This sustainable humidifier moistens the air in any room by using the natural evaporative qualities of terracotta!

Posted on 08/11/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

The Coarse Pottery Air-Humidifier uses terracotta to function as a sustainable alternative to electric air humidifiers by employing capillary action to moisten dry interior spaces.

For centuries, terracotta has been sculpted into household appliances that naturally perform cooling, heating, and evaporative methods. Porous by its organic composition, designers typically integrate a form of capillary action into their products for terracotta to execute forms of vaporization and cooling distribution. A group of students from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts teamed up with some designers from Shenzhen Changsen Trading Company to produce an air humidifier from clay that doesn’t require any electricity for operation.

Led by Haibo Hou, the team of student designers produced the Coarse Pottery Air-Humidifier as a sustainable alternative to electric air humidifiers. Designed to moisten dry interior spaces, the Coarse Pottery Air-Humidifier almost appears like a radiator made from clay. The air humidifier is made from a type of pottery that contains just the right amount of porosity and moisture absorption qualities. By adding water to the Coarse Pottery Air-Humidifier’s basin, the droplets will gradually rise and evaporate through tiny cavities located near the Coarse Pottery Air-Humidifier’s top. As the water rises, the interior space’s air is moistened with small water droplets. The corrugated body of the Coarse Pottery Air-Humidifier creates a wavelike form that alludes to its natural evaporative function.

Recognized by Red Dot, the Coarse Pottery Air-Humidifier was chosen as a design winner in 2021 for its use of sustainable material and general practicality. Speaking on the product’s aesthetic and functional design elements, the team says, “Its beautiful and rhythmic wave-like surface form can increase the evaporation area of water to moisten the whole indoor environment. On this basis, The Coarse Pottery Air-Humidifier blends in with the tone of culturally rich interiors as an elegant accessory in the interior.”

Designers: Hou Haibo, Feng Jijie, Luo Li, & Yang Ruibing

The post This sustainable humidifier moistens the air in any room by using the natural evaporative qualities of terracotta! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This furniture collection also doubles up as pot planters with an ultimate Japandi vibe!

Posted on 29/10/2021 by Chi Thukral

After spending 99% of my time at home in the last two years, I have naturally developed a keen eye for good furniture designs. My preferred style is Japandi or Scandanavian design because I love their minimal aesthetic, functionality, and evergreen pieces – all of which I see in Lur! It is a furniture collection that includes pot planters which also double up as seating in the most organic manner. It was designed for Alki, a brand that is always seeking to collaborate with local businesses which makes it even more special because it unites distinct know-how and materials.

To create the Lur collection, designer Iratzoki Lizaso went to Goicoechea Pottery and work with the local team. The pottery workshop is based in Ortzaize in Lower Navarre, just a few kilometers from Alki. The Goicoechea family has been working with terracotta for three generations. The materials used, the solid oak, and the clay from the Goicoechea family quarry are here entirely natural.

The collection consists of planters and a bistro table. They all have smooth curves and organic shapes featuring a warm aesthetic thanks to the choice of materials and CMF details. It is minimal, timeless, and can work equally well for homes, offices, and public spaces. The idea of being able to vegetate our interiors with pots that are also low tables or seating participates in the creation of living and changing arrangements. These terracotta containers with an eccentric hole on the upper part, house flower pots that allow many unique and artistic compositions that can change the look and feel of a space!

Alki, the pottery team, and Iratzoki Lizaso enjoyed bringing together different craft skills to create Lur. The collection is centered around the idea of plant pots that can work double duty as shelves and coffee tables that add an extra dose of greenery to our spaces. Everything is bio-sourced and made with the intention to work universally as well as for a long time. The clay is transformed into a beautiful rose terracotta with a distinct texture with an off-center opening ready to hold flower pots and plants. The Lur range shows beauty in simplicity while doubling the functionality with minimal design!

Desinger: Iratzoki Lizaso

This modular terracotta clay pot keeps food cool without any electricity for refrigeration!

Posted on 28/10/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

The Terracooler is a modern interpretation of the traditional Zeer pot or pot-in-pot refrigerator, an evaporative cooling refrigeration device that has been used for centuries and is still used today in countries across the globe, such as India and Nigeria.

Zeer pots, or pot-in-pot refrigerators, carry a rich, enduring history. Dating back to as early as 3000BC, Zeer pots have been used in the kitchen as evaporative cooling refrigeration devices across the globe for centuries. Comprised of two clay pots, the porous outer pot is lined with wet sand and surrounds a glazed inner clay pot where food items can be stored for refrigeration.

