With so many slick electric motorcycles on the horizon, it’s getting increasingly difficult to justify the use of polluting, petroleum-powered older models. But instead of sending old Vespas to the trash pile, Spanish design studio Bel & Bel has a more creative solution: turn the stylish relics into snazzy pieces of furniture!

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Post tags: bel and bel, green furniture, upcycling, vespa

Clothes hangers are clogging our landfills at a rate of nearly 8 billion per year. We’ve recently brought you designers who have been developing brilliant ways to tackle the problem through eco-friendly materials and innovative new designs. Now industrial designers Alex Witko and Courtney Hunt at Organelle Design have hit upon another great idea — Hangeliers, wonderful chandeliers made from off-the-shelf plastic and wood hangers.

Read the rest of Hangeliers: Clothes Hanger Chandeliers by Organelle Design

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Post tags: eco design, green design, green furniture, green Interiors, industrial design, Recycled Materials, sustainable design

The serene back-and-forth movement of a rocking chair is nothing if not relaxing. It can also be useful and productive, according to Rochus Jacob. The designer’s Murakami Chair, a winner in designboom’s Green Life competition, uses the kinetic energy produced by rocking to power an attached OLED lamp.

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Post tags: Design Competition, eco-friendly furniture, green furniture, green lifestyle, Green Lighting, home design, kinetic energy, OLED, rochus jacob, rocking chair

One of our favorite shows from the 2009 London Design Festival was Corn Craft, a beautiful showcase of sustainable materials hosted by Gallery FUMI and Studio Toogood. Held in Gallery’s FUMI’s personal live/ work space on Hoxton Square, the exhibition hit all the right notes with tactile, emotional art-design pieces by Max Lamb & Gemma Holt, Nacho Carbonell (above) and Raw-Edges Design Studio.

Read the rest of Art and Design Converge at the 2009 London Design Festival

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Post tags: green design, green furniture, industrial design, London Design Festival 2009, Products, Recycled Materials, sustainable design

Odds & Ends, Bits & Pieces is a beautiful four-piece furniture set made entirely out of re-purposed materials. Designed by Inhabitat favorite Jo Meesters, the spring-colored furniture was crafted using a variation of upholstering and weaving techniques and is an amazing transformation of 34 discarded wooden beams and 16 leftover blankets.

Read the rest of Odds & Ends Recycled Furniture Changes the Value of Trash

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Post tags: Dutch Design Week, green design, green furniture, recy, recycled, repurposed materials, Studio Joe Meesters, sustainable design, TESTLAB, Transforming Furniture

One of our highlights from Copenhagen Design Week 2009 was a well-curated exhibit of new Danish design titled It’s a Small World. The show asks itself how Danish design is reacting to the challenges wrought by globalization, climate change, and technology, and the result is a rather extraordinary and intriguing attempt to encapsulate the energy of contemporary Danish design.

Read the rest of Copenhagen Design Week: It’s A Small World After All

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Post tags: copenhagen design week, Danish design, green design, green furniture, its a small world, Products, sustainable design

Imagine a design exhibit design that’s completely recyclable. Transpose that vision to a set of artfully-arranged cardboard structures framing a large warehouse space, in a sunwashed wharf in glimmering Copenhagen. And that’d be ShowHow, one of the most genuinely sustainable of the many exhibits on display for Copenhagen Design Week.

Read the rest of Green Design Highlights from Copenhagen ShowHow

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Post tags: copenhagen design week, copenhagen showhow, Denmark, event, green design, green furniture, sustainable design

Skateboards these days are amazing examples of graphic design, and some are practically objets d’art – what a shame that they should to go to a landfill after the boards have lost their pop! Thankfully, Pennsylvania-based Deckstools is here to keep art from the trash heap and to add style to your pad with their striking line of furniture made from reclaimed skateboards.

Read the rest of Recycled Skateboard Stools Transform Thrashed Boards to Treasure

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Post tags: Art, craft, deckstool, green furniture, jason podlaski, philadelphia, reclaimed wood, repurposed, skateboard, skateboarding, skating, stool

Summertime is fun, but can be tiring — and all you need sometimes is to sit your tush down on some nice, comfy seating. And if you are like us, you want to be locating yourself on a nice bench or stool that is sustainably sourced and constructed. There is certainly no shortage of functional and eco-friendly furniture to be found out there, and this is what we noticed this week in the blog-o-sphere.

Notcot features a modular and biodegradable lounging chair made of plywood, and a stool made of chopsticks and steamer trays.

Core77 tells us about a hand-woven aluminum chair.

Re-nest is highlighting chairs made from recycled whiskey barrels.

