John Stein is into demolitions, but not in the way one might think.  The founder and president of California-based Kirei USA has a knack for finding the possibilities inherent in the unwanted.

This vision shows clearly in every Kirei product, including the newest line, Windfall.  These engineered panels are produced in partnership with Windfall Lumber, which takes Douglas & Hemlock Fir from deconstructed buildings in the Pacific Northwest and brings the reclaimed wood to fresh, new life.

“It’s great to reuse demolition material that would otherwise take up space in the landfill,” says Mr. Stein.  “Having it become beautiful wood panels is even better.  This is old-growth wood that just can’t be found any more, and we get to bring it to designers.”

Windfall is manufactured in the United States using low-VOC adhesives.  The reclaimed wood is milled into strips of differing width, which are then randomly stacked to form the panels and cut to size.  Panels are available either solid or 3-ply with a NUAF/FSC-certified core.  They may come unfinished, with a clear coat that shows off the natural grain, or stained and prefinished in Anthracite, Mocha, Ivory, and Leather colors.  The result adds to any interior.

And as Windfall gives stylish new life to reclaimed wood, so the other Kirei lines bring new purpose to certain types of agricultural waste.  Kirei Board, Kirei Coco Tiles, and Kirei Wheatboard use reclaimed agricultural fiber from plants commonly grown for food around the world.

After harvest, waste from sorghum (an edible grass), coconut, and wheat plants is usually thrown into landfills or burned.  Now much of this unused material is removed from the waste stream, reducing landfill use and air pollution while giving rural farmers a new source of revenue.  Rapidly renewable or FSC-certified wood are used as bonding strips, greatly reducing the need for newly harvested wood for building.

Manufacture can be more involved than with particle board.  For example, with Kirei Board the sorghum stalks are compressed, washed, and woven into sheets.  The latter are then stacked and heat-pressed with a formaldehyde-free adhesive to create blocks, which are cut to desired size.

Kirei offers a similar product made of Moso bamboo.  The plantations from which this fiber is taken are generally reclaimed farmland, which helps to preserve uncut habitat.  Panels are available in a wide variety of colorways, including the luscious looking new Chocolate, probably the favorite out of all the bamboo treatments that I’ve yet seen.

These four products are suitable for architectural millwork, cabinetry, flooring (though not in high traffic areas), wall displays or covering, furniture, and decorative objects – in short, any application where one would normally think of using wood.

To round out this versatility Kirei came out with their Canamo Hemp Panels.  These are made with a no-added-formaldehyde resin and reclaimed hemp hurd fiber left over from fabric & seed oil manufacture: over 70% post-industrial recycled content.  The panels are produced in 48”x96” size and are offered in a variety of thicknesses, all left unfinished so that designers may best tailor the product to individual need.  According to Kirei, the hemp panels may be used for the purposes above.  Ceiling panels are also available.

Collectively, the Kirei philosophy may yield several LEED credits for one’s project, which in itself is wonderful, but there’s much more to it that that.

The word kirei is a Japanese adjective signifying many meanings, including Clean, Pure, Beautiful, and Truthful.  Under John Stein’s direction the company strives to embody its namesake as an ideal.  His business aims to stimulate the economic activity of its source regions by providing new jobs at fair market wages.  By using recycled products and efficient, sustainable practices, Kirei works to lessen humanity’s impact on natural resources while contributing to clean, healthy, and aesthetically pleasing indoor environments… with a eye to the latter quality.

“Green has to be beautiful,” says Mr. Stein.

“If you’re going to do green for green’s sake you’re going to have a very limited market – people who have health issues or people with a conscience.  If you have beautiful materials that happen to be green, then really they’re open to everybody.  I regard it almost as a gateway drug to other green activities.”

With the visual appeal of the Kirei product, perhaps we’ll see many new converts to the sustainable ethic.  Let’s hope so.

~ Emerald

Images courtesy of Kirei USA.

Today, however, the sheer energy-inefficiency of a traditional fireplace can make it a less-than-desirable fixture in one’s household.  Yet the allure of captive flame remains.  So, how to satisfy that ancient longing?

Why, bypass the fireplace, of course.