Requiring no electricity whatsoever, Zeer pots only need a source of water and some dry air to keep produce and other food items cool. Reinterpreting the Zeer pot for modern use, London-based designer Ellie Perry created the Terracooler, a tri-tiered pot-in-pot refrigerator that fits right at home on the kitchen counter.

Like many designers today, Perry felt compelled to design her Terracooler after learning that 10% of household energy is taken up by domestic refrigerators. However, in the UK, where Perry is based, 14 million tons of food waste is accumulated each year. The Terracooler was designed by Perry to make sense of that perplexing ratio.

Inspired by the modern use of Zeer pots in countries like India and Nigeria, Perry devised sketches and models before taking to CNC milling to produce a wooden model of her Terracooler. Using the wooden model as a plaster mold, Perry slipped cast from the mold to create a version made from terracotta clay.

Using the traditional build of pot-in-pot refrigerators, Terracooler is formed from three tapered, double-sided slip cast pieces with built-in handles. The handles stem from both sides of each individual pot and also work as spouts for water to pour through and provide evaporative cooling. With a vertical, modular design, Terracooler fits snugly on any kitchen counter and can be disassembled for access to the food items inside each pot.

Designer: Ellie Perry

Built from repurposed roofing tiles, this exhibition space is inspired by natural cave dwellings and tree canopies!

Posted on 11/08/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

H&P Architects created entire facades out of tile waste found on Vietnam’s streets for Ngói Space, wrapping the city building in curtains of terracotta tile to produce a distinct look that uses light and shadows to challenge conventional architecture’s sense of space and give the building a microclimate quality unique to its framework.

Architects have felt inspired by natural dwellings for as long they’ve been building their own. Taking cues from the area’s surrounding landscape and proximate building material, architects are better able to integrate nature and its organic structure into their designs. Vietnam-based architecture firm, H&P Architects, found inspiration in the natural canopies and stratification of banyan fig trees as well as the assorted and multilayered chambers found in caves for Ngói Space, a new exhibition center built from repurposed tile construction waste.

The tile that constructs Ngói Space is familiar to Vietnam’s cityscape as it is more commonly used on roofs throughout urban provinces. H&P Architects created entire facades out of tile waste found on Vietnam’s streets for Ngói Space, wrapping the city building in curtains of terracotta tile to produce a distinct look that uses light and shadows to challenge conventional architecture’s sense of space and give the building a microclimate quality unique to its framework. A country known for tilework architecture, Vietnam’s crumbling tiled buildings are often demolished with little regard to the construction waste produced from the tile.

While the tiles are familiar to the roofs and ceilings of Vietnam, H&P gave discarded tiles new life by using them to build facades. Offering new life to Vietnamese tilework architecture and the building material itself, H&P Architects constructed Ngói Space’s frame entirely from concrete and wrapped it up with 2,000 ‘viglacera dong anh tiles’ that created beveled facades. The building is formed from concrete casting and glass windows, which are wrapped in tilework facades to create a unique exterior display.

A roof provides an outdoor seating area for guests to enjoy their drinks or just lounge around under the sun. The multi-story building functions as a large communal space, with different activity offerings on each level. Moving through the cavern-like halls cast from concrete, sunlight filters through the crisscrosses of tiled facades to brighten the building’s industrial interior. On the first floor, guests can gather and enjoy coffee or tea either indoors or out on the terrace before moving to the upper levels where seminar and exhibition spaces fill each floor. Then, the roof provides a space for people to gather outdoors and enjoy the full breadth of sunlight.

Terraces throughout the building are able to stay cool thanks to the microclimate quality the tiles create. Speaking on the building’s repurposed tilework, H&P Architects note, “The Ngói space was created as an inspiring solution to reusing these memory-filled tiles. On a larger scale, it orientates users towards a sustainable tomorrow, from the perspective of reaching back to the past to recognize and rediscover the core and hidden values of the original space and use those values to create spaces of the future.”

Designer: H&P Architects

The building’s concrete interior takes inspiration from natural caves to bring warmth to an otherwise industrial setting.

The triangles formed from repurposed tilework provide plenty of views of the surrounding area.

Sunlight that filters through the tilework creates mesmerizing puzzles of light on the building’s ceilings and floors.

Interior walls are more tightly packed with tiles to provide a dense, fuller feel.

At night, the golden light that pours out from Ngói Space helps it shine like a lantern in the dark.

This clay humidifier, filter, lamp and planter is inspired from sustainable Brazilian traditions!

Posted on 24/04/2021 by Ruchi Thukral

Clay filters are common in Brazilian homes and designer Lucas Couto brings the best of them to more household appliances. Clay is an organic and natural material used by many developing nations because it is cost-effective, versatile, and easily available. Terracotta earthenware in the kitchen is an ingenious practice that is finding its way back into our modern lives and Couto extends the benefits of this material to lamps, filters, and humidifiers.

