Tag Archives: Green/Sustainable

These modular glamping tree tents were designed to encourage sustainable community travel!

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I know treehouses were a thing of our childhoods but it doesn’t have to be! Get ready to take a beautiful virtual tour of the O2 Treehouse by Treewalkers that blend the best of our childhood imagination with glamping reality while keeping it all an eco-friendly experience! Treewalkers is one of the leading players in the world of treetop construction – they actually make treehouses that adults cannot reason out of.

The treehouses have unique geodesic domes and can be connected to create entire villages. The houses are modular so it enables franchisees to start their own village setups with one or more units – this can be a sustainable hotel, unusual Airbnb getaway, or simply a camping site that offers a different kind of stay. The innovative modular lattice design is what makes this a flexible accommodation — while catering to the individual’s needs and it also allows them to customize details. The units come with a standard a bug-proof outer socket, interior furniture, and canvas canopy roofing. As part of the franchise program, hosts have the option to open up their Treewalker to other hosts in exchange for points that can be used towards other stays – sustainable community tourism! There are many intriguing shapes but the most iconic one has to be the A-shaped floating tent because that is something we have all tried to create with a blanket in our living rooms. The interiors are warm + woody and have a plush bed with a seating area. As you can imagine there will be plenty of natural light and ventilation. While there is no clear indication of the bathroom being in-unit, I assume that will be a separate pod in itself or have other arrangements like porta-potty if its a campsite.

The California-based design studio has extended its realm with a franchise-hospitality brand to make it possible for anyone to own one of the O2 Treehouses. “Treewalkers is a franchise-based treehouse hospitality brand that lends homeowners a way to launch into the home-sharing market with low risk and a high ROI, and lends travelers an easily accessible network of eco experiences,” says founder Dustin Feider. Finally, O2 Treehouse estimates a 1-3 year return on investment based on a rate of $150 per night, occupied for 30-60% of the year and they have broken down the math for you on their website should you decide to go that route. The ultimate mission of the brand is to design architectural structures that heal the bond between humans and nature so they can coexist peacefully!

Designer: Treewalkers

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This tiny robot can walk for hours and is fuelled by methanol – no batteries required!

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When designing small robots, the challenge is always about how to power them while being sustainable. Most designers will try to find alternatives to electric power because that means removing a battery that takes up space and adds weight – both things not conducive for a small robot. However, RoBeetle is finally here to take one small step for beetles but a giant leap for small robots! This tiny robot is actually powered by methanol – no batteries needed!

The body of the RoBeetle is actually the fuel tank, it gets filled with methanol and it weighs just 88 milligrams! The tiny robot has four legs – the rear legs are fixed and the front legs are attached to a transmission. The transmission is connected to a leaf spring-tensioned in a way that pulls the legs backward – the reason it was designed this way is that it helps the RoBeetle stand upright when it is not in motion. The actuator used inside is a nickel-titanium shape-memory (SMA) alloy which is basically a platinum-coated wire that gets longer when it heats up and shrinks when it cools down. The structural design of the robot is created in a way that it can modulate the flow of methanol using a purely mechanical system. The little horns of RoBeetle are actually hooks that help it carry small things.

“The way that the sliding vent is attached to the transmission is the really clever bit about this robot because it means that the motion of the wire itself is used to modulate the flow of fuel through a purely mechanical system. Essentially, it’s an actuator and a sensor at the same time,” says the team. A fun fact for you: RoBeetle’s speed can be increased by a gentle breeze because the air moving over the SMA wire cools it down a bit faster while also blowing away any residual methanol from around the vents, shutting down the reaction more completely. The little robot can carry more than its own body weight in fuel (so more than a gram) and it essentially takes 155 minutes for a full tank of methanol to completely evaporate. While this is a great step in developing small robots and robotic fuel, there are still some cons about RoBeetle that future creators and developers should take into account when trying to find solutions. For starters, it can only move forwards, not backward, and it can’t steer. The speed can’t be adjusted or controlled and it’ll walk until it either breaks or runs out of fuel.

