HAUTE NATURE » materials

meka world: prefab shipping containers

admin — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 17:46:35 +0000

A Meka prefab house can be finished in an amazing 7 days because they use shipping containers as the basis for the 4 models that the company offers.

Meka was created by three friends, one a designer, one an architect, and the other a developer, looking to create well designed, alternative dwellings that could be made and sold at affordable prices.

‘Meka’ (an acronym for modular, environmental, kinetic, assembly), is a combination of their design considerations with a manufacturing and ordering solution that delivers the most cost savings available on the planet.

terhi tolvanen: contemporary jewelry

admin — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:14:54 +0000

Amsterdam based, Finnish born contemporary jewelry designer Terhi Tolvanen is hands down my favorite. Her jewelry often incorporates wood pieces or other natural materials of gemstones and coral. Elevating the beauty found in nature, Tolvanen mixes forest branches of birch, hazel, rosemary, and heather with gemstones of agate, smoky quartz, aquamarine or ceramics.

Her textural work and color combinations are glorious! Inspired by mosses, fungi and toadstools that flourish on or near fallen trees she calls them the ‘jewelry’ of the forest.

Tolvanen’s nature love in her design shows the splendid beauty in the world around us.

reclaimed flooring: vintage wine barrels

admin — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 05:40:39 +0000

Fontenay Mills’ Vintage Barrel Collection offers discarded wine barrels in three distinct wood flooring products. The Stave is taken from the outside of the barrel where the hoops have been removed and features horizontal striations. Wine Infusion is acquired from the inside of the barrel and is characterized by a natural staining left by the wine. However, the most distinguished is the Cooperage, which represents the outside of the barrel head including its patina, cooper’s stamps and special markings.

A sustainable option for remodeling, the Vintage Barrel Collection gives your floor a special loft character or steam punk appeal.

good night green: crib mattress

admin — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 23:11:57 +0000

Nook presents the world’s most considered infant mattress, the Pebble. A unique air layer fosters oxygen flow inside the mattress, superior softness of all-natural eucalyptus fibers and unique pebbled surface that promotes air circulation.

Totally non-toxic, the Pebble Mattress has a breathable natural latex core and employs absolutely NO harsh chemicals or toxins in materials used, manufacturing process or in packaging. Extensive research and testing has led Nook to natural fire retardants and microbe-resistant fibers to help protect and comfort infants without compromising health benefits. The eucalyptus wicks moisture away from skin, helping sleeping infants maintain a consistent temperature. By making non-toxic mandatory, the Nook mattress is a cleaner, more breathable and more comfortable infant sleep system.

Available at Good Night Green

mushrooms as building materials

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:39:02 +0000

Philip Ross, an artist, an inventor and a seriously obsessed amateur mycologist, is studying fungi’s thin, white rootlike mycelium fibers. This super eco building material of the future is growing in dozens of shipping containers at Far West Fungi just outside Monterey, California. Ross is experimenting with the likes of shiitake, reishi and pom-pom and others to for dense bricks of the white spongy matter.

Mycelium doesn’t taste very good, but once it’s dried, it has some remarkable properties. It’s nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps more heat than fiberglass insulation. It’s also stronger, pound for pound, than concrete. Ross plans to create structures made entirely of mushroom. His first 6 ft tall and 6 ft wide archway is just the beginning.

via Time

time lapse: bamboo house assembly

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:18:00 +0000

warning** you might want to turn the music down on this time lapse video.

naya shoes: eco conscious manufacturing

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:15:42 +0000

Naya Shoes are eco-consciously made from chrome-free & vegetable-tanned leathers, organic & sustainable fabrics, nickel free buckles, heels made from sustainable bamboo, biodegradable latex foam cushioning, natural cork and rubber footbeds and outsoles made with recycled materials. Naya shoes are shipped in recycled paper boxes and constructed using water soluble glues and cements. These gorgeous shoes are priced from $100-150.

boulder landmarks of the future tour: logan-wiggins

admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:09:24 +0000

Recently, the Boulder Historic Society organized a ‘Landmarks of the Future’ tour. The most compelling home on the tour from my standpoint was the Logan-Wiggins home. A LEED platinum certified home created by Boulderites Jim Logan and his wife.

The energy saving features of the 2,400 sf home include a geothermal heat system, a ground source heat pump, R-13 windows, super insulated walls and ceilings and a powerful 10KW photovoltaic system on the roof that meters far more electricity back to the grid than it draws. The home stands in the same small footprint as the 1950 structure it completely replaced. The one story structure shows a modern fascade to the street, inside it feels like a box of light. This structure is all about daylighting.

Logan included a gray water system, dometic water tubing, mirror glazing with R-11, clerestory windows, daylighting and passive solar heat gain. Most of the lighting has led bulbs, local beetle kill lodgepole pine wood siding and recycled brick from demolished Denver building were used during construction. The framing uses engineered 8″ studs filled with foam insulation, all framing members at 24″ oc which uses 20% less framing overall. In the kitchen, the owners used Eco Top Counters, recycled paper bonded with bamboo fiber and finished with wax coating. The foundation walls are insulated concrete forms (ICF’s) sandwiching the concrete foundation wall between two layers of foam to provide high insulation. Ground source heat pump, geothermal bore holes 100′ deep in driveway the geothermal is 4x more efficient than conventional electric heat and also preheats the domestic hot water heat recovery ventilator that exchanges energy from exhaust air to fresh supply air. A 10kWh Photovoltaic System on their garage provides electricity to house, while the excess production is sent to the grid.

straw bale architecture: sustainable buildings

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:35:06 +0000

Building with straw bales is a sustainable renewable method of building green. Straw-bale construction has some advantages over conventional building systems because of the renewable nature of straw, its cost, easy availability, and its high insulation value. Don’t forget to watch the second video here.

bottle houses: building with recyclables

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:22:00 +0000

Bottle Houses seem to be primarily an American phenomena, but they are catching on around the world as a very low cost building material. Here are some beautiful takes on incorporating the opaque material.

More links:
Bottle Houses around the US.
Bottle Houses on Prince Edward Island
Fractal Bottle House
Charles Stagg
Vitreosity