Friday Favorite: DalNaturel Rubber Flooring
British synthetic rubber flooring manufacturer, Dalsouple, recently retooled a factory to accommodate a back-to-the future type of floor tile called DalNaturel. It’s worth getting excited about. Their new product is made of 100% genuine rubber.
Most vinyl flooring is made from petrochemicals rather than rubber – the real thing. Dalsouple harvests its rubber from Hevea trees in South America. The trees are highly efficient at extracting carbon monoxide. This off-sets the emissions created in the manufacturing process. And the end result is a natural product with the same durability as synthetic alternatives.
That’s all good. But while you can make the greenest product in the land, if it’s ugly no one will buy it. Designers won’t specify it. What I really like about this green product is the color selection. Along with the standard muted tones, DalNaturel comes in real brights that are wonderfully eye-popping.
Don’t think of this as a commercial product. These would look fantastic in a home. How about a beach house, a basement, kitchen, laundry room or bathroom? They’re easy to install, too. With some careful measuring you can do it yourself.
You can find DalNaturel via Kasthall, their US distributor. Or contact your favorite designer.
PS: Dalsouple is holding a design competition for students and designers. To find out more, click on this link.
Seed Magazine Takes on Design
Bringing together the worlds of architecture, design and science, Seed Magazine’s site now features some interesting lectures from some of the top of the design food chain. I thought you might be interested in viewing them. Click here to access their video page.
Seed is a science magazine. However, they’re expanding their horizons to incorporate views and news from the design world. I think it makes an interesting pairing.
As Seed tells me, “Greg Lynn and Chuck Hoberman, to Matthew Ritchie and Natalie Jeremijenko, to Henry Markram, the Seed Design Series videos offer thoughts on environment design, designing the human mind, computational origami, and more.”
I hope you enjoy some interesting views on design and the environment.
Cool Recyled Product from Smile Plastics
Smile Plastics makes panels similar to 3Form except theirs are made from recycled products like Wellington boots, CDs, and now discarded cell phones. The boots and CD panels just look like a wash of color. But the mobiles (as they’re called everywhere else in the world except here) really look like the phones. Much cooler in my humble opinion.
The Mobile panels are 6mm thick and can be used for just about everything. Furniture, wall panels, etc. You can see examples on their site. I think one of these would look great hung from the ceiling as instant art. Or how about a headboard? File this product under A Thousand And One Uses.
Dwell & AIA “How Green Are You” Contest
Dwell.com and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) would like to know, “How Green Are You?” This contest, which runs now through June 20th, is your chance to show how green you are, and win some great prizes for it.
The most inspired entries will be posted on the competition pages on Dwell.com and evaluated by Dwell’s editorial staff and AIA architects. The grand prize winner receives $1000, and two runners-up will receive $500 each from the AIA to apply toward their next big Green Project. Here are some of the latest entries, which you can view here.
To enter, simply pull together up to four images of your green or sustainable project, and write a 250-word description of the project that highlights the most important aspects of the project, including material names, vendors, etc.
Projects will be assessed on their sustainability, functionality, originality, cost effectiveness and design, and the submissions will be judged by Dwell.com editors and AIA architects. To enter, or to find out more information, visit Dwell’s “How Green Are You?” page here.
Seaweed Lamps by Julia Lohmann
I found these lamps over at Inhabitat. Kelp lamps from Kelp Constructs. Designer, Julia Lohmann has been experimenting with kelp, and exploring its potential as a sustainable material.
To read more about it and see more photos, scoot over to Inhabitat here.