The actuation cycle is what makes the robot walk and it starts with a full fuel tank and a cold SMA wire. The platinum coating of this wire facilitates a reaction between the methanol fuel and oxygen in the air which then generates a couple of water molecules and carbon dioxide along with heat. The coating of the wire is crucial because it creates a larger surface area for the platinum to interact with as much methanol as possible. It only takes a second or two for the SMA wire’s temperature to rise from 50 to 100 degrees Celsius once the reaction starts. Every punctuation of this cycle makes the robot moves forward by 1.2 millimeters and the top speed for it is 0.76 millimeters per second. This is only the beginning of creating smaller, more efficiently powered robots! Can someone Photoshop four of these RoBeetles on a crosswalk and make my day, please?

Designer: Nestor Perez-Arancibia, Xiufeng Yang, and Longlong Chang at the University of Southern California

robeetle

Tesla, meet the world’s fastest charging electric vehicle with the longest range: Lucid Air

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When you think of electric cars, the first name to come to your mind is Tesla. Elon Musk’s company has almost become synonymous with the words ‘electric car’ and it is challenging for other automakers, especially new ones, to get the spotlight. However, there is a new electric car on the horizon that is set to break the monopoly-in-the-market barrier, and its called Lucid Air!

How can Lucid Air trump Tesla or get close? Well, they take the best of the brand’s successful tips and the best of their original design to give the world a legitimately good alternative to owning a Tesla. “Our mission is to deliver sustainable luxury with a class-leading range in the form of the lucid air, and we are closer than ever to turning that dream into reality,” said Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, Lucid Motors. As we all wait for the global reveal that is now happening online instead of the New York Auto Show, we already know that Lucid Air has raised the bar for electric vehicles with its estimated EPA range of 517 miles (832.03 km) on a single charge which makes it the longest-range electric vehicle to date. And it doesn’t stop there, Lucid Air is also set to be the fastest charging electric vehicle ever offered with the capability to charge at rates of up to 20 miles (32.19 km) per minute. for owners charging their lucid air in real-world conditions on the road, that can translate into 300 miles (482.8 km) in just 20 minutes of charging.

“We designed every aspect of the Lucid Air and its platform in-house to be hyper-efficient, from the powertrain to the aerodynamics, and we’ve set several new benchmarks. With our ultra-high voltage 900V+ electrical architecture and the proprietary Wunderbox, we have significantly increased the speed of energy getting into, around, and even out of the vehicle, delivering the world’s fastest charging EV packed with future-ready charging features,” says Eric Bach, VP of Hardware Engineering, Lucid Motors. Say goodbye to range anxiety and long hours of charging. Lucid Air also comes with its own intelligent technology called the Air which will keep your smart lifestyle integrated with your rides. “An onboard virtual assistant tracks usage patterns and preferences, integrating seamlessly with your digital life. Everything is tuned to your liking, from cueing up your favorite music to setting the perfect temperature for your arrival home.” says the team. Using this system, it lets you control key vehicle features no matter where you are seated in the car.

Among the few elements that stood out to us, we see the logo placement similar to Tesla. The front Garnish is unibody in design – usually, we see it in concepts so it is very exciting to actually see it in a production-ready vehicle. Lucid Air is also aiming to be a status symbol like Tesla with its large backseat that adds extra passenger space and gives them a luxurious experience, especially with the executive rear seats for a reclining experience. There is additional storage space in the front and the back so it doesn’t sacrifice functionality for the sporty look. Glass roofs are not revolutionary but this car has a sweeping glass canopy that elevates the game. If your car is not adding pollutants to the air, might as well roll back the roof and take a deep breath!

Designer: Lucid Motors

This tiny home was designed to facilitate micro living in expensive cities!

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Millennials and the generations that follow are still struggling to buy homes without sacrificing their avocado toasts. We always hear about the rent situation in New York and Los Angeles, but even if you cross the border you’ll find that Vancouver and Toronto also fall under that bracket. Those two cities are the hub for young working professionals in Canada and it is crucial to provide affordable housing options that are sustainable and fit with their flexible lifestyle. Turns out there is an architectural concept, Shifting Nests, designed to solve this exact problem.

