Tag Archives: Sustainable Designs

This Meditation Chair will let you make space and have peace at the same time

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Space Available Meditation Chair 2

Furniture items can now be considered as art pieces. The furniture design world has changed over the years, with many creatives and artists trying their luck to come up with masterpieces for the new century.

Space Available, a furniture and art studio based in Bali, Indonesia, has introduced the Meditation Chair. It is made from 100% recycled plastic waste, so you can say it’s a more environment-friendly choice. It’s a sustainable effort we believe can be and must be copied by more furniture makers.

Designer: Space Available

Space Available Meditation Chair

Many brands and companies have started to do their part in caring for the environment by making “greener” choices when it comes to materials and methods. Space Available is just one of those brands aiming to deliver long-term change for a better planet, one furniture piece at a time. The goal of Space Available is to start a circular future and inspire more sustainable living. The goal of this ecological studio is to deliver awareness and change through its designs. As a multidisciplinary creative platform, Space Available believes that ‘making space’ for oneself can help a person do the same for the world.

Space Available Meditation Chair 3

The Meditation Chair perfectly represents Space Available’s belief that one should allow himself to clear the mind and make space for his wellbeing. So obviously, the Meditation Chair is the perfect place for when you want to meditate or have a quiet time.

The Meditation Chair is supposed to offer you peace, but to the eyes, it can be a bit crazy because of the colors. But still, it’s fun and wild and is definitely a conversation starter. It has become a sculptural piece that shows off weaving craftsmanship.

Space Available Meditation Chair

The shape of the Meditation Chair starts with a rattan frame. It’s more like a low sofa with a unique shape made with 100% post-industrial recycled plastic. This chair was designed and made by master weaver and Balinese craftsman Nano Uhero. It even comes with a hand-stitched indigo-dyed cushion.

Don’t expect to find an exact copy if you are getting a chair because no two chairs are alike. Each comes unique with different hues, colors, patterns, shapes, and sizes. You can refer to the repair and recycling plan at the end of the chair’s life cycle or if it is damaged.

Space Available Meditation Chair

The Meditation Chair can also be the perfect lounge chair. With the colors and texture, the chair can fit most rooms where you intend just to chill and relax. It’s now ready for purchase, but unfortunately, it’s sold out on the product page.

Space Available Meditation Chair

The post This Meditation Chair will let you make space and have peace at the same time first appeared on Yanko Design.

Bristol Plastic Factory recycles plastic bottle tops into beautiful things

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Bristol Plastic Factory Studio

Eva Gilder-Hodgson knew how to make the most of the lockdown. Amid the pandemic in January 2021, she started Bristol Plastic Factory in her neighborhood. She has been into design and owns a studio that focuses on interior architecture, furniture pieces, and graphic design and is now venturing into more sustainable design.

Eva is committed to creating and finding joy in making and delivering a beneficial impact. She founded Bristol Plastic Factory, intending to explore opportunities on recycled plastic. The possibilities are endless, but there is a need for research, development, and implementation.

Designer: Eva Gilder-Hodgson

Bristol Plastic Factory Melting Pot Table

The Bristol Plastic Factory aims to transform waste plastic into products with endless lifecycles. Its mission is to bring together design and technology to “make beautiful things out of recycled waste.” The workshop became a place for the designers to build new things from sheet material made of recycled and recyclable plastic waste. Some furniture pieces have been made starting from prototypes and the studio soon received funding. The community where the studio is based also saw people helping by giving their plastic bottle lids.

Bristol Plastic Factory Table

The waste product material is then transformed into different recycled products from plastic bottle tops. The Bristol Plastic Factory partnered with The Factory in Knowle West and asked for help recycling Bristol’s plastic waste, specifically, the plastic lids. The process set by the studio seems simple but requires hard work. First, plastic is collected, which can be achieved if more people give. The more people collect plastic, the more sheet material can be set for use to design furniture pieces.

Bristol Plastic Factory Plastic Waste Bottle Lids

Bristol Plastic Factory Plastic Bottle Lids

The next step is to recycle, which starts by shredding and then heat-pressed by a manufacturing partner. To make the recycling process easier, the bottle lids should be of the same type of HDPE plastic. This makes the material melt and be molded easily. The sheet material is then CNC milled and then used to make different recycled products.

Bristol Plastic Factory Plastic Waste Material Collection

The first collection has yet to launch this summer, and we can expect it to show us what sustainable design is all about. So far, the Bristol Plastic Factory has come up with tables. We can imagine more furniture items can be made like chairs, shelves, or even small cabinets.

Bristol Plastic Factory Eva Gilder Hodgson

Designer Eva Gilder-Hodgson had several inspirations. The first one was Precious Plastic—a global non-profit project that educates designers on how to take advantage of recycled plastic. The group also offers machinery blueprints and open-source resources to interested designers.

Bristol Plastic Factory Project

Precious Plastic now has a community of people finding ways to solve the plastic waste problem. The goal is to discover innovative solutions using different methods like “injection molding, heat-pressing and extracting.” For example, the group has recently introduced an open-source brick design that can be used for temporary structures. The bricks are made from 100% injection-molded plastic and may be used for public buildings, low-cost housing, or shelters.

