With some creativity and design aesthetic, cardboard box forts are taken to a whole new level. Cardboard is becoming an eco-friendly material of choice for furniture design, and sustainable designers have put it to many uses. It is used both for chic contemporary cardboard thrones as well as cardboard cribs and doll cradles. Bringing cardboard […]
Libyan sculptor Ali Al-Wakwak has transformed the charred remnants of war into inspiring creations Around a week ago, Libyans celebrated the first anniversary of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. It’s certainly been a turbulent year for Libyans and although the future isn’t as certain as some would hope, thousands took to the streets to celebrate […]
There are more land mines in Afghanistan than there are people, so Massoud Hassani turned a childhood toy into an extraordinary wind-powered bamboo mine sweeper that destroys and tracks them.
Urban gardens don’t have to be restricted to rooftops alone – they can flourish on balconies, where everyone can see them. There’s a bit of a paradox within the guidelines for environmentally friendly living. It is widely agreed upon that dense urban living is better for the environment, but it is also true that it […]
As an alternative light fixture, Israeli designer Marina Rudinsky lights up a string of loose tea strainers. Items found in the kitchen are often endowed with unusual shapes and holes, and many a designer have found ways to convert kitchen tools into light fixtures. Pasta strainers are an obvious choice, but small, delicate loose tea […]
These designed cotton bags are way cooler than plastic. Plastic bags are undoubtedly bad for the environment, but sometimes it’s hard to get motivated to carry reusable bags with you for those spur-of-the-moment trips to the store. Serious and devoted DIYers and plastic bag avoiders may make their own reusable cloth shopping bags out of […]
Your sandblasted Armani jeans could be killing people. “Distressed” jeans are commonly made by blasting the denim with silica (pictured above) after it has been pressurized into miniscule dust particles. But this fashion trend has been lethal for workers in denim sandblasting factories around the world. In Turkey, İdris Oral has become the 50th factory worker […]
For Mohammad Sabir Khedri, compiling the pages of this enormous and intricately detaied holy book was a 5 year labor of love. A master calligrapher has lovingly unveiled the world’s largest Quran in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to a Reuters report released last week. The giant holy book measures 7.5 by 5.10 feet, weighs over 1,000 pounds, […]
Select pieces of recycled, eco friendly furniture will be sold at an auction house in central Israel next week alongside paintings and other fine art. Sustainable furniture design has been creeping into the Israeli art world over the past few years, with eco friendly furniture being exhibited at Jerusalem’s Design Week recently and other recycled […]
Recycled furniture by Israeli designer Naama Futerman. She gives disposed objects a second life. If all the products that we ever used or came into contact with only had a “Chapter One”, our landfills would be overflowing. Thankfully there are people out there, such as Tel Aviv-based designer Naama Futerman, who help give discarded objects […]
A family near Essaouira, Morocco happily splash around in a natural pool with zero chemicals. A beautiful, luxurious swimming pool in Morocco that contains none of the nasty chemicals that irritate your eyes and cause respiratory problems has functioned perfectly well for over a year. A family living near Essaoiura on the country’s windy west […]
Simply put: “best friends are not meant to abused”. The fashion industry is not known for being friendly towards animals (particularly those of the furry variety), but Fashion Beirut contradicted expectations last month when it created a photo campaign together with Animals Lebanon. The photo campaign shows a fashionable young woman accompanied by a dog […]
Long live the queen, if she can manage to sit on Niloufar Afnan’s recycled ‘Royal Stool’. At this year’s New Designers Exhibition in London, Lebanese-born designer Niloufar Afnan decided to poke a little fun at the royal family and demonstrate the possibilities of upcycled furniture. She exhibited Royal Stool (pictured above) and 46 (shown after […]
Green is glamorous, according to Beirut’s eco fashion boutique. People need to eat and people need to dress every day, so food and fashion are two of the ways that people can make a daily difference in protecting the environment. Organic food products have crept into mainstream supermarkets, but organic and eco-friendly fashion is a […]
If Hassan Fathy is the father of sustainable architecture, then Nader Khalili must be his close cousin.