While Vancouver has quickly become one of the most expensive cities to live in, it is not densely populated and there are a lot of vacant spaces that can be put to better use – Shifting Nests sustainable tiny homes is that use! This project wants to transform empty parking lots into a community with gardens and low-cost homes. “The ‘nests’ are a prefabricated housing solution consisting of plywood, metal cladding, and corrugated polycarbonate on a series of simple frames. The jury was impressed by the sensible linear plan layout, segmented into zones for resting, bathing, cooking, living, dining, and farming,” explains the team,

Shifting Nests won the first prize in the Bee Breeders 2019 Mircohome competition for its futuristic approach to affordable housing that took the environment into account. The structures almost look like a hybrid between an RV and a bunker, I wish it looked a little cozier. While many details are still being worked out, it would be nice to see what sustainable housing solutions are incorporated – solar panels, furniture made with recycled material, self-sustaining garden for community produce? Micro living is probably the future of future generations so having designs that make life easier for them economically while also helping the climate crisis is crucial.

Designer: BLA Design Group

Vollebak’s 100% biodegradable plant+pomegranate hoodie can be composted in your backyard!

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Vollebak continues to push the limits every time on how innovative, functional, and sustainable their designs can be while I push the limits on why I need more hoodies in my closet. I didn’t choose the hoodie life but Vollebak did and they are making the most of it in their latest hoodie made from compostable plants and pomegranate!

Inspired by our ancestors who made their clothes using grass, tree bark, animal skins, and plants, etc. the Plant and Pomegranate hoodie feels, looks, and lasts as long as a normal hoodie but it is far from normal. Think of it as the Clark Kent of hoodies – it looks ordinary and then when you take a closer look, you realize its superpower which in this case is helping our environment. Vollebak has been a leader in making sustainable apparel that is also super innovative like its solar power jacket, the indestructible hoodie, and the biodegradable algae t-shirt which is the closest product to the Plant and Pomegranate hoodie. “The thing that makes it different is simply the way it starts and ends its life. Each hoodie is made from eucalyptus trees from sustainably managed forests before being submerged in a giant vat of pomegranate dye to give it its color. As it’s made entirely from plants, the hoodie is fully biodegradable and compostable,” explains the team.

Once you feel your hoodie has completed its circle of life (it could be 3 years or 30!) then all you have to do is put it out with the compost or bury it in your garden. Vollebak’s hoodie was given birth from elements grown in nature and ends it’s life there too, you can quote Rafiki in the funeral if you decide to hold one in case you are as extra as me. Don’t hold back tears, they might just water a new pomegranate plant in your garden! Ending fast fashion and adopting a sustainable clothing style might seem like a small step but it is still an important step to reduce waste generation and help our planet. Your closet and the climate will both thank you for making eco-conscious decisions – so, let the hoodie life choose you!

Designer: Vollebak

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This modular vertical garden was designed to be a self-watering, self-powered, space saver!

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Do you, like me, wake up with an urge to add something in your home to elevate your interior design game since we are spending all our time indoors? I think the top items I gravitate towards are air purifiers (obvious reasons), kitchen essentials, sleep-inducing designs, and plants (special attention to those that need no managing!). I was super intrigued by Moltke which is a modular vertical garden designed for both interior and exterior use. Plants liven your home, purify your air, give you herbs if you choose to have some, and make you seem like an adult who has their life together as much as one can in a pandemic – making Moltke a perfect combination of some of my favorite things without sacrificing space!

There is an increasing need to grow fresh food in small spaces without having to devote too much time or effort. Vertical gardens in the market right now either lack functionality or are super expensive. Moltke was designed to give you an affordable indoor/outdoor garden that fits your aesthetic needs and is self-sufficient. “The main feature of this vertical garden is the ease of use. No prior experience required, just use the pre-planted seed pods and the self-watering system that requires no power – this will keep the plants self-sustained,” says Vintu. Parts of the structure are kept transparent to allow more light for the roots. It works for an indoor setting as well as outdoor because you don’t need any external power supply. The ‘growth light’ in each module ensures that the plants stay healthy even if there isn’t enough natural light.

