Topic One: Sustainable Design in an Environmental

Jens Praet: Shredded Series

This design uses found disposed shredded magazines and documents from offices buildings to create them into useful objects. The shredded material is combined with resin then placed to set in a mould until it has transformed into a rigid object.

Shinichiro Ogata: Wasara range of disposable tableware

Tableware design project that is made entirely of 100% renewable and “tree-free” materials. The materials include: bamboo, reed pulp, bagasse (a type of substance leftover from the sugar-refining process that is usually thrown away).

Renzo Piano (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco)

Building is a single structure but contains other multiple venues. Sustainable features include: soil as insulation, solar energy panels, natural lighting, radiant floor heating and denim insulation. This building meets the ISO 400 rules as well as respecting the Bill of Rights for the Planet.

This building aspires to be as energy efficient and as sustainable as possible by reducing their carbon footprint. This building is an example of how urban buildings can meet sustainable features through creative mediums. Sustainable features include: biomimickery (the building uses soil to insulate), energy efficiency (by using solar power, soil insulation radiant floor heating and natural lighting),  upcycling (using recycled denim jeans as insulation). By drastically reducing carbon emissions, recycling and energy this building is proof that buildings can effectively be designed to be sustainable and respect the preservation of the natural world.

“Re-use as a design tool (and material) is still extremely under explored, and it holds so much potential – both as a source of raw material and as a beautiful limitation.”

Studied fine art at the University of Cape Town, majoring in sculpture in 1999.

In his final year he spent time sitting inside his basement studio passing time with fiddling with off-cut printers card, staples and masking tape. He “thus developed a very playful and experimental way of dealing with simple materials and basically found the work process that I still employ today – the process of trial and error” (Nash.H). He then carried in to use this work process and skills in paper after he graduated to try and earn money, experimenting with plastic sheets as opposed to paper. This eventually led to the designing of a system making pleated lampshades consisting from folded die-cut panels of polypropylene.

Heath Nash claims that his business was born accidently after a small range of other lights and giftware were created for an art/design store, Bread and Butter. These products were deliberately designed to be easily produced.

Nash then proceeded to experiment with traditional local craft material co

Insisting of galvanised steel, and thus developed a beginning the range ‘strength in numbers’. This range consisted solely on binding wire units together to form overall stronger and more functional wholes. Once again, Nash was creating modular structures and his experience of making paper geometric systems began to echo through his present work and become the foundation layer of his design style.

Heath Nash met a wire artist, Richard Mandongwe, who was selling flowers made form old plastic bottles and wire. This typical production method of reuse associated with South African history immediately inspired Nash, “[he] had found a new voice” (Nash.H)

Heath then carried on to work with Richard absorbing valuable knowledge of wire skills and new material (bottle plastic) to his knowledge of structure, thus emerging a new range of upcycled post-consumer plastic waste products.

This new range was named ‘other peoples’ rubbish’ and was intended to represent a future of upliftment for a country that was in desperate need of employment opportunities. This range also aimed to promote recycling to a South African society still unaware of sustainable design.

“I realised that by using the right materials and knowledge - wire and plastic - combined with typically South African skills and contemporary design, a new aesthetic could be created which really spoke to the then current South African situation. This was in 2004, and later the same year” (Nash.H)

He then registered his own name his company and ‘Heath Nash” was officially reborn as a brand.

By 2005 he had registered his own company to run, with only a small production team. He was no longer working alone limited by his own r hands but had created a whole new world filled with potential, filled with completely hand-made products.

Leafball was Nashes first designed product that used the idea of ‘other people’s trash’. The majority of the products post this work consisted of using the same basic system of wire construction as seen in leafball. Leafball consisted was made of many hand bent wire units, with hand-ceased ‘leaves; attached are built into different forms using cable ties.

“As a designer and artist, I have always been particularly inspired by whichever specific material I work with on any given project.” (Nash.H)

Nash claims that his inspiration goes as far back as when he was boy and used to make things out of card and paper, playing with origami and making three-dimensional models within books.

As a painting and printmaking student in highschool, he was able to extend his knowledge of materials through experimentation of paper Mache, wirework,, different paints, inks and printing processes. He also exposed himself to clay for the first time, opening his creative knowledge. Nash was once again exposed to new materials at the University of Cape Town, this included: oil paint, mould making, bronze casting, welding, forgery etc. He refers to this as a “lifetime of play” which forced him to try new things that has really influenced his designs today.

“All the work I now engage in is informed by all the work I have made in the past. Every ‘mistake’ I have made in the past was not a mistake at all, but rather a way to understand the making of things better. Through this understanding of creativity, I acknowledge the importance of my work-process as being almost more important than the end product itself in many ways.” (Nash.H)

The most influential materials which have affected Nashe’s designed processes include: Card and tape (experimented with during childhood as well as in University acting as base for his material knowledge and technique today) “Card is the most practical material to play with in the world – all you need is a sharp knife and a steel ruler. Then this easy thinking and playing can be translated into pretty much any other material” (Nash.H)

Die cut plastic “and new solutions to building structures - because you can’t glue plastic” (Nash.H.), This material was used as it was cost effective as well as create a large number of identical paper, card or thin plastic units. Into the desired shape, this may have been difficult to hand cut. He used this simple process to create some of his earliest products.

Galvanised steel wire (and how binding together is the way forward), this is the most typical local craft material within South Africa, can only really connect parts by means of binding.

METHOD: (Taken from http://www.heathnash.com/material.php)

•hold 4 hand length pieces of thick straight wire firmly in one hand.

•Now, clamp the end of a very long piece of thin flexible wire under your thumb (still holding the 4 wires firmly in that hand).

•Run the thin wire to the end of the bunch of thick wires.

