ECONetwork "Ideas Lounge" #4

Unfortunately I couldn't make it to "Ideas Lounge" #3 but great to be back in the thick of the ECONetwork community again at "Ideas Lounge" #4 which set a theme for the afternoon titled 'Materials, design & sustainability. Speakers were Dr Mike Pitts of Chemistry Innovation who gave a very interesting talk on the connection between chemistry, materials and design application. Furniture and sustainable designer Jakki Dehn who is also Lecturer at Kingston Uni gave a presentation on the sustainable materials library she founded and set up. Our task in groups was to respond to a specific brief with around 20 minutes to come up with a solution. Our group were the Cradle to Cradle group which would inform our approach and solution. We chose to focus on a solution for temporary shelters for Haiti as one of the options. Ok it created a 'little' competition on the day..... & we still reckon we came up with the most effective well thought and presented solution!! Actually, so did Ecodesign Wales!

Team 'Cradle to Cradle'



Frank (Ecodesign Centre Wales) & Luke (Orangebox) pitch our Cradle to cradle solution

Jakki Dehn & Ideas Lounge #4 participants

Dr Mike Pitts - Chemistry Innovation

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A Design Chemistry dialogue

Just back from the Eco Design Networks session run by Ecodesign Centre Wales with Speakers Dr Mike Pitts on Chemistry, Design & sustainability and Jakki Dehn on Design, Materials & sustainability.

So why don't more designers and more chemists talk to each other? When designers need to become more and more responsible for the material choices we make, understanding the chemistry behind those materials should also become more and more important. When approximately a third of the earths elements in the Periodic table are at risk of literally 'running out', exploring the options or their replacements and considering the alternatives in the design, development and manufacturing processes is crucial.

So Chemist's .... let's talk

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The House for the Future

Project - The House For The Future
Client - National Museum Wales
Designers - Angela Gidden & Lynsey Jackson

This is where design for sustainability all started for the attic 2 Studio


We were commissioned to work on the furniture and interior concept for the Museum of Welsh Life project, House For The Future working with London architects and winner of the House For The Future architecture competition and Redrow house buliders sponsors and builders of the actual house within the grounds of the Museum, Cardiff.

The project was our first real intensive sustainable design project - where every design solution threw up a whole new set of environmental challenges and every twist and turn in the project questioned the sustainable viability. The result was an innovative approach to the design of products for living in the future - without the 'oats and muesli' aesthetics and an over-dependence on hi-technology.

This project was filmed from start to end and beyond by BBC Wales as a TV series The House For The Future where they introduced a real life family to live in and test drive the house for a few weeks. Some of solutions and ideas were more successful than others but what we learned from this point on was as designers we were responsible and that we must design with sustainability and a focus on the future at the core. This was the start of design for sustainability for the attic 2 Studio. This is where we began to shape our 'Future-Thinking' sustainable and environmental policy.

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ECONetwork "Ideas Lounge' #2

We attended the second ECONetwork workshop, Ideas Lounge #2 run by Ecodesign Centre Wales last month.
Main speaker was Layla Acaraglu, designer and director of Eco Innovators based in Melbourne, Australia. A great talk on one of her key design issues and actually one of my pet hates and design rants - "Planned Obsolescence" lining into her talk with a more positive spin on "Life Cycle Thinking".
Julian Sykes from Hoffi followed with his presentation on a dedicated retail 'Cradle to Cradle' project he is working on and Luke Palmer from Orangebox gave a presentation on the design of the companies first Cradle to Cradle sustainable solution for task seating, ARA chair.
To finish I did an impromptu talk about my personal perspective on design and the role of brands in consumption.

Layla, Eco Innovators - Planned Obsolescence & Life Cycle Thinking

Julian, Hoffi - Cradle to Cradle Pop-Up shop

Luke, Orangebox - Cradle to Cradle ARA task chair

Ange, attic 2 - design & brands in consumption

Frank, Ecodesign Centre Wales & the ECONetwork group

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ECONetwork "Ideas Lounge" #1

We attended the first Ecodesign Centre Wales new initiative - ECONetwork "Ideas Lounge" at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay this week. This workshop was the first of many to come attended by designers in Wales like us that are proactive in sustainable design-thinking looking to develop an eco design network facilitated by EcoDesign Centre Wales.
This first workshop kicked off with 2 speakers - designer Jonathan Crinion who presented his thoughts on the problem of climate change, peak oil and resource depletion. Jonathan was followed by Rob Brown from Sprout Design who shared the studio's experiences of sustainable and inclusive design. We later broke into groups to explore ideas for creating and setting up the ecodesign network.

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