Week 4 – WOOD & PLANT-‐BASED DERIVATIVES Images for discussion
Mia Liu -‐ I am Mia Liu This is from a series of works by Mia Liu, who works with simple materials like paper to create stunningly beau<ful pieces. In this case Mia Liu has worked with <ckets that were produced for the show that the work was presented in at the Guggenheim Museum in 2008. I like this stunning piece of work has been created from re-‐used, or re-‐cycled materials, and that the subsequent processes that she then uses on the elements are very simple and quite 'low-‐fi' in a way. There is a link below to her flickr stream which has more amazingly detailed pieces of work that have been exhibited all around the world. I am Mia Liu Guggenheim Museum <ckets, India ink and Plywood 2008 56.5" x 56.5" x 3" hOp://www.flickr.com/people/mialiu/
Barkskin:. Barkskin is a wall covering made out of the bark of trees. The process it is made is environmentally sustainable and dates back to pre-‐columbian <mes.'Bark is processed with cold and then boiling water, hand pounded and sun dried. When applied it is evoca<ve of leather, stone or parchment.' This material can be used for wall covering, furniture and lampshade manufacturing. I am not a big fan of wallpaper but this par<cular image caught my aOen<on. That is because i had never imagined that something so beau<ful could be made from bark skin. Because of it being an organic material every piece is unique and i think the texture is very aOrac<ve. Also it seems like a great solu<on for recycling trees especially thrown out christmas trees. Here is the link for the site: hOp://barkskin.com/
Claire Zeisler Zeisler is an American fiber ar<st, working mostly with jute. I chose her work because of the powerful image her installa<ons create... somewhat creepy, somewhat spiritual, and rela<ng to tribal works done around the world. Its feminine quality and powerful concept make her works inspira<onal to many.
Corck This beau<ful (un)designed speakers make use of cork both for its elas<c proper<es (to seal the porcelain enclosure) and for its electrical insula<on proper<es (to protect the connectors).
Shigeru Ban Shigeru Ban's paper architecture focuses on using cardboard elements (aesthe<c and structural) as the main material of his design. In this example of the paper house in Japan, he uses cardboard columns as part of the structure holding the ceiling and at the same <me as a wall.
Paper water boKles he name “360” is indica<ve of the holis<c meaning of the program. “ Instead of just styling a polymer in a new way, we wanted to travel 360 degrees and restart the thinking and the total criteria of containing water from beginning to end.360 degrees also creates a circle that is illustra<ve of our planet” explains Jim Warner, Managing Director of Industrial Design at BrandImage. The design of the boOle addresses water containment in all respects. At Brand image they have challenged the “norms” of produc<on, shipping, filling, visible material, shelf impression, labelling, mul<-‐packaging, structural integrity, opening and resealing of the closure, and ul<mately what is being disposed. The package u<lizes sustainable sheet stock of bamboo, palm leaves; etc. That is pressed into 2 halves to encapsulate a micro-‐thin PLA film (or Polylac<c acid-‐a biodegradable, sugar based polyester) that provides liquid/ 02 barrier. The pressed material provides the form, graphical substrate and/ or embellishment surface and structural integrity. It is shipped inverted and “pops open” upon filling through a conven<onal fill-‐portal at the base. The barrier material also acts as the means to fuse the 2 halves together. The top is torn off to access the liquid. To reseal, the removed component peels apart to expose a sanitary plug-‐fit side, and the remaining part gets tethered to the finger loop to eliminate liOer. It changes the total experience of drinking water, from the way the container looks, feels and func<ons to the way it ends its usage. The 360 paper boOle is a single-‐serve Paper Water BoOle, but with the windfall of how it is made enables the self-‐bundling of mul<ple containments to negate the use of separate “6-‐pack” carriers. The use of an all natural structural board with ver<cal ends dras<cally reduces the material used in palle<zing and shipping, and enables self-‐merchandising. Everything seems really crea<ve and interes<ng but plas<c water boOles are both recyclable and much more reusable than these frail paper versions. The problem is that each day Americans throw out 60 million plas<c boOles. Only 14% actually get recycled. Does "leverage sustainability" make sense or is just marke<ng? Maybe we should just restart from the beginning. BoOled water? No, thanks! hOp://storyofstuff.org/boOledwater/
Kirei Board Kirei Board is an eco-‐engineered product thats a new subs<tute for interior decora<ve woods. Made from the discarded stalks of the sorghum straw. Sorghum, farmed throughout the world is produced for food, fodder, and biofuels. The manufacturing of Kirei requires no formaldehyde adhesion, instead using a process of heat pressing and non toxic adhesives with low voc's to produce this strong and sustainable board. Applica<ons for the wood subs<tute include; wall and ceiling panels, cabinets, and furniture.
Coconut Nles Several companies are trying to come up with new and innova<ve ways to look at products in our natural environment and bring them into interior spaces. A few companies have begun taking this idea and looking into the process of taking a coconut from a palm tree and making materials out of its' exterior. Coco Origin Life Unlimited have taken the hard shell exterior of the coconut and transformed this into a weaved <le. This <le can be used in various applica<ons (wall panel, furniture detailing, etc). These <les are handmade, Eco-‐sustainable, excellent performance and durability. I think these <les give a different "wood" aesthe<c in interior spaces. hOp://www.cocooriginlife.com/
Natural Rubber -‐ Minarc Rubber Sink In the images aOached Latex sap is tapped from an incision made into the bark of a rubber tree. Aler collec<on it is refined into usable rubber. The purified form of rubber is a chemical polyisoprene which can also be produced synthe<cally. Rubber is used in many products including this rubber sink my California design company Minarc.
Cardboard walls "Waxed corrugated fiberboard bails used to build house walls.A small team of students at Auburn University sought to prove the material’s viability as a construc<on product by crea<ng a func<onal small building."
Structural Timber Fabric Timber fabric sharing the basic logics and principals of man-‐made fabric. +In fabrics, as well as in basketry, the coherence of the yarn elements is governed by fric<on. The <mber could become self-‐sturctural in infinite size by developing ways to weave and interconnect the material. hOp://ibois.epfl.ch/files/content/sites/ibois2/files/shared/recherche/<mber%20fabric.pdf
Rubber stool This stool is made out of natural rubber. It is built by bending only one piece of rubber and bol<ng the legs to keep them in place. The framework of this stool is simple and it is comfortably cushioned because of the rubber. It can be rolled up and stored when not in use. I found the form of this stool interes<ng and I think it challenges the elas<city of rubber.
Paper This is a piece of art by Adam Fowler I saw at the Museum of Art and Design as part of their SLASH exhibit. The layering of thin arcs of graphite on paper is both ephemeral and dense. Graphite and paper become one and the same. The canvas (the paper) becomes the artwork. The 3-‐Demensionality of the piece is dizzying and hypno<c. That the spindly lace strips are hand cut with an Exacto blade is incredibly impressive.