Young designers embrace green ideas

Up and coming designers showcased their work at the annual New Designers show - but this year many of the graduates had turned their attention to the environment.


Among the furniture, products, and architecture on show at the eight-day exhibition, spread over two weeks, were a host of designs using recycled or eco-friendly materials, minimising waste or attempting to improve the environment or consumer awareness.

Thousands of visitors, design students and prospective buyers and employers visited the show, at the Building Design Centre, in London.

Among the environmentally-focused projects on show was Nick Bampton’s The Green Aesthetic.

The 22-year-old Middlesex University graduate designed cardboard furniture which could at first appear to consumers to be very green, but would actually have a limited lifespan, was coated in toxic substances, would be unsuitable for recycling, and created a lot of production waste.

“This is a response to current green marketing and the process of greenwashing,” he told edie.

Four students from the University of Creative Arts, in Farnham, Surrey, are hoping to inspire house-buyers and new tenants to go green with their product Green Stuff, which was also part of the New Designers exhibition.

Don Breach, 21, Imran Chaudry, 23, Kundan Sinha, 21 and 22-year-old William Tang – all students on a sustainable product design course at the university – designed a box of green products that can be given out by estate agents or housing associations to people as they move in to their new homes.

They told edie: “We are hoping to run a trial run of the idea within the next couple of months as well as get our website up and running.

“Then the next big step is to go to Business Start Up at London Olympia in November to pitch at Midas Touch for a cash injection into Green Stuff.

“Regardless of investment at Midas Touch, Green Stuff will definitely be taken further.”

Kate Martin

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