- Grand Designs Live 2011 sees the return of ‘Kevin’s Green Heroes’ -
By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
As the green agenda continues to rightfully muscle its way into mainstream consumer consciousness and tradesmen increasingly continue to champion eco-building practices, British designer Kevin McCloud announces his 2011 ‘Green Heroes.’ A cutting edge exhibit for London’s Grand Designs Live, running from 30th April to 8th May at the ExCel Exhibition Center in London's Docklands, ‘Kevin’s Green Heroes’ celebrate the very best, and very latest, in eco design innovations.
Now in its second year, ‘Kevin’s Green Heroes’ is a both showcase and launch pad for a host of products and new eco-technologies that may potentially improve housing and our way of living in future, ensuring government targets are met.
Each item that is being showcased has been personally selected by Kevin, whose vast experience and passion for sustainable practices make him the touchstone for innovative ideas and inventive products in this arena. “I keep a list in my phone or a note of who I meet and what I see, and we put it together as an exhibit. It is a great thing to see materialize” says McCloud “and is entirely focused on brilliant people who aren’t yet in the public eye, but who really deserve to be.”
The exhibit is designed to not only excite and inspire people through identifying new trends and concepts, it will also drive wider awareness of environmental issues which each of these chosen inventions address and offer a solution to.
This year’s exhibit features everything from interior products for within the home, from eco lighting designs and furniture made from recycled materials, to public recycling and waste solutions and innovations for sustainable home build practices such as insulation solutions.
Whilst some of these left-field ideas are already on a high street, others are some of the best-kept green secrets around. Grand Designs Live aims to promote both the genius of the invention and the inventor, providing a fantastic public platform within what is fast developing as a competitive eco-market place.
Kevin’s Green Heroes is situated in the Design Arcade, the main avenue towards the GRAND theater, right at the end by the GRAND theater in fact.
Each of the handpicked products are on display with visuals and storyboards explaining the benefits of each, their genesis and the people behind them. All will reflect Grand Designs Live’s wider message of environmental friendliness and sustainability.
It is just such a shame, really, that, at least on the opening day, the “Heroes” themselves were not in evidence and while I was told that they would be there on the Press Day this is not, really, the best way.
I met a good number of people looking at those exhibits having little to no idea what it was all about, and that despite of the “story boards”. Not that it was nay different at last year's press day even. While Kevin was in evidence there only one or two of the heroes themselves were present.
‘Kevin's Green Heroes’ 2011: Product List
1. Light Reading by Lula Dot:
Lula stunning designs were motivated by a simple industry truth – there is currently no infrastructure set up to recycle the paper from books because the paper is low grade and the glue on the spine must be removed. More and more books are printed every year, read and then discarded. Even though many are taken to charity shops, they mostly go unsold. Approximately 10,000 books a week from one charity shop will go to waste. Lula has put these wasted books to effective use to create an attractive chandelier. Every page is folded in half, producing a circular arrangement which hangs around a ceiling light.
Now those lamp shades, for that is really what they are, look quite interesting and if that could be a way of reusing and upcycling old books which would but end up in the landfill then that would be a great way of doing it.
2. Anna Bullus Gum Drop Bin:
Gumdrop is a clever little pink bin made with recycled gum. This idea was sparked when creator, Anna Bullus, noticed that, not only was gum treated as waste, but it was being wasted. After 4 months in the chemistry lab she created a new plastic polymer from this waste material that could be utilised in commercial moulding practices and produced the Gumdrop Bin.
This bubble gum pink bin can be attached to lamp posts around the world to tidy up and enable us to reuse a global waste product and form a new habit that can change our environment dramatically – cleaner streets allowing Government ‘clean-up’ budgets to be used elsewhere, less waste and lovely pink bins to cheer up grey streets around the world.
Personally I must say that, while the little bin looks “cute”, for lack of a better word, I cannot see that chewing gum recycling is going to take off very soon and maybe we should just get people out of the habit altogether, in the same way as we are trying to get people off smoking.
