Not unlike skylights, daylight tubes are designed to bring sunlight through the roof and into the interior environment.  They differ however, in being able to concentrate light, thus utilizing a smaller amount of ceiling space for the same amount of illumination.  Their design also prevents UVA/UVB light from entering, virtually eliminating solar radiation and heat gain.

The new sun tunnel design by Velux takes this concept a step further by providing an additional diffuser which hangs below, allowing daylight to be bounced around a greater area and with softer effect.   Because this is full spectrum light, interior spaces look brighter, and more cheerful.  Studies have also shown a strong link between exposure to daylight and a persons sense of well-being and overall health, making the Sun Tunnel an even more worthy addition to any interior project.

Velux, and Ross Lovegrove (seen above) were recently awarded the Red Dot Design Award – Best of the Best 2010 for their Sun Tunnel design.

I hope their success with this design will encourage Velux to add even more products that combine great design with sustainable living.

…has become another man’s business.

SAGE in Design’s president and founder, David Lasher, has taken recycling to a sophisticated new level with the Raul Bench.  With a seat constructed from a mixture of 100% recycled newsprint, old corrugated cardboard and agricultural fibers, all sitting on a base made of 89.5% recycled steel, this is furniture with serious sustainability in mind.

I love the image of trash used as a printed pattern for the seat.  SAGE in Design can also use a company’s packaging materials for corporate branding which are then heat pressed into the seat panel, or the seat can be left “natural”.

Says Lasher of their furniture:

“…at Sage in Design we like to do things that people say can’t be done and our mission is simple we need to put an end to landfill waste and learn how to use our waste to build products. Most companies like to believe we can solve our waste problem by starting at the beginning of our waste cycle. We believe in starting at the end of the waste cycle, because the only way to solve a problem is at the root of the problem, Landfill.”

Of course, it’s not all trash talk at SAGE in Design.  They also make pieces out of materials like FSC certified wood, such as the Strata Bench.

Designed using Swamp Cypress (of all things!), layered with either FSC Maple, or FSC Teak, the Strata bench has a striking, yet simple form.  Like the Raul Bench, it has a recycled steel frame (stainless steel can also be requested).  All finishes are no or low VOC, and both pieces are made in the United States.

SAGE in Design offers many other items to the retail and hospitality trade, for use in hotels, retail shops and malls, amongst other places.  They have upholstered furniture, tables, planters, and even trash receptacles.

Yes, they are actually making trash cans out of trash.   Take that landfill!

The U.S. based company Air Dye has managed to do exactly that, by creating a new technology that can dye fabric without using a single drop of water!  This is an amazing advancement, and one we desperately need in the textile industry.  There is one problem though – other than getting the word out and encouraging fabric companies to give it a try…

The Air Dye system can only be used on synthetic fibers, such as polyester, nylon and acrylic.  That being said, with synthetic fabrics so prevalent in the interior design industry, the water and energy savings alone make looking for the Air Dye label a new must for designers.  And what are those savings you ask.  Well, according to Air Dye’s website:

“Synthetic textile-dyeing consumes 2.4 trillion gallons of water a year, enough to fill 3,700,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. AirDye reduces water use up to 95 percent, (Percentage include the production of raw materials used in our process).

Our one-step process cuts the energy consumption of dyeing by up to 86 percent.  That’s more than 2.8 trillion megajoules per year — enough to power more than 12 percent of the homes in the United States for a year.”

So who is using this new technology? So far in the interior design world,  Hunter Douglas Hospitality and FLOR carpet tiles have both signed on, and I’m sure many other companies will follow.  Particularly because the technology adds little, if any, to the cost of dyeing the fabric.  In addition, it is possible to do things such as print a different design on each side of a single piece of cloth, making for great possibilities in reversible draperies and other applications.

Imagine if all the plastic water bottles in the world (around 200 billion a year) were recycled into polyester fabric, and then dyed using Air Dye technology?   What a great step forward that would be.

So,… are you organized yet?  Have those mountains of paperwork found a home?  If not, you might want to consider going “paperless”.

Of course, there is no such thing as a completely paperless office, but there are many things you can do to reduce the amount of paper you generate or store.  Today we are going to look at some online solutions, as well as a company that takes all your paperwork and makes it disappear.

If you’re not familiar with the term “cloud computing”, you soon will be.  Cloud computing, also known as internet computing, is simply a program that runs on a remote server, as opposed to something that must be loaded onto your computer to run.  A major benefit is that these programs can be run regardless of your operating system.  It also frees up space on your hard drive, which is always nice, even in this day of the TB (terabit).  So here are some “clouds” you might want to consider…

Remember the Milk is an online to-do list program.  This popular program does a great job of keeping track of your to-dos, as well as send you reminders when the time comes to get things done.  It also integrates with Google Calendar, and is supported on the iPhone.

