As a continuation of my first post about ecological design, I wanted to find some samples which in my opinion handles the concept of ecological design interestingly. But before that, short recap about what ecological design:
Ecological design can be defined as design that minimizes the environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with nature's own flows.
Modular Bee Habitat System
Starting with something crazy, this is a module system, that provides nesting support for native bee populations. It can be installed anywhere and is optimized for small spaces. Also, the nesting itself is made from recycled hardwood and bamboo while the module shell and the internal module is made out of recycled plastic [1].
critical-nana: I find the core idea of this pretty nice, as bees are an essential part of our eco system, you are giving back something to nature which is very eco design. However, I do not totally understand the use of plastic - the job could also be done by wood or other materials, so it would 100% bio-degradable. However, I mean it is recycled plastic, so it would make a good use of plastic which already exists.
In this sample the designer took on a project to challenge themselves to work with bamboo as a material. Bamboo is a sturdy, easy-to-grow, and eco-friendly resource, and it has even been used as a building material for houses in some parts of Asia, so why not try to make household items too? [2]
“It’s sustainability can be exploited to make so many different things” - Saksham Mahajan, designer of bamboo iron
critical-nana: Also, nice concept. If you try to consider the disposal stage of house hold items, it is unnecessary hard to find a way to dispose them without harming the environment. Bamboo is also a very fast growing material, perfect for items which are widely used.
This designer is actually from Vienna! Together with an chief, she created the collection, a range of tableware made out of leftover food. The waste collected was dried out and afterwards blended into a paste which was held together using mycelium. Water or breadcrumbs were added to the mix if needed. The spark of this idea was the crazy amount of food waste in Europe and at the same time the huge amount of waste of single-dishes [3].
"So I thought about ‘connecting’ these two issues and trying to make new materials out of food waste" - Barbara Gollackner, designer of Wasteware
critical-nana: I am not so sure about the production, but I can imagine that probably a lot energy would be used for it. Also, would the tableware also affect the taste of the food itself?
And now something we have probably all seen already before, non-plastic straws. Metal straws are nice for at home but for take-out shops not an option, so paper straws it is. However, we all now how paper straws get soggy and after a while it just falls apart while you can enjoy a drink with a little bit of paper taste. A company designer an alternative straw made out of dried stems. It does not soak and is of course still bio-degradable.
critical-nana: This product itself is actually a first world problem, you can just drink straight out of cup. But straws exists and take-out drink shop exists, so this is a nice solution to the soggy paper struggle. Maybe the production is also not as elaborate as paper straws, where you have to get paper first while these stems are essentially "done" already.
[1] https://www.yankodesign.com/2021/01/01/this-modular-habitat-system-was-designed-to-save-the-bees-it-is-their-good-place-neighborhood/
[2] https://www.yankodesign.com/2020/02/02/a-bamboo-iron-to-smoothen-out-the-wrinkles-in-sustainable-living/
[3] https://www.yankodesign.com/2023/04/03/a-viennese-designer-shows-us-what-to-do-with-leftover-food-make-reusable-tableware/
[4] https://www.yankodesign.com/2020/03/20/sustainable-straws-that-dont-get-soggy-and-saves-turtles/