Precious Plastic has also inspired other companies like Gomi Designs. The latter already made portable chargers handmade from waste plastic and reclaimed batteries. The products are sustainable yet come with top-notch quality. Eva’s studio is now exploring the same as Precious Plastic and Gomi Designs to make recycled products for a more sustainable future. The potential of waste plastic is huge, and the Bristol Plastic Factory can definitely help contribute to environmental awareness.

Bristol Plastic Factory Melting Pot Table

Bristol Plastic Factory Plastic Waste Bottle Lids

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Sustainable modular acoustic panels are made from a unique blend of up-cycled textile and mycelium

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Foresta System is a modular acoustic panel design made from a unique blend of fungal mycelium and upcycled textile material.

Mycelium is like nature’s hidden superpower. Mushrooms can be used for anything from cooking, health and wellness, and even construction. Packed with industrial-level strength, mycelium is a natural fungi material that has recently been used as building materials for various construction projects.

Designer: Mogu

From home building to furnishing needs, mycelium provides an organic, yet durable construction material. Now used to create interior acoustic panels, the Foresta System designed by Italy-based Mogu takes a unique blend of mycelium and upcycled textile materials to create modular acoustic panels.

Constructed from a mix of mycelium panels, wood branches, and nodes, the timber frame that supports the different parts of Foresta can be mechanically fixed to the wall or vertical surface. Each node also carries integrated magnets that allow the acoustic panels to be mounted on the timber frame, allowing for easy removal and assembly.

The first of its kind to integrate mycelium into its build, Foresta has been granted the winning prize of the 2022 German Design Awards for its eco-conscious and innovative design. 100% circular by design, none of Mogu Acoustic products are made with synthetic material, nodding towards the company’s “extremely virtuous manufacturing cycle,” as the German Design jury suggests.

Made entirely from fungal mycelium and upcycled textile materials, Foresta is a collection of modular acoustic panels used to minimize the acoustic levels of noisy spaces like restaurants, offices, and retail businesses. Using the latest technologies in wood processing such as product parametric modeling, robotized production lines, and advanced manufacturing, Mogu was able to combine the refined aesthetics of wooden design with the cutting-edge nature of fungal mycelium to produce a truly innovative product.

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Adidas and Parley build a recycled plastic tennis court to float over the Great Barrier Reef

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Parley for the Oceans, an environmental nonprofit, teamed up with Adidas to design and construct a tennis court made from recycled materials to float above the Great Barrier Reef in an effort to raise awareness about plastic waste in our oceans.

Founded in 2012 by Cyrill Gutsch, Parley for the Oceans is a nonprofit environmental organization that collaborates with a network of global creators, thinkers, and leaders in a united effort to protect our planet’s oceans. Joining forces with Adidas, the massive clothing brand with headquarters in Germany, Parley designed and built a full-size, sustainable tennis court in the middle of the great barrier reef. Entirely built using recycled materials, Parley for the Oceans is particularly focused on raising awareness about plastic entering our oceans.

Designers: Parley x Adidas

Considering its iconography in regard to climate change, it seems fitting that Parley and Adidas chose the Great Barrier Reef as the location for their recycled tennis court to float above. Stationed atop a barge that makes routine trips across the reef for environmental marine construction projects, the recycled tennis court hosted a few matches between some of Australia’s biggest tennis stars. Following the matches, Parley and Adidas donated the tennis court to a local Townsville school.

Upon collaborating with one of the biggest clothing brands in the world, Parley announced the launch of a new high-performance apparel line designed in part with Parley’s recycled ocean plastic. Inspired by the colors found on the Great Barrier Reef, the 2022 tennis apparel line from Adidas marks a step towards the company’s goal in helping end plastic waste and eliminating the use of virgin polyester from their products by 2025.

Describing the company’s use of recycled plastic, ​​Shannon Morgan, senior director of Adidas’ Pacific branch, says, “We collect plastic from coastal communities before it ends up in the oceans and [we] turn it into yarn. You will see our athletes on the field at the Australian Open from Monday with these garments made with that yarn. We are using a sporting event, the largest on our continent, to truly show the beauty of the coral reef.”

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Sustainable designs created by this upcycling product designer transforms your trash into solutions

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Forget recycling. Upcycling could be the next trend that creates new things out of old ones and save more energy at the same time.

We are probably all familiar with the idea of recycling, where certain materials are broken down to be remade into something new, usually related to the original composition, like how paper becomes recycled paper or aluminum comes become ingots. That process, however, doesn’t always work for kinds of things, and many more products end up in landfills when they could still be put to good and often unrelated use. That’s why a young product designer in Hong Kong is trying to kick off a new way of thinking that turns throwaway materials and objects into something useful and perhaps even a bit surprising.

Designer: Kevin, Cheung Wai Chun

Based in Hong Kong, Kevin Cheung describes himself as an “upcycling product designer” and distances himself from the more common concepts of recycling. In fact, he labels recycling as “downcycling” because of how the process breaks down materials rather than using them as-is. While it’s still a big step forward when it comes to sustainability, Cheung tells the South China Morning Post that the entire process still consumes a lot of water and energy in the long run.

In contrast, upcycling actually uses a material’s properties and incorporates that into a new product. Leftover felt carpets from the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, for example, are turned into a protective pouch for laptops or even comfy slippers. Coffee bean bags made from heavy-duty jute fabric can be turned into tote bags that tell the whole world your love for the drink.

