I have been advocating it for many years, theeco design, more than a trend and a sales tool, must become a reflex for designers who design the furniture and objects that embellish our interiors, our cities, etc.
This article in Le Parisien shows that eco design was widely represented at the last Maison & Objets fair which took place earlier this month in Paris.
Eco design represented by more and more design brands
In this article, you will find a testimony from Patrick Nadeau who is a pioneer in plant design. He is also the designer of the Laorus brand that we sell on www.1rdesign.com.
In this article, you will also discover new brands that have based their economic model on eco design.
I strongly invite you to read it!
"Even the king of plastic chairs is switching to plant-based... The world of design is thinking more and more about ecology, a way of protecting the environment and resources, but also of giving objects an extra soul.
"Among users as well as creators, interest in 'sustainability' is growing year after year," observes Franck Millot, director of Paris Design Week. "A designer doesn't just design beautiful objects: he or she participates in improving everyday life."
- Creators as scouts -
Architect and designer, Patrick Nadeau became interested in plants “first for aesthetic reasons”.
"I was looking for new forms, new spaces. Plants, through their colours, their materials, their transparency, create a sensitivity, an evolving, living framework", says this pioneer of plant design, who designs interior walls, suspensions and has even imagined a completely green social housing house near Reims.
As early as 1920, the American Richard Buckminster Fuller advocated a design that "made the most of the least". But it was especially in the 1970s that, in industrial countries, faced with the crisis and the oil shocks, the environmental issue began to deeply shake up the profession.
Today, the "energy transition" towards the post-oil era will require efforts from everyone, notes Patrick Nadeau: "we must take hold of these issues, otherwise many things will be resolved by standards rather than by thinking about lifestyles."
Manufacturers are starting to follow: the Italian Kartell, without denying the plastic that makes his mark, launched in April his first biodegradable chair, based on plant waste and microorganisms, at equivalent quality and cost.
"Ecodesign, which allows us to produce without destroying, is part of the arsenal of the future," its president, Claudio Luti, explained to Le Monde.
- Millennial and tomorrow's materials -
We rediscover, in a high-tech version, plant materials.
Linen, pressed in successive layers, formed the armor of Alexander the Great and supplied their canvases to the greatest painters. Resistant, capable of absorbing vibrations, cultivated in Europe, it nowadays composes, associated with a resin, snowboards, chairs, helmets, doors… replacing carbon and fiberglass.
Hemp, which requires little irrigation and preserves the soil, convinces in linens, insulation and construction material. Jute fiber delivers strong boat hulls. There is a great deal of research on algae, sources of light. In Madagascar, vetiver is woven, in demand in Europe and the United States.
Many objects also find a second life, sometimes more noble: it is "upcycling", "recycling from above", a wave which even affects luxury.
Marseille-based Boboboom draws on unsold factory items – liqueur carafes, textile roll ends – for its lamps and poufs. Dutch company Rescued! offers papier-mâché suspensions made from newspapers recovered from printing works. “Petite papeterie française” incorporates almond waste, leather and seaweed.
Hermès itself has been creating since 2010, in its “petit h workshop”, with materials that were once destined for the scrap heap.
And when the Maximum furniture workshop scours the industrial trash - which throws away a third of its raw materials - A. Absolutely Vintage Radios equips old radio bluetooth speakers.
- 'Slow design' -
Because "people want something unique," confirms a manager at Mahatsara, which sells beautiful African animal masks made from car body metal.
In ever denser cities, the roofs are becoming green, green spaces are popular (first priority of cities for six in ten French people according to an Ifop survey). And for its interior, the consumer demands more softness, authenticity.
A revealing trend is "slow design", with "a renewed interest in know-how, artistic craftsmanship, objects that have a history, where you can feel the imprint of the hand and the desire for responsible consumption", explains Franck Millot.
However, the ecological equation is not simple in a sector generating so many fashions. But the head of Paris Design Week sees a real change in the younger generation, "aware of the issues".
So, the young designer Julien Phedyaeff invented the "indestructible", a washing machine that can be completely assembled and disassembled (and therefore repaired), a way of fighting against "planned obsolescence". Two years later, he is looking for industrial partners to develop it.
Source: http://www.leparisien.fr/insolite/un-design-en-quete-de-nature-et-de-sens-21-09-2016-6138867.php
I hope you have discovered beautiful furniture and eco design objects ...