If you’re looking for a better way to manage your projects – and the people on them – Basecamp makes collaboration simple. You can share files, track time, schedule milestones, assign projects, and make to-do lists, to be shared, or kept “private”.

If you need a way to manage your contacts, leads, and proposals, Highrise gives you plenty of tools, and a centralized place to store them.

image via Studio I.T.

So new the paint is stil drying, Studio I.T.’s Studio Webware is an cloud version of their popular interior design accounting system.  Best part?  You pay on a month by month basis, which means there is very little upfront cost, and updates are done automatically.  As the information isn’t up on their site yet, you’ll need to contact Studio I.T. to learn more about availability and training sessions.

Now, that is just a small sampling of the programs that are out there, and I would recommend exploring several before making any decisions, but the number of such programs, and the way they will bring us ever closer to an actual paperless office, is astounding.

Of course, it’s all very for a smaller company to use these products, but what about larger firms, or the large commercial clients of larger firms?  How do they manage to reduce their bulging filing cabinets, and generate less paperwork in the future?

That’s where companies like AMI come in.  Not only can they take all the existing documents and quickly digitize and organize them, they can also provide business process management to reduce a future backlog of paper.  All of which will help bigger companies stay organized and clutter free!

Thanks for joining us for our “Let’s Get Organized” series.  We’ll see you next week for a bumch of new product reviews!

Monday – Let’s Get Organized, Day 1 – Sustainable Desks

Tuesday – Let’s Get Organized, Day 2 – The Naked Binder

Wednesday – Let’s Get Organized, Day 3 – Storage Solutions

Thursday – Let’s Get Organized, Day 4 – iPhone Apps

all images via Lutron

Perhaps the most elegant of Ivalo’s new offerings is the L’ale sconce (above).  With its low profile and gentle curves, it has an air of modern sophistication.  Made of cast aluminum.

The Aliante demi sconce can be ordered in a range of finishes, including anodized, powder coat and automotive paint.  Although the fixture itself has been offered for a while, the LED version is a new option available for the first time this month.

Like a piece of metallic fabric floating through the air, the Inflection sconce’s free form shape and soft folds are a real attention getter.  Pictured above with white LEDs, it can also be ordered with either green or blue LEDs.

With dappled light peaking out from between free form cutouts, the Silvus sconce evokes a walk through the woods, or a quiet stream, making it perfect for a spa setting.  Available in both a 30″ and a 24″ version, as seen above, the Silvus sconce can be used singly, stacked or even in a large group for a more dramatic effect.

And if your project is more “fun and funky nightclub” than “rest and relax retreat”, then Silvus is also available with a host of colored LEDs as well. Who said disco was dead?

For more information, visit Ivalo Lighting, a  Lutron company.

According to Tandus, the company hasn’t sent manufacturing waste to a landfill since 1994.  Add all the carpet they take back through their Infinity Initiative to that, and as of now they have diverted over 155,000,000 pounds of carpet from landfills.  So where does all that carpet go?

Tandus collects used and reclaimed carpet from any manufacturer and then takes it to a sorting facility.  Then they take the raw carpet and chop it up into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually pelletizing it.  From there it is heated, extruded and processed into their 100% recycled content ER3 backing material.  Add a lovely carpet face material to the top and Tandus has something to brag about!

The use of recycled materials as backing material doesn’t stop there.  At Greenbuild 2009 they were showing their Ethos modular carpet backing, which is made from the film used on shatterproof glass.  Composed of polyvinyl butyral (PVB), the film had no commercially viable use after the end of it’s useful life, until Tandus found its calling during research into carpet backing alternatives.

To find out more about the sustainability initiatives at Tandus, click here.

Happily, ASID, in conjunction with Wiley, decided to publish two books on the subject.

“Sustainable Commercial Interiors”, by Penny Bonda and Katie Sosnowchik, was the first to hit shelves, followed closely by

“Sustainable Residential Interiors”, by Associates III.  Both books are a treasure trove of useful information, including comprehensive coverage of subjects such as: certification systems, life cycle assessment, materials use and re-use, daylighting, and ventilation.

As each book is aimed squarely at the needs of the respective branch of interior design it’s written for,  a residential designer is not likely to get much out of the commercial book, and vice versa. One other thing to keep in mind is that a few things have changed since these books were first published in 2007, most especially the USGBC’s LEED system, which figures prominently in the commercial volume.  As of now I know of no plans to revise “Sustainable Commercial Interiors”, but I will let you know if that changes.

All things aside, whether you are just starting out in green design, or just want to expand your knowledge base, these books are must haves for your library.  You will find yourself referring to them again and again!

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