Future Living
MAY 2010:
Milan – The Salone 2010 / Indoor Out – Outdoor In
One of the striking trends at this year’s Salone was a complimentary movement of on the one hand,
furniture going outside with plants built in, and on the other, plants moving into the furniture inside.
Practically seen it means the sitting room has moved outside and the garden has taken up residence inside.
This outdoor living indoor gardening trend lies with the LOHAS movement, and growing green awareness especially in urban areas.
From felt balls that are seats/stools that look like stones that have rolled into the house and plants sprouting out of the walls,
to outdoor tables with plants growing into and out of them, it was a mass embrace of the idea of green living.
Flower power was evident everywhere from a bounty of verdant wallpapers, tulip shaped chairs to tables made out of everything from spades to creeping ivy.
INDOOR OUT
Even before one ventured out to the main part of the fair, design meccas such as SPAZIO ROSSANA ORLANDI in Via Matteo Bandello,
was embracing the indoor out trend in its fabulous courtyard. Outdoor dining tables sprouted plants and bushes.
At one of the new and most way out design districts of the Salone, Ventura Lambrate,
Royal College of Art student Tom Hatfield showed a bench for outside which incorporates a pot as the prop for one end.
But it is smarter than it looks – a small incline means that the water that falls onto the bench runs into the plant to water it.
Fellow student Fredrik Paulsen presented his prototype for an simple functional chic outdoor table.
A steel plate that can be clipped onto a garden tool such as a spade. Beats trying to get a table to stand straight on a wobbly lawn, and easy to move and set up.
Meanwhile Angelo Grassi, “Vegetale”, presented a new collection of green outdoor furniture in the Zona Tortona.
Other companies such as Italian Bysteel have a large new range of outdoor furniture with flower boxes built in.
This trend as one visitor pointed out, means a lot of furniture with holes in.
OUTDOOR IN
Moving the greenery into the house and incorporating into the indoor furniture is a bit more of a challenge –
especially when it comes to watering and planting of the greenery. The students at the Salone were predominantly occupied with self sustainability.
A prime example is Pia Wustenberg’s bizarre wire chair, an example of many of the products that tried to show a way of transforming living space indoors
into an indoor farming area for self-sustainable living.
Cristal Plant, producers of a recyclable composite material meanwhile went for the walls.
They showed a prototype of a fabulous wall system that incorporates both light and plants.
COOLEST ACCESSORY FOR THE GREEN FURNITURE TREND
Lastly to water all these indoor/outdoor plant-furniture you will need “A Drop of Water”,
a smart rain barrel that is simple to use. In this barrel a watering can is integrated that is automatically filled every time it rains.
When this can is completely filled with rainwater, the surplus will automatically fill the reservoir of the rain barrel,
so you could refill the watering can after using it.
More info from www.basvanderveer.nl
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