The purpose of the exhibit is to get us to think twice about our consumption: it's not just about how we use a product, but also about where it comes from, how it is made and the effect of its production on the planet. The exhibit serves a second purpose: by using marquee names such as Isaac Mizrahi, Kate Spade and Yves Behar, the organization also serves to elevate sustainable design and demonstrates that fashion and smart production are indeed compatible.
Below are the designers' creations that are being displayed in the exhibit, along with initial prototypes and drawings from each artist:
Jewelry designer Ted Muehling visited Micronesia to observe the usage of "vegetable ivory"--the seeds of the ivory-nut palm tree whose hard, cream-colored interior resembles true ivory. The palm drops hundreds of seeds over its lifetime, providing a sustainable and equally-attractive alternative to real ivory.
Stephen Burks, industrial designer and director of the New York studio Readymade Projects, spent time in aboriginal Australia and observing the process of collecting seeds, nuts, berries and twigs which are then crushed for therapeutic or medicinal purposes. His raspberry jam wood "totem piece" is like a peppermill: the plant parts are placed in the top part of the totem and then ground; the material can then be used to produce lotions or other products.
fuseproject's Yves Behar, the influential San Francisco designer of the One Laptop Per Child, met with indigenous women's groups in Costa Rica that produce organic cocoa and chocolate. As drinking cocoa from hand-processed cocoa patties is an important local custom, Behar designed a tool to scrape and collect the cocoa shavings from the patties.
Graphic and exhibition designer Abbott Miller was "inspired by the astounding variety and beauty of the Bolivian woods and the ingenuity of the vernacular design and architecture in Santa Cruz" and created an FSC-certified plywood chair that is designed to maximize the yield per sheet of plywood. The chair also ships flat and is easily assembled, reducing shipping material waste. The increasing demand for FSC-certified material is also providing a source of income in a country where 2/3 of the population is impoverished.
Kate Spade designer Paulina Reyes collaborated with carvers and weavers in Bolivia to create handbags made of FSC-certified hardwood and jipijapa, a fiber made from palm leaves. A limited number of the creations will be sold in the United States.
Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi used salmon skin discarded by Alaskan fish processors to redefine leather. He commissioned a Parisian artisan to turn the skin into sequin-like discs which are then handsewn onto fabric.
Rotterdam-based product designer Hella Jongerius known for her use of unusual materials. She combined natural chicle from the Yucatan Peninsula, a material that is used in small amounts in chewing gum, with ceramic vessels "to create tactile surfaces and planes of connection between diverse materials."
Textile designer Christien Meindertsma traveled from The Netherlands to visit Lava Lake Farm in Idaho, where she met a flock of sheep that provided wool for her rugs. Using custom-made, oversized needles, Meindertsma uses her felted wool yarn to knit textured rugs that highlight the material itself. Meindertsma points out, "A lot of the value of a product lies in knowing where it comes from, where it grows, and in what amounts. This information tends to get lost when things are made all around the world and not in your own backyard."
Rather than using bamboo as a material to create a surface, Israeli designer Ezri Tarazi turned the ubiquitous grass (sourced from Yunnan, China) into an object itself. His "Living Forest" design utilizes bamboo's hollow center to become functional home objects such as magazine stands, lights and media stands.
Maya Lin, perhaps best known for her radically-different design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., worked with the Nature Conservancy to create a piece of furniture meant to highlight the beauty of an individual tree. The Terra Bench is made by piecing together lateral slices of FSC-certified red maple from Maine, creating an irregular, wave-like surface.
Design for a Living World goes hand-in-hand with another exhibit Cooper-Hewitt launched two years ago: Design for the Other 90%. While the former focuses on moving the average consumer to shift his or her definitions of product value, the latter exhibit emphasizes the value in good product design for BoP consumers.
Photos from The Nature Conservancy, Christien Meidertsma, and Hella Jongerius
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