Two young designers from Turin have created Deformazione Professionale – a line of clever new furnishings made from old unwanted doors. Founders of Studio Lacrime D’Arte, Valentia and Riccardo Sartori have created a bookshelf and a chaise lounge by recycling a total of four doors. The doors take on new functionality and a fresh look while keeping their characteristic traits – the handles and locks are retained.

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Post tags: Deformazione Professionale, Door Furniture, Minimalist Book Shelf, Recycled Chaise Longue, Recycled Door Bookshelf, Recycled Door Lounger, Recycled doors, Reusing Doors, Riccardo Sartori, Studio Lacrime D’Arte, Valentia Sartori

‘Just Desserts’ is a colorful cluster of glass lights made from recycled dessert bowls. UK-based designer Jay Watson created this intriguing lighting array by stringing up traditional glass bowls sourced from flea markets and second-hand shops. The lamps are set to make their official debut at Interiors LDN this May in London.

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Post tags: Dessert Bowl Pendant Lamps, Discarded Dessert Bowls, Glass Lamps, Interiors LDN, Jay Watson, Just Desserts, LED, London, Recycled Dessert Bowls, recycled lamps, up-cycling

The Drip LED Lamp designed by Italian designer Fabio Servolo is cleverly shaped as a tap and a faucet. Rather than being switched on, it is turned on exactly like a tap – by rotating the handle. The design draws a connection between the precious resources of water and energy, encouraging users to conserve energy rather than letting it ‘go down the drain.’

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Post tags: Conserve Electricity, Drip Lamp, Fabio Servolo, Faucet Lamp, green lamp, italian design, LED, Power Conservation, Recycled Materials, Spreading Awareness

Industrial design duo Leander Angerer and David Ross have redesigned a late Victorian-era staircase over three stories in a private home in northwest London for Cathal McAteer, founder of Folk Clothing. Reusing the existing joinery, Angerer and Ross have converted an exquisite Victorian staircase into a contemporary, light and musical structure by replacing the banisters with tennis racket strings.

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Post tags: Architecture, Cathal McAteer, David Ross, Handmade Project, Innovative Staircase, Leander Angerer, London, music, Musical Staircase, Woven Tennis Strings

Spotted at Dezeen, Cube 6 is an innovative piece of space-saving furniture that transforms from a cube-shaped stool into 6 distinct benches or tables. Designer Naho Matsuno used a system of rails to allow the legs of each small stool to slide into another, while the top of each of the small stool forms the 6 surfaces of a cube.

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Post tags: Cube 6, Cube Stools, Japanese design, Milan Furniture Fair, Mlian Design Week, Naho Matsuno, Salone del mobile, Salone Satellite, space saving furniture, Transforming Stool

Canadian designer Tat Chao has transformed discarded glass into a heterogeneous collection of recycled BIPOLAR lamps. Each lamp is made from a pair of wine glasses or champagne flutes that have had their bases removed. The glassware is collected via donations or second-hand shops before it is meticulously handcrafted in Montreal, Canada.

Read the rest of Tat Chao Recycles Second-Hand Wine Glasses Into Beautiful “Bipolar” LED Lamps

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Post tags: Bipolar Lamp, canadian design, Glass Lamp, Glassware, In Vitro Collection, LED lighting, recycled lamp, Recycled Wine Glass, Reused Glass, Tat Chao, up-cycling, Wine Glass Lamp

Swedish designer Alexander Lervik has created Lumière au Chocolate – a delectable LED lamp made of chocolate that slowly melts to let light filter through. Lervik worked with the Scandinavian LED specialists at SAAS Instruments to create the deceivingly simple lamp, which was unveiled at Galleri Kleerup in Stockholm this year.

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Post tags: Alexander Lervik, Chocolate Lamp, edible lamp, Galleri Kleerup, led lamp, Lumière au Chocolate, Melting Chocolate, SAAS Instruments, Stockholm, Sweden

Designed for a hotel chain in Cape Town, South Africa, the Cantilever Light by UK-based designer and architect Dr. Margot Krasojevic looks unlike any lamp that we have come across. The tube-like structure is comprised of a 5V LED strip housed in a tempered glass casing, which is balanced on a brass tube frame, offering a counterweight to stabilize the cantilever projection.

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", Brass Lamp, Cantilever Light, Cape Town, Glass Tube, green lighting, Hotel Lamp, LED lighting, margot krasojevic

In the wake of the recent hurricane, the significance of disaster management products is increasing steadily, and we are glad to see that young designers are already channeling their endeavors in that direction. Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Asnate Bockis brings us two lifesaving products as a part of her project ‘Floating Among Clouds’; a system created to adapt to a waterlogged environment and aid survival in times of floods.

Read the rest of Design Academy Eindhoven Graduate Asnate Bockis Makes Lifesaving Furnishings to Stay Afloat

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Post tags: Asnate Bockis, Climate Change, Design Academy Eindhoven, Design For Floods, Disaster Management, Disaster-proof design, Floating Among Clouds, Floating Furniture, global warming, Transforming Furniture

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Post tags: cultural revival, Fort Ross Bicentennial Festival 2012, Fort Ross Historic Park, Fort Ross Windmill, Link of Times foundation, Page & Turnbull, Russian Cultural & Historic Non-Profit Orgainisation, Victor Vekselberg, Windmill Replica

Exploring Designjunction at the London Festival this year, one of the designs that caught our eye was this beautiful and unusual lamp shades made of corrugated cardboard. Created by British designer Tabitha Bargh, the lamp is constructed using cardboard made from 85% recycled materials. While stunning in form, what really makes the piece stand out is the exciting lighting effect it creates through its entwined layers of the cardboard.