Enter Wall Flame I & II, the sleek brain-children of Michael Rösing, managing director of Radius Design, in Brühl, Germany.  Gone is the large, surrounding containment structure, gone the flue, gone the chimney.  In short, gone is the fireplace itself, and in its place is left a simplicity of flame.

All the romanticism, with none of the attendant mess.  Perfect.

Both versions offer a high-grade steel base – the Wall Flame I featuring a curved, one-piece mounting system, while the Wall Flame II’s rear piece is shielded in glass.  They’re available in a variety of different materials, including tinted glass and high-gloss, brushed, or powdered stainless steel.

Both styles can be installed in nearly any type of home.  They’re safe, user-friendly, and boast low fuel consumption.  The appliance’s combustion chamber houses a “ceramic sponge” that assures a stable, even, fully adjustable flame that will burn for up to four hours at a time.  In addition, the appliance is TÜV® approved, which attests to its quality.

Splendid… but why feature it on a blog for sustainable interior design?

Put simply, it burns clean.  Eschewing the conventional use of propane or natural gas, Wall Flame (like of all of Radius’ Home Flame Collection) runs on liquid bio-ethanol.  The fuel burns residue free and largely produces steam and carbon dioxide.

Visit Radius Design to find out more.

~ Emerald

There are modular homes and modular walls and modular floors…  but have you seen a modular plant?  No?  I hadn’t either.

But the clever folks at DIRTT Environmental Solutions looked into their imaginations and saw a vertical garden: rows and ranks of pretty, VOC-absorbing plants marching up any given wall.  Then Sustainable Industries looked at Breathe and named it one of the Top Ten Building Products of 2011.

So what is this thing?

Its parent company calls Breathe a “simple system for incorporating plants into DIRTT walls… to bring nature indoors and beautify and detoxify interior spaces.”  From a home-owner’s perspective, the modular planter looks like a splendid kitchen herb garden… or a sunroom fixture… or an arresting floral display in a well-lit entranceway.  If mounted to the wall about four to six feet upward, it could be a boon for pet owners wishing to keep their house plants safe from marauding cats or dogs.

In addition to easy installment on DIRTT modular units the “living wall” can be mounted to any pre-existing flat, vertical building surface: a desirable treatment for dull, bare concrete or brick walls with nothing cheerful to say otherwise.  Designers could content themselves with the simple statement of a single row of plants or potentially convert an entire wall into a soothing, visually delightful space.

Imagine banks of fragrant herbs or a living patchwork of flowers gracing the walls of a previously bare courtyard or boring employee break room.  Wouldn’t that help company morale?

Imagine a relief of green writ large upon the so-often-uninspiring walls of academic institutions.  A green school: lovely!  Look at the pretties!

There’s a lot of potential for this product just waiting to be tapped.  Take a moment to come see and find out more.

~ Emerald

Image courtesy of D Sharon Pruitt

Each New Year is an opportunity to turn over a new leaf.

For me, we are just three days into 2012 and I am already in love with it!   This year is lined up to be an amazing one, if I can just rise to the challenges and possibilities awaiting me.  New work, new focus, new places to be and experience.  Wow!

But I’m not what this post is about.  What I really want to use this time for is to find out a little more about YOU, so I thought it might be fun to ask you a few questions this week (along with the usual posting about great new design).   Here is the first one…

Which word or phrase best describes to you the concept of designing with consideration for the environment?

Thanks for visiting and Happy New Year!

Rachel

Okay, so I’m a sucker for the Victorianesque.  But isn’t it exquisite?  Thanks to the collaboration of Glasgow architectural model makers Finch & Fouracre and the folks at Another Studio for Design in London, U.K., one needn’t have a grand estate in order to own a beautiful Victorian hothouse… in miniature, that is.

As it was designed to emulate the ornate steelwork of 19^th-century greenhouses the Plantini is a lovely accent piece in its own right, but there’s a practical reason to like it.  It’s environmentally friendly.

The kit comes in a box of 100% recycled paperboard, and the biodegradable planting pot is composed of bamboo and rice hulls.  The greenhouse frame itself is made of stainless steel.  Its avowed purpose is that of planter – to shelter one’s seedlings or nurture flowers – which means it can also help improve the indoor air quality of one’s home or office.

A removable canopy and etched glass panes brings light to the plants inside.

