We’ve posted about bespoke furniture designer Zoe Murphy’s lovely work in the past. She specializes in creating retro-furniture from upcycled, re-used and vintage materials. Her retro chair (pictured above) is made from a variety of recycled raw materials including, vintage wedding dress silks and discarded industrial scraps of wood and leather.

Many of the pieces in Zoe’s Margate Collection feature restored and re-printed vintage illustrations from her Margate seashore community. Murphy also does custom work.

related: more green home design on The Alternative Consumer

Chances are high that you have recently read our cool post about Edge Architect’s straw bale home (photo above). So, I would like to take this moment to highlight some of the really cool benefits of living in a house made of straw bale.

• Straw bale is a renewable resource. Unfortunately, 200 million tons of this material gets burned every year as ‘waste straw,’ emitting an egregious amount of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Amazingly enough, this stuff can be used as both insulation and building material! And I don’t mean mediocre insulation. I’m talking about REALLY GOOD insulation.
• A straw bale home has the potential to lower your heating/cooling bill by 75%.



• Studies conducted by Canada’s National Research Council and SHB Agra, Inc. have concluded that straw bale buildings are more fire resistant than many conventional buildings. Hard to believe at first, I realize, but the tightly compacted bales allow very little oxygen to get in—thus minimizing chances of combustion.

• Straw bale houses work best in dry climates and aren’t recommended for humid areas. If you’re living in a humid climate and you just absolutely feel compelled to build a home of straw bale, then it is suggested that you get a humidifier as a way to prevent the moisture from seeping into the straw.
• Bale homes are really nothing new. They’ve been around in the United States and Europe since the 1800s. Of course, the bales need to be covered in some sort of plaster to properly work. Interestingly, Ecofilm points out that “clay has been used in combination with straw for thousands of years”—as a building material.
• The construction is relatively easy, making for a great opportunity of community building since unskilled workers are are all that’s required. For fun, check out this YouTube video of a group raising one side of a straw bale wall in time lapse mode.

There are many cool benefits to living in place constructed of straw bale. Before you or your friends get started, though, make sure your insurance company will will cover you. And for the curious, take a look at Andrew Morrison’s website to find out more.

additional photo credits: strawbale.com

related: more green building projects featured on The Alternative Consumer

This striking high desert home, designed by Taos, NM’s Edge Architects, is uniquely suited for the widely fluctuating climate conditions of its wild desert  location. The home is designed to be completely off-grid and self-sufficient. For cooling and heating purposes, the home’s north, east and west walls consist of 24 inch thick adobe wrapped in straw bales.

Photovoltaic panels provide all electricity for lights, computers, television, water pumps, washing machine, etc. The home’s solar panel array is situated for maximum solar exposure while maintaining its proximity to the utility room, where a bank of batteries stores the electricity, and an inverter converts the 24 volt DC electricity to conventional 110-volt AC power.

All the residence’s roofs slope to a single location so that rain water can be captured and stored in two 1,700 gallon cisterns buried on the north side of the house. The only reliance on an outside source of power is a propane tank, which provides fuel for the range and hot water heater. (more…)

Sculptor and stonemason Brooks Barrow creates his Glacial Stone Candle Holders from black basalt glacial stones he hand-gathers from an Ice Age deposit near Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Brooks then cuts the stones to accept standard 1-1/2″ tin-lined tea light candles. The stones are diamond-polished to a satin eggshell finish while preserving the natural form. Each candle holder is signed on the underside with Brooks’ stone-cutter’s mark.

$26 a set @ the brooksbarrow Cargoh shop

related: more eco friendly home decor items on The Alternative Consumer

If the Nissan LEAF didn’t already have enough shock value, consider this, the LEAF can now come with its own wireless charging pad. The pad will be offered as an option in Japan on the 2013 models (and in the U.S. and elsewhere sometime later). Instead of plugging in with a wire charger for a recharge, all you would have to do is simply drive the LEAF over a Nissan designed pad and your car’s battery will charge automatically.