You might be expecting that Cheung regularly scours waste stations and garbage dumps for materials to use, but that would actually defeat the purpose. Reusing rubbish from those sources would actually take more time and use up water, which is what upcycling is trying to avoid. Instead, the designer goes directly to the sources of these throwable objects, like companies and stores that don’t give a second thought to what they toss out. Cheung’s inaugural upcycling product, the Boombottle, uses plastic bottles from medical clinics.

More than just the environmental benefits, however, Kevin Cheung’s upcycling push also carries with it some human elements. Wallpapers that spark memories or come from other countries can turn into wallets that accompany you wherever you go. Jeans become smartphone cases that not only give a warmer and more tactile feel to an otherwise cold object but also fade in unique ways over time. Each object becomes more than just a product for use but a book that tells the story of the humans that have encountered it.

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Solar-powered Products designed to help you switch + upgrade to that eco-friendly lifestyle!

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It’s 2021 and we need to get as eco-friendly as we can! We can no more continue living the way we always have, ignoring the needs of the environment and being insensitive to Mother Earth. Living a more conscious life also includes taking into consideration our energy sources. Curbing fossil fuel consumption has now become a priority, and we have a more positive energy source in mind as an alternative – the Sun! Solar power is taking the world by storm. Designers and architects are coming up with solar-powered products, homes, hotels, offices, and automobiles! Solar energy can be used to power almost every object we use in our day-to-day lives. Hence, we’ve curated a collection of product designs backed up by the sun for you – from a fleet of autonomous sail drones powered by the sun to a backpack with its own solar panel!

The Generark HomePower 2 is a backup battery for your home that’s cheaper than setting up a generator or shelling $12,000 on a Tesla Powerwall, it’s also classier and less noisy than those gas-powered generators that definitely seem archaic. Recharging the HomePower 2 can happen in multiple ways. The backup battery kit comes with an optional set of solar panels that can be set up anywhere, replenishing your HomePower 2 in hours… or you could just traditionally plug the generator into a socket in your house and juice it up for a rainy day. Once recharged, the HomePower 2 can hold onto all that energy for an entire year, making it much more affordable and easy to maintain in the long run.

For eco-conscious travelers and adventure seekers who want their environmental footprint to be minimal, this collection of mindful camping accessories is the way to go. Made with the idea to give your camping a glamping lift – sans environmental impact, the glamorous camping accessories have a sensory appeal and are all powered by clean energy. Yes, everything from the tripod-style fire pit to the drip coffee brewer and the hanging pendant lights to tableware is powered by the sun. The reimagined camping gear is made in a way that it can charge by the day and emit by night providing you an exciting experience out in the wilderness.

This fleet of sail drones is comprised of solar and wind-powered USVs that acquire data on climate change and weather conditions through AI technology and over 20 advanced sensors, leaving a minimal carbon footprint while exploring international ocean waters. Amounting to around 1,500 pounds, each sail drone comes equipped with a photovoltaic sail that’s designed to keep each sail drone powered up as it sails right into the eye of a hurricane. All in an effort to understand hurricanes and global weather events, for years Saildrone has been developing the technology necessary to map the ocean floor while measuring water temperature, salinity, and chemical composition. Once programmed for navigation, the said drones can sail autonomously from waypoint to waypoint.

The Seeon 180° backpack is easily the most advanced bag I’ve ever seen… and I’ve been writing about innovative bags for 6 years now. The fact that it carries your luggage from point A to point B is an incredibly small part of what the Seeon 180° backpack does, but an incredibly important one too. The bag even has solar panels and a built-in power bank to allow these features to operate, as well as to charge your gadgets… and if that wasn’t enough, the bag has its own light-strip that automatically illuminates in the dark, allowing cyclists and other pedestrians spot and avoid you while you’re walking on the pavement or crossing roads.

Rather than heading to the pharmacy to get the medicines, this autonomous robot brings home the needed supplies in a safe and secure manner. Even more vital for the elderly or patients who cannot visit the pharmacy due to underlying medical conditions. The robot has a large screen to display the instructions about the medical product that’s being hauled for a smooth and informative process. The USP of this medicine delivery robot is its onboard drone that attaches to the back. When it is time to deliver the medicines, the drone attaches to the delivery compartment courtesy of the rails and flies straight off to the patient’s window for a hassle-free and safe hauling of vital medicines. The drone has solar panels on top to soak up the sun’s power for a flight anytime, anywhere.

This beach umbrella comes with an origami-inspired design that unfolds to display a photovoltaic array that generates electric power which gets used for further refrigeration and cooling for the beach people. Measuring 2.5 meters high and a 3.2-meter diameter, this umbrella’s transformation brings to mind the mechanisms we see on the NASA spacecraft. The entire setup can be used individually or be rigged together to generate electricity that can even run an ice cream freezer on the beachside. It’s perfect for a private beach or even a luxury beach resort where these umbrellas can be deployed to keep the machines churning.

This sustainable energy producer basically depends upon a plug-and-play system. The system works perfectly with WZHM Architects’ Sunrider bike (a solar bike). You connect mySUN to the bike, and generate your energy, as you ride the bike! The energy is created via biomechanical power and is even stored. Since an average person generates almost 100 to 150 watts of power while riding a stationary bike, by combining mySUN to the Sunrider bike, you can produce enough energy to power the lights of a 300-square-foot space for a whole day! How cool is that? It’s the perfect combination of human and solar energy!

