It's a box! It's a hanger!

It's a really innovative package!

T-shirt shipping box tranforms origami-style into a hanger for the same shirt. Design by Steve Haslip. Tip from Packagings of the World.

Images from Steve Haslip

Modern Coop

Why, why, why is our design blog featuring chicken coops? Around here, backyard chickens are becoming more and more popular. The eggs are fresh, organic, delicious, and cheap, and the chickens also make a lot of, um, fertilizer, which is handy if you're a gardening type. In our own Oak-town, you can keep several chickens (no roosters), as long as your coop is a reasonable distance from neighboring houses. Once you've decided to have your own chickens, you'll need a place for them to live. Most people build their own coop, but then there are these beauties, like mini airstream trailers for your flock. The coops are made of reclaimed cedar planks and can be customized to your needs. Each one is hand-built by architect/designer John Wright, who has raised several chickens in his own backyard.

Windows!

Modern Coop is Portland-based, so if you're in Oregon, your lucky chickens can live it up in Dwell-modern style. John's also available to help design your dream home, with or without chickens.

Images from Modern Coop

Carpetbagging

For all the Process 376 team members looking for a little more Ample Sample inspiration, here's some Friday love. It's also worth reviewing the star ratings to see what was well reviewed last year.

I found a benches and a table that are similar to our sketches for a table design, and several lights for Tricia to reference. Everything is made of carpet samples. Entries are due May 8.

Images from Ample Sample. (Designers listed below)
SUSTAINA(t)ABLE by Heather Bryan
Hex Bench by Steven Rothe, BKV Group
Loop Bench by James Seaman
Filament Pendant Lamp by Aaron Petersen
Back to Square One Lamp by Erica Whitehead
Accent Lamp by Man Tam

Future shock: Stunning solar lighting by Qnuru

Trees from the future

Detail

Images from Qnuru. Thanks to Re-Nest for the tip.

Josh Jakus In SF Area

In the not so distant past, we had an invitation to visit Josh Jakus's studio in Berkeley, CA. I have always been a secret (well not so secret now) admirer of his incredible wool products that look as though they have been birthed in a space capsule and this capsule is made of wool. With Josh's comfortable space and personality, we were able to get down to business discussing local production, wool and your basic green design. The material he uses is 80% recycled wool felt. He die cuts the wool and sews it right here in the bay area. We also got a preview of an adorable new product line, so look for it in your closest green retailer. Thanks for the hospitality Josh!

stacks and stacks of goodies

beautiful colors

great nuts- thanks!

Materials: Paper + wood

After that crazy-beautiful blown fabric, I'm on a Japanese design kick. Dezeen featured this paper-wood stool by Drill Design. The plywood here is a laminate of wood veneers and colored paper.

The end result is 40% recycled, but I can imagine ways to take this idea in lots of different directions.

Images from DeZeen

Hay fever: Pollen pendant

RelativeDesign offers this lamp in their Ponoko storefront. The construction is simple (laser-cut acrylic frame wrapped in yarn).

The kick is that you do the wrapping yourself, which means that you can certainly branch out beyond the white yarn it ships with. We'll be posting more details about Ponoko soon, for those of you who are curious.

Images from RelativeDesign

Finger pointing: Secrets of the SF Dump

Treehugger has a great slide show and story on their visit to the SF dump. The dump itself is less of a dump and more of an elaborate processing station, with a goal of diverting (reuse, recycle, etc.) as much as possible. They currently reuse about 5% recycle about 60% of the material that comes to the site. If you're local, you can cruise over there to dig through the reuse bin and take anything you need. It's also a great resource for recycled paint, which is mixed on site and sorted by color. Anyone can come get a bucket or two for free.

One of the most interesting things artist in residence program (annual shows and some really fantastic work). They give tours of the sculpture garden once a month, and their next big show is in September. We'll keep you posted.

Images from Treehugger (photographed by Jaymi Heimbuch)

Reminder: Saturday open house at The Crucible

Just a quickie reminder that The Crucible is having their spring open house Saturday (Apr. 18). Hope to see you there!

Materials: nendo's blown fabric

Japanese designers nendo created these lamps from "Smash," a non-woven polyester. When heated, the material can be blown in a process similar to glass-blowing.
You can find more details on the project and the material on nendo's website. It's a little too cute, but I still want to see these done in bubble-gum pink...

Images from nendo. Thanks to NotCot for the tip.

Spring greening at Inhabitat

Book bookshelf by Richard Jennions

The team over at Inhabitat are running their Spring Greening DIY contest. Some of the entries are inspired. K2, there are even some egg crate lights I'm featuring just for you.

Egg-crate lamp by Federico Otero

Tupperware Lights by Frank Criscione

UPDATE: Voting is closed. Check out the winners here.

Images from Inhabitat

Architectural inspiration: The Dairy House

Arch Daily gives us these lovely images of a house inspired by stacks of lumber. It's the use of glass that makes the design really special. The spaces between the wood beams are filled with laminated glass blocks. The result is amazing, especially the way the light comes through the glass. The website has many more photos and details about the project.

Layers of wood and laminated glass

At night

Images from Arch Digest (photographed by James Morris)

Inspiration: KOZO plumbing fixture lamps

Very cool re-use of plumbing fixtures by the Tel Aviv design team DEMO/Design Clinic. Their stated goal is to reduce their manufacturing to zero, as "everything that you need must have already been made for you, built in another product." These are a good start. The lamps are for sale at their Etsy shop, and reasonably priced between $170 and $230. Note the clever use of the taps as the on/off switches.
Just one question: If something breaks, do you call a plumber or an electrician?

Images from Demo/Design Clinic. Thanks to Re-Nest for the tip.