“I intended to respect the heritage, avoiding an approach to simply “modernize” the filter. I wanted to create a unique form factor that takes advantage of the materials and manufacturing process while introducing new functional features, such as a handle to assist in lifting the upper reservoir and a base to support a drinking glass,” he adds, “The cooling property of the ceramic inspired me to design a humidifier. This is a much-needed item in my hometown of Belo Horizonte, where the air can get very dry throughout the year.” Clay filters are actually proven to eliminate toxins from water through its existing properties while also keeping it cool according to research published in the book The Drinking Water Book: How to Eliminate Harmful Toxins from Your Water. The efficient filtration is a result of the gravity process, where water passes through the candles and drips slowly into the lower reservoir.

Couto wanted to create a multi-sensorial experience fostered by the terracotta. He retained the color, the textures, and the gradient caused by water absorption for visuals and touch. The water drops inside the filter and the vitrified sound of the material produce a soothing sound. Terracotta naturally smells like earth after rain and it also adds a unique flavor to water. The cooling property of the ceramic is why Couto made the humidifier too. All components are placed in the lid, which also contains a level indicator to assist the user with keeping the humidifier filled. The lamp and the planter were additions to the series to showcase the material in various forms outside the kitchen use. The planter has a two-compartment design to take advantage of capillarity for petrichor! The inner part of the pendant lamp is covered with a white glaze to increase light reflection while the terracotta prevents it from overheating. The clay range is organic, warm, functional, and aesthetic!

Designer: Lucas Couto

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This terracotta container provides a natural & energy-efficient way to store produce!

Posted on 17/02/2021 by Ruchi Thukral

The trend of growing microgreens and herbs at home has come with its own set of pros and cons – people are starting to grow their own food to be more green but the food storage solutions are starting to get more complex and not green. DUNSTA was designed to bring the age-old tradition of storing fresh produce in a natural way while being aligned with your modern lifestyle. It uses evaporative cooling to create an environment similar to that of the root cellar, but for an urban living arrangement – so your fruits and vegetables will stay crispy and fresh longer without needing electricity!

Terracotta is baked clay, it is natural, high-quality, and maintenance-friendly material that is sustainably made as it doesn’t exploit natural resources like trees or need a high carbon footprint generating things like electricity during its production. Terracotta has distinct red and orange hues due to its iron content and is a porous form of clay. It is preferred in design because the manufacturing process is very simple, sustainable, and eco-friendly – it does not include any harmful chemicals and therefore is the perfect choice to store your food in. DUNSTA keeps the environment inside cool with a base layer of sand and a little channel on the top where you can add water. Once covered with the lid, your produce will remain fresh without the need for plastic wraps or containers.

While terracotta is eco-friendly it is important to remember that it is not biodegradable. This means nothing will happen to the DUNSTA even after multiple centuries because it will not degenerate into the soil as clay does so you can also use it as a sustainable time capsule!

Designer: Alexandra Fransson

These 3D printed terracotta tiles along Hong Kong’s coast are designed to revive the marine coral life!

Posted on 05/08/2020 by Ruchi Thukral

Coral reefs are one of the most beautiful natural wonders of the world and I can say that from my personal diving experience – there is a whole colorful world that thrives underwater and we must protect it because they support more species per unit area than any other marine environment! Coral presence has rapidly declined all over the world, especially in the last decade so Hong Kong-based marine scientists and architects have created terra-cotta tiles to help rebuild and give corals a fighting chance against climate change. This is a crucial leap for ocean restoration projects!

Hong Kong saw an 80% decline in the coral population in Double Island, Sai Kung, over the past decade and that drove the team to come up with a solution that would not only help that region but also the rest of the world that was blessed with corals. The team from Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and its Robotic Fabrication Lab of the faculty of architecture worked together to 3D print terra-cotta tiles that will act as artificial reefs. The result is a mesmerizing, organic swirl of line and negative space that reads like a burnt orange topographic map—and mimics the natural patterns of the coral itself. Why terra-cotta? It’s highly porous with “nice surface micro-texture” for marine organisms to latch on to, says team member Dave Baker, and an eco-friendly alternative to conventional materials such as cement or metal, the HKU team says.