Also in the flat-packed DIY kit are viola seeds, the compressed compost in which to plant them, and instructions.  Once assembled, the model greenhouse is 9.5 cm (3.75″) tall, and would make a lovely conversation piece atop a desk, tucked on a windowsill, or on an entranceway table.

The Plantini is available here at the Postgarden website.

~ Emerald

The work of Corque Design is all of these and more.

This Portuguese company offers an interesting range of furniture & accessories, all crafted with cork taken from the Sobreiro (cork oak indigenous to the southern regions of Portugal).  Unlike wood, the harvesting of cork does not involve felling but merely the periodic gleaning of bark from the trees, which are left to continue growing in good health.  In addition to being a renewable resource, cork is recyclable, non-toxic and durable.  The bark is extracted manually, which involves no damage to the living tree, while the proceeding manufacturing process involves little waste and a low usage of resources.

But what really sets Corque Design apart from many environmentally-conscious companies is the sheer whimsy and versatility of its product line. Designers have lots of room to play.

Check out the modular seating system Lagarta, which can be configured to almost any whim, or the Puf Fup, a free-form seat of strung cork balls reminiscent of a bean bag gone wild.  Other options include the solid, toy-like Corqui and the more traditionally shaped frame chair, Vinco.

Moorish tile inspired another creation which can be used either as a desk or table, along with a matching sideboard.  In fact, the company offers three different sideboards, each with a distinct voice.

The theme can be carried further with cork hot bases for the dinner table, cork candelabras, even a wine frapé formed of cork.

But my favorite thing is the wall covering.  It’s simply beautiful and, through vibrant, is also soothing to the eye.  Other attractions are its natural ability to absorb noise, act as thermal insulation, and – the mom in me loves this – it is washable.  I hope more patterns are forthcoming!

In the US, Corque Design has product available at MoMA Design Store in New York, NY, and at Touch, in Los Angeles, CA.  An online store is in the works but in the meantime go check out Corque Design on the web.

~ Emerald

The little wooden robot sits there, head cocked, arms outstretched, vacant drilled eyes staring into space.  Its expression is puzzled and innocent.  It looks like it wants a hug.  It’s cute.

Sometimes, in the earnest seriousness of striving to live green, we forget our sense of humor.  Marjolaine Poulin of M Design hasn’t forgotten… and she loves nothing better than to make other people smile, hence the little army of wooden robots marching out of her workshop in El Salvador.

Marjolaine (“Mao”) has taken scrap wood & discarded furniture and raised them both into art.

A native of Quebec, Canada, Mao splits her time between Montreal and El Salvador, always looking for inspiration.  Her introduction to woodworking came in 2004 in Guatemala, where she learned classical bamboo carpentry from a Taiwanese master.  Shortly afterward she began crafting her own designs hoping to promote bamboo’s many advantages as a building material in Central America.

Bamboo, a fast-growing, imminently sustainable crop, grows in diverse climates and after treatment is strong, durable, yet lightweight.  Discoveries of its usefulness and applications continue to expand.

“In the United States and France,” Mao said, “It is possible to get houses made entirely of bamboo, which are earthquake and cyclone-resistant and internationally certified.”

Her own work with the material is on a more modest scale, consisting of beautiful furniture crafted from bamboo and tropical wood.

Mao has recently turned her attention to a problem local to Montreal: unwanted furniture abandoned on the city streets.  As though collecting lost puppies, she rescues the unloved, discarded furniture and gathers it in her workshop, where it waits to be transformed.

“I walk around my workshop and try to mix and match,” she explained.  “To repair or repurpose old things with more old things.  To be able to sell my pieces at a reasonable price, I try to buy as little new material as possible, which means I need to be really creative and reuse as much as possible.”

This pastime blossomed in 2010 with the Scrap Project, an exhibition of Mao-transformed furniture, the second edition of which took place this past August.  The positive feedback from the show’s first run freed her this year to explore new techniques and let herself slip into the creative process.  And what are her plans for 2012?

“My Montréal’s workshop is full of amazing abandoned pieces of furniture and I can’t wait to start working on them next summer,” the artist said.  “I still have a lot of concepts in my head that I haven’t had time to bring to life, so that’s what the Scrap project 2012 will be about: making it real.”

For Mao, new is overrated.