Designed for use by the public, both the Fluid Cube and the City Snake primarily function as city benches with the same technical attributes. The Fluid Cube is a 9 cubic meter cube structure that partially encloses two parallel benches with an overhead roof for shelter during bad weather. The City Snake, a 7.5-meter outdoor bench that curves and bends to provide unique sitting options to travelers looking for a bit of respite. While the two structures provide seating for the public, they also come equipped with solar panels that generate power for some of the structure’s more technical features. Raised parts of the City Snake accommodates traditional solar panels, while solar cells are overlaid on the Fluid Cube’s glass roof. The solar panels on both of the structures yield power to use the built-in USB charging outlets, the WiFi hotspots, as well as the benches’ lighting systems.

Satechi portrays the Cybermouse as a super tough mouse for professionals and people who are hooked onto their screens all day long. It doesn’t stop at that, the mouse comes with solar and wireless charging making it a next-generation accessory – ready to top the charts selling like hotcakes. The next level 20,000 dpi speed ensures it is suitable for gaming or editing tasks – making it perfect for any user type. Oh yes, and if I just forgot to mention, you’re not alone if you see a stark resemblance to the Tesla Cybertruck – even the color seems to be inspired by the upcoming beastly EV. Yes, the name also gets the ‘Cyber’ alright, so nothing stops me from reimagining this as the Cybertruck of the mouse world.

Christened the Stella Vita, the curvacious camper is the work of 22 student teams at the prestigious university in the Netherlands. Unlike another solar-powered house on wheels, that rely for the most part on external electric power, this one is purely powered by the sun’s energy without any external assistance. It’s made possible with the 8.8-meter square solar array on top of the roof – capable of generating power for the 60-kWh battery. In the parked mode the slide-out panels span out for an impressive canopy area of 17.5 meters square. To add to the goodness, the pop-up roof expands the vertical area for two people to move around comfortably. They can cook comfortably in the kitchen or take a shower too with this feature.

This portable microgrid in a box combines human and solar energy, creating a source of renewable energy!

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I’m all for alternative sources of energy, but a portable microgrid in a box, that combines human and solar energy? That’s the first I’ve heard of it, but that’s what mySUN promises to be!

If there’s one thing that COVID -19 has taught us, it’s that we cannot take life as we know it, and our world for granted. Because things can change within seconds, and without any warning. Protecting, preserving, and taking the utmost care of Mother Earth should be our number one priority now. And one way of doing this is taking climate change seriously, and truly combating it! WZMH Architects is invested in creating smart energy solutions to face climate change head-on, and reduce the need for fossil fuels. One of their super cool inventions is mySUN! It’s basically a microgrid in a little box, run on a bike! WZMH Architects teamed up with Ryerson University to create this “personal green energy-producing machine”. mySUN can be used to power and support almost everything – from LED lighting to mobile devices, and even air conditioning units.

This sustainable energy producer basically depends upon a plug-and-play system. The system works perfectly with WZHM Architects’ Sunrider bike (a solar bike). You connect mySUN to the bike, and generate your energy, as you ride the bike! The energy is created via biomechanical power and is even stored. Since an average person generates almost 100 to 150 watts of power while riding a stationary bike, by combining mySUN to the Sunrider bike, you can produce enough energy to power the lights of a 300-square-foot space for a whole day! How cool is that? It’s the perfect combination of human and solar energy!

The portable voltage DC box is small enough to fit into the walls of an apartment.  Zenon Radewych, Principal at WZMH said, “The mySUN can be integrated into a community of buildings that are DC-based, all feeding from the same DC microgrid. Green energy is then created through the use of solar panels, wind turbines, or energy bikes, and is stored in battery packs that are part of mySUN.”

Imagine the potential of such a creation! mySUN could be used to power entire apartment complexes and buildings, without having to set up complicated and huge electrical plants. There would be no need for copper wiring in buildings as well! Hundreds of mySUNs could be set up to generate sustainable energy and power whole communities.

Inventions like mySUN can drastically reduce our carbon footprint and provide alternative sources of energy that are renewable and economical. In a world that is truly trying to become more sustainable and greener, innovations like mySUN are a Godsend!

Designer: WZMH Architects

These floating tiny homes designs are the eco-friendly solution our planet needs!

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Global warming is no longer a myth lurking in the background – it is our reality and its effects are being felt across the world, the latest being the series of heatwaves hitting the USA and Canada as we speak. Tiny homes are the trend in many ways – be it from reducing the amount of space needed, from a population and overflowing cities point-of-view to increasing portability of the living space. The increase in work from home culture has re-connected us with our wanderlust and proved that the quality of work is not dependent on our office space. The tiny homes shown here range from futuristic designs to innovative, sustainable solutions that float to keep you safe – be it pollution or rising sea levels!





The idea of the Ocean Community vessel is to extend a city’s coastline. By existing not more than 800 meters from the coast of a city, the dwellers of the Ocean Community can easily make their way to the city to access facilities and enjoy a normal city life before heading back to their sea-based home. “The creation of these new structures will serve as fully functional living spaces connected with existing land infrastructure so that new ocean communities become a natural extension of coastal cities,” says Morsztyn, designer of the Ocean Community concept.

