Shahar Livne’s minable materials from plastics and leather from waste meat
Israeli designer Shahar Livne creates old plastic and industrial slaughterhouse waste into sustainable materials to be exploited.
Israeli Design
Jewelry that turns human veins into power source
Talk about being self-sufficient, but totally weird! Israeli student designer Naomi Kizhner has designed a collection of jewelry that harvests energy from veins in the human body. The project highlights in a beautiful and artful way how humanity is addicted to energy consumption. It may be a thought experiment more than anything, but these jewels provoke […]
Cyclists “go Dutch” and 100+ historic bikes in Israel this week
Nobody knows more about bicycles than the Dutch, but Israelis will have a chance to glean some design and urban planning wisdom from the waterlogged nation next week at the “Going Dutch” conference established by their Prime Minister and (the much more fit) Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Wind-powered Tumbleweed robot rolls back encroaching deserts
Desertification has gobbled up huge swaths of the Middle East and North Africa, a fact that Jerusalem-based industrial designer Shlomi Mir knows all too well. So he designed Tumbleweed Desert – a rolling robot capable of spending many solitary years in the desert gathering data aimed at slowing encroaching deserts.
Wearable Boutonnière Vase Keeps Floral Scents Close to Your Chest
Israeli designer Omer Polak has designed an adorable wearable vase that keeps a flower or herbs close to the wearer’s chest. The Boutonnière is a lapel pin made from blown glass attached to clothing via a small brass pin.
Cricket Bike Alarm is Silent and Barely Bigger than a Bottle Cap
Israeli designers are working hard to curb bicycle theft. One group came up with the “fashionable” Foldylock and the Spine Bike breaks when stolen. But the Cricket uses bluetooth technology to keep sticky hands off urban wheels.
Rhino Skin Portable Bomb Shelter’s Got Your Back in War
We don’t want to perpetuate any kind of hype during this immensely sensitive time in the Middle East, but now does seem like a good opportunity to share an Israeli design for a portable bomb shelter that’s got your back during war.
Israel’s Itay Kirshenbaum Grows Backyard Furniture
What is up with Israeli designers? On the whole, they’re an eco-conscious group that use their creative genius to churn out groundbreaking designs, but two young students seem to be heading in the wrong direction. We recently featured Yariv Goldfarb’s Bezalel graduation project with 3d printing technology called “Play with Poop.” In order to deviate […]
Israel’s Earthquake Proof Table Added to MoMA’s Permanent Collection
Students are typically advised to crawl under their desks when an earthquake strikes, but then they often become trapped when the table collapses. Israeli designers Arthur Brutter and Ido Bruno designed a solution to this problem called “the Earthquake Proof Table”. It’s able to withstand one tonne of weight, and meets the needs in developing […]
Recycled Tea Strainer Lamp Creates Soothing Glow
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 […]
Chic Reusable Cotton Bags Make Eco-Friendly Shopping Cool
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 […]
Recycled Furniture to Be Sold at Israeli Auction Next Week
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 […]
Raw Bamboo Bench is Green, But Is It Comfortable?
Bamboo is universally praised as a sustainable material, but when used in its rawest form is it comfortable? Beauty has been said to increase sustainability, but what about ease of use? We’ve seen a few sustainable bench designs out there already, from Yoav Avinoam’s sawdust bench to Green Lullaby’s cardboard work bench – but never […]
Playful Packaging From Gugu Design
The packaging from Gugu Design’s games is not merely protective, but actually another game. Two games for the price of one package! We’ve seen sustainable designers upcycle the packaging from other products to make something new (such as the Ecoist clutch purses made from candy and potato chip bag wrappers), and we’ve even seen them […]
Folded Paper Jewelry That Makes Origami Look Chic
Hila Rawet Karni’s jewelry items look so luxurious, you’d never guess they’re made of paper. As an accessory that often falls victim to changing fads and trends and which is usually made of precious stones and metals, jewelry is potentially one of the more energy intensive (and polluting) of accessories. But it doesn’t have to […]
Paper Carton Furniture Is No Pulp Fiction
Paper pulp furniture is stronger than it looks. Bamboo has been praised for several years as the most sustainable material for furniture (due to its quickly renewable nature), with cardboard coming a close second due to its recycled and recyclable form. At first thought cardboard may not sound very strong, but when you think about […]
Spine Bike Built to Break When Stolen
Ronen Spector has designed a bike lock so integral to the bike’s actual structure that ruining the lock would ruin the bike. With so many cool bicycle designs out there though, you may still want to sport a rocking bike without worrying about theft. Ronen Spector, a recent industrial design graduate from Shenkar in Israel, […]
Modular Flower Store Keeps Shoppers on Their Toes 24/7
Shoppers at Zerim-Liftan’s specialty store will never know what layout design to expect, as it is modular and ever-changing. The modular design concept – which is sustainable as it saves the resources that would otherwise be used to create multiple objects from scratch – has been applied to all kinds of designs. It has been […]
Jerusalem Design Week Uses Design to Heat Our Reactions to Climate Change
Jerusalem’s second annual Design Week will generate awareness of climate change through design and show off some local sustainable designers. Jerusalem will host the grand opening of its second annual Design Week on December 4th, with a week of design exhibitions, conferences, master classes, cinema events and workshops planned for a variety of audiences. The […]
Help Kickstart a Sustainable Lighting Project
Israeli designer Adital Ela Asks for help with her WindyLight sustainable lighting project on Kickstarter. Kickstarting a new sustainable lighting project that employs wind in generating energy to create light is sustainable Israeli designer Adital Ela. Her project, WindyLight, is a “family of self-sufficient outdoor lights that perform on free, clean energy and create a […]
Timo Handmade Finds Modern Uses for Vintage Fabrics
Made mostly from used and vintage scraps of fabric, Timo Handmade’s new creations have a warm, old-world feel. Fabric scraps can be used for lots of things, and we’ve seen designers refashion them in all kinds of ways – like use them to make repurposed fabric shoes, purses made from upholstery fabric samples, and even […]
Nokka Customized Cardboard Furniture for Everyday and Everyone
Upcycled, easily recycled and sturdy cardboard is the base material for Nokka’s furniture. Cardboard is one of those miracle materials that has recently been rediscovered and used widely by sustainable designers. It is easy to come by, easy to upcycle, and easy to recycle – and no less importantly, it is surprisingly strong and durable. […]
Studio Ubico’s Furniture Collection Reincarnates Wood Into Trees
Studio Ubico has upcycled found wooden pieces back into their original form, a tree. Studio Ubico, an upcycling and environmentally conscious design studio working in Tel Aviv, joins the ranks of other sustainable designers who are trying to make good use out of materials that are already sourced (instead of going out and taking more […]
Ron Arad’s Bike Wheels Will Never Go Flat
Ron Arad’s bike is up for the auction block: These wheels will add some spring to your ride. Unlike the car, which comes in many shapes, colors, and sizes, the bicycle has not been subject to as many design transformations and over the years has pretty much retained its classic shape. Here and there there […]
Michael Tsinovsky Puts Arabic Into Israel’s Melting Pot
Industrial designer Michael Tsinovsky brought together Israel’s many local styles in his ‘asli’ furniture design. When it comes to consumerism, local is almost always better for the environment and for the local economy. Local is better when you’re buying produce at the farmer’s market, when you’re supporting local artisans and craftsmen, and when you’re purchasing […]