Then again, I gave the stuff up because it did me no good, on both counts – that is smoking and chewing gum – and rather have a pinch of snuff every now and then. No waste there.
3. Newform Energy
Newform Energy's Hybrid Solar Solution is a world-first whole-house renewable heating and electricity solution. It combines hybrid PowerVolt PV-T and high efficiency water/water heat pump technologies in to a single efficient and reliable system. The solution boasts three major benefits:
Solar heat is drawn away from the PV-T panel surface, which has the dual effect of maintaining electrical output at higher levels for longer periods and generating hot water at the same time.
With the PV and Solar Thermal elements combined into a single panel, far less roof area is required than would be required for individual installations to generate the amount of energy.
Lastly, in winter, the heat pump takes low grade solar heat and turns it into viable and affordable central heating.
4. Once a Door Chair by Clair Heather Danthois
Claire uses customers' surplus doors and window frames to assemble bespoke and innovative items. To minimise environmental impact, just a single steel cable is used.
Here is would have been good to have the designer present also to actually explain to visitors as to how things were done and why, etc.
5. Pavadentro Board by NBT
The Pavadentro wood fire insulation board is especially designed for internal insulation of the exterior walls on old and historic buildings.
6. Novacem
Novacem has developed a new cement based on magnesium oxide. It is carbon negative; more carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed during the process than is emitted.
7. Hazelwood furniture By Sebastian Cox
Trees and shrubs that are cut down this way can produce shoots that grow over 30cm in a week and a coppiced tree can live many times longer than if the tree had not been cut down at all. Coppicing is a safe alternative that creates faster growing trees for sustainable forestry.
Coppiced trees, in fact, the so-called coppice stools, can live for a thousand years or more and keep producing timber for the green wood industry and others that work with small wood.
8. The Secret Energy Turbine
It is this turbine that caught my attention, together with the hazelwood furniture by Sebastian Cox. The SET, in my opinion, would be the candidate for the “a power station of every roof” idea of mine that I have written about previously.
9. ProFi Decking
UPM ProFi wood plastic composite (WPC) is the first industrial scale solution for waste off-cuts & trimmings from self-adhesive labels. The innovative production process utilises the cellulose fibres and plastic polymers that are surplus by products in self-adhesive label manufacture and processing.
Grand Designs Live 2011 Information: The UK’s No.1, award winning consumer show for design and inspiration for your home, Grand Designs Live, returns to London for the seventh year, running across nine days from 30th April – 8th May 2011 at ExCeL in London’s Docklands. Based on the hugely popular and successful Channel 4 TV series – presented by design guru Kevin McCloud – Grand Designs Live London brings together over 500 exhibitors.
With seven distinctive sections all under one roof, from the spectacular Grand Village, which hosts a number of full scale properties and Philips’ ‘Light My Home’ showcase, The House of the Future, brought to by Virgin Media and the UK’s largest selection of kitchens in Grand Kitchens, sponsored by Miele, visitors can soak up every ounce of the action at the ExCeL with brand new multiple day tickets.
The show is:
Open 11am – 6pm on Saturday 30th April
Open 10am – 6pm Sunday 1st – Sat 7th May
Open 10am - 5pm 8th May
Standard prices
Weekdays (Tuesday – Friday): Advanced £11 On the door £15
Weekends (Incl. Bank Holiday Monday): Advanced £14 On the door £18
Multiple day tickets (entry on two days) £20
VIP Experience brought to you by Miele £35
Platinum VIP Experience brought to you by Miele £70
Children (aged 15 or under) Free (ticket is required)
Book tickets now and save £4*, book online at www.granddesignslive.com, or call the 24 hour box office on 0844 209 7349 + kids go free.
Group Discounts
Bring your friends and save even more, with great discounts available for groups of 10 or more. Call 0844 412 4650 for further details on group discounts.
© 2011
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