Smaller Than Your Living Room: 7 Of The World's Best Nano Houses | Co. Design. Studio-apartment dwellers may feel reasonably content living a small-scale existence. But if transplanted in the country, how many would opt for a similarly sized house? Driven by a commitment to reduce energy consumption and built space, there’s a growing trend among the eco-conscious to build tiny homes. A new book, Nano House by Phyllis Richardson (Thames & Hudson), gathers 40 of the best-designed examples from around the world--all of which showcase an appreciation for the efficient use of space, materials, and resources. Will they inspire “real housewives” of Beverly Hills to abandon their McMansions, short of a foreclosure notice? Not very likely. But they may get a few die-hard city slickers wistfully contemplating a simpler life. Check out the slideshow of 7 houses from the book.
This Insane Kitchen Of The Future Powers Itself With Leftovers. It’s called the Microbial Home. Created as part of Philips’ Design Probes program to “explore far-future lifestyle scenarios,” it is a vision for a collection of household appliances and fixtures that all work together in an “integrated cyclical ecosystem.” The Microbial Home takes kitchen composting to its extreme, with a closed-loop system in which the waste products from one process are used as energy inputs for another. The central hub is a “bio-digester island” which has a cutting surface, a gas range, and a bio-digester. Bacteria in the bio-digester feed on organic waste such as vegetable trimmings to produce a methane gas that powers the range and the lights and heats water. The connected “larder” includes a suspended vegetable garden and a terra cotta evaporative cooling unit built into the table, providing an alternative to energy-intensive refrigeration.
The Microbial Home does serve as a nice illustration of one way we can make our homes more sustainable though. The Wallpaper* 150 | Art. The 150 movers, shakers and makers that have rocked the Wallpaper* world in the last 15 years So here they are, the 150 people who have come into all our lives over the 15 years since the first Wallpaper* issue and made something that matters to us better, more interesting, or more fun. But, in a Wallpaper* first, these aren’t just our choices. Through the wonders of the Twittersphere, we shot a number of our suggestions out there to provoke debate and input into our great name-checking project.
And you came back in numbers and with a lot to say. It’s also worth mentioning, before you get upset that (insert fave designer here) isn’t in the list, there were a couple of crucial criteria used when putting this list together. It’s been a close call in many cases, and while our panel and researchers have been forensic in their deliberations, we’d like to throw it back to you one last time. Anyway, enough preamble, begin the parade. Maison & Objet Fall 2011, Part Two. Maison & Objet Fall 2011, Part Three. The United States of Design 2011. Maison & Objet Fall 2011, Part One. At the biannual housewares tradeshow Maison & Objet we found many of the winds of innovation blowing from the outdoor arena this year. The contemporary, nomad-like movement reverses the use of indoor and outdoor spaces.
When indoor moves outdoor, along with bathroom and kitchen, the whole living room and dining room seem to follow as well—sometimes even surrounded by walls and a ceiling. Designing for dual living, this shift brings with it the quest for new materials to face outside elements, while keeping the elegance typically reserved for interiors.
Since outdoor furniture requires sophisticated technical materials, working with them often becomes a source of inspiration for designers, like Patricia Urquiola. A Spanish native now working in Milan, she recently created a collection for leading Spanish design firm Kettal. Urquiola's idea came from observing a common organic fabric, a coffee filter, under a microscope. L'Upcycling, la nouvelle tendance design 2010 | Régie publicitaire presse & web | EXPRESS ROULARTA SERVICES. HOME TRENDS.