We Heart; Lifestyle & Design Magazine » Environmental

Starbucks Container Store, Tukwila

James Davidson — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:40:13 +0000

Shipping containers as architecture is big news; ever since Freitag’s tower in Zürich, architects have had a fascination with corrugated freight boxes. We’ve had Puma’s portable store, the Muvbox pop-up restaurant, and most recently, the “world’s first pop-up mall”, Boxpark in Shoreditch. Now it’s the turn of coffee giants Starbucks, and their debut reclaimed container drive-through in Tukwila, Washington; just south of their hometown Seattle. Four of their own containers, that have reached their average 20 year lifespan, have been thrown together to comprise a thoroughly delightful, and hugely original, drive-through coffee shop; pushing their commitment to green building initiatives in the process. An “industrial beacon for sustainable thinking” is what Starbucks corporate architect Tony Gale III calls it; we call it handsome, forward-thinking, and a should-be inspiration to food and drink chains around the world…

Photography by Tom Ackerman, Starbucks

Shopping Bag House, by Ghigos Ideas and LOGh

James Davidson — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:54:29 +0000

It’s a question on the lips of anyone with any little bit of ecological conscience these days; what to do with the millions of plastic bags that have become the leading source of global pollution, putting a stranglehold on our environment. Well, if you’ve got around 1,500 of the little buggers – along with the assistance of a gang of students from Politecnico di Milano – you can transform them into a beautiful architectural experiment. After all, that’s exactly what design studios Ghigos Ideas and LOGh have just gone and done for the STUDI APERTI Arts Festival, in the sleepy northern Italian village of Ameno. Using the bags, a lot of hard work and the motto that “nothing can be neither created nor destroyed, everything can only be transformed”, the students and designers have transformed an unfinished public building into a beguiling statement on modern living…

Blub Lounge, Barcelona

James Davidson — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:38:08 +0000

Barcelona’s latest restaurant, bar and club Blub Lounge designed by Elia Felices Interiorismo is, excuse the pun, oceans above anything we’ve seen before. The high-concept interior is completely inspired by a fantasy underwater world, complete with coloured LED lamps and lights which have been positioned to resemble glimmering sunshine. Lush vegetation hangs from the walls and ceiling breaking up the light and mimicking shadows as if you were under-the-sea. The entire space feels open and well planned with different ceiling heights defining the dining and VIP areas, while seating at the central restaurant can be removed to reveal a dance floor and stage for live music. Entering the club is an experience in itself, you are meet by vertical mirrors that expand the space and organic algae looking shapes dripping from the ceiling with a collage mermaid made from stained glass, coloured plates and bottle openers…

Treehotel, Sweden

James Davidson — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:56:00 +0000

“Why not create a comfortable, well designed hotel which allows visitors to live in harmony with nature amongst the trees?” – that was the question, posed by Treehotel owners Kent Lindvall and Britta Jonsson Lindvall, that, with a little help from some highly acclaimed designers and architects, have answered in impeccable style. Situated in the village of Harads, approximately 60 km south of the Arctic Circle, the Treehotel is a series of breathtaking tree houses, perched high in the Boreal forest, offering visitors a once in a lifetime experience to be at one with both the immense beauty of the forest, and with the innovative designs of the houses themselves. Perhaps the most compelling of the ‘rooms’ is Tham & Videgård Arkitekter‘s remarkable Mirrorcube, a lightweight aluminium 4 metre square box, clad in mirrored glass, reflecting the beauty of nature and staking a serious claim to be the most staggeringly unique hotel room we’ve ever seen. An evocative concept, astonishingly realised, Sweden’s Treehotel is as unique a hotel as we can remember…

Corona ‘Save the Beach’ Hotel

James Davidson — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:01:18 +0000

Last week saw the launch of a pop-up hotel concept by German artist HA Schult – most famous for his ‘Trash Men’ – for Corona Extra Beer’s ‘Corona Save The Beach‘ initiative. The hotel, a conceptual look at how we can expect to see our beaches if dramatic changes are not made sooner rather than later, is constructed almost entirely of garbage and rather amazingly had a supermodel guest as it’s first, and by all accounts she braved an evening – in support of World Environment Day – on one of it’s 2 floors……

Troika Nature in the City Installations

James Davidson — Thu, 27 May 2010 11:14:23 +0000

Having previously created inspirational installations for the likes of British Airways (Heathrow Terminal 5) and the BBC, London’s Troika – ‘a multi-disciplinary art and design practice, with backgrounds in graphic and communication, art, product design and engineering’ – have been commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to create the exhibitions for Thomas Heatherwick‘s awe-inspiring UK Pavilion at Shanghai’s fabulous 2010 World Expo. Gracefully complementing – without ever distracting from – Heatherwick’s masterpiece, ‘The Seed Cathedral’, Troika have brilliant contextualised the Pavilion’s concept of ‘Nature and the City’ and the 3 distinct installations that are tucked underneath the constructions edges, and which visitors are led through, each tell a unique story of UK life…..

Green City

“A series of green, aerial maps, which visualise the abundance of green spaces within the centres of London, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff, greets the visitor on entering the UK pavilion. Surprisingly, the main arteries and all the different areas can still be clearly recognised, and the visitor has the opportunity to understand the intricacy and importance of nature within UK cities.”

Open City

“The second installation ‘Open City’, attempts to convey how permeable the typical UK city is to natural elements. British cities are commonly wide spread and low built, a result of restrictions on building heights up until the 1960s. Large sheltered developments and shopping malls are comparatively sparse. Abundance of natural light and the elements is fecund to the city’s greenness, nurturing its parks and gardens. As a result, the typical British city, including its capital, feels transparent and open to the natural elements. The sight of the sky is rarely obscured, and dwellers directly experience the weather, the wind, the fog, the rain as an integral part of the city.”