The Z-Triton Electric Houseboat was created to serve as an alternative to the traditional camper. It is comfortable enough to house two adults for a weekend getaway, and the choice of land or water is up to the travelers. The amphibious nature of the modern camper fits into the flexible lifestyle we lead today, especially since air travel is not on the cards anytime soon. It is opening up a lot of avenues for local trips in less popular/offbeat locations. The durable houseboat measures 3.6 meters in length, 1.2 meters in width, and 1.55 meters.





Anthénea is a UFO-shaped water suite made in France by veteran designers, engineers, and naval architects, whose vision was to create a nomadic vessel for eco-conscious tourists. It was a project born from the dreams of Jean-Michel Ducancelle, a naval architect, who was inspired by James Bond’s floating pod in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977). The 50 sqm pod has three living spaces – a living area, a sleeping zone, and a lounge area that features a 360° solarium on its roof for 12 people. All interior elements are entirely made from sustainable materials. Anthénea adapts to a wide temperature range (-30°C to +40°C), and its stabilizing ballasting keeps the seasickness at bay! Coastlines are often overburdened with tourism, and Anthénea offers an ecological way to lighten that load while promoting sustainable travel, which is our ultimate future.

ecohotel1

This Eco-Floating Hotel in Qatar is raising the bar for eco-friendly travel and tourism! Powered by wind + solar energy, it also features tidal sustainability mechanisms and a revolving restaurant to give you ALL the best views. Designed by Hayri Atak Architectural Design Studio (HAADS), the hotel would span over 35,000 sq m (376,000 sq ft) and house 152 rooms. The giant glass donut-shaped structure has a lush green cover integrated into its exterior and a mesmerizing indoor waterfall with a huge vortex-like glass roof. Sustainability is at the core of this project, and all of the design details are centered around it. For example, the vortex shape of the roof will actually be used to collect rainwater for irrigation and more, while solar panels + wind turbines will provide clean energy.





According to NASA, Maldives is arguable the lowest-lying country with an average elevation of just 3.3 feet above sea level, which means the island republic will soon have to rely on sustainable housing alternatives. The archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean has 1190 islands, and 1000 would be submerged at the current rate of sea-level rise. This project is called Maldives Floating City (MFC) and will be constructed just minutes away from Male, the capital. The team comes from a Netherlands-based studio Dutch Docklands, a world-renowned leader in floating infrastructure. MFC’s shape will be series of honeycomb-like hexagonal maze rows inspired by the Brain coral. It will feature thousands of waterfront residences floating along a flexible, functional grid across a 200-hectare lagoon. The system of floating rows is anchored to a ring of islands that form the base and the stabilizing breaker wall for all the structures – this was the primary reason for placing MFC in an ideally suited small lagoon.

This two-story home crafted from shipping container materials and Sapele wood is designed to rise and fall with the natural changes in sea level as we battle climate change. Kairu is a variation of the Japanese word for frog which is an homage to the water-based home. The area is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy even after a decade and could use innovative reconstruction. That is where Kairu House comes in as an affordable, sustainable, and resilient home. It will become the primary residence for the founder and principal architect of Rekstur and his family. The main building is made of two 40-feet-tall shipping containers. The repurposed containers are cut in half (diagonally) and stacked on top to make separate floors. The two steel sectional barges were welded together to create a single platform for the house docked at a local marina.

Forget waterfront offices, what about an office literally on the water? Think of Enclaves as office meets lazy river (productivity levels not included with the structure). Remote work and flexible lifestyle have seen a boom thanks to the pandemic, which has led to many innovative designs like this floating office pod which is a low-impact concept offering the best of views with maximum privacy for focus. Designer Agnieszka Białek who made this zen office pod, is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, Poland, which explains the picturesque theme. Białek was inspired by her usual pandemic strolls (which were the highlight of all our lives) along the Vistula River and thought of how cool it would be to have floating co-working spaces that would have no footprint on the land. You will have to use a kayak to get to the pod, effectively eliminating any disturbance people. The pods will be designed to be active day or night and can be rented by the hour to host meetings, change the scenery or just get into a deep focus zone!

Designed by Dutch architect Marlies Rohmer, Waterbuurt sets the stage as a water-based solution for Holland’s modern housing needs. The Netherlands actually means, ‘the low-lying country,’ indicating the country’s close proximity to water. In fact, much of the country’s land is either below sea level or just slightly above it. In order to go with the flow of the approaching tide and avoid the surging population in urban centers, Waterbuurt adapts to the rising sea levels and finds calm away from the congestion of the city. Upon completion, 18,000 homes will comprise Waterbuurt, but for now, more than 100 of them float on jetties. The houses, which are permanently fastened to steel pylon-enforced moorings, resemble attractive shipping containers and share more in appearances with land-based housing than the familiar houseboats dotted along Amsterdam’s canals.

Considering the accelerated rise of global sea levels, Copenhagen Islands are only the beginning of how urban design will adapt to the changing climate by optimizing the water bodies as sustainably as possible. “To renew the proud traditions of the Danish harbor life, by strengthening the social cohesion and awareness of the maritime life in and around the harbor,” says Studio Fokstrot as they explain the idea behind the floating parks. The islands are activity-friendly and enable visitors to enjoy boating, swimming, kayaking, picnics, performances, events, and more which could also boost tourism or simply make things better for citizens with travel being on the down-low this year. These programs can also be customized for seasons – summer is when the islands will be docked away from each other to create space for water activities while during winter the islands will huddle up closer for more engaging performances.

