Modern, prehistoric chic

This is an ammonite, an extinct marine cephalopod. The last of the ammonites went extinct some 65 million years ago, at the close of the Cretaceous Period.




And this is an ammonite-shaped concrete sink by HiTech Design from Germany. If it's possible to fall in love with a bathroom sink, I think I have.

The USPS discovers mid-century classics

On June 17th, 2008; the US Postal Service issued a series of commemorative stamps honoring the designs of Charles and Ray Eames. Charles and Ray Eames were a husband and wife team who pretty much defined mid-century American furniture design. The Eames' designs (as well as their collaborative work with the likes of Eliel and Eero Saarinen, among others) also marked the first step toward a "Democratization" of design. That kind of democratization could have only happened in the US. The Eameses epitomized the idea that exquisitely designed furniture needn't be reserved for the very wealthy. Further, everybody deserves to live in a well thought out, fully functional and beautiful environment. In a lot of ways, Charles and Ray were the beginning of the path that lead us to Target. Well, Target's better impulses at any rate. The Eameses work in materials such as fiberglass and plywood were gorgeously designed and mass produced by Herman Miller. Many of their designs remain in production and knock offs of their work are legion. I think I need to buy some stamps. Online.

Who says dishwater's dull?

In the US and Canada, up to one-third of the water used in a typical household gets used to flush toilets. In Florida, the actual percentage is less than that (23.3% according to the City of Tampa) but our gallon per person per day use is a staggering 243 gallons a day. And 75 of those increasingly scarce gallons get wasted on lawns. Appalling! Appalling and incredibly wasteful and it's the wastefulness that bothers me more than anything.

The United States is on a collision course with a big water problem. Florida's number will come up sooner than the rest of the country's. As much as I would LOVE to blame Florida's plight on lawns, they are only part of the problem. Another big, wasteful part is the water gets thrown down the toilet, 1.6 gallons at a time.

Yes, this is wrecking the environment; but for most people, that wreckage is something that they have to go out of their way to see. I mean, who bothers to drive to the Everglades, get out of the car and look? Freaks like me for starters and it ain't pretty. But aside from that, where it has a major effect on people in the short term is in the amount of money they spend on municipal water and sewer rates. As Florida plows into an era of increasingly scarce water, those rates are going to skyrocket. So what can you do now to save money immediately and save a whole lot of money down the road?

An answer is a BRAC Greywater System from AquaPro Solutions. AquaPro Solutions is a North Carolina-based water conservation and management company. The BRAC Greywater System sets up a parallel plumbing system in your home that will allow you to make your own reclaimed water. Waste water from your bathroom sinks, clothes washer and shower gets filtered, saved and re-routed for use to flush your toilets and run your irrigation system. Check out the schematic below. Depending on how much water your household uses, you could cut up to half of your water use with a system like this. A-maz-ing.

It's curtains for solar power

No, I mean that literally. Who says that solar power requires bulky, roof-mounted glass panels? Certainly not Sheila Kennedy, principal architect of Kennedy & Violich Architecture in Boston. Kennedy has developed what she's calling solar textiles; thin, membrane-like materials that can be draped or can cover walls or roofs. In a prototype she just finished displaying in Germany called "Soft House" (it's what's pictured here), Kennedy made patio draperies for a pre-fab structure that could generate 16,000 watt-hours of electricity.

Solar textiles are new and they utilize organic photovoltaics (OPVs), the next generation in solar power. At this stage of the game though, OPVs are less efficient than the old-school silicon-based photovoltaics. OPVs are the new name of the game though, and look for their efficiencies to improve as their prices come down over time. Brace yourself kids, the future is now.

Many thanks to my pals at Treehugger.com for the heads up on this terrific story.

Shoal, shoal, shoal

What a great word, shoal. I love it when a lighting designer turns to the natural world for inspiration and that's precisely what Dominic Bromley did when he came up with Shoal. For anyone who's never turned on the Discovery Channel, a shoal is a school of fish in a tightly circling configuration.

Dominic Bromley is an industrial designer turned lighting designer for Scabetti in the UK. Scabetti specializes in gorgeous, custom household objects and Bromley's responsible for their lighting.

The shoal is made from 284 individually sculpted bone china fish and they circle a tube light. bone china is translucent, so each of the fish in the light fixture glows and casts a shadow. The effect in a room must be stunning. It almost seems unfair to call this a light fixture. What it is more than anything is a sculpture.