Recycled glass loudspeakers

Designed by Alex Killeavy, these loudspeakers are built for sustainability both for entertainment and for the environment as well. Using recycled glass the designer has created user friendly woofers and tweeter components which are replaceable. The design is sophisticated and created with sound material choices to last a lifetime. Its aesthetic design is pleasing for home decor as well.

Decafé Lamp

Taking advantage of the renewable and biodegradable attributes of coffee, Spanish designer Raúl Laurí created an innovative, experimental and very cute lamp. Dubbed the Decafé Lamp, it is made from a new composite material made from recycled coffee grounds. Shaped like a cup, this comforting, aromatic luminaire has a switchless design – to turn it on simply pick it up and place it on its base.

The Decafé Lamp recently took first place in this year’s Salone Satellite Awards during Milan Design Week 2012. The award was given in recognition for the design’s development, research and experimentation with sustainable materials. Laurí’s innovative recycled coffee material has great potential – we’d love to see it turned into an entire range of caffeine-based products!

Beer can house

Here I leave you a video explaining how to make the beer can house real. Comedian Jiff Hilliard interviews the owner of this particular house.

Gardening in tires

In this tire garden experiment we can see how many ways of recycling a tire we can use when designing a green area. Some of them look pretty easy to build.

Recycled cans

Being China the greatest beer consumer all around the world, how if we tried to used all those (now) empty cans to do our designs? A graduate of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Zinaburg, has proposed these three pieces of furniture:

And this designer hasn't been the first one to come across this idea. Already in the 20's this designed was proposed:

As for the walls we can have solve the construction issues in many ways. Maybe by adding cement, maybe by cutting the cans into pieces, maybe by pilling them:

Even the can opener can be a source of inspiration when designing a lamp, such as this piece called "Techno Pop", by the Brazilian designer Maurizio Affonso (through Decoratrix):

Recycled tires

How about if we decide to approach design by using only one material to the concept. We can make numerous things out of tires. For example the Korean designer Yong Ho Jin designed a collection of animal sculptures. Another artist, Wim Delvoye, did this detailed carving:

Also by adding a structure we can design seating places or tables. Some soft surfaces such as cushions may be added in order to make them comfortable:

We can also knit the tires, or cut them into peaces to make a hairy look finish for our couch:

How about manufactuing the tire and  producing a clean material that is perfectly water proof and can be used as a sink?:

Tires have the property of being very strong and can easily turned into a massive material by filling it with concrete or cement. So also walls can be made out of tires, just by pilling them and adding a substance that works as an adherent. 

As for the flooring there are companies that recycle tires and have already industrialized the process, such as the  Recycled Rubber Tire Tile by Recycled Rubber Floors.

Save our nature while taking shower

RUSHES AND REEDS COULD RECYCLE YOUR SHOWER WATER NATURALLY

   I have this idea of using the plants in the bathroom to represent my sustainable material. People wasted a lot of water while they were taking shower, water just flow back into the filthy drain.  So why not we just plant the plants inside the bathroom in order to save our water. I'm so glad that this kind of bathroom really does exist.  Designers, Jun Yasumoto, Vincent Vandenbrouk, Olivier Pigasse and Alban Le Henry came out this idea few years ago and they brought this idea into our bathroom. If you the kind of guy always forget to water your plants, now here you go! 

 Sustainable design is something new to our species; homo sapiens, but plants like reeds and rushes learned the basics of it millions (or even billions) of years ago.

Now designers  Jun Yasumoto, Vincent Vandenbrouk, Olivier Pigasse, and Alban Le Henry invite natures  experts into your shower to recycle your water sustainably.

After you have washed in this shower the water passes down into filters and is treated by the reeds and rushes growing around your feet. This cleans the shower water naturally. As Jun Yasumoto puts it:

“These plants have been proven to be able to remove the chemicals from your shampoo. Using a natural filtering principle called phyto-purification, the bathroom becomes a mini-eco-system by recycling and regenerating the waste water. With this project, we tried to combine the pleasure of taking a shower with the satisfaction of recycling water. We wanted the recycling process to actually interact with the use of shower.”

As you see in the diagram after the jump, you would stand on a platform and the reeds would only grow around the sides comprising the “walls” of the shower. You don’t have to share your standing room with the plants!

The waste water would pass into a chamber below the shower floor and go through a maze of filters. The system includes sand, reeds, rushes, a mesh filter, water hyacinths and lemnas, and finally a carbon filter.

They actually conceived of their idea seven years ago. It was only after posting the concept on the internet recently that they realized that the level of interest warranted another look at their concept. They have been inundated with  queries about where their shower can be bought.

“No prototype has been made as the project is just a concept for the moment, but it is interesting to see the positive feedback we are getting since we put these images online,”Yasumoto said “It has made us think we should keep on developing this idea and start thinking of ways to integrate it and bring it closer to reality.”

Perhaps it is time for a patent and commercialization of the idea. Kudos go to these graduates from the French national design school Ecole Nationale Supirieure de Creation Industrielle.