Tag Archives: sustainable concept

This refillable toothpaste container was designed to cut down the waste produced by conventional toothpaste tubes!

Posted on by

Mimo is a revolutionary refillable toothpaste tube that pumps toothpaste into each tube from the bottom with the help of an external refilling basin.

We don’t realize how much waste toothpaste tubes actually create. We brush our teeth twice a day, fingers-crossed, and go through multiple tubes of toothpaste in a matter of a couple of weeks. Young product designers Pelin Özbalcı and Sergen Çağlayan say that over one-billion tubes of toothpaste end up in landfills each year in the United States. Creating a solution for the waste created by disused toothpaste tubes, Özbalcı and Çağlayan developed Mimo, a refillable toothpaste tube.

Traditional toothpaste tubes we buy at the grocery store are typically constructed with a thin layer of aluminum and various types of plastic that make it nearly impossible for toothpaste tubes to degrade and recycle. Designed for those who’d like to live an eco-conscious, sustainable lifestyle, Mimo is a warm refillable toothpaste tube concept that would brighten up any bathroom. Inspired by the pastel color palette of Pantone shades, Mimo’s toothpaste containers have been conceptualized in an array of muted color schemes, each keeping an opaque, speckled top layer as well.

Equipped with a refilling basin, Mimo fills each tube up from the bottom through a pressure pump that’s encased in each basin. The transparent bottom half of Mimo indicates the toothpaste level so over-filling won’t be an issue. Designed in a similar fashion to refillable water bottles, Mimo comes as a cylinder container with a wrist strap that allows for easy portability and carrying. The toothpaste pump works in just the same way as a hand soap pump, squeezing out toothpaste for users as needed.

Designers: Pelin Özbalcı and Sergen Çağlayan

With a similar build to refillable water bottles, Mimo looks familiar to the average consumer.

The pastel color scheme of Mimo fits into any modern bathroom. 

Friendly packaging makes Mimo that much more appealing to regular consumers.

The hand pump is similar in design to hand soap containers.

The post This refillable toothpaste container was designed to cut down the waste produced by conventional toothpaste tubes! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Flatpack cardboard room dividers made from repurposed shipping containers are the easy-to-store furniture you need!

Posted on by

Nook is a collection of desk and room dividers made from repurposed cardboard shipping containers.

It’s said that it takes a little over twenty minutes to get back to work after a distraction. Whether you’re working from home, your local coffee shop, or a busy office–distractions are everywhere. Designing a means for privacy, Just Booth is a Polish acoustic pod brand that develops sound booths where you can retreat for privacy during the workday. Following a competition held by Just Booth and the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź where designers were asked to repurpose Just Booth cardboard boxes, Patrycja Gorzela designed Nook.

Designed in two different sizes, Nook is a collection of desk and room dividers made from disused Just Booth cardboard shipping containers. Amidst busy offices, distractions can come at any moment. Conceptualized as a means for workers to get quiet concentration time, the collection of smaller dividers can be configured on desks to create a small working zone. Then, to divide larger rooms into working sections, Nook comes in a fuller size to create a sense of privacy. Super lightweight and slim by nature, the collection of desk and room dividers can easily be rearranged to fit various needs.

No matter where we work, private zones help get the job done. When we’re in need of a little extra privacy during the workday, Nook is able to provide just that. Initially designed for a competition hosted by Just Booth and the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, Nook is a sustainable and practical means to provide quiet working zones in busy places.

Designer: Patrycja Gorzela

The post Flatpack cardboard room dividers made from repurposed shipping containers are the easy-to-store furniture you need! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This net-zero off-grid home generates solar power to keep it running for the ultimate sustainable lifestyle!

Posted on by

The Off Grid House from Anderson Architecture pushes sustainability to its outer limits in the Blue Mountains of Australia, equipping the home with added protection against insect attacks and extreme weather conditions like bushfires and rainstorms.

