Styleture

In 2009, TreeHugger.com-founder Graham Hill initiated a competition to come up with a design for his 450 square foot New York City studio that would maximize space while emphasizing good design and environmental responsibility.

Over three hundred entries from around the world were sent in, and from those Hill selected an entry from architecture students Catalin Sandu and Adrian Iancu called One Size Fits All. The Romanian students were able to satisfy all of Hill’s ambitious requirements, including dinner seating for at least ten, guest accommodations, a home office, and plenty of storage. The name Life Edited was given to the retrofit project and this apartment has since been called LE1.

Sandu and Iancu designed the apartment by first delineating between the convertible areas — living space with multiple uses — and non-convertible areas such as the kitchen and bath. These areas were pushed to the rear of the apartment to leave as large an open space as possible for the living area.

A moveable wall was built into the side of the apartment which can be pulled out to separate the space into two rooms, an office/guest room combo and a living/bed room combo. When the wall is not pulled out, the large space can easily fit a dining room table which can be expanded to seat up to twelve people. The guest space comes in the form of two Lollisoft bunk beds which flip down from the wall as does a desk for the office area.

The living area contains an Atoll 202 sofa/bed designed by Giulio Manzoni and Pierlugi Colombo for Clei which can be switched between L-sofa and queen size bed in a few seconds. With the wall hidden, the room comfortably seats up to eight in the lounge area and twelve for dining, no easy feat for an apartment the size of a standard two-car garage.

The kitchen contains a full set of appliances and a peninsula suitable for informal dining, unlike kitchenettes of yesteryear’s Manhattan apartments. The large kitchen sink is equipped with a water-saving fluid F821 pull-down faucet and sits alongside an induction cook top which sits beneath a built-in hood and additional storage space.

Sparing no square foot, the designers intended to make the bathroom as versatile as the living area. The walk-in shower is designed with the ability to convert to a sauna, another luxury not typical of studio apartments. The shower/sauna is built as a room within a room, allowing simultaneous use of both the washroom area and shower. Reflective of Hill’s commitment to sustainability, the stylish and wall-mounted Cube toilet by Caroma is highly efficient, using just 0.8 to 1.28 gallons per flush. Alongside the Cube is a washbasin fitted with a fluid Wisdom faucet which has a flow rate of just 1.5 gallons per minute, more than a third less than typical faucets. The bathroom’s door is frosted glass, which provides both light and privacy.

Hill was so pleased with the success of his apartment that he went on to purchase a second, even smaller, studio in the same building called LE2. Using the LE1 as a template for this and other projects, this apartment is planned to accommodate up to four overnight and eight dining guests.

Life Edited is quickly evolving as a retrofit design company that seeks to use creative, often technology-driven ideas to find better use for less space. Hill intends to work with developers to “edit” buildings to accommodate additional, or improved, units. The hope is that innovative design will facilitate greater cohabitation and sharing, making our world a little greener with each small, yet perfectly appointed project.

Every day, we indulge in the delights of the bath. From the minute we rise, to the moments before we sleep, the bath provides invaluable comfort and luxury – a source of water and energy that counts among our most valuable resources. But, thanks to the ingenuity of a select group of designers and innovators, we don’t have to choose between indulgence and preservation. Introducing the greeniest of baths – our favorite responsible products for smarts and style that work in honor of Earth Day and everyday.

Corbett Lighting Quasar

With a name and design evoking the promise of the future, Corbett Lighting’s Quasar delivers nothing less. Accented with silver leaf finish, the metallic LED fixture offers stunning illumination with minimal ecological impact. Perfect for the needs of the bath – Quasar emits a warm glow from a sleek disc of bronze. The textured lens adds dimension, while the high-tech LED bulb adds green intelligence. Available as a pendant, flush mount application or ADA-compliant sconce, Quasar makes perfect design sense.

Native Trails Yanama Vanity with Eclipse Sink

Two of the most luxurious materials – rustic cherry and hammered copper – come together in Yanama by Native Trails. A superb cabinet whose beauty is only outweighed by its ecology – the torso is constructed from FSC-certified, sustainable wood – Yanama re-imagines the geometry of the vanity. Designed to pair with Native Trails’ Eclipse basin, made from hand-hammered, recycled copper, this sink captivates with its sweeping curves. Good for the environment, great for the bath. Shown here in brushed nickel, Eclipse is also offered in an antique copper finish. Read the rest of this entry »

Here at Styleture, we are nothing if not lovers of environmentally conscious interior design. We’ve been hooked on the trend since long before Ed Begley Jr. was driving around in an electric car (read: a long time). When it comes to environmentally conscious design for the kitchen, we get even more excited because of all of the great products out there. A decade ago, the Eco-Kitchen might have been defined by bamboo flooring and recycled countertops. Today’s Eco-Kitchen, however, is cleaner, greener and smarter thanks to a range of innovative energy-efficient kitchen products hitting the market.

