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Design for a Living World: The Nature Conservancy + Cooper Hewitt

If you are in New York between now and January, make sure that the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum's current exhibit Design for a Living World, presented in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy, is on your Museum Mile drive-by. The exhibit's vision was to send noted industrial, fashion and accessories designers like Stephen Burks of readymade, Ted Muehling and Isaac Mizrahi, among others, to various parts of the world let them develop new uses for the local materials/resources. What I love about this exhibit is that each designer seems to have married his or her modern design principles while leveraging the local, functional ways of doing things. For example, Yves Behar designed a micro-plane-like product that would enable locals to harvest cocoa, and collect shavings to minimize waste. Repurposeful design at its best.

(Photos courtesy of Cooper Hewitt; Design Addict)

Repurposeful in Buenos Aires, Part II: 20th C. Vintage

Buenos Aires is beyond charming. It's preserved in its nestled neighborhoods, Deco facades, fortress city of cemetery wonderland. It's weathered in its sidewalks. It has different incarnations throughout the day and night. And while I was there it also proved full of repurposeful discovery, not least of which was found in the markets and in every bar and restaurant around town. Here's a quick sampling below as well as a working photo album.

 

Vintage cash register becomes a focal point in the day-turns-to-night Bar Seddon in the San Telmo district.

      

Telephones, cutlery and leather handbags among glassware and other eclectic finds spilling from the sidewalks, streets, plazas and shops of San Telmo -these from the Sunday antique market.

Weathered Quilmes beer chair at Craft Hip Hotel (yes, that's its official name) in Palermo Viejo.

 

Pointing the way to the manually run elevators that ascend the gorgeous 1920s Palacio Barolo "high rise" on Avenida de Mayo.

Repurposeful in Buenos Aires, Part I: Gabriela Horvat

Over the holidays I took a trip to Buenos Aires. I knew it would be a great food trip, complete with perfect steak dinners and lazily-enjoyed glasses of Malbec. I also knew it would be fun to explore the various neighborhoods, overhear, yet only half comprehend, conversations in Spanish, and get into the pace of a new city for a while. Of course, part of the fun, was uncovering all the repurposeful gems along the way. Not a hard task in such an aesthetically and culturally rich place.

The design-forward, bohemian shop of Gabriela Horvat seemed to be one of several independent shops in Palermo Viejo (a.k.a. Soho) that included repurposed, everyday materials within their local design and artisan collections. In her case, tire rubber was on display in remarkable fashions.

Woven, decorative baskets courtesy of Gabriela Horvat.

Also in shop, reconstructed inner tube necklaces designed by Mercedes Castro Corbat (US$120.) who was also a featured designer in the recent Sustainable 08 Argentinian Green Design Festival (courtesy of Treehugger).

But the absolute gem?

A cuter than cute caballito, fashioned from imperfect tires otherwise discarded by a major tire company. The best part is that these little horse swings, made by an organization called Potencialidades, give back in more ways than one. The organization mass markets the swings in order to raise funds for their work--creating safe havens and fun, educational environments for children in poor, rural communities in Argentina. Gabriela was kind enough to hang up the horse swing outside her shop.

The Waterfalls Are Here

   
Dying to see the four waterfalls exhibition, the mechanics of which are fascinating. Anyone know if the scaffolding and materials they used were reclaimed? Would be even cooler.

Here's a  link to Gothamist's write up.