The team 3D printed terra-cotta clay into the reef tile pattern and fired it to 2,057 degrees Fahrenheit to produce the 128 tiles so far. Each tile is almost two feet in diameter. The team placed the reef tiles seeded with coral fragments over about a 430-square-foot area across three sites within Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park in Hong Kong this past July and will monitor it for the next two years. The designs can also be specific to the environment and underwater conditions where they are placed; for instance, the team designed these tiles to prevent sedimentation buildup, a major problem in Hong Kong waters. The tiles interlock organically which enables the team to keep expanding when needed without disturbing existing settings. It gives the corals lots of nooks and crannies to anchor onto. Manmade or artificial reefs help restore lost coral populations by reintroducing an environment amenable to regrowth—and they’ve been made of everything from purposefully submerged shipwrecks to cement sculptures because corals aren’t picky, they just want to grow!

Designer: Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU)

The robotic 3D printing process offers unique advantages in the design and production of artificial reefs, it makes production easier and more efficient, by allowing the team to create large pieces in a short amount of time. It also enables the team to create tiles with different designs and functions that could be specific to certain corals and help in accelerating their growth.

“Though these tiles could be produced with other methods, such as making a double-sided mold, it would be quite complex to do since the design of the tile is very three-dimensional,” Lange says. “3D printing offers the advantage to produce objects and parts much more cost-effectively. But the most powerful advantage of it is that it could print each object with a different design without increasing the cost.”

The team from Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and its Robotic Fabrication Lab of the faculty of architecture worked together to 3D print terra-cotta tiles that will act as artificial reefs. With time the team will use different designs in the next iteration to figure out how they affect the species.

‘Mesa’ Combines a Planter and Hand-held Vacuum Into a Surprisingly Elegant Solution!

Posted on 18/04/2019 by Sarang Sheth

One’s designed to hold dirt, the other’s designed to eliminate dirt. Sam Lavoie says there’s no reason the two of them can’t get along! The Mesa, designed as an entry for Render Weekly’s design challenge, combines a planter and a hand-held vacuum cleaner into a singular form. The result is a design that’s decorative, utilitarian, and creates a pretty harmonious partnership between two unlikely categories and products.

The Mesa makes for a pretty decorative planter to be placed inside your house, along with a nice indoor plant. Sam capitalized on the fact that planters are usually placed against walls and near power outlets, giving you a product that can easily be plugged into a socket in the wall quite inconspicuously. The vacuum fits right in the planter and charges once docked, and can be easily used by pulling it out and powered using the standby button on the base. The vacuum’s design elegantly complements the planter, and while home appliances usually come in pretty standard glossy finishes and in black or white, the Mesa explores earthy terracotta as a potential color and texture for the vacuum and the planter. Needless to say, it clearly works!

Designer: Sam Lavoie for Render Weekly

A lamp with a herb-garden? Yes please!

Posted on 12/03/2019 by Sarang Sheth

Providing a lovely dim light to your space as well as photons for a tiny kitchen-garden, the Brot is a lamp and planter combined into one slick, terracotta package. The lamp provides nourishment to a tiny kitchen-garden that you can literally pick from and use in your meals. The upper half of the Brot lamp houses the light, while the lower half acts as a torus-shaped vessel for growing plants. A stainless steel tray sits inside the lower half, acting as a holder for the plant. You can sow a variety of seeds in the Brot, and the process is pretty standard. The seeds need to be soaked in advance before being planted, and can then be placed in the Brot’s lower half. They need to be moistened (probably using a spray/spritzer) 2-3 times a day, and within a week you’ve got yourself a perfectly healthy, homegrown set of herbs or sprouts to use in your meals. Oh, and let’s not forget, the Brot can be used for ambient dim lighting too, because after all, it’s also a lamp!

The dual functioning lamp and garden made its inaugural appearance at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in February in the “Greenhouse” category. The Brot is not yet for sale, but the company hopes to find a production facility soon.

Designer: Benditas Studio

Temperature-dropping Terracotta Terraces!

Posted on 16/05/2017 by Sarang Sheth

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From afar they may look like massive satellites on these buildings, but they’re actually for a completely different reason. This primary school building designed for Iran and its rather dry climate, has a double roof. The lower flat one acts as a ceiling for the classroom, and the concave container on top has a two-fold function.

It harvests rainwater, providing the school with a water supply in a country known for its relatively arid climate. What it also does is exploit terracotta’s ability to cool the environment. These earthen discs collect water, channeling them into into reservoirs hidden between the building’s double walls, simultaneously cooling the insides of the classrooms; providing free water and natural air conditioning with every rainfall. The large terracotta discs also help cut direct sunlight from hitting the roof of the building, cooling the interiors even further. BM Design Studio estimates its Concave Roof system could help the school collect up to 28 cubic meters of rainwater, while also reducing electricity costs because of the natural cooling system. That’s one way to make your school cool!

Designer: BM Design Studios

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