The Future Home: Innovative Design for Human and Plant Cohabitation: Journey From East to West

Statement

We are a design lab based in Joshua Tree, California. Our purpose is to:
1) Look at plants as technology but from a human and creative perspective
2) Pursue the potential many plant species have for removing toxins and adding moisture to the breathing zones in our homes, offices, clinical spaces, and commercial spaces.
3) Encourage the co-habitation of plants and humans.
4) Increase the appeal of incorporating plants into our living spaces by applying good, sustainable design principles to existing methods of keeping houseplants.
5) Personalize the breathing zones of individuals based on their environmental health concerns such as benzene or formaldehyde exposure.
6) Re-imagine the kitchen’s tea cupboard and spice rack as a living resource.
7) Re-imagine the bathroom’s medicine cabinet as a living resource offering safer, lasting, fresher, and more holistic alternatives to many of the commercial items that are conventionally stocked in medicine cabinets at home.
8) Critically engage the ways in which plants can be used for aesthetic purposes in interior design.

In this pursuit we are currently developing the following design lines:
“Sustainable Air Filtration”
“Sustainable Humidity Maintenance”
“Living Medical Resource”
“Living Kitchen Resource”
“Built-In and Mobile Terrarium Installations”
“Interior Desert-scaping”

Monday, October 20, 2008

Journey From East to West

HERES SOME CONTEXT: A month after I graduated college, I bought and modified a "weekender" camper van. As you can see, it is beautiful! Anna and I have been living in it since mid-July, winding our way from the east coast of Virginia, through Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. The van sat there for a while and I went to get my share of winter on a big family reunion cruise in Alaska. By that time, I had some sense of how campgrounds are used in this country and a sense of who lives in the south, what they do, and how they respond to people with Virginia liscense plates. When I came back from Alaska, I made that drive to Texas from Virginia again, but this time in 24 hours along the freeways of Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. After some time in east texas, we moved on to Houston, Austin, and then through the no-where lands of West Texas where 6 hour drives between gas stations seemed pretty normal. Marfa, TX was a great respite where we finally saw some Obama signs and some public art. Crossing the border patrol checkpoints and narcotics checkpoints in Southwest TX snuggling the border of Mexico, we finally made it to New Mexico which was the first place we considered settling to make some money and stretch out in something a little bigger than the van. Greeted by a rainbow in Las Cruses which was much more sprawling than I anticipated. The desert was also much higher than I expected. From there to the AMAZING white sands, to the sweet town of Roswell, to Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. We spent another while in Santa Fe and Albuquerque in a friendly house for a while and camped out in the driveway of some friends. Tired yet? So was I. My sister's wedding in Virginia crept up on us and we left the van in the Albuquerque airport parking lot and got on a jet. After the wedding festivities, we took a Greyhound bus (missing the van very much) to NYC to reunite with our friends. It got cold. Really cold. I spent some time in the blistering winds on fire escapes. I got ready for the low desert of California.