From energy-efficient range hoods and top-of-the-line LED downlights to water-saving faucets, here are four chic and green products that bridge the gap between style and sustainability.

Zephyr^® – Next Generation Europa Collection with DCBL Suppression System™ – Modena Wall

Part of the Next Generation Europa collection and resembling a floating island made of steel and glass, Zephyr’s Modena houses the industry’s first DC brushless motor in a range hood, the most advanced Bloom™ HD LED light bulbs and electronic LCD controls within its one-inch stainless steel canopy, all which enable the hood to consume 77% less energy but with 30% more power. Plus, the Bloom™ HD LED light bulbs have a 25,000-hour lifetime that never get hot and are cool to the touch. The Modena Wall exceeds ENERGY STAR requirements and is 80% more efficient than other hoods out on the market today. A bold technological breakthrough, Modena comes equipped with DCBL Suppression System™ technology, ensuring its performance to match its stunning looks. Read the rest of this entry »

Murakami Chair designed by Rochus Jacob

Maybe your grandma has a rocking chair. Maybe she sits on it and crotchets, or reads magazines about crocheting. Or maybe not. But the fact is, rocking chairs ain’t just for grandma anymore. The Murakami Chair offers a modern twist on the age-old furniture piece – it’s a rocker with a built-in OLED (organic light-emitting diode) lamp that’s powered by the rocking of the chair. That’s right – rock this puppy and you get to be a human power plant.

Designed by Rochus Jacob, an award winning product designer based out of New York City with essential interaction and strategy experience, the Murakami Chair brilliantly harnesses the kinetic energy that is created by rocking the chair and utilizes an advanced nano-dynamo technology built into the skids of the chair to power the reading lamp above the rocker’s head. The OLEDs require very little juice to power and if you happen to want to read without rocking, no worries; rock a while and the battery pack will store enough so you can read later while sitting still. Perhaps best of all, the chair looks sleek and cool, and it will never embarrass you. How did such an idea come about? “I was looking for opportunities to generate energy through activities we naturally do,” said Jacob. “The final result is a rocking chair that enables the user to experience production and consumption of electricity in a gentle and rewarding way.” Jacob also stated that in the future, “To have a drastic reduction of consumption the big challenge will be to make consuming less feel like getting more.”

A bit more about Jacob: He holds a master’s degree in product design and design research from the University of Art and Design in Offenbach, Germany. He gained international working experience at HTC Taiwan, One & Co. San Francisco andIDEO Munich by working with clients such as Microsoft, Samsung, P&G, Nike, Steelcase and Google. He uses a holistic and user-oriented approach that is dedicated to developing meaningful service, interaction and products that have a positive impact on peoples’ lives. Undoubtedly, his Murakami Chair embodies his noble work philosophy.

Bamboo is making quite a name for itself as an eco-chic material used in the contemporary bath environments of discerning homeowners. Bamboo’s environmental benefits stem from the fact that it can grow and spread quickly without the need for much water or care. A bamboo grove can release 35 percent more oxygen into the air than a similar-sized lot of trees, and it matures within seven years as opposed to 35-plus years for trees. Furthermore, bamboo can yield 20-times more timber than trees planted in the same-size area. With a heightened awareness among consumers to be green in their bath environment, bamboo is undeniably a great design resource. Of course, bamboo would never fly in the bathroom if didn’t look beautiful, too – and that it does. The Styleture editorial team has zeroed in on some of our favorite bamboo products for the bath:

Xylem Bambu 36″ Vanity in Dark Bamboo

The Xylem Bambu 36" Vanity in Dark Bamboo

The eco-renewable bamboo veneer is the starting point for this versatile and fresh design vanity. Highlighted with natural bamboo accents, it can be wall mounted or floor-standing using either of two floor stands that provide comfortable heights for vessel applications or under-mount lavatory installations. Read the rest of this entry »

The Kerchum Residence in Vancouver, British Columbia

In recent years, Vancouver has become increasingly known for hitting numerous environmental benchmarks, especially in regards to green commercial and residential building. Not long ago, the city’s Vancouver Convention Centre was awarded the highly prestigious LEED Platinum Certification. Now the Kerchum Residence – a single family home within the city limits – has become the first home to earn LEED Platinum Certification in Western Canada. Its modern design is not only environmentally conscious, it is also highly functional and extremely pleasing to the eye. Read the rest of this entry »