You can also use the wastewater produced by air conditioning units to refill the water tanks. The mesh net on top makes sure that no debris gets inside your planters especially if it is outdoors. Modularity is becoming crucial in product designs so they can fit with our ever-changing flexible lifestyle. You can add as many units of Moltke as you want, and there are solutions for bigger needs as well like the 3L or 5L custom water tanks that will hold more modules for plants. Moltke gives you the premium planter features without the cost, need for extra electronic equipment, or components that are hard to mount/take up a lot of space. While it is unclear what kind of in-built power supply the design is using, it would be cool to make it solar powered!

Designer: Cristian Andrei Vintu

This article was sent to us using the ‘Submit A Design’ feature.

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Can NIVEA’s 3D printed shower gel refill station prototype really reduce plastic packaging waste?

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Brands are consciously moving towards eco-friendly practices and the first hurdle every single one of them has to overcome is plastic packaging waste. NIVEA’s parent company is German giant Beiersdorf and they are on a mission to reduce packaging waste by minimizing and closing their material cycles. And for NIVEA that meant launching a shower gel refill station! Now it is a good first step and has its pros but also has some cons. The biggest con is that shower gels itself are not good for the environment and there is no way to know how many bottles actually get rinsed clean before they are recycled – otherwise, it doesn’t work. Shower gels also need a lot of water to be made, and as climate change makes the world hotter/drier, the water crisis is already a big issue in many countries. A solution to that? Bar soaps! NIVEA makes those too, they use less water and can be packaged in recycled paper – that is the real solution but if this refill station reduces some plastic waste and sparks a movement for the brand to take bigger steps, then we are here to see it.

The prototype is going to be tested in select locations where the brand will gather data on how consumers are interacting, feeling, reacting to the concept of reusable bottles. The prototype machine was made with their in-house 3D printers. NIVEA hopes that with this refill station they will make it convenient for consumers to reuse containers and reduce plastic usage. Once they experience that it is easy to make small sustainable lifestyle changes, they will be quicker to adopt it as a habit. The refill station has been carefully designed, developed, and engineered by a cross-functional team within Beiersdorf’s global packaging and R&D functions. Consumers can refill up to three times before sending their bottles to be recycled and get a new one for hygiene reasons – this limitation slows down the plastic consumption problem but without longevity in the solution, it will not end the cycle.

Caroline Zia, Senior Formula Developer at Beiersdorf wanted to make sure that the concept worked for sustainability and for the consumer’s experience. “The formulations need to withstand the additional burden of refilling and we had to carefully choose our products after extensive internal testing. Also, the machine had to be programmed for additional cleaning protocols so that we could guarantee multiple filling loops and still meet our safety and sustainability criteria,’ she explains. The machine’s design had to also account for the retailer’s interior requirements while providing easy user experience. “We decided to use light as visual support to guide the users. Whenever one of the dedicated refill-bottles has been filled or a bar code has been printed, the integrated LED lights give feedback to the consumer,” says Marta Suslow, Concept Designer at Beiersdorf’s packaging department. Other details include formula choice and refill cycles, sophisticated pumps, color-changing lights, a label printer, and a programmed microcontroller.

While this is a good start, personal care brands, especially global giants like NIVEA can step up their game to find real solutions that make it a sustainable choice. You already have the product and the presence, pivot to reducing plastic waste at a larger scale as well as reduce water consumption with one ‘clean’ move – soap.

Designers: Marta Suslow, Caroline Zia, Koushik Sreedhar, Bernhard Felten, Cecile Ratschow of Beiersdorf

 

These cork headphones are a no screws, no glue, plastic-free sustainable alternative!

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Cork is one of the most versatile materials when it comes to sustainable design – we have a whole list of product designs that have used cork to create sustainable alternatives and reduce plastic consumption! These cork headphones are another great addition to that list and show us that gadgets can also go green – you would be surprised to know how much plastic goes in making a simple pair of headphones.

Weighing only 64 grams  (0.14 lbs) these headphones are super light! Cork is a versatile material that is being explored to design sustainable products. It is non-allergic, resilient, sound insulating, moisture-proof, and soft to touch. If you are an everyday headphone user, you know that there is a lot of wear and tear that happens and instead of repairing, we usually just upgrade which increases our plastic consumption. Cork headphones are easy to repair and dismiss thanks to an assembly based on the compressibility of the material. There is no glue, no upholstery, no screws involved – just cork, simple electric parts, steel, and foam.

