join our site: We just added this feature. Please become a member of our blog so we can begin to build a community around the idea of sustainable age design.
|
 by kevin, on March 29th, 2010 
When I was a kid my father occasionally took my brothers and me to watch military aircraft take off and land. He knew of a road that cut through what was an FAA tech center near Atlantic City NJ known as NAFEC – the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center. At the time, it had the largest hanger space in the world, was the third alternate landing site for the space shuttle, and was the location of the first airshow in 1910. We would pull the family station-wagon to the shoulder of the road right at the end of the main runway and watch the planes for hours. The jets seemed so close we could touch them. My fifth year architectural thesis project was a flight school at the community college directly adjacent to that former FAA tech center – it had been converted to the Atlantic City International Airport by then. Part of my design strategy included using salvaged aircraft parts as raw building material. The reviewers who attended my final presentation thought the notion was preposterous.
The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson AZ is the world’s largest military aircraft graveyard. It’s often referred to as The Boneyard, however, boneyard is a generic term used to describe facilities that store aircraft retired from service. In nearby Pima AZ is the Pinal Airpark, home of the Evergreen Aircraft Maintenance Facility, one of the largest storage locations for decommissioned commercial aircraft. Although these two are among the largest of their kind, similar facilities exist throughout the world. The dry southwestern United States is ideal for aircraft storage. The arid climate reduces the potential for oxidation. Prior to the attacks on 9/11, anyone looking to salvage parts or components from the aircraft stored at these facilities had reasonable access. Since then, the U.S. government has changed the regulations and old parts are significantly more difficult to source.
For visionaries and artists like Dave Hall and Donovan Fell, owners of the Torrance CA-based MotoArt, new restrictions limiting access to what they see as raw material for their business means they’ve had to search for parts farther afield. But it hasn’t stopped their business from growing. Both are what I would consider glass-half-full people. They see opportunity everywhere. For more than a decade Dave and Donovan have been converting salvaged aviation components into amazing furniture that’s functional and beautiful art. Had they been sitting in on my final thesis review, the outcome may have been quite different.
Read more on tour: MotoArt 
by aleida, on March 25th, 2010 
Our recent trip to Florida proved the perfect opportunity to visit the showroom of Matrix Z, LLC. and meet the artist behind the company. Based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Matrix Z was founded in 2001 by Barbara Zigann with the intent to create a sustainable alternative to quarried natural stone. Since then she has developed three lines, one a jewelry collection, with strong usage of recycled material.
The current collections are:
- SeaStone: tiles made from a proprietary cementitious mixture that incorporates 70% to 75% recycled content.
- SeaTile: tiles and laminates made from oyster and abalone shells recovered from the waste byproducts of the fishing industry.
- SeaGems: iridescent jewelry and craft assemblies using the same fishing industry byproducts.
For our purposes, we were most interested in the SeaStone collection. At first glance, it is easy to look at the tiles and think that they were mined. Their color is so natural, and the variation from tile to tile so evident, that it makes perfect sense to believe they are a completely nature-made creation. But they are not. Even though during our visit we were not able to tour the manufacturing facility, it lies within miles of the showroom, and it is the place where all of these materials are created.
Read more on tour: Matrix Z
by kevin, on March 24th, 2010 
During our time in Phoenix AZ for the 2009 Greenbuild Expo we spent some time with Kirei USA Marketing Coordinator Teresa Cooney. Our conversation with her became one of our first in the stories of sustainability series (posted here). Back in January we did a day trip to San Diego for a US Green Building Council San Diego chapter GreenMeet event and were able to spend some time with Kirei USA founder and CEO John Stein at his Solana Beach office. One thing that strikes you right away when arriving is how casual and laid back the entire neighborhood is. Probably in part due to the proximity to the ocean, but Kirei USA is located in an interesting warehouse building on the edge of town filled with artists and other cutting edge businesses. It has a very alternative lifestyle communal vibe to it.
Enter the front door at John’s office and you are immediately met with the tools from one of his competing passions – surfing. Immediately to the left is a rack of wet suits and boards ready to be used at a moments notice. In fact, John tells us that it’s not uncommon for he or someone else at the office to go surfing every day. The space is much smaller than we we expect, and we’re told that’s a common reaction. Although Kirei Board has become a very visible player in the sustainable building materials market, it doesn’t require a huge staff to maintain the operation. John and his crew are actually a small team who occupy the mezzanine while a friend who owns Empowered Energy Solutions uses the ground floor of their warehouse space. The office layout is very casual, with few walls, it’s open, primarily lit with daylight from a number of well placed skylights, and samples are everywhere you look.
Read more on tour: Kirei USA
by aleida, on March 22nd, 2010
Our tour of Vetrazzo’s Richmond, CA manufacturing facility (reviewed here) introduced us to more than just a fascinating industrial process. We also learned the story behind the product from Karen Righthand, VP of Marketing, and John Sabol, VP of Manufacturing.
It all started in the mid-90s on the campus of the [...]
by aleida, on March 19th, 2010
It is rare that we have the opportunity to travel to Florida, so when we were there late last month, we took advantage of our short time in Miami and reached out to Jennifer Ryan at Coverings Etc for a tour of the company’s facilities and showroom. We have long known about [...]
by aleida, on March 17th, 2010
Two-hundred years ago, about 80% of the U.S. population lived and worked on farms. Today, that same percentage of the population lives in cities. The urbanization process left a large number of farmhouses, barns, and other rural structures abandoned to the elements, and for at least the last four decades, there has [...]
by aleida, on March 11th, 2010
At the Los Angeles edition of Go Green Expo in late January, we learned of a Japanese wall covering just recently launched in the United States. Not long thereafter, Kevin and I were welcomed into the Orange, CA offices of Shikoku International Corp., the company that designed and still produces the product, [...]
by kevin, on March 10th, 2010
For our ninth class we return to our normal class room, but at an alternate time and date. This week was a make-up class required due to a scheduling conflict. We continued discussion of an earlier topic – waste reduction – and transitioned to resource preservation.
In previous classes where waste [...]
by kevin, on March 8th, 2010
Our eighth class was our second field trip, this time to the Santa Monica showroom of Steelcase. My first experience with Steelcase dates back only five years. I was attending the ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) Interiors 05 conference in Nashville TN and Steelcase was offering attendees a special deal on [...]
|
Fireclay Tile throws in the towel
While so many companies are working hard to move their business to more environmentally favorable practices, Fireclay Tile has decided to throw in the towel and join the rest of the polluting toxic world. It’s a very sad turn of events. The notice below tells the whole story:
Of course owner Paul Burns [...]