More from Dutch designer Guus Van Leeuwen: Power Plant is a conceptual device for generating energy from household compost, exhibited at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show as part of Dutch Design Week last month.

The product has an engine which moves to drive a water pump or dynamo in response to the warmth produced from household waste breaking down.

Van Leeuwen proposes three possible applications for the garden: a hot tub, a garden shower and a reading chair with reading light.

See Van Leeuwen's Domestic Animals project in our previous story.

The following information is from Guus Van Leeuwen:

--

“Power Plant” is for the greater part a conceptual product with what I want to show how close to home we can keep energy production out of garbage, in this case compost.

Energy making out of garbage is already quite common nowadays. But I think the logistics can be a lot easier. The collecting of the garbage is a time, labor and energy spoiling job. And the transportation of the energy from the power station to the houses does also cost a lot of energy. In Sweden it’s already very common that every street collects its garbage in a garbage house. Inside such a house it’s often quite warm when it’s outside quite cold. This is caused by the scalding of the garbage. So without any effort are these garbage houses already working as a small energy station.

According to me there’s a future in this fact. I think we should go to a system in which at least garden and kitchen waste will be processed to energy close to the households. First the waste can be composted. In this process a big amount of warmth will be produced. And next the compost can still be used to create methane gas out of it. Every 10 kg of compost contents an amount of methane gas equal to 1 liter of super. And the final residue out of the waste can still be used as an excellent fertilizer for people’s gardens.

Of course this sounds great, but there’s a long way to go. With my “Power Plant” I made a product that shows how nearby energy production finds place without us knowing that. The product is a compost bin of 1m2 with on top of it a stirling engine that moves on the warmth that’s produced by the compost anyway. This warmth can go up to 70C°. I have made three applications to use this small “Power Plant” in the garden, at which the stirling engine works as a water pump or dynamo: A hottub, a garden shower and a reading chair with reading light.

The post Power Plant by Guus Van Leeuwen appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch designer Guus Van Leeuwen presented animal-shaped radiators at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show as part of Dutch Design Week last month.

Each radiator is covered with a removable, wheat-filled animal skin that absorbs and stores heat, and can be used for warmth elsewhere in the house.

See more from the Design Academy graduation show in our previous story.

The following is from Guus Van Leeuwen:

--

“Domestic Animals” is a series of radiators shaped like animals.

In earlier days people were very conscious of heating. Throughout the whole year they were busy to be able to put now and then some wood on the fire that was heating one room in the house during the winter. This one room was therefore a gathering place for the whole family. But over the last fifty years the effort that we take to heat the house is almost reduced to zero - at least in the western countries.

Besides the programming of electronic thermostat we don’t have to worry about the heating system that’s heating our whole house, wherefore the living room is losing its role as gathering place. Radiators are being hidden against the wall and they are by far not as pleasant to be near as the hearth was in earlier days. And all of this in a time we have to be very conscious in the way we are using energy.

“Domestic Animals” is referring to the time farmers used to live with or above their livestock to take advantage of their warmth. “Domestic Animals” is giving more attention to heating. The “Domestic Animals” are covered with the skin of the animal they represent, which is giving them a attraction to get near and touch them, so you can warm yourself up on them. And if you want to be somewhere else in the house you can take the skins with you to comfort yourself.

The skins are filled with wheat seeds which capture warmth and stay warm for a long period of time. In this way you don’t have to put the thermostat higher when you have it a bit chilly, and still can get it comfortable. And besides this all are the “Domestic Animals” beautiful objects that can enrich your living room.

Every “Domestic Animal” Consists out of one ongoing steel tube that starts and ends at the tail. This can’t be bended in one time, so every animal is build from 40 to 60 pieces, which are all bent by a computer-controlled machine. And after that I had to weld all these pieces onto each other to create this one ongoing tube. At the tail the radiators can easily be connected to the central heating system.

The post Domestic Animals by Guus Van Leeuwen appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch designer Jan Van Hoof exhibited a wall made of cut-up books at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show as part of Dutch Design Week earlier this month.

"Books like this tell us a lot of stories, the story in the book, the story of the book itself as a product you own with a history and the story as a collection of books," says Van Hoof. "With my project storyboard I tried to give the books, with all the stories in it, a new life as a new material."

More designs using cut up books in our previous story: Book Vases by Laura Cahill.

The following is from Jan Van Hoof:

--

With the project storyboard I have tried to give a new dimension to the recycling of books.

Everyone has a lot of books and the collection of books is always growing, when there is no space left on the bookshelf, you have to try to get rid of a part of your collection. At first these books get a nice place in a box on the attic, but at some time the books become garbage.

Books like this tell us a lot of stories, the story in the book, the story of the book itself as a product what you own with a history and the story as a collection of books. Usually these books are made to new paper and all of this is lost, but with my project storyboard I tried to give the books, with all the stories in it, a new life as a new material.

I tear off the covers of the books, cut them in 3 pieces of the same height and glue this pieces together to blocks of 30 cm high and 75 cm wide. These blocks can be used to build a wall like a room divider or as some kind of “wallpaper” and have a sound- suppressing effect.

The post Storyboard by Jan Van Hoof appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch designer Maren Hartveld presented a soft bathtub at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show in the Netherlands earlier this month.

"Bringing a new meaning to sinking into one's tub," says Hartveld. "A free-standing soft bathtub made from polyurethene coated foam rubber; not cold and hard like the average bathtub, but soft and warm, and comfortable like a sofa".

Above image by Marjan Holmer.

The post Tender Tub by Maren Hartveld appeared first on Dezeen.

At the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show earlier this month, designer Hung-Pin Hsueh presented a system for using Taiwan Cypress driftwood as an architectural building material.

Hsueh proposes that small pieces of timber - usually discarded as unsuitable for architectural purposes - could be used in construction to reduce the need for intensive logging.

"The forests are logged in search for big timber that is suitable for architectural constructions," he explains. "By designing a structure that allows utilization of drift wood pieces, the need to log natural forest for architecture will be greatly reduced."

See more projects from the Design Academy graduate exhibition in our previous story.

Here's some text from Hsueh:

--

Aromatic fabrication

IM Master 2008
Ama (Hsueh, Hung-Pin)

The intensive logging of forestry for architecture material contributes greatly to global CO2 emissions. The forests are logged in search for big timber that is suitable for architectural constructions. It can be said the derived demand for large timber comes from the requirements dictated by the design of wooden architectural constructions. It is therefore appropriate to say that architects and design have a responsibility in contributing to global forest exhaustion.

This project focuses on the example of the Taiwan Cypress. Besides the sentimental reason of the tree species being unique to my home country, the Taiwan Cypress has great additional architecture values because of its scent, density, antiseptic character and superior quality when used as furniture and construction materials. The consideration of all these aspects in the project is to pave a road of consideration for the unique qualities of different timber besides their pure mass and structural strength.

Guided in the belief that the forest with their many ecological benefits does not belong to the individual but the public, this thesis carries the spirit of ‘forest without boundaries’ and addresses the issue of how design can help the cause of environmental preservation. By an act of redesigning the basic architectural structures with respect to the forest system, architecture not only takes on a new relationship with nature, but also a new design process and material language.

This thesis attempts to explore renewed ways of construction for wooden houses. It looks at the possibility of designing architectural structures using driftwood that comes from the natural falling of trees, usually cast away as too small and unsuitable for architectural purposes. By designing a structure that allows utilization of drift wood pieces, the need to log natural forest for architecture will be greatly reduced.

The post Aromatic Fabrication by Hung-Pin Hsueh appeared first on Dezeen.