold 165 pounds per square foot, it will double as a play space.
“A lot of the homes in Riverwest are like that and can do something similar. Kids could look at it as a tree house and parents as a greenhouse,” Kate Halfwassen says.
Benefits of green roofs include reduced stormwater runoff, better heat insulation and reduced greenhouse gases through the plantings. But the Halfwassens also believe that the garden roof reclaims a slice of the urban landscape and serves up a chance to practice sustainable agriculture in an unlikely spot in an unlikely locale. (more…)
Pull up a chair – a rattan chair – and let’s talk about furniture and design.But if that rattan chair you’re sitting on is a Kenneth Cobonpue creation, we wouldn’t be talking; we’d be experiencing a truly virtuoso piece of art, a declaration that a chair is, sometimes not just a chair.
Kenneth Cobonpue is an acknowledged furniture design leader, his works acclaimed by international critics, design experts, journalists and industry leaders. He is multi-awarded and head of his own furniture manufacturing company.
Most of all, Cobonpue is a Filipino, a true-blue Cebuano to be exact.
Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt bought one of his masterpieces, then another, and then more, including a bed for son Maddox. Soon after, Warner Brothers asked him to furnish a casino set for the movie Ocean’s Thirteen, currently topping box office charts here and abroad. (more…)
Congregation of interior decorators, architects and planners at celebration
How can interiors reflect vernacular culture and tradition? Can home space relax and soothe with an eye on aesthetics and without burning a deep hole in the pocket? How can architecture and interior design work in tandem to create neutral workspace the end-user can customise? Can material developers and material specifiers come together to forge new possibilities?
Workaday posers and plausible solutions were deliberated at the first foundation day celebration of the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID) Calcutta chapter last Saturday (January 6) at The Ffort Radisson, Raichak, which saw a congregation of interior designers, architects and planners from across the country and a cross-section of city professionals from different walks.
“The primary objective is to bring in a semblance of organisation in the interiors business and foster spatial imagination and consciousness among consumers to ensure meaningful use of interior space,” explained architect Dulal Mukherjee, chairman of the city chapter formed a year ago. (more…)
