momeld - modern living | modern design

No, Re:vision, designed by Craig Arnold, doesn’t snap photos, but you can enjoy a sense of style and good feelings with these bracelets made from recycled camera components.

+More designs @ Oye Modern

Keep your home’s energy consumption in check and grow a flower; become wasteful and watch it wither away.

Flowerpod, by Designord, is a playful attempt at measuring your homes’ real time energy consumption - a vital ingredient to a sustainable future. Most of us know we need to reduce our carbon footprint - and with key educational initiatives (and growing energy prices) many more find out it’s importance every day. But the problem remains: how to effectively manage your consuming on a daily, even hourly basis? Checking your energy bill every month is one method, albeit, an ineffective one as it’s after the fact and it doesn’t provide any real understanding of your using habits. Flowerpod can change that.

+ More about Designord
+via Yanko

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Become a Locavore and produce your own food at home with Local River. Conceived by Mathieu Lehanneur, Local River is a conceptual “aquarium-refrigerator” where one can breed his/her own fish and grow vegetables simultaneously.

Vegetables in the floating pots help purify the water by removing nitrates and other minerals - which in turn nourishes the plants. In this way, the plants and fish become interdependent in this man-made eco-system.

For those in NYC, this concept will be presented at the Artists Space Gallery starting 25 April. Via MoCo Loco.

+ What is a Locavore?
+ More about the designer Mathieu Lehanneur

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This is a look into one of Rural Studio’s more recently completed projects, The Hale County Animal Shelter. For some reason I missed the press about this project and did not know about it. The tours consisted of more driving than seeing projects due to the rural nature of the area. When we went sailing past this one in our cars I knew it had to be a Rural Studio project. Luckily we doubled back and I got to visit this treat as well.

It sits directly in front of a county jail and at first glance it appears as part of the vernacular of farming storage buildings and hay sheds. As you move past it you realize the beauty and complexity of this seemingly simple out building.

The Students used the cross braced Lamella structural system to shelter the animals. The challenge was to build a large building with off-the-shelf lumber. Keep in mind that students built this and not professional carpenters. Each piece is hand hand cut to fit in its particular spot. (I am sure that free student labor is the only reason that the structure could have been built as is) As you can imagine this was the longest running student construction project that the Rural Studio has had. The process began in 2005 with an intense 6 months of planning and is has just recently been ready for move in which will occur this summer.

The lamella structure makes the construction appear heavy but that is counteracted as the vault elegantly hovers over the landscape on steel feet. The skylight and long horizontal slits also begin to make it appear lighter.

The cat cages:

The dog are kept in between the offices and cat shelters which are towards the openings of each end. It is open airebut the concrete slab is heated in the winter. I imagine that the majority of it being open to breezes will be nice for the dogs and keep the smell less potent than most shelters. The skylights are positioned so that the animals will be shaded in the summer and get direct sunlight during the winter.

+ flickr set
Related Posts:
Rural Studio #1
Rural Studio #2
Rural Studio #3
Rural Studio #4
Rural Studio #5

Rural Studio #6

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We can’t help it. We are suckers for recycled furniture. Whether it’s beautifully hand-crafted furniture, bathtubs transformed into sofa’s, or lights made of milk, with some imagination and ingenuity just about anything can be recycled or re-used.
Brooklyn based Scrapile is one of many designers coming to the fore-front of recycled furniture. The two collaborators, Bart Bettencourt and Carlos Salgado, collect and re-use the discarded wood from New York’s woodworking industry.

+ Scrapile
+ via: 2Modern Design Talk

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Have a strong shopping bag, needle and thread, and double sided tape? Then, with a little effort, you can also have a crafty and certainly unique tri-fold wallet.  Feel good knowing you also extended the life of an otherwise throw-away product. Instructions

Link via Core77

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I was drawn to this dress by stewart+brown for its simplicity and classiness. Yet the detail of the hem line and back are neither simple or traditional. The extra folds and seem to compliment the dress well making it far from ordinary. Plus it is made from organic cotton.

Organic cotton is grown in soils that are never treated with pesticides and seeds that are not genetically engineered. Stewart+brown also claims to use dyes that “minimize environmental impact”, although it does not clearly state which chemicals are used during the dying process.

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By recycling old barns, cabins, and houses, Kentucky based Many Moons Designs, uses the finest of reclaimed materials to construct high-end cabinetry and furniture.

Four years in the making, the Starburst table uses salvaged painted wood along with light colored natural wood.

This next one is my favorite. Dubbed “Moons meets Mod”, this colorful console is made from recycled painted wood and natural Beech - all reclaimed from the Jim Beam Distillery in Louisville, KY. Oh, did I mention my favorite liquor is whiskey…but I’m usually a Jack Daniels fan.

And a couple more designs:

Many Moons Design is a great example of sustainable furnishings. Beautiful and well crafted, their work is a role model for all those manufacturers who want to take advantage of all that “free” material out there waiting to be re-collected. My only beef is that most items are still out of the price range of average consumers (i know because I am one). But that’s a function of the amount of labor involved. Worth it? Certainly. Start saving.

+ Many Moons Designs
+ via: Jetson Green

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Made from densely packed used magazines, the cleverly made Pulp Bulletin Board is both sustainable and very functional. Some things can even skip the push pin altogether and be wedged right in.

+ Urban Materials and Accessories

Nau’s New York boutique is having a sale from March 6 to March 9. I love their designs but what impresses me more is the fact they list each products environmental status. Their fabrics are organic and they do not use harsh dyes or acids.

201 Mulberry Steet, NYC map

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