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Post tags: "green furniture", eco friendly chairs, eco-friendly furniture, eco-friendly seating, green furniture, recycled furniture, Seating

If you are looking for a cabinet that is every bit as interesting as the trinkets that it contains, search no further. Open since April 2008, Tel Aviv-based Ori Ben-zvi’s Ubico Studio gives the world a refreshing take on repurpoused objects with his beautiful ready made products. His study of function, material and form is evident with their legged cabinet line – the twist is that the cabinets appear to be constructed from discarded drawers, but instead they are built from scratch from reclaimed timber that has been reworked into cabinet form. The angled back and the addition of legs allows the drawer-cum-cabinet to conform to the wall. This method of production enables Ubico Studio’s designs to be repeatable for larger run production, but also keeps the visual charm of a found object reborn into a second life.

+ Ubico Studio

Photos by Sahar Tamir, illustrations and graphic design by Ellia Nattel

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Post tags: cabinet, drawer, green furniture, Israeli, prototype, repurposed, research, Studio Ubico, study, surrealist

Old bequeaths new in Varian Designs‘ beautiful reclaimed furniture, which blends found materials and craftsman techniques with a modern aesthetic. Each piece in this sustainably crafted line is finished using all-natural old-world techniques, and extra close attention is paid to the details and joinery. In the Bartizan Desk pictured above, wood and steel are artfully brought together with the addition of a simple box for storage. The overall effect is a modern line of furnishings that celebrates each piece’s unique history, and we were excited to see lead designer Forest Dickey recently debut his latest collection at Dwell on Design.

+ Varian Designs

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Post tags: forest dickey, green design, green furniture, green Interiors, Reclaimed Materials, Recycled Materials, sustainable design, varian design

Austrian designers mischer’traxler have created a solar powered machine that makes an incredible array of furnishings that vary based on how much sunlight it receives over the course of a day. Titled “The Idea of a Tree“, the machine spins spools of thread into stools, benches, containers, and lamp shades that wax and wane as the available sunlight shifts. Variations in weather, the time of year, and other environmental factors create pieces of different shape, color, and size, instilling the furniture with growing, seasonal qualities that mimic photosynthesis.

Read the rest of Solar Powered Machine Spins Furniture Shaped by Sunlight

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Post tags: green design, green furniture, industrial design, misher'traxler, renewable energy, Solar Power, sustainable design, the idea of a tree

As one of Tel Aviv’s most thought-provoking new companies, Junktion, a young, edgy and innovative design studio, is breathing new life into the trash their city has cast aside. Junktion began in 2008 and has made their presence know in the contemporary furniture market with their unique approach to function and unwavering conviction to challenge how people regard junk.

Read the rest of Junktion Transforms Trashed Furniture into Treasure

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Post tags: Chandelier, green design, green furniture, industrial design, junction, junktion, phonelight, Reclaimed, Recycled Materials, reuse, sustainable design, Tel Aviv, telephone light

London-born designer Tom Price was commissioned by Arts Co. to produce a piece of work for ‘From Now to Eternity’, an exhibition celebrating design, and focusing on plastic as a versatile material. Addressing concerns over our increasing piles of wasted throw-away plastic products, he chose to create an ingenious series of chairs formed by strategically melting piles of polyester fleece.

Read the rest of Tom Price’s Melted Polyester Fleece Chairs

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Post tags: arts co, Chair, fleece fur, from now to eternity, green design, green furniture, London Design Festival, plastic chair, Recycled Materials, sustainable design, tom price

DRUMROLL PLEASE…

We are excited to announce the Inhabitat Editor’s Choice Awards for BKLYN Designs 2009! As we walked through the BKLYN Designs show this year we were thrilled to see fresh new faces and established designers alike unveiling an inspired assortment of locally-sourced designs made from recycled materials, elegant energy-efficient lighting solutions, and beautifully crafted furniture of every fit and form. Read on for our picks for the finest trends in future-forward furniture design!

MOST INNOVATIVE USE OF MATERIALS: FUNATURE BY HUGH HAYDEN

Hugh Hayden‘s fresh new line of FUNature repurposes plastic balls into a bright bunch of furnishing solutions. We were particularly impressed with his tennis ball chair, which is composed entirely of recycled tennis balls that have lost their bounce.

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN: PAPER LAMPS BY LEVENT & ROMME

Levent & Romme‘s elegant lamps consist of a single sheet of paper that has been laser-cut to let light shine through in beautiful patterns.

Read the rest of Inhabitat Editors’ Choice Awards @ BKLYN Designs

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Post tags: bklyn designs 2009, energy efficient lighting, green design, green furniture, Recycled Materials, sustainable design

HEY DESIGN LOVING NEW YORKERS!

