Ah Uhuru, you clever scamps, you've done it again. The Brooklyn furniture designers, who we featured in our SHOP section earlier this year, make functional yet whimsical designs from materials that have been "reclaimed, recycled, repurposed, reused or otherwise rejected from their original function." We love that sort of thing, of course, so we're pretty excited about Coney......read more
Straight Line Designs are anything but. The 25-year old design workshop in Vancouver, British Columbia produces custom furniture, installations and private commissions with an offbeat, quirky sense of humor. Run by Judson Beaumont, Straight Line uses a wide variety of materials including local maple and pine that's been ravaged by pine beetles and is considered unfit for most commercial......read more
Emeco (Electric Machine and Equipment Company) has been manufacturing chairs in Pennsylvania since 1944. The sustainability-minded company makes sturdy seating out of 80% recycled aluminum, with an estimated lifespan of 150 years and a lifetime guarantee. Now, in a collaboration with Coca-Cola, Emeco goes even greener with its most iconic design, diverting plastic pop bottles from Coke’s......read more
Hailing from a long line of architects and carpenters, Gesa Hansen raids the family archives to create her wonderful line of furniture inspired by mid-century modern Scandanavian design. Now based in Paris, Hansen sources sustainable oak from local forests to produce unique and beautiful pieces under The Hansen Family mark. The limited line includes a curvacious coffee table, a desk with colorful......read more
These nature-inspired Di Corte wooden chairs offer a dose of the forest in your home. Designed by green furniture aficionados Andrea Magnani and Giovanni Delvecchio, the chairs feature raw bark details intermingling with finished wood. Manufactured in Italy by Resign. ...read more
Earlier this week, The New York Times business section featured a story on Meyer Wells, a small Seattle company that makes high end, custom furniture from urban trees downed by development, disease or storms. Started four years ago, the company has succeeded in the face of a recessionary economy, with sales pushing $1 million. “I really believe a designer can make better choices, and that......read more
The talk of the town at Design September 2010 in Brussels is an exhibition of Kwangho Lee's work at next-gen retailer/gallery Hunting and Collecting. The show, which is to runs from September 10-30, presents an overview of the talented Korean artist-designer's work and an animated projection of his creative process. Born in Seoul in 1981, Kwango Lee grew up in the remote countryside......read more
Nightwood is a Brooklyn-based design studio focusing on its own brand of reconstructed furniture and textiles. Owners Myriah Scruggs and Nadia Yaron seek out sustainable fabrics and discarded wood and furniture then deconstruct and recontextualize it into their line of modern-rustic home furnishings. Nadia explained their approach in the New York Times: “We’re making furniture for......read more
Indonesian furniture designer Abie Abdillah has a thing for rattan, the super abundant, highly renewable palm found in tropical climates around the world. Which is cool because so do we. Like bamboo, rattan is a fast-growing plant that's great for sustainable design. What makes it extra special is its strength and bendability. Designboom shared some pics of Abdillah's latest rattan......read more
In a converted gym in San Francisco's Sunset district, a collective of four artist-designers have joined together through a shared love of craft, surfing, and sustainability. Under the humble name of Woodshop, the group's workspace and showroom is filled with functional art made from reclaimed wood and landfill-bound objects. The studio is made up of four guys whose individual skills......read more