Starck strikes again

My new pals over at Inhabitat brought this beauty to my attention yesterday and this story dovetails perfectly into everything I've been talking about ans looking for these last couple of months. What I'm talking about is displayed below. It's Philippe Starck's "Democratic Ecology" personal wind turbine that goes into production in September '08. Starck unveiled it at a trade show in Milan, Greenergy Design, an expo dedicated to exploring sustainability and energy alternatives. Starck seems to have trumped everybody with his Democratic Ecology though. This wind turbine is a $600, roof-mounted supplemental generator that can supply 20 to 60% of a home's electricity needs. That it's made from a clear polycarbonate is genius --adding infrastructure without taking anything away from how things look. It certainly has me thinking. What if everybody in my neighborhood had one of these things? We'd save money for starters and that's my bottom line interest in sustainability if I'm going to be brutally honest. And what it would do too is eliminate the need for the thieves at Progress Energy to build a new plant and raise our electric rates by the 15 percent they're itching to do right now. Pretty cool. The people get cheaper electricity and in so doing have to burn less fuel through their electricity provider and therefore pollute less. It's a win all around. All hail Philippe Starck!

I love Cuban tile

I saw something on Apartment Therapy today that reminded me of my big find at the tile industry show in Orlando last May. And that would be Cuban tile. One of my favorite things about living in an older neighborhood in Florida is the sheer volume of Cuban tile that was used in the construction of a lot of older homes here. Cuban tile is gorgeous and it's enjoying a bit of a resurgence and that's fantastic news. Sure, who doesn't love a porcelain tile that's imitating travertine? But enough already. Show me something else. Well, else, is precisely what Cuban tile is.

For starters it's a green product made from Portland cement, powdered marble and mineral pigments. It's not a fired ceramic tile at all. Rather its a cement tile made with very little water and then pressed under tremendous pressure. The result is a brightly colored, extremely strong material that will make anywhere look like a shaded veranda in Florida. Just gorgeous.

These slide shows feature examples of work from two separate companies selling new Cuban tile. First up is a company called Villa Lagoon, who has the tiles made in the Dominican Republic and then distributes them throughout the US from a distributor in Tampa. Pretty stuff, though it's a bit more of a modern-ish take on the traditional patterns.

The second company, Cuban Tropical Tile, is out of Miami and these guys stick to the traditional forms and colors.

Keep Cuban tile in mind if you're looking to do something different yet timeless to your floors.

LG --Life's Good or Lies Gratuitously?

LG Industries, the Korean company that makes everything it seems, also makes a solid-surface counter top material called Hi-Macs. Solid-surface is the proper generic term for what most people call Corian even though Corian is a brand made by DuPont. Hi-Macs is an aggressively marketed brand in a product category that is headed for extinction and good riddance. Solid Surface materials make for inferior counters. They scratch like crazy, they melt at an absurdly low temperature and they discolor over time. The industry wants you to believe that they are made from acrylic, but that's only part of the story. They are made from petroleum-derived plastics mixed with powdered bauxite. It's difficult to get the industry to own up to the bauxite content in their products and having them define what bauxite is to begin with is impossible. Well I'll tell you what it is. Bauxite is aluminum ore. Aluminum is a toxic metal. So what we have is a toxic brew of petroleum-derived plastic and aluminum ore and you're supposed to prepare your meals on it. Yeah, sure.

Yet, with all of that playing in the background, Hi-Macs just rolled out a new product line they're calling Eden. It's being marketed with a whole lot of hippy imagery and somehow they're labeling it as being made out of recycled material and therefore "green." Whatever green means these days. Again, what they want you to believe is an exaggerated form of the truth. Eden is made using up to 12 per cent pre-consumer waste. What that means in English is that they chop up their scraps and re-use those scraps to make more counters. This is a standard practice in the manufacture of solid surface materials to begin with so there's nothing new there. What is new though, is the attempt to jump on the sustainability bandwagon with the hope that no one will read the fine print. Please. Just because an inferior product has a color name like Lemon Grass doesn't make it a good idea, let alone a sustainable product. Want to be sustainable LG? Come up with a non-toxic surface that looks great, doesn't cost a lot, holds up to everyday use really well and can biodegrade.

Starck, raving madness

In the world of design, few people inspire and entertain me as much as Philippe Starck. Though he may not be a household name across the great expanse of the US, smart people on the coasts are well aware of him and at the end of the day that's all that matters, right? Hah!

Starck first appeared on my radar in 1990 when I came across his "Juicy Salif" citrus press for Alessi, the Italian "design factory" that has been systematically elevating the art value of everyday objects since the 1930s. That now-iconic piece of cast aluminum inspires me still.

Anyhow, I just read today that the BBC is casting for a reality show to be aired in the UK that's a design competition presided over by none other than Philippe Starck himself. I'm assuming that it will have a similar format to Bravo's Project Runway and the grand prize is a six month internship with Starck's offices in Paris. Man, the idea of that gives me a thrill and it's something I'd love to see when it finally airs. BBC America, are you listening?

Choo Choo Charlie envy

Here's one for the books and an interesting housing option I never considered. I came upon the story on Dwell Magazine's website this morning and it has my wheels turning to say the least. An artist in Oregon had a Pullman car renovated and in leaving it on the tracks rather than decommissioning it, it's not real estate; it's considered to be "rolling stock." Ergo no real estate taxes. The car's really well done --it's an attractive living space. It plugs into an auxiliary power source the way a boat at a marina does and it uses an incinerator toilet so it doesn't need to be hooked up to a sewer line. It costs the current owner $150 to keep it parked in a rail yard and that's it. Bravo clever artist guy in Portland for a brilliant execution of a sustainable housing idea. Check it out: