Go Green - Repurposed!!!

Hi

We apologize for not keeping up with the posting schedule. Few other commitments kept us occupied. We are back with the new idea of salvaging wood known as re-purposed wood. We did mention in one of our earlier post about the new upcycling term which has been coined to represent a sustainable practice. This post as well is focussed on a trendy sustainable practice. We would love to implement this strategy for our home too. Have a look to find what we are talking about.

After the useful life of the wood, we tend to send it to recycle which involves certain amount of energy, transportation, etc. While this repurposing technique is cool and easy to adopt, and also contributes to environment.

 The above centre table is a repurposed wood from a salvaged door. The choice of colour of the legs makes it look trendy and unique.

 The sitting bench above is again a salvaged wood, reclaimed and re painted.

                    

The above item is definitely new and cool. The planters on either of the lawn bench make it aesthetic too. 

 The one of its kind idea to repurpose old books. It does not fall into the wood category but a good idea. While the longevity of this product remains a question to me, the idea seems quite different.

                           

A kitchen cabinet which is made up of scrap wood reclaimed from doors and windows gives a very different rustic feel to the space.

The head board of a bed with some salvaged wood 

Another cute idea of repurposed rubber tyres and some salvaged wood pieces make up to a beautiful landscape design.

While all the above items are good ideas, this one is a masterpiece. The crib was turned to a study table. 

We are very much inspired by this repurpose idea...we are planning to get most of our furniture done with repurposed wood and get a rustic feel for our home. Do you have like to have similar theme for your space. Write to us to know more details. 

[image courtesy: Pinterest]

Keep Visiting

J & R

Sunday Intro: Thomas Heatherwick's UK Pavilion

Hi

We have been featuring the best designed spaces under our Tuesday Tour segment, now on we will feature an Architect/Engineer/Designer's best work under the Sunday Intro segment. 

As part of the 1st intro, we chose the famous English designer, Thomas Heatherwick, the mastermind behind the London Cauldron stadium. While the Cauldron stadium brought in more fans for his work, we personally admire the UK Pavillion done by this ace designer studio at World Expo-2010, Shanghai, China. 

Considered as the one of its kind expo which features themed pavilions by different countries in the world which are done to represent their technology, culture and advancements, Heatherwick studio represented UK in the year 2010.

The pavilion itself sits on a crumpled landscape like enclosed in a wrapping paper. The surfaces of the pavilion were inclined, giving an amphitheatre atmosphere, with grey turf.

The Heatherwick studio's focus on the sustainable aspects is what we think is the commendable and contemporary thought for the theme "better cities, better life". 

With the building's façade representing the look of the grass, the building took its name as the Seed Cathedral with 15m hieght, the surface with silvery hairs consisting of 60,000 identical rods of clear acrylic, each 7.5m long which extend through the walls and lift up into the air. 

Using the concepts of the seeds from the seed conserving society as seen at Kew gardens botanical gardens, the building used 250,000 seeds cast into the glassy tips of these hairs. 

The daylight lights up the glass and the seeds inside while the light sources illuminate the box in the nights. 

The amount of detail and the concept to make it a seed cathedral connecting the modern day technology to the nature is what interest and amuses us in this design. The challenge to work this out in a constrained budget is definitely a daunting task. While the design won a gold medal, the pavilion had about 8 mi visitors which make it one of the top in tourist attractions of UK. 

While there many other marvels to his credit, we cannot stop admiring this one. Go for a video tour here.

Cheers

J & R

Green Walls

Hi

If you have come across vertical gardens or if you are growing one at your place, this may not seem a surprise. However, if you never saw one, this is surely going to awe you. Vertical gardens are Vegetation-Bearing Architectonic Structure and System. More than for its aesthetics, vertical gardens serve a very good purpose of space conserving greeneries. We are featuring some of the beautiful vertical gardens from across the world. 

Patric Blanc from France, is a pioneer in popularizing this vertical gardens. There are several works to his credit in France and around the world. In our research it is found that, Paris has the largest no.of vertical gardens.

This interior green wall is at the France embassy in New Delhi.

This exterior wall green cladding is done for Atheneaum Hotel in London. Don't you think greenery added beauty to the outsides.

As far as our research and visits concerned, Heathrow is one airport which adopts the best practices, one of which is green wall at sky team lounge.

We all are aware that Singapore is one the cleenest cities in the world, may be they are aiming for the green city too, here is the vertical garden wall at emporium shopping mall at Singapore.

Wondering if these vertical gardens only pertain to commercial places??? Not absolutely.This is a garden wall done for an apartment terrace.

If you ever had a chance to visit the Anthropologie Store at Regent street, London, you will love the green wall inside...our personal favourite.

The wall might seem good and interesting but if you want to adopt one or know the technique, here are the detailed illustrations. 

Thanks to Patric Blanc, for introducing and popularizing a sustainable concept to conserve space and yet have greenery around. 

There is a simple technique to get one in small spaces using recycled plastic bottles something similar like the one below...find the details here.

Cheers

J & R