•Hold all the wires firmly together. (4 thick wires and the short end of the thin binding wire)

•Using your other hand now, start to wrap all 5 wires tightly with the thinner, softer wire.

•This anchors your binding (by securing the ‘tail’ end of the binding wire under itself).

•It gets easier now.

•Continue to bind along the length of the bunch of wires (moving your hand along as you need to).

•You’ve bound 4 wires together!

Plastic bottles, describes them as “Beautiful”. Was using them before it became ‘cool’ and not simply because it was an easy sustainable option. He states that he “fell in love with this extraordinary material. I had developed an appreciation for light in my earlier work, but bottle-plastic opened up so many new areas of exploration - details like the emboss/deboss of many brands’ logos, the date stamp on milk bottles, and the different colours, textures and thicknesses of any given bottle. Over time, I also began to encounter all the translucencies available - that occur when the plastic is blown into the mould – and how, by overlapping (a coloured PET leaf over a white PP leaf for example), transparent colour becomes translucent colour”

Process involved in making a finished flower from a bottle ( taken from http://www.heathnash.com/material.php)

•Lots of bottles are found, sorted and collected.

•They are washed very thoroughly (with bio-degradable detergent) and dried.

•The handles and bases are carefully removed, and each bottle is splayed open into a semi-flat ‘sheet’.

•As many flowers as possible are cut from each bottle (we cut them using a die, but because they aren’t perfectly flat sheets, this is done by hand with a hammer – not in a mechanised press).

•Now each flower has to be formed from a ‘flattish’ shape into a more 3-dimenional form - each petal is folded in half, and individual lines are creased into each (also by hand). This forms the flower, and makes it more translucent where the lines are… adding to the detail and finish of the finished piece. (So if a flower has 6 petals, and there are 9 lines on each one, someone has creased 54 lines! For ONE flower).

•Finally, One flower is done!

•The excess plastic off cuts are returned to the recyclers.

Nashe’s design need for plastic has grown enormously and is now the main characteristic associated with his work. Initially he only used white bottles as there was a larger supply than colourful bottles and found that these colours would be coming through much more frequently than others. This meant that it was difficult to calculate price and production values as well a ‘fullcolourball’ which needed every colour that could be hard to supply at times.

Nash has explored a range of methods but finally discovered the best method for his collection of material through a company that pre collects, washes. Cuts and creases any shapes that Nash requires. This essentially leaves all the ‘messy’ work out of Nash’s hands allowing him more time to work creatively.

Nash claims that a significant shift, yet quite simple, was his ability to start observing bottles as shapes, rather than mere objects of colour, translucency and size. This happened in 2008, and would continue to extend Nash’s creative knowledge and lead to his beautifully aesthetic designs.

UFO MILKHANDLEFORM

WHITE

WIDE & SHORT

40cm x 40cm x 22cm h

Many milk bottle handles, strung

together with synthetic string.

Electrics included.

UFO relates to its name through its space like appearance. This is created by the radial symmetric shape of the light that resembles a flying a saucer, not only does this reinforce the lights name but creates a simple radial balance. The dark blue tint of the bottles once again emphasizes the idea of space as well as creates a monochromatic colour scheme. Like all of Nashe's latest design, this work has been constructed by use of wire connecting each component to create the final light.

Focused Research:                           

Tord Boontje

“I try to bring back sensuality and human qualities to the environment we live in.”

Tord Boontje was born in Enschede, Netherlands in 1968. Initially studied industrial design at the Design Academy in Eindhoven from 1986 to 1991. Then proceeded to achieve his Masters from the Royal College of Art in London from 1992 to 1994. He then founded Studio Tord Boontje in 1996 and stayed to carry on working in London from 1995 to 2005 until he moved to Bourg-Argental, France along with his studio and home. He currently works in London at London-based design studio after taking an appointment as a professor and Head of Design Products at the Royal College of Art.

 “I soak up everything, making things to live with is a reflection of life, so it includes having a nice dinner, shopping, visiting museums, a walk in the forest, watching a great movie, dance, or sunrise or reading a book.” (Tord Boontje, 2006)

Boontje describes his work as “somewhere between romantic and technological” and his signature style being “Chaoticness, randomness and forgetfulness” (Boontje, 2006). His work primarily draws upon nature and is known for his detailed layering, “it is layered. The layers shift, sometimes it’s really pretty and uplifting, sometimes it’s more dark and scary like a scary story, like an Alfred Hitchcock film! Sometimes it’s very floral and sometimes it’s much cooler and reduced and abstract” (Tord Boondje interview, Designboom). His work also consists of bright, rich colouration as well as imaginative forms “but these references to nature and emotion reflect only an outcome, not the process of design itself.” (Studio Tord Boontje website)

TranSglass

The idea around this project was to “use what we have”. Boontje alongside Emma Woffenden created these designs by using recycled bottles and the simple machines that they had in their workshop.

Essentially this philosophy is an example of upcycling and post-consumer waste, they are taking an object which was once useless and giving it value, “We pop a candle into the neck and it is a candelabra, we fill it with flowers and it becomes a vase. A diagonally-cut Soave bottle becomes a jug, two Chardonnay bottles make a carafe. Silician table wine transforms into a vase for orchids and the bottoms of beer bottles make a group of drinking glasses”

Revolution

This project summarises Boontjes stylistic element of nature and technology. Boontje combines these two ideas into a unified piece of furniture.

This project also illustrates Boontjes imaginative style, “Another important inspiration for me is fashion and the way in which we use fabrics on our body. I try to bring some of this sensuality to the designs. In the series of 7 chairs, I designed these as different characters that you might meet in a story; the princess, the pirate, the witch, the prince etc.”

Boontjes usual bright colouring, detailed layering and abstract forms are also present in these works and add to his overall visual language of ‘forgetfulness’ and in a way playful style.