Happyzine 2015 = exciting times ahead

I find something inherently comforting about being surrounded by wood. As I look around our little 1940’s cottage I realise how much of nature’s cloak we’ve drawn around us; our wood framed weatherboard house has polished matai floors, oiled cedar and rimu window frame and a macrocarpa kitchen countertop. People often say the house has “a good feel” – maybe it’s all that wood.

I’ll be quick to point out that all that wood was already here when I took up residence, so its sustainability – or otherwise – is not on my conscience.

But I certainly had a hard time settling on an outdoor table last year when it seemed all that could be bought was made from tropical hardwood devoid of any eco-source labelling. Sustainable wood products can be hard to find.

Wood, while it is technically a renewable resource, needs careful consideration by architects and designers in its application to all those things we like to surround ourselves with – especially buildings. The multi-award-winning Meridian Building on Wellington’s waterfront uses at least three different sustainable timbers in its structure and characteristic external wooden “fins”. Mind you, the architects were setting out to create the greenest building ever (don’t quote me, but it was something like that) so it’s only right to see them leading by example.

Waste and energy consumption as well as the source material (sustainable birch plywood) have been considered in an innovative range of wooden chair and table designs from British designer Dan Civico. They are essentially flat pack pop-out kits – the kind of thing you might usually see as a miniature plastic kinder egg toy – and can make a groovy piece of wall art before you pop out the bits to form your furniture.

Using felled wood in situ can be incredibly eco-efficient – not only do you know exactly where and how it was grown, but transport emissions are zero.

There are numerous examples of this in New Zealand, perhaps partly down to Kiwi ingenuity and using what’s around. Friends in Taranaki are completing their own macrocarpa house with timber felled and milled by a neighbour, while The Lodge at the French Village, an eco-retreat in a secluded Wairarapa valley, is built entirely from the three large macs that once stood on the site. Their hulking stumps still punctuate the grassy front yard.

Meanwhile, a bespoke furniture-making service in Seattle remodels beloved deceased trees into one-of-a-kind pieces. While that’s a noble and no doubt skilled craft, it occurs to me clients may be shared with the taxidermist who will reanimate deceased pets.

A more cost effective scavenger mindset is displayed by the remarkable temporary Jellyfish Theatre just opened in London – made mostly from salvaged shipping pallets and other wood scraps. The two shows that will play there during the theatre’s short life have been written to address themes of environmental catastrophe.

It is fantastic example of a holistic community design project that sends a strong message of walking the talk.

I just hope they find a sympathetic building inspector to sign it off!

I am less convinced by a project to replace the hardwood decking on the Brooklyn Bridge’s pedestrian boardwalk. While that sounds like a positive thing, I just can’t quite compute how they intend to “sustainably harvest” tropical rainforest hardwood. Might keep an eye on that one.

Lastly, it might not seem in the spirit of forest preservation to replace a mass produced plastic product with a wooden substitute, but…. This bamboo toothbrush is just too cute. And anyway bamboo is technically an overgrown grass, not a tree, and the biodegradability wins points.

I’ll leave you with a top wood shopping tip; if you want to demand the highest standard in wood and paper products, always look for the FSC logo (Forest Stewardship Council).

These guys are like the superhero’s Hall of Justice for wood products. In fact, their logo has such super-powers I can’t even show it to you unless I’m certified.

But commit it to memory and always ask your retailer if a wood product has this mark – if they could, the trees would thank you.

Tags: green design, sustainable design