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Post tags: Corrugated Cardboard Lamps, Danboru1, Danboru2, designjunction, handmade lamps, London Design Festival 2012, recycled cardboard, sustainable lighting, tabitha bargh

The ‘How Come’ show at London Design Week showcased an array of great sustainable designs this year, but the one that really caught our eye was a display by designer Carmen Shiu called ‘repair the industry,’ consisting of tattered everyday objects repaired by using beautiful pieces of porcelain. We love how the little detail of adding a piece of painted porcelain enriches otherwise mundane objects like glasses and cups, giving them a totally new personality.

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Post tags: Carmen Shiu, ceramic design, how come, Kintsugi, London Design week 2012, Porcelain Pieces, Repair the Industry, Repairing Objects, Up Scaling, upcycling

City streets are a rough place for cyclists – they’re strewn with bits of glass, metal, and potholes, so popping a flat is virtually inevitable. Fortunately, designer Pat Ramey has created a brilliant Bike Pump Keychain that fits in the palm of your hand and can have you riding again in a jiffy – simply attach the adapter to an air compressor found at any gas station and fill ‘er up. The best part is that you’ll never have to lug around a cumbersome pump – a patch kit and the $12 keychain adapter are all you need.

+ This is a BIke Pump

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Post tags: Air Pump Adapter, Bicycle Flat Tire, Bike Pump Adapter, Bike Pump Key-chain, Design for Cyclists, Functional Object, industrial design, Key-chain Design, Patrick Ramey, Tire Air Refill

One of UK’s biggest retailers Marks & Spencer just opened a store on the outskirts of London – and even though it is the chain’s largest retail location it has managed to attain a BREEAM “Excellent” rating. Designed by architect Aukett Fitzroy Robinson (AFR), the 18,100 meter-square building sets a high standard of sustainable building in the retail sector.

Read the rest of UK Retailer Marks and Spencer Earns BREEAM Rating for New Daylit Store Near London

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Post tags: Aukett Fitzroy Robinson, Cheshire Oaks, Chester, Daylighting, green architecture, green roof, hempcrete, Marks & Spencers, renewable materials, Retail Outlet, Sustainable Building, UK Architecture

For all the times you’ve thrown out beer bottles by the dozens, Patrick Lehoux has designed Kinkajou, a bottle cutter that can easily turn all those empty bottles into a set of really cool drinking glasses. Named after a small South American mammal with big teeth, the Kinkajou, unlike the other bulky glass cutters, is streamlined, intuitive and easy to store in the kitchen!

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Post tags: Cutting Bottles, Drinking Glass Design, Glass Cutter, Kinkajou Bottle Cutter, Patrick Lehoux, product design, recycling initiative, Reusing Glass Bottles

Read the rest of David Mach’s Massive Waves of Recycled Magazines Sweep up Cars and Planes

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Post tags: david mach, Discarded Objects, Everyday Objects, Found Cars, giant sculpture, Installation of Discarded Magazines, Large Scale Installation, Mid-eighties art, recycled art, recycled magazines, Worldwide exhibitions

Bernardita Marambio B. Pecas has created a fantastic new seating option, utilizing salvaged textiles from factories in Santiago, Chile. Dubbed the Fase#3 Stool, the simple and clean form represents forward-thinking design, highlighted by a lovely blend of colors that make up its eco-friendly new textile, Demodé.

Read the rest of Pecas’ Fase#3 Stool Is Made From Textile Waste Reclaimed from Chilean Factories

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Post tags: Bernardita Marambio B Pecas, Chile Design, Composite Materia, Demode, Fase#3, recycled stool, recycled textiles, salvaged textiles, Textiles from factories, waste material

Though we all love fresh air, it’s sometimes hard to find time to stop and breathe while running the daily rat race – and being confined to closed concrete office spaces doesn’t help! Nendo has designed a cute little air purifier to counter this issue that works using essential oils extracted from fir trees. The AirLeaf Mini, designed for Japanese company Mikuni, can be simply clipped on to the vent fins of fans and air conditioners, and it’s ready to go.

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Post tags: air purifier, AirLeaf Mini, Aroma Beads, Car Purifier, clean air, fresh air, green design, Japanese design, Mikuni, Nendo

A good design should use as few resources as possible, and one of the best ways to achieve that is to build a structure using recycled materials. Architects Joshua Bolchover and John Lin of Rufwork have designed the Tongjiang Primary School with exactly this concept in mind. The school in the Jianxi Province of southeast China was built using recycled bricks from old broken down houses in the same district, salvaging these materials in innovative ways.

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Post tags: china, Jiangxi, john lin, Joshua Bolchover, recycled brick, Recycled Materials, Rufwork, school design, Tongjiang Primary School

Read the rest of The A47 Mobile Library in Mexico is a Modern Take on Archaic Reading Rooms

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Post tags: A47 Mobile Library, Book Mobile Design, Bookshelf design, Cultural Events, Fundación Alumnos47, mexico city, mobile structure, modern design, productora