Living City

“After visiting the inside of the Seed Cathedral, and being exposed to this majestic consecration of plant biodiversity, we thought that an important contribution would be to explain to the visitors why some of these seeds can shape the way we live in our future cities. Concluding the exhibitions of the UK pavilion, the last installation presents a giant green river of plants bursting through the canopy of the last walkway, crisscrossing along its entire length from the Seed Cathedral onto the landscape, as a symbolic break of the vegetation through the concrete. The plant river showcases in a dramatic way some of the most useful plants which can be used in an urban environment, in a beautiful and naturally scented display.”

London’s New Routemaster Bus Design

James Davidson — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:35:59 +0000

Scheduled to hit the streets by 2012, the final design for London’s “new Routemaster bus” has been unveiled, and whilst we’re unsure what has happened to the Foster + Partners / Aston Martin design that originally won Boris Johnson’s 2008 competition, we do know that more than a little has been ‘borrowed’ from said design in this version – a collaboration between Transport of London, Wrightbus and Heatherwick Studio (they of Shanghai Expo UK Pavilion fame)…..

Gumdropbin by Anna Bullus

James Davidson — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:22:12 +0000

Having, like many of us, been perturbed by the amount of spat-out gum that unpleasantly adorns our streets, University of Brighton student Anna Bullus had the rather disturbing brainwave of recycling said gum…. “I suddenly realised that chewing gum is already a rubber, and rubber can be recycled and made into stuff, so why not gum?” Eight months in the lab, and Anna had developed the process – using secret ingredients to extract a polymer that she calls BRGP (Bullus Recycled Gum Polymer). Already declared by Marie Claire as one of 20 women to “Change the World 2010,” Anna’s company, Gumdrop Ltd., are now set to produce pink bubble bins – from recycled gum of course – that will be situated around London… once full, the bin and contents can then be recycled to produce all manner of plastic goods….

RETHINK: Contemporary Art & Climate Change

James Davidson — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:06:50 +0000

As the world descends upon Copenhagen for the beginning of the two week United Nations COP15 climate change conference, RETHINK offers a different perspective on events with it’s award winning art exhibition showcasing at three of Copenhagen’s finest exhibition houses, the National Gallery of Denmark, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art and Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center. 26 trendsetting Nordic and international artists display their environmentally themed work, delivering an altogether alternative look at what climate change means to the world and us as the affected party. Unique, visionary and refreshing… let’s hope the world’s heads of state can be as influential in the coming days.

O2 Treehouse

James Davidson — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:46:18 +0000

Should we be lucky enough to have a few acres and some whopping great trees outside our gaff then we genuinely couldn’t think of a more exciting prospect than bagging one of Dustin Feider’s awe-inspiring O2 Treehouses. Built from 100% sustainable materials and ensuring healthy, unrestricted tree growth, these modular structures, based upon a geodesic sphere, are the must-have for the rich and famous who just want to get away from it all…. Hardwood floorings, interconnected bridges, elecrtic winches, water-tight seals and sophisticated lighting solutions ensure that this is somewhere you can spend a serious amount of time, and with a percentage of proceeds going to eco-tourism projects, your fabulous new place in nature needn’t seem all that extravagant.

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Level Green, The Autostadt, Wolfsburg

James Davidson — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:20:52 +0000

If the fabulous landscaping, architecture and the famous CarTowers weren’t enough to persuade you to take a visit to Volkswagen’s impressive ‘Autostadt‘, then this new permanent exhibition from Berlin architects J. Mayer H. might tip the balance for you. A collaboration with interactive media specialists, and fellow Berliners, Art+Com, this otherworldly, architectural space offers experiential learning on sustainability issues through a variety of touch-screen technical installations. The rather ginormous green shapey things are apparently based upon the internationally recognised PET symbol, which we’re sure was all very nice to say when presented to the client, but who are they kidding? This beautifully bizarre, luminous, melted wall madness was surely born from some crazy hallucinogenic toad-licking experience.

The Scarlet, Cornwall

James Davidson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:56:29 +0000

Sprawling across a sizeable portion of Cornish coastline, The Scarlet Hotel looks all Bond villain with it’s cavernous luxury, floor to ceiling windows and dramatic cliff views, however, there is nothing remotely villainous about this spectacular building and the 5* luxury it beholds. Quite the contrary, this is as good as it gets.

Eco, green, sustainable, it all adds up to the same thing: we have a responsibility to minimise our negative impact on the planet.
The Scarlet Hotel

With it’s Forest Stewardship Council-approved timber frame, grey and rain water harvesting, solar heating, biomass boiler and even a natural pool with a living reed bed as a filtration system, The Scarlet is quite possibly the greenest hotel you’ll stay at, they even re-homed worms before beginning construction. As can often the case, luxury has not been compromised in the quest for the ultimate in sustainability, no expense has been spared in the lavish attention that the rooms, communal spaces, spa and exterior have received.

Each room has ridiculously good views, and outdoor spaces of your own from which to enjoy the breathtaking natural scenery. Bathrooms are gracefully integrated into the rooms, many with walk in wet rooms, all have natural products. The restaurant is headed up by Michelin award winning Ben Tunnicliffe and the spa, well, the spa is something else. It might not be the right time of year to enjoy the beautiful outdoor spaces, but there is no better place to enjoy the turn of winter and its awe inspiring effect on the rugged British coastline, especially when viewed from the comfort of your lavish 5* suite.