Wearable Gardens?

Yesterday I posted on the UN International Year of the Forests .... I know many of you will be hyper-aware of just why this is so critical! I added the question of what could we bring to this year to impact things for the greater good... and suggested there are multiple ways to apply our skills and ingenuity, our ideas and effort.

I thought I would post this story which I've titled "Wearable Gardens"... just to bring home how left field some ideas might be... but to place value on the fact of attracting attention ... in a brilliantly eye-catching way .... to a profoundly important matter.

This comes from

ecouterre  on wearable technology. (Click on ecouterre title to read more)

“Pollinator Frocks” Are Wearable Gardens That Attract, Feed Hungry Bees

by Jasmin Malik Chua, 01/17/11

Artist Karen Ingham’s latest project is guaranteed to make a buzz. The British insect-lover has produced a series of dresses designed to aid shrinking populations of bees and other pollinators, a growing environmental crisis that threatens our global food system. Featuring electron-microscopy images of pollen, Ingham’s “Pollinator Frocks” are treated with a nectar-like sugar solution that attracts and nourishes bees and their brethren. She even created outfits for separate occasions: day-wear to draw bees and butterflies and evening-wear for nocturnal critters such as moths.

FROCKS THAT ROCK

“Populations of insect pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and moths, and the plants on which they depend, are declining at alarming rates due to deleterious human activity,” says Ingham, who collaborated with entomologists, botanists, microscopists, and engineers to develop her prototypes. “These symbiotic relationships must be protected.”

Treated with a nectar-like sugar solution, the dresses mimic the way insects relate to flowers.

Working with technologists at the Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating, Ingham examined aromas and materials that mimic the way insects relate to flowers before settling on her arresting printed fabrics, which she dubs “wearable gardens.” Ingham sees her dresses having the most impact in urban spaces, where gardens are limited in number, nectar-rich plants are rare, and public engagement is most needed. “The clothing can be hung out as clothes are hung on a washing line, to act as an attractant to pollinators,” she says.


+ Pollinator Frocks
+ Karen Ingham



UPDATE: Hop over to erudite eco-wise woman India to see what she noticed when viewing the above video. As one well aquainted with the workings of nature ... biological and chemical processes ... especially in relation to textiles ... she immediately picked up on question marks in the thinking of this project.
So perhaps we have a successful attention-grabbing project with a not so likely application! Note to self: read the fine print! Thanks India... always much to learn and revel in at her blog Prophet of Bloom!


Also from this fabulous site which is well worth a visit....


Coffee beans are actually the seed of the plant. so how does one make clothes from coffee beans?


Take a good look at this and read more here at Ecouterre.

Fabrictionary

S.Cafe: Clothes Made From Used Coffee Grounds

by Jasmin Malik Chua, 10/01/09

Photo by deapeajay

S.CAFE \ˈes ka-ˈfā\

n. 1 a: A fabric that Singtex Industries in Taiwan knits or weaves using waste coffee grounds. (A single cup of coffee can yield two shirts.) b: Said to dry quickly, protect against UV rays, and neutralize odors. c: Meets Swiss Bluesign standards for sustainable fabrics.
+ S.Cafe

So...what can we bring to 2011?


I'd say our curiosity and willingness to take a look at some great new ideas... and even if not convinced to purchase a coffee ground T-shirt... at least we can celebrate that people are out there are getting very serious about pushing the envelope.


Would I like  wear the pollinator frock?


well ... I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of bees buzzing around me as I walk along... BUT...  I do think this is a powerful message to put out there... and in the halls of fashion... yes please... bring the message to the masses....


these stories came through INHABITAT - an e-mag that believes design will save the world. Go visit and see what they are up to!

designing our future and an ultimate homage to the seed - The Seed Cathedral

A favourite design idea I found last year from the Netherlands were these string gardens.

There seem to be such innovative people coming from there! See the May 12 post on this blog for other creatives out of the Netherlands! String gardens appealed on many levels - even the name! I exchanged a few words with the designer when posting this at my other blog last October. Also check out www.ljm.nl/

Some would be rather horrified I guess at how far this takes you from the regular concept of a garden - but part of the fascination for me is that intensifies the relationship in front of your eyes of seed to soil to the plant's growth cycles and there even seems to be a grave yard for old string gardens. I think they might be better suited to a cooler climate that here and also need a bit of horticultural know-how to keep them flourishing. That aside I am bowled over by the concept of these because of the way they expose the growth cycle at eye level. Has any one out there tried something similar to this successfully?

