Plumen 001

Although it may sound like some kind of chemical compound used to "get rid" of foreign secret agents, the Plumen 001 is in fact a lightblub. I have come across this deisgn in several places now, namely on the Dezeen website, at EcoBuild and at the Deign Museum, along with in several design magazines. It's what environmentalists have been eagerly awaiting - a clean redesign of the energy efficient light bulb. We openly welcome you to our homes, Plumen 001!

There is a small issue with this though, and that is the small fortune you may have to part with to light your home with these. At a painful £19.95 each, the price is sure to be an issue for mainstream consumers. Although efficiency is something we must concern ourselves with due to the environment becoming an ever more important factor in our daily lives, the current (and often dreaded) energy efficient light bulb does leave a lot to be desired - so it seems Hulger and Samuel Wilkinson (the brains behind the Plumen 001) may have cracked onto something here, especially given that the UK have relatively recently introduced the EU ban on importing high energy filament bulbs. I guess rival designers will soon pounce on this nice little niche in the market, and come up with their own solutions to the energy efficent lightbulb - which should eventually drive prices down.

Taken at the Design Museum, March 2011

So, it would seem this is at least a step in the right direction. Yay for green design! I just now need to justify to myself why £19.95 is a reasonable price to pay for a lightbulb. Damn it.

EcoOffice: Materials Documents

Below are a few of the pages from the pdf I am currently putting together, documenting all the materials I plan to use throughout my building renovation. It will read as somewhat of a brochure that has been specifically put together with this building in mind, and include as many sustainable products as possible.

I plan on gaining most of my knowledge base for this aspect of the project from EcoBuild at the end of the month, which is held annually in London.  As I develop these ideas, I will add the relevant pages as and when they are created. 

EcoOffice: Not A Home Afterall!

On Tuesday we presented our findings in our designated groups on our topic we were issued; we were given "green design".

After that, we were issued our briefs commencing from then until 1st April. Instead of what we assumed would be renovating a pre-existing site into an sustainable home, we have been given the similar task of designing a sustainable autonomous office in an existing industrial style building on Tannadice Street, Dundee.

Within this we must create: an entrance and reception, a waiting area, offices housing space for 24 employees, CEO office, 4 manager's offices, a cafeteria, toilets, 2 meeting rooms, a research lab for 4 employees, a library and "quiet space", storage facility and cleaning stores. 

We must concern ourselves with trying to maintain sustainability throughout. I intend to aim for LEED standards, and as autonomous as possible. Thankfully there is no budget to concern ourselves with!

I also intend to try to aim to increase employee eco awareness, and thus not only reduce the emissions of the building on it's own, but also the personal emissions of the employees. The office is hypothetically to be housed by SEPA, so aiming for 100% zero emissions of the building and employees is essential. I have created a few mind maps which I will add once I scan them.

Here is my preliminary research (A1):

On 1st of March EcoBuild will be held in London for three days, to which me and a few classmates will be attending, gaining invaluable knowledge in the eco building materials world. Unfortunately this means a lot of flyer collecting - which is not too environmentally friendly. Whoops!

Save The World, Turn It Off

Here is a motivational animation I found while surfing the interwebs, which I tweeted. Statistics don't half make you feel guilty.

So help save the world, and turn it off!

EcoHouse: Go Green!

By not driving, and turning electrical items off properly rather than leaving them on standby, I have reduced my footprint below the UK average. It feels good! 

Currently we are researching in small groups, as a small mini project before beginning "EcoHouse". I took a short test to see my Carbon Footprint, which you can take on The Guardian's website.

We are in the middle of creating a presentation, trying to condense the term "green design" into a concise definition - something that sounds simple but is quite complex once you start digging into the terms sustainability, eco-friendly, zero emissions, and carbon neutral etc. 

I used my new app "MindNode" to clean up our mind maps, which if anything, show how exponential it can get. I hope to post our final definition on Monday, as presentations will be held on Tuesday. 

There is more to be added - we broke it down into the following: architecture, energy, interiors, product design, furniture, health and materials - which have been delegated amongst us to research further over the weekend. I will be looking at architecture and energy.