The Lilypad is a luxury villa designed by Chuck Anderson and is anchored just north of Sydney’s Palm Beach. Anderson is a boat enthusiast so it is no surprise that he created a floating house! This beautiful Airbnb is also eco-conscious, it is completely solar-powered and is slowly helping us pivot towards sustainable travel. The exterior of the house is made from timber and includes an open living area, a wine cellar, a sleeping loft, and, of course, a bathroom (for all that wine that we will consume post quarantine on our holiday!). To feel fancy, you have alfresco dining (which means you can eat your food while enjoying the breeze and sun when going outside is cool again) and sunbathing area on the lower level which also boasts of an expansive terrace.

Sustainable Product Designs to ensure you travel and holiday in eco-friendly style!

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Everyone is veering towards sustainability! Living sustainably, consciously, and considerately has become imperative now. And traveling shouldn’t be an exception! We all love jet-setting off on holidays, and it’s now our moral duty towards the environment to vacation as sustainably as possible. From staying at hotels and resorts that support eco-tourism to using travel products that are sustainable, there are many minor steps we can take that will contribute to a major change. In this spirit of green traveling, we’ve curated a collection of product designs that promise to make your next trip as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible! These are products that are not only conscious of the environment but also capable of catering to your needs as efficiently as possible. These unique designs could completely transform how we travel and vacation. Enjoy!

PriestmanGoode’s sustainable inflight meal service has completely transformed the conventional meal tray we are so used to receiving on a flight. “We’ve used a wide range of materials for our design concepts,” says Rowan. And they’ve kept their word. Each element is either partially edible, reusable, soluble, or biodegradable. They’ve ditched plastic meal trays for partially edible ones made from coffee grains and husks mixed with a lignin binder. The miscellaneous food containers that fit into the tray have been made from wheat bran. Banana leaf or algae have been combined with rice husk to create lids for side dishes like salad. Whereas a wafer has been used as a dessert lid, hence the materials symbolically reflect the food. Instead of having several pieces of single-use cutlery, the handy ‘spork’- a combination of a fork and spoon- made from coconut wood has been adopted. The usual plastic containers for milk or sauces have been abandoned in exchange for edible pods created from soluble seaweed.

A team of designers created RHITA – a suitcase that is super easy to assemble and disassemble which makes it easier to repair or recycle. “Every year hundred thousand of discarded luggage caused by damaged wheels, handles, shells or shells that are deformed or damaged by collision, hard to be repaired or disassemble for recycling, bringing great impact to the environment. Hence, design for assembly and disassembly allows the suitcase easy to repair or recycle, reduced parts by simplifying the structure and minimized material used, downsize shipping volume to decrease carbon footprint boosting sustainability,” says the design team. RHITA’s simplified structure reduces the number of parts used in production by 70% when compared to traditional suitcases. Even the space needed for transportation has been reduced by 33%. It features an innovative hinge system and a unique installation method – no glue or rivet for fixation, no sewing of the inner lining, maximizing the space inside as well as a quick fasten and loosen wheel mechanism.

The Green Box is an innovative solution that aligns hotel stays with your sustainable lifestyle choices! It is an amenity kit designed to help hotels to transition to a circular economy and avoid the waste generated by tens-of-millions of amenity kits are thrown away by hotel chains – we use them once but they last forever on our planet. Green box is made from compostable plastic which will let hotels industrially compost and organically recycle the items in a controlled environment. The design goes beyond providing functional value and also aims to educate guests about the material and its impact to encourage better choices even after the vacation ends. Each box comes with a disposable bin for the room to familiarize guests with the new kind of waste stream. The guests will sort materials as compostable and non-compostable by simply following the color grading – green for compostable and white for general waste.

PANGEA’s Bamboo Adventure Towel 2.0 is carbon-negative – they pull more carbon out of the atmosphere than they put in, leaving the earth in a better condition than it was before. Unlike most travel towels which come made from plastic microfibers, the Bamboo Adventure Towel 2.0 has absolutely no plastic used in its construction. As its name suggests, it comes crafted from 100% bamboo fibers, dyed with natural dyes, and woven into a waffle pattern for effective absorption and exfoliation. Designed for the outdoors, the towels are up to thrice as absorbent as your average microfiber towel and are naturally hypoallergenic and anti-bacterial. In fact, the towels even come with reinforced slits on the corners, so you can suspend them and use them as makeshift sunshades, or even wear them as cloaks or ponchos.

It’s no secret that washing your derriere with water is more efficient, hygienic, and sustainable as compared to toilet paper. After all, you don’t wipe your dishes clean with a tissue after eating in them, so why use tissues on your behind? I’ll admit, it’s a culture-shock changing how you clean your behind, but given that the US alone uses more than 6 billion rolls of toilet paper annually, it’s an ecological crisis we can’t ignore. Besides, ironically enough, toilet paper takes tons of water to produce. Using a battery-powered motor and an internal water tank that you can top off before you head to the loo, Sonny generates a micro-shower to help you clean up after your business, effectively, hygienically, and sustainably. With an easy-to-use interface, Sonny comes with normal and high-spray settings that shoot water for anywhere between 25-40 seconds (depending on the spray intensity), enough to clean your behind. Besides, much like a bidet, Sonny can even be used on your nether regions too, to keep things hygienic and fresh.