Have a look at this wonderful series of videoed string gardens here. Charming! And from the red-light district below - a show by Fedor van der Valk - the creator of string gardens! Its a great website I promise!

I wrote last week on the way designers are rethinking the future emphasising it's not all about the uber-fabulous and drop-dead expensive genre of 'new design' for new's sake. There is a great deal of ingenuity being applied to even the most humble of everyday items - see 3 of last year's finalists in the following design competition below for proof of that. What I'm posting here is the call for designers the world over to enter a Korean Design Competition - its free to enter - and it seems the integrity of the idea is what's important rather than the length of one's design CV. 

C A L L - F O R - E N T R I E S
Incheon Metropolitan City, KOREA,together with designboom promotes an international design competition.
participation is open to applicants from every country in the world,
to professionals, students, and design-enthusiasts.
free of charge registration required.

iiida 2010 is hosted by Incheon Metropolitan City and organized by Incheon Business Agency.
sponsors of this competition are:
Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Republic of Korea,
Korea Institute of Design Promotion,
designflux,
Incheon Industrial Design Association
Incheon Design Company Association.

---
01 - the subject of the international competition is 
green heartiida 2010 calls out for fresh and new design proposals to be made by designers with green hearts.
being aware of the environment is a joyful way to give sustainable change to daily city living.
designers with a passion for preserving the environment are asked to suggest a future where
humans and nature can coexist. as such, we welcome the participation of competent
world designers in iida 2010, with the goal of generating new possibilities
for sustainability through design.
iida 2010 seeks entries in the following three categories:

1 - green design for humans- life style design which help realize ways to consider the environment in daily life
- daily goods, home appliances, lighting, furniture, stationery, home devices, car, packaging, etc.


2 - green design for the city- innovative and effective public design which suggests the possibility of an eco-friendly city
- architecture, interior design, road, public area, park, urban planning, urban infrastructure, etc.


3 - green design for communication- design taking lead in social communication for the diffusion of green design and green life style
- poster, video, advertisement, illustration, campaign, software, mass media, networking, etc. 


read more at Designboom.com and at iida 2010


Click to enlarge to read about some finalists from last year:

A pretty amazing concept - the rocking actually powers the light attached to the chair.

A new approach to eating locally - these plates bring it all home!

...well thats humble for you - and why I say designers aren't sticking to the WOW items to put their efforts to work. I have a brother who's quick to remind that some of the smallest inventions have generated considerable wealth. 

I found this and other great stories at INHABITAT.COM . By going to search categories in the sidebar and choosing botanical I pulled up a fascinating series of projects - but of course had to go no further than this one below due to its definitive nature and relevance to this Homage to the Seed blog!


 and now...


Introducing the extraordinary "Seed Cathedral" - the UK pavillion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo - which contains seeds from the Millennium Seed Bank and I like to think some of those seeds may have perhaps orginated in Queensland and passed through the Seed lab at Mt Coot-tha!

Nicknamed the “Dandelion”, Thomas Heatherwick’s UK Pavilion bristles with a dynamic facade that gently flexes and shimmers with each passing breeze. The beautiful building envelope blurs the boundaries between architecture and animated sculpture, while the area surrounding the pavilion features a network of pedestrian walkways and a landscaped park area.

Nestled within the sprouting facade of seeds is an otherworldly interior that unfolds like a shimmering network of stars. During the day the interior is completely lit by daylight channeled through the structure’s transparent rods. At night the interior is illuminated by minute lighting elements contained within each rod for an amazing effect.






The brilliant bristling structure you see above is not the world’s largest pincushion – it’s Thomas Heatherwick’s recently completed UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Dubbed the “Seed Cathedral”, the six-story high structure is studded with 60,000 translucent rods that act as fiber-optic filaments that channel sunlight into the pavilion’s interior. The densely-packed forest of filaments also contains the impetus to create living forests in the future — each 7.5 meter long “branch” contains seeds from the Millenium Seed Bank that will be given to China one the expo has run its course.

Read more: Construction Complete on the UK's Stunning Seed Cathedral | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World  All text from this article on Inhabitat.