“It makes me so angry to see how much stuff people in the first world are throwing away,” she said.  “It’s unbelievable how much a human can buy and send to the dump every year.  I wanted to do my part and feel better about the issue.”

Despite that anger – or perhaps as a salve upon it – there is a deliberate lightness to her work, which is full of opposites and contradictions, whimsical robots, clean lines next to old textures.  The unexpected often brings a smile, and it is that smile that opens doors in the mind to new ideas, like sustainability.

More information about Scrap Project 2011 is available on Mao’s blog.

~ Emerald

These are luscious floors.

How often does one get the chance to say that about something under one’s feet?   Luscious.   Yet the creations of DuChateau Floors evoke that word, and in addition serve as a reminder that an environmentally-friendly room does not necessarily preclude classical beauty and – dare we say it? – a gentle opulence.

The secret is in the polish.  While polyurethane, acrylic, and aluminum finished floors are prevalent in the United States, DeChateau offers a refreshing alternative: a floor crafted of new FSC-certified European wood that is distressed, finished with hard wax oil, smoked, and brushed to reproduce that wonderful age-old, worn, antique patina that speaks of history.

The hard wax oil is zero-VOC and preservative-free.  As you can see, it makes for a lustrous finish that brings out all the beauty of the wood… its depth, its grain, and sheen.

Shown here are examples from the company’s Riverstone collection.  I think the Seine & Thames floors particularly evoke the passage of time, while Arno seems more, well…  jazzy.

There are eight collections in all, each with their own voice and each easily spot-repaired with a minimum of bother and fuss.  (A real boon!)  Well-kept, maintained, oiled, the wood will only deepen in beauty.  Imagine using it as wall paneling or, for greater inspiration, check out the creativity of Musa Design in Seattle, WA!

To learn more about these durable, eco-friendly floors, please visit DuChateau’s website.

~ Emerald

Crafted in New Orleans by Matthew Holdren – whose gorgeous beds I featured back in May – the Kerlerec Desk is a pitch perfect piece of salvaged wood furniture.

Without hiding the history and character of the wood, Holdren manages to give it new life and new form.  Here, the desk top is made from 100 year old heart pine floorboards, salvaged from an old New Orleans shotgun house.  Imagine the dancing and toe tapping that must have gone in that jazz soaked atmosphere!  I think this desk would be the perfect inspiration for a writer.

I love the rich color of the heart pine coupled with the light green patina of the trim and beadboard drawer fronts.  Oh, and check out those drawer pulls!  You’ll often see them in the attics of old homes (like mine), with electrical wire strung between them.  Yep, those are the knobs from “knob and tube” wiring.  Terrific re-use idea!

Despite being made of salvaged materials, the desk itself is nicely detailed, right down to the contrasting color plugs on the legs.  Lovely!

To see more of Matthew Holdren’s terrific work visit his Etsy shop.

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

This is the first tour for the Newport Beach Green Home.

As you can see, this project is still in the early stages of construction.

Man, have you ever seen more beautiful framing?  Seriously, this stuff is a work of art.  Almost a shame to cover it up with drywall.  Of course, if we didn’t, I sorta wouldn’t have a job, would I?

Lots of people showed up.

Here is John Steed, the builder/general contractor, telling an admiring crowd about that awesome framing.  We also had Laura Minott Sanders, the project manager from Jeff Jeanette Architects, the homeowners Wayne and Shannon, and yours truly there to explain our respective parts of the project.  We all got to answer a lot of good questions, which is always fun.

Here is my little contribution to the tour.  A table full of shiny, pretty things!  Samples are so much fun, no?

Oh, and you know how I was just going on about how fantastic the framing was?  Well, if you thought that was great, check out this TEMPORARY staircase.

Now that’s a topflight flight of stairs!

By the way, we were actually having a debate about what to cover that adjacent wall with.  Although the solution is at hand, I thought it also might be fun to see what my readers could come up with.  So here are the parameters:

The staircase will be made of steel with strand bamboo treads.  The flooring will also be strand bamboo, in a medium tone.  We are looking for a material that is durable, cleanable, sustainable (of course), and has a great visual impact – without being too busy.  There will be a lot of light coming from a window wall above.

So, get out your thinking caps, and see what you can come up with!

To find out more about this project, visit the Newport Green Home website, or follow the project on Facebook.