This gives a completely new meaning to the word ‘papercut’! Say hello to the Paper Razor, a sustainable alternative to the disposable plastic razor. The Paper Razor, as its name suggests, comes with an all-paper body and sports a metal blade-head on top. Designed to be flat-packed, the single-use razor comes completely unfolded and can easily be put together in a matter of seconds by merely folding in the sides and the top to create a rigid, ergonomic razor with a grippy handle. Its origami-inspired design gives it as much strength and maneuverability as a plastic razor, while minimizing the use of plastic by as much as 98%. The result? A razor that can be easily flat-packed and shipped, used, and then disposed of… safely, of course. It’s perfect to carry around and use on your work or leisure trips!

Designed to be a reusable travel cutlery set with a difference, the Cliffset doesn’t just focus on portability, it focuses on maintenance too, by being perhaps the only cutlery set I’ve seen that comes with its own cleaning tool to clean up after you’re done eating! Everything fits in a portable pouch that’s small enough to fit in your pocket or slip into a backpack, and is designed to be carried everywhere you go and be cleaned and reused over and over again, giving you the comfort of knowing that you’re using your OWN cutlery (as opposed to using cutlery in restaurants) made from reusable materials, which you don’t need me to tell you is a much better option compared to the use-and-throw plastic cutlery that pollutes our planet and oceans.

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. These are perfect for listening to your favorite tunes on those long travel journeys!

The ClickStraw addresses the inherent flaws of the straws before it. Plastic straws are an environmental hazard, paper straws become soggy, bamboo straws end up developing molds, and metal straws are difficult to clean. Made from high quality and sustainable TPE, the ClickStraw is designed to be used multiple times, and moreover, is easy to maintain. Its hollow, tubular structure can be opened out completely, allowing you to rinse the inner surface of the straw, giving it a deep clean. The ClickStraw’s innovation lies in a ziplock-bag-style snapping fixture and a live-hinge that run along the length of the tube. To clean the straw, slide your thumb in and it opens up. Once you’re done, click it shut like a zip-lock bag and you’ve got yourself a spanking clean straw that doesn’t degrade, get dirty, or worse, corrode like your metal straws. You can now carry your own reusable and sustainable straw whenever you travel, instead of using those pesky single-use plastic straws!

There’s a certain, undeniable convenience to the plastic bottle. It’s easy to just take off the shelf, drink from, and then throw away once you’re done. You don’t need to worry about carrying a bulky bottle along with you that occupies the same amount of space, even when empty. The convenience of plastic is addictive, but it comes at a price. There’s a garbage island the size of Texas floating around in the pacific sea, COVERED with plastic bottles we used and threw away without batting an eyelid. Plastic bottles are preferred because they’re more convenient than carrying your own bulky empty bottles around with you, but the Origami Bottle may have a solution to that convenient problem. Designed to be reusable, but more importantly, be collapsible, the Origami Bottle folds down to 20% of its original size when not in use. Small enough to easily fit into any bag without occupying much space, the Origami Bottle neatly folds down to a nice, portable puck that’s easy and convenient to carry around. When you need to fill it up, the bottle opens up to a full size of 25oz (750ml).

Sustainable product alternatives to mass-produced everyday designs so you can lead a green lifestyle!

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The world is drastically changing, and it’s affecting the way we live and function. Although the irony is that the world is drastically changing because of our unhealthy practices and us! It’s now imperative to live more sustainably, carefully, and consciously. Integrating sustainability into our day-to-day lives has become crucial! And we can do this in various ways. Designers and creators are coming up with sustainable alternatives for almost everything! Every product that is necessary and utilized by us in our everyday routine has an eco-friendly alternative to it. Replacing our usual mass-produced designs with these greener options will make a huge difference to the environment and Mother Earth! From reusable totes made from fruit skins to the world’s first disposable paper razor, we’ve curated a whole collection of sustainable products that will have major functionality in our daily lives. It’s time to go green!

This gives a completely new meaning to the word ‘papercut’! Say hello to the Paper Razor, a sustainable alternative to the disposable plastic razor. The Paper Razor, as its name suggests, comes with an all-paper body and sports a metal blade-head on top. Designed to be flat-packed, the single-use razor comes completely unfolded and can easily be put together in a matter of seconds by merely folding in the sides and the top to create a rigid, ergonomic razor with a grippy handle. Its origami-inspired design gives it as much strength and maneuverability as a plastic razor while minimizing the use of plastic by as much as 98%. The result? A razor that can be easily flat-packed and shipped, used and then disposed of… safely, of course.

Using totes instead of single-use shopping bags can help reduce your carbon footprint even further if they’re made of sustainable materials. To offer a sustainable alternative, designers Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten and Lobke Beckfeld made Sonne155, a reusable tote and sustainable alternative to the paper bag. Sonnet155 is entirely made from biodegradable materials to ensure that each bag can break down into water or soil. Hehemeyer-Cürten and Beckfeld constructed the tote bags from the composite of two raw materials: cellulosic production waste from the textile industry and pectin, which partially mimics the gelling effects of gelatin. Cellulosic production waste comes from cellulose, the structural cell wall found in plants, while pectin is a plant-based polysaccharide derived from the skin of fruits.