Woodturner Jean Yves Lerate crafted the first model in his beautiful workshop located in Auray, France. The cork was supplied by Corticeira Amorim and Pauline made a fully working prototype during a five days workshop at Domaine de Boisbuchet which was led by designer duo Pedrita.

Desingers: Pauline Ariaux and Jacopo Ferrari

This hole-some house design reduces indoor pollution and breathes using upcycled punctured bricks!

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Getting creative with traditional material is the key to making architectural structures truly stand out. This Wall House designed by CTA Creative Architects shows that creativity by using hole-punctured bricks. It was specifically chosen to facilitate natural ventilation, bring in sunlight, and letting the house itself breathe.

This “wholesome” structure is a multi-generational family home in the city of Bien Hoa, Vietnam and the only thing they wanted was the living spaces to feel bright and airy. “According to recently published scientific research, indoor air quality is worse than outdoor air quality. Therefore, most of our discussions with the house owner tended to the idea of a house that is able to ‘breathe’ 24/7 by itself,” said the team. Most of the structure’s exterior is covered in perforated square bricks that allow fresh air and natural light to flood in. It also promotes upcycling in design – all of the bricks were salvaged from the building sites of properties nearby and were then punctuated to make four small holes in each of them. Material reusability is as important as creativity.

The team also managed to save burnt and blackened bricks and used them artistically to form dark patches of color which adds more texture and dimension to the exterior aesthetic. The bricks are arranged randomly to form an irregular, bumpy surface finish – unconventional like the material itself. A wide flight of tiered steps that lead up to the entrance has been printed with a holey pattern to matches the bricks, it almost looks like a permanent shadow cast on them on a sunny day. To further add to the natural breathing feeling, a small “garden” was planted around the periphery of the main room which makes the air quality better and also acts a much needed soothing contrast to the brick tones.

The house has an unobstructed and large living area which features two massive square windows that have been made in Wall House’s front elevation for maximum natural light. Another window element is the glass roof which illuminates the other corners of the house. All these details not only add to the ‘breathing’ quality of the house but also increase the expansiveness of the place. The rest of the material palette for the home was kept very simple – exposed-aggregate concrete cover the floor and dark wood was used for the kitchen cabinets. A black-metal staircase with a wire-frame balustrade leads to the first level of the home and also serves as a great spot to show off your quarantine outfits – I can’t be the only one who walks down in a different set of PJs for every meal right?

Designer: CTA Creative Architects

These biodegradable takeaway containers are molded from recycled cocoa beans!

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The food takeaway business is estimated to be a $53 billion-a-year industry and given the unique circumstances humanity is in, it’s probably set to grow even further at a rapid pace. PriestmanGoode aims at tackling the inherent problems within the takeaway culture with sustainable food packaging that’s molded from a bio-composite containing recycled cocoa bean waste.

Created as a part of the Wallpaper* Re-Made project, these bio-composite containers are modeled to look like bento-boxes with a modular design that stacks up as your order increases, resulting in one larger box rather than multiple smaller boxes. This unique format provides a useful alternative to plastic containers (as it’s waterproof and leakproof too) and eventually reduces components by removing elements like lids (since the containers stack over and cover each other). Materials used to craft the packaging meet a range of criteria too, being heatproof, lightweight, recyclable, and insulating. The bio-composite polymer used to mold the containers themselves are made from cocoa-bean shells (a by-product of the cacao industry) by designer Paula Nerlich. The outer bag that carries the containers is made from all-natural materials too, including mycelium to insulate the interiors, a bioplastic known as Nuatan to provide a robust outer shell, a natural leather derived from pineapple leaves called Piñatex for the outer container’s lid, and Lexcell, a neoprene-free natural rubber used for the handles and straps on the bag and the Bento containers.

PriestmanGoode’s design solution tackles the massive problem of single-use plastic packaging that’s plaguing our environments and oceans. It provides an all-natural, biodegradable solution to plastic boxes and cling-film wrappers, while also utilizing natural waste materials like cacao shells in the process. I’d argue that it looks a million times better too!

Designer: PriestmanGoode