Author Archives: David

This is the fourth (and last) part of the the GreenHouse Effect concept series, showing and explaining some of the thoughts behind the design concepts. The GreenHouse Effect is an exhibition by Orcadesign as part of the Singapore Design Festival, exploring what it means to tackle sustainability through design.

We have many mobile and electronic accessories, and when we charge them we tend to leave it on and forget about them (or go to sleep). Even while they are fully charged, the devices still consume phantom electricity. There’s also always the nagging suspicion that such overcharging may reduce battery life.

Borrowing a familiar metaphor found in baby pull-string toys, the Lullaby Plug is a power socket with an intuitive timer interface. Pulling the string down activates the power supply; the length you pulled is proportionate to the time you require (markings are on the string for every hour).  As the device gets charged, the ring slowly retreats upwards until it finally cuts off power after the desired time span.

Newspaper recycling is one of the more accessible and common eco practice (at least here) – they are often however either stacked at a corner messily, or are relegated to the storeroom. Their fate somewhat mirrors the mindset of households – they are conceived more as an inconvenient waste rather than a valuable resource input (albeit recycled).

The PaperHaus elegantly houses the newspapers, fitting into the living room environment (where newspapers are often read/kept). Flaps on the four sides keep strings neatly tucked. The graphics on the rear wall does more than lifting the product visually – it also indicates how many kilograms of newspapers are accumulated. When you’re done, you can just unzip the edges, tie and bring the newspaper for sale/recycling.

[This post is a part of the series on the ‘GreenHouse Effect’ exhibition under the Singapore Design Festival]. This will be the final post on it – if you have any comments or critiques of any of the ideas (or the thought behind), let ‘em loose!]

This is the third part of the the GreenHouse Effect concept series, showing and explaining some of the thoughts behind the design concepts. The GreenHouse Effect is an exhibition by Orcadesign as part of the Singapore Design Festival, exploring what it means to tackle sustainability through design.

This is the Bottleneck Saver – it’s the little black ‘C’ shape thing on the neck of the nozzle. It’s a little simple device designed to attach onto the necks of common dispensers – be it shampoo, lotions or handwash – and it works by restricting the ‘travel’ of the nozzle (and thus the final amount dispensed each time). It may not be a product for everyone – some do need that much of whatever solution is in the bottle – but what Bottleneck Saver gives is a choice. Just think of the average crew-cut guy – typically he doesn’t need all that shampoo for one full press; by natural instinct, however, he would have dispensed a full amount. In addition, manufacturers always have an incentive to make users use more of their products – in some ways, this design attempts to counter that inherent bias in product design. It’s not only less of the soap/shampoo that you save – eventually you’d save more water too.

The product in this picture is actually in the top right corner – it is a set of stickers known as Sticker Identity. Often, we sub-consciously or conveniently reuse old products for new usages – we might make do with the back-of-a-notepad as a mousepad; we might use a CD jewel case as a coaster, etc. This is in fact a good practice – we don’t really need to always get a new item. The sticker set affirms these actions – iconic graphics on the sticker affirms the new-found identity of old products – in someways, you can think of it as a ‘re-birth certificate’.

[This post is a part of the series on the ‘GreenHouse Effect’ exhibition under the Singapore Design Festival].

This is the second part of the the GreenHouse Effect concept series, showing and explaining some of the thoughts behind the design concepts. The GreenHouse Effect is an exhibition by Orcadesign as part of the Singapore Design Festival, exploring what it means to tackle sustainability through design.

This is the Black Out Lamp. In normal days, it sits pretty as per any normal table lamp, casting light through the efficient LED light bulbs. But it’s more than just a table lamp – if and when you need a torch, you can actually detach the ‘lamp’ portion and use it as a torch, as the internal circuit can be switched to run on battery mode instead. For the same function (of illumination), we don’t really need two separate products (lamp + torch). They could very well be the same thing – plus you can definitely find it much easier compared to ransacking your third drawer in the store room.

The question – what exactly is a vase? Do we need a real, whole (and pretty) object to place flowers in, or is a simple facade up to the mark? Made of industrial felt, the construction of the Facade Vase is absolutely simple – two flat pieces of felt sewn together. It then becomes a parasite onto a ‘partner’ as structure – the omnipresent PET bottle that we almost certainly can find around our house – and becomes a fully functional vase. It is a versatile design too – different silhouette gives rise to rather different visual outcome.

Post-It pads are almost exclusively used on one side only. We also often scribble only on one side of our notepads. So, we have two ‘one-sided’ products. In this concept Post-It Notepad, the second life usability is built into the design. You start off with the notepad (using one side, presumably). When you’re done, you can remove the cover, turn it over and you get a Post-It pad. A product’s reincarnation is straightforward and integrated within the design – turning two ‘one-sided’ products into a single ‘double-sided’ one.

[This post is a part of the series on the ‘GreenHouse Effect’ exhibition under the Singapore Design Festival].

Cup Lasso might require some understanding of the Singaporean context. When you buy a take-away hot drink in a coffee shop, chances are you’d end up with a disposable plastic cup carrier (the green thing on the left photo). Cup Lasso (pictured on the right) is a permanent alternative to this item. Apart from reducing the usage of plastic carriers (which may occur on a daily basis – e.g. for your post-lunch coffee), it can also be an identity, a statement in support of being more sustainable – somewhat like the Live Strong bracelets.

‘Bin There’ is a table with an in-built rubbish trapdoor. While eliminating an unnecessary extra rubbish bin, it also makes it more convenient for the users, who can simply sweep their tabletop wastes into a plastic bag below. Eco-design does not necessitate sacrifices – in some cases, they can even enhance the functions. The plastic bag can be hanged onto sliding hooks below the table, accommodating a wide variety of plastic bag sizes.

WaxPod brings a familiar eco-concept to a new area of application. Refillable shampoos, lotions, etc. have been around for a long time – they consume less resources as the refills are packed in less energy and resource intensive packagings. Why not hair wax then – as it is a product that one uses constantly? In WaxPod, the white external casing is permanent, while refills come in ‘pods’ (black parts). The slits you see at the bottom of the product are vents for an optional air-freshener module, which are frequently deployed within the same setting. This reduces the total packaging and housing materials required substantially.