Designed by Carvey Ehren Maigue of Mapua University, these panels can be crafted into windows or walls which will harvest solar energy and convert it into electricity. Three things that made me instantly fall in love with this design are 1) clean renewable energy 2) using crop waste and 3) lower electricity bills. AuRUES was inspired by the phenomenon of the aurora lights which is a whimsical natural process that occurs when luminescent particles in the upper atmosphere absorb energy from UV and gamma radiation and emit it as visible light. The panels mimic this process by embedding similar luminescent particles in resin so that when the sunlight hits the panel it absorbs the UV and produces visible light. The light is then directed towards the edges of the panel where regular photovoltaic cells collect the energy to turn it into electricity. The colors of the luminescent particles come from dyes that were made from waste crops which makes this a closed-loop system.

The Dissolvable Noodle Packaging finds a unique, no-waste packaging solution for instant-ramen. Instead of wrapping the noodles in layers of plastic (with an extra plastic sachet filled with the tastemaker powder), Holly decided to develop an edible, spice-infused biofilm to package the noodles in. When you want to cook yourself some ramen, just insert the pre-packaged noodle cake into hot water and the biofilm dissolves in the water, turning it into a flavored broth! “The packaging becomes the sauce”, says Holly, who managed to design and develop her solution right in her own kitchen! The biofilm uses simple, edible ingredients like potato starch, glycerin, and water. “The ingredients are blended and heated until the mixture is at the right thickness. At this point, I add the spices and flavorings before pouring it into a mold to set for 24 hours”, Holly mentions.

Based out of Geneva, theGVA (The Green Value Attitude) is trying to perfect the ‘business model of paper’. theGVA’s notebooks aren’t just sustainably grown, each notebook’s purchase actually adds back to the environment more than it took from it. The ‘eco-friendly’ notebook comes with FSC paper, grown under internationally certified sustainable conditions, made from a combination of virgin wood pulp (cultivated responsibly from well-maintained and managed forests), as well as recycled paper. The cover of the notebook comes crafted from a uniquely tactile and smooth bamboo ply. Given how rapidly bamboo can be cultivated, the bamboo harvested for the notebook covers can be well accounted for within just a few months. The covers are left bare, giving you the freedom to either color in your own cover, or etch out your company’s graphic. The notebooks are all hand-bound and hand-stitched with leather spines, and complete with an elastic band to hold it all together.

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Not-so-fun fact: New York City alone generates enough plastic lid waste to cover the entire earth THREE times. To solve this issue and keep coffee from spilling on your clothes, Unocup designed an ergonomic paper cup that folds into itself to create a spill-proof lid! Just fold over each flap and insert the tab to close the “lid”. To open, it is a simple press of a button that will gently open the flap instead of trying to carefully pop off the lid – praying for you if you attempt that with long nails. This cup has a unique shape that fits into your palm, the uniform structure creates a strong and consistent body that will not cave under pressure, unlike traditional paper cups. The drinking curved spout is specifically designed to fit your lips naturally as opposed to the otherwise flat plastic lids. You can also fold flaps backward and drink from the rim just like a normal drinking glass.

“The Prescription Paper Pill Bottle, a first of its kind, is 100% compostable and biodegradable. Its open-source design adheres to FDA regulations for durability, light, water, and child resistance. It’s available to any pharmacy for filling prescription tablets and capsules. Once used then emptied, the paper bottle can be tossed into any compostable bin with its Rx label to decompose and be reused as fertilizer to safely replenish the soil in fields, gardens, and landscapes,” says the team. Tikkun Olam Makers made it an open-source design which means anyone anywhere in the world can use their method and make their own paper pill bottles by downloading the .stl file that contains the attendant images and assembly instructions.

Gabriel Steinmann created P0 (pronounced pio like the letter and number) which stands for ‘project zero’  – a storage and shopping solution for food that aims to reduce consumption emissions. P0 helps us to switch to and maintain a plant-based diet and reduce the amount of food waste. The design blends organic and sustainable materials with an earthy aesthetic to invoke warmth and a more personal relationship with the items we use. Its ceramic body and textile lining help encourage a deeper appreciation for the food we consume and make us more aware of how much food we actually need to minimize wasting it. It is also a practical and attractive utensil in your kitchen – “a symbol of change, of becoming a little bit more human,” as rightly described by Steinmann.

Not-so-fun-fact: suitcases are not recyclable and end up in the landfill 9 out of 10 times. To combat this waste that stems from our love for traveling, a team of designers created RHITA – a suitcase that is super easy to assemble and disassemble which makes it easier to repair or recycle. RHITA’s simplified structure reduces the number of parts used in production by 70% when compared to traditional suitcases. Even the space needed for transportation has been reduced by 33%. It features an innovative hinge system and a unique installation method – no glue or rivet for fixation, no sewing of the inner lining, maximizing the space inside as well as a quick fasten and loosen wheel mechanism.

Element 0 is altering how shoes are designed and manufactured by making sustainability just as important as comfort. This means re-engineering the shoe’s materials in a way that benefits your feet as well as the environment. Element 0’s sneakers sport a unisex design built from both naturally sourced as well as recycled materials (the company is even transparent about where and how they source their materials). The shoes rest on an outsole that’s made from rubber as well as recycled cork, quite literally putting a spring in your step; while an insole crafted from a combination of wool, corn-fiber, wood, and natural latex gives your foot a comfortable surface to rest on that’s also water-absorbent and anti-odor. To cap things off, Element 0’s outer body balances aesthetics with breathability as well as sustainability. The fabric on the outer body is woven from plastic yarn sourced from recycled PET bottles as well as discarded fishing nets.