BKLYN Designs starts tomorrow and we couldn’t be more excited! Running from May 8-10, this awesome showcase of local furniture design kicks off NY Design Week, and is one of our favorite events of the year. We’ll be pressing our noses up against the glass bright and early tomorrow morning and – as soon as doors open – racing around to see all the fabulous eco-friendly furniture on display, so we can report it back to you guys this weekend.

This year at BKLYN Designs we’ll be doing something new: we’ll be giving out ‘Editors’ Choice Awards’ to recognize our favorite green designs from the show during our annual Mother’s Day Green Design Tour this Sunday. We’re looking forward to seeing fresh new furnishings, great green products, and energy-efficient lighting solutions, so stay tuned for more coverage to come and if you’d like to join us at the event you can pick up tickets here!

And if you’re not in NYC, keep it tuned to Inhabitat this weekend and next week for all the latest on BKLYN Designs 2009

+ BKLYN Designs 2009

+ Inhabitat BKLYN Designs Coverage

Read the rest of BKLYN DESIGNS STARTS TOMORROW!

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Post tags: bklyn designs 2009, green furniture, green Interiors, Green Lighting, inhabitat green design awards, locally sourced design, Products, sustainable design

DRUMROLL PLEASE!

New York Design Week is about to begin and we’re kicking things off this weekend with our first ever Green Design Awards at BKLYN Designs! Running from May 8-10, this incredible showcase of locally-sourced design is one of our favorite events of the year, and we’ll be giving out ‘Editors’ Choice Awards’ to recognize our favorite pieces during our annual Mother’s Day Green Design Tour this Sunday. We’re looking forward to scores of fresh new furnishings, great green products, and energy-efficient lighting solutions, so stay tuned for more coverage to come and if you’d like to join us at the event you can pick up tickets here!

+ BKLYN Designs 2009

+ Inhabitat BKLYN Designs Coverage

Read the rest of Inhabitat Giving Out Awards at BKYLN Designs 2009!

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Post tags: bklyn designs 2009, green furniture, green Interiors, Green Lighting, inhabitat green design awards, locally sourced design, Products, sustainable design

The 2009 Milan Furniture Fair showcased an incredible assortment of furnishings, lighting, and housewares from all over the world, ranging from the well-established designers showcased in the main exhibition halls to the young designers and start-up companies exhibiting at Salone Satellite. Although in visiting the modern and contemporary halls of the fair I was disappointed by the lack of green design, it was encouraging to see that this year the fair is focusing on quality. Although the materials and construction of most of the furniture would not be considered sustainable, the intention is that the pieces will last a lifetime. Many of the designs also allowed for modularity, or reconfiguring over time. Read on for our favorite green design finds from the show!

Read the rest of MILAN 2009: The Best of Green Design

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Post tags: best of green, eco-friendly materials, energy efficient design, green design, green furniture, Green Lighting, industrial design, milan furniture fair 2009, Salone Satellite, sustainable design

Heads up East Coast design junkies! BKLYN Designs, New York’s preeminent showcase of locally-sourced green design is kicking off next week from May 8th through the 10th, and Inhabitat will be on the scene to bring you all of the latest from the show. Based upon the tremendous success of last year’s event we’re looking forward to another weekend filled with brand new releases by an acclaimed set of sustainable designers, enlightening lectures, and our very own Jill Fehrenbacher will be hosting another Mother’s Day Green Design Tour. We’ll also be kicking off our first ever Inhabitat awards, where we will carefully vet all designs on display and give awards to our favorite green designers at this year’s show. Check out our BKLYN Designs coverage from last year and don’t miss out on this groundbreaking event – buy your tickets today!

+ BKLYN Designs 2009

+ BKLYN Designs 2008 Coverage

Read the rest of BKLYN Designs Begins Next Friday!

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Post tags: bklyn designs 2009, brooklyn design show, green design, green furniture, green Interiors, Products, Recycled Materials, sustainable design

Looking for fun, modern furniture for the little ones in your life? We just spotted Spanish kids furniture designers Ninetonine at the Milan Furniture Fair, and we are as excited as kids in a candy store about Ninetonine’s playful, eyecatching designs. The Zebra Crib, shown above, takes the form of a zebra with some extra functional design features, such as a ‘head’ that can be used as a tray to holds bottles, and a ‘tail’ that is a set of shelves and wheels. Best of all, when your baby starts to grow out of the crib, you can easily convert it into a day bed.

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS>

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Post tags: green design, green furniture, Inhabitots, ninetonine, sustainable design, zebra crib