Friday, September 26, 2008

Fernando + Humberto Campana: Their art & their curated exhibit at the Copper Hewitt



By Karen Uribe

If you’ve heard of the Vermelha chair, you’ve probably heard of the Campana brothers.

They are a two-man team of Brazilian brothers that are among the most ingenious designers in the modern art world. Their native Brazil is their home & inspiration. Each one of their creations are always wild, sensual & completely surprising. They say their inspiration comes from everything they see in Brazil. From the kids playing on the street, the street vendors selling all kinds of fruits, the poverty, the Favelas, the dense & lush scenery of the Amazon with it’s wild life & swamps. It all comes to life in each one of their creations.


Fernando + Humberto Campana: Their art & their curated exhibit at the Copper Hewitt

Friday, September 19, 2008

BLOB MENTALITY







A home-improvement project by Greg Lynn evolves into the Blobwall, a modular wall system produced by Panelite.

Its name may reek of science fiction, but Greg Lynn’s Blobwall was conceived under pretty prosaic circumstances. Inspired by kids’ outdoor toys and 1970s Italian interiors, Lynn had the idea to put a colorful plastic wall inside the home he is building for his family in Venice Beach, California. He designed a hollow plastic form—a blob, as it were—that could function as a whimsical alter­native to bricks, with heat-welding replacing mor­tar. The commercial applications quickly became appar­ent. “A very big percentage of small-scale construction is plastic,” he says. “But it’s some horrible beige plastic made to look like wood. I thought, Well, why not tackle this big chunk of the environment that, really, nobody designs?”

Lynn hopes eventually to take the idea even further. “It’s in the air that people are thinking of these three-dimensional cellular lattice structures,” he says. “The Blobwall is simply one of the first, or the first, manifestation of it. But I think it’s very applicable at a lot of different scales.” Lynn says that the blobs, or a variation on them, could even be applied to building-scale construction. The Blob­house? Now that really does sound like science fiction.

PROPERTIES
Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) is recyclable and impact- and puncture-resistant. The wall modules are available in three stan­d­ard configurations and five color palettes, or they can be custom ordered.

APPLICATIONS
Interior walls, partitions, and enclosures. (Panelite is currently testing its feasibility for outdoor use.)

COMPOSITION
Hollow “blobs” of LLDPE heat-welded into wall modules

Friday, September 12, 2008

THE FUTURE IS GREEN... BURKE, HOGUE +MILLS





Burke, Hogue, + Mills, an architecture and interior design firm in Lake Mary, Florida, believes that " Every site, every building, and every interior, should be designed to function in a manner that responds positively to the environment in which it occupies and the people who use it"

With that in mind, the company had it's first "art exhibition" this month. The employees created wonderful pieces of art with recycled scrap materials only. Using items like old carpet, metal, and colorful leftover laminent chips, the pieces of art turned out to be brilliant. Enjoy the show!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Framerica Facility Certified Green


Framerica's purpose built, New York- based facility has been certified as an Environmentally Preferable Product Downstream Licensed Facility (EPP Downstream) by the Composite Panel Association (CPA). The program is designed to provide retailers, distributors, designers, specifiers, OEMs, and consumers an easy way to identify environmentally responsible products.

Framerica has pledged to continue using its Bonanza Wood substrate from sources that are CPA EPP certified. It is the most widely specified environmental certification program for composite wood panels in North America. Framerica's entire manufacturing process has been designed to curtail any negative impact on the environment, which led to the company's request for certification.

Among it's actions, Framerica circulates its sawdust through a state of the art furnace system, using the energy in processing and to heat its facility, The most advanced fixtures and power systems also reduce impacts. Local initiatives include recycling all material possible. Company officials say that they will continue all "earth friendly" policies as a way of providing customers with quality products that help the environment.

For more information visit http://www.framerica.com/