This wireless charger operates by electromagnetic induction, drawing power from a recharging coil in the pad and feeding it into contacts inside the vehicle. In addition to being safer than plugging the vehicle into a socket, the charger offers great convenience to EV drivers. Owners can park their car on the pad, leave it over night and have a fully charged vehicle in the morning.

This innovative system will charge a LEAF in approximately eight hours and is roughly 90 percent as efficient in power transmission as a cable/plug-in system.  (more…)

Designer Sarah Reiss makes custom, reclaimed wood walls that express character, history and innate funkiness. Featured in the photos above and below is a wall created by Sarah and her Blue Stocking Studio in Dallas.

This particular custom wall features reclaimed gymnasium flooring, siding, shiplap, and bits of other reclaimed wooden flotsam.

Blue Stocking Studio charges around $3,000 for a medium-size wall. Each custom wall is unique to the customer’s area and local wood availability. Shipping costs vary according to the availability of lumber in your area.

Order a wall @ the randrdesignworks Etsy shop.

related: more eco-friendly home decor on The Alternative Consumer

The divide between car and motorcycle has proven to be definitive over time. Cars are the standard choice for transportation regardless of the situation since they provide the safety, space, and ease of maneuverability that motorcycles traditionally can’t match. Well, Lit Motors and more specifically designer Daniel Kim, aim to bridge the gap between two drastically different modes of transportation.

Enter the C-1 prototype, a fully framed, all electric motorcycle that features a newly developed gyroscopic technology which allows the vehicle to remain balanced and upright while not in use and even in the event of a collision. The motorcycle will have a full battery range of approximately 200 miles, while being able to reach tops speeds of 120 miles per hour.

The inspiration for the motorcycle stemmed from Kim’s travels across the world. Kim noticed the congestion in heavily populated urban areas and was inspired to design a solution. According to Kim, it is not about tailoring to a new market, but rather catering to one that already exists — the upwards of 200 million people worldwide who are motorcyclists: “We’re creating a safe motorcycle, and that’s never been done in the way that were doing it, where it’s also incredibly efficient.”

Pricing for the C-1 is expected to be around $16,000, and if things go smoothly with production, this versatile vehicle could be seen on the streets sometime in 2014.

Kim ultimately hopes that the C-1 will be suitable for many as their primary mode of transportation.

related: more green design finds on The Alternative Consumer

Artist Deedee Morrison specializes in large public works made of aluminum, steel, limestone, Lucite and solar powered light. Her latest installation, the Seed-Pod, was recently erected in Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Renaissance Park in partnership with Publict Art Chattanooga.

Seed-Pod consists of eighty-four aluminum and colored Lucite panels, laser cut and re-fabricated to create an eye-catching solar sculpture. The 8ʼ x 12ʼ Seed-Pod design was inspired by Deedee’s study of organic forms and the geometric principles that determine their patterns and structures.

Seed-Pod is a visual display of the power and energy thatʼs available every day from a single solar panelʼs relationship with the sun. The color scheme of the Seed-Pod sculpture mirrors the vibrant yellow hues of the sun. Adjacent to the Seed-Pod sculpture is an 18ft. solar tower that, like plants, collects and stores the energy released from the sun.

We previously posted about Deedee’s Sun-Catcher solar sculpture.

Related: more eco-friendly art featured on The Alternative Consumer

This is the perfect iPhone case for off-grid outdoor enthusiasts who love hiking, snorkeling, skiing and spelunking (charge it before entering your favorite cave). The poly-carbonate case is the creation of Snow Lizard Products.

Snow Lizard touts the AQUA TEK S as “the first ever battery powered, solar charged, rugged underwater iPhone 4/4S case on Kickstarter.” The sturdy solar case is designed to double an iPhone 4′s battery life, protect it from bumps and bruises and keep it dry to a depth of around 20 feet.

Snow Lizard is looking for $75K worth of support from technology enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies to make this product a reality. Minimum donation is $1 @ kickstarter.com

Related: more green gadgets on The Alternative Consumer