Sustainable Design ( 1 )

Terms such as "green design" and "sustainable design " are being used more frequently these days. This is because people became aware of Green or sustainable designs and materials as a solution to protect the environment. Professional interior designers considered to be the ones that are more conscious to approach sustainable designs. Nowadays many interior designers express a preference for sustainable designs and materials produced sustainably.


Designers can provide sustainable designs by enhancing indoor air quality and environmentally preferred materials.

• Provide thermal comfort with a maximum degree of personal control over temperature and airflow.
• Avoid the use of materials high in pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or toxins.
• Use materials that do not contain CFCs
• Assure acoustic privacy and comfort through the use of sound absorbing material
• Create a high performance luminous environment through the careful integration of natural and artificial light sources .
• Use durable materials
• Try to find recycled material
• Use natural renewable resources
• Try to find materials obtained from local resources and manufacturers
• For wood or bio-based products, they employ "Sustainable Harvesting" practices
• Maximize the use of biodegradable Materails
  

Bamboo Plywood

Bamboo is made from quick growing bamboo stalks. It's unique and beautiful, and a great alternative to other hardwoods because it's much more stiffer and stroger than normal plywood. Some of it's characteristics anti-microbial, water resistant, eleganct, versatile, durable, renewable, stable and it's non toxic. Bamboo used for flooring, countertops, walls, furniture, molding, shelving, cabinetry, desks, and much more.

Bamboo Veneers

Bamboo Flooring

Their is several types of bamboo floorings:

Strandwoven bamboo flooring

"The most durable bamboo product. Strandwoven™ bamboo is considered the most stable natural wood known for flooring, and one of the hardest woods known. Strandwoven bamboo is made by compressing "strands" of the bamboo fibers under intense pressure, while using a heat-sensitive low-VOC adhesive. Strandwoven bamboo is extremely exotic and rich looking - through the "woven" process, the consistency found in the "traditional" bamboo styles is completely removed". ( http://www.sustainableflooring.com/)

Horizontal grain bamboo flooring

Vertical grain bamboo flooring

Cubed bamboo flooring

Through my research for bamboo as a material I became more conscious as a designer that so many unique creative designs can be produced using bamboo, for exapmle in NewYork city in a small restaurant called Tides, the designer shaped the ceiling of the restaurant by using 110,000 bamboo skewers composed togather to produce atopographical effect, evoking sea grass.

References:

http://interiordesign.lovetoknow.com/Green_Design
http://www.sustainableflooring.com/