Designing and constructing off-grid houses powered by renewable forms of energy takes a lot of craftsmanship and know-how. Every single detail matters–from the insects that live outside the front door to the location’s natural climate and weather conditions. For Anderson Architecture, constructing their latest Off Grid House in the native bushlands of the Blue Mountains in Australia came with its own slew of challenges, but as they describe, “a site’s chief problem should always be the source of its key innovation.”

Operable without a backup generator, the Off Grid House is a bi-level home that’s essentially split into two sections. The two sections of the Off Grif House appear as two steeply pitched skillion-roofed boxes facing opposite directions and providing entirely different functions for passive insulation and energy generation. One of the roofed boxes, the sun-lit box, serves as the home’s sleeping quarters, storing the ample sunlight and heat during the day to keep the bedroom warm at night. Then, the escarpment-facing box is on the other side of things, receiving little to no direct sunlight during the day. These opposing orientations leave room for the roof’s 6.7KW solar system that generates power for everything from the underfloor heating and general electricity.

Additional heat is provided by a small wood-burning fireplace located in the home’s living area. Considering the termites that populate the Blue Mountains, Anderson Architecture built the Off Grid House out of concrete to ensure the pests don’t boor their way into the living room. Throughout the interior and exterior of the Off Grid House, the boundary between indoors and outdoors is blurred with sliding glass partitions, and an outdoor awning that retracts to form a semi-outdoor space or folds down to create a strictly indoor space.

Taking the local trend of wild bushfires into consideration, Anderson Architecture built a retractable metal screen to protect the home from extreme weather conditions. Describing the need for added protection against bushfires, Anderson Architecture describe,

“Low-carbon fiber cement board cladding and decking give the added appearance of timber with the durability of a high bushfire attack BAL 40 & BAL FZ house design performance. Keen to trial additional weather protection measures, we designed an experimental 2.4m external metal screen here. This acts as a wall that can be winched away out of sight is deployed as heavy rain protection, or could be lowered completely as a BAL FZ (flame zone) barrier in the event of a fire.” Then, when it rains, the roofs feed rainwater to water tanks that cap out at 30,000L.

Designer: Anderson Architecture

The outdoor deck creates a cozy semi-outdoor leisure area. 

Inside, clean lines and neutral color schemes provide the house with a calming ambiance. 

The post This net-zero off-grid home generates solar power to keep it running for the ultimate sustainable lifestyle! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This sustainable floating pod converts seawater into drinking water through a natural desalination process!

Posted on by

WaterPod is a sustainable floating pod that turns seawater into drinking water through a natural desalination process.

97% of the earth’s water is found in its oceans, yet in its primary state, ocean water is unsuitable for human needs like drinking and cleaning. Since sustainable designs that rely on alternative energy production have been on the rise in response to environmental concerns, we’re closer than ever to scaling down macro desalination plants for individual use. One team of designers was recently recognized by The James Dyson Award for their desalination pod concept called WaterPod that turns seawater into drinkable water through an array of sustainable features.

WaterPod operates as a self-cleaning solar desalination system that absorbs seawater via underwater wicks, inspired by mangrove trees, which then passes through a condensation and evaporation process to remove the salt particles from the seawater. Just like mangrove trees, WaterPod’s underwater wicks fill the pod with seawater until its water levels reach the pod’s black fabric dome. Inside the dome, seawater undergoes evaporation as water vapors gradually flow from the transparent covering and collect in WaterPod’s storage compartment. Then, users can pump drinking water from the storage compartment’s recess. While the desalination process takes place, the WaterPod remains floating atop the water in a similar fashion to a conventional buoy. WaterPod’s top lid is filled with expanded polyurethane foam for thermal insulation and flotation enhancement while a cement base offers buoyancy stability.

The team of designers behind WaterPod developed the concept in response to a lack of clean, drinking water in Sandakan, Malaysia. Noticing the seafaring community’s reliance on the sea, the team of designers wanted to develop a means for individuals to have access to clean drinking water, no matter the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean. WaterPod is a modern solution that takes cues from the surrounding environment to bring drinking water to those who depend on it most.

Designers: Bennie Beh Hue May, Yap Chun Yoon, & Loo Xin Yang