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A.S.A.P (Another Country, Scene, Assembly Room & Pli) feature in the July edition of Onoffice magazine as part of the Clerkenwell Design Week issue. Is was great to be a part of the collaboration of like–minded British furniture labels, with the feature in Onoffice testament to the marketing strength that came from co-operation rather than competition. Get the issue or read more on their on line blog.
This time last year (April 2010) I had just started the development of the Pennyfields chair. I had just returned home to New Zealand to see my niece and I must have sat on every chair from London to Wellington and back again, for research. I had a good idea of what makes a comfortable dining chair, but when I looked at each chair from a production point of view, I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy to accomplish things on a tight budget. There was an amazing variety of manufacturing methods which were used to make the chairs I inspected. I soon started to get a picture of what materials and processes I could to use.
The Pennyfields chair with the Whitechapel slim dining table
Alex Whitney is the designer of the Pennyfields chair, Pli’s new bamboo and steel dining chair. In this post, Alex explains the thinking and experience which have produced the Pennyfields chair.
The idea for the Pennyfields project was to create a simple, elegant chair that required minimal tooling and that could be manufactured for a realistic cost. The choice of materials and manufacture were crucial to the project. We chose steel and bamboo because we could control the forms easily without the restriction of high tooling costs and long lead-times. The development of the chair has happened over the last six months but the design thinking extends further back, even before the development of the brief. Here is a short overview of the ideas and experiences that have resulted in the Pennyfields chair.
With the London Design Festival complete I finally have a chance to look back at the Metamorphosis exhibition a reflect on the weeks events. Firstly I would like to thank the team at Metropolitan Works (Matthew, Jodie, Linden, Ed, Alison, Chloe, Marcus, Lydia…) for helping develop the products and for organising a great event. The Terrace at Tom Dixon’s was an ideal position and really helped showcase all the winning products. It was also a great chance for me to get to find out more about the other designers and their designs. It was a talented group and I am sure I will work with them again.
The Pennyfields chair, centre stage in the Metamorphosis Pavilion
Just checking you all have the details for ‘The Dock’ marked in your diaries for next week. After a popular first year in 2009 it is now a must do for London Design Festival. The Pennyfields chair will be on the Terrace as part of the Metropolitan Works ‘Metamorphosis’ exhibition. As well as the chair there will be lots to see and do including the launch of the Tom Dixon Shop. There is even a chance to jump on a Brompton bicycle and ride along the canal if you are that way inclined. Check out the image below for more details and I hope to see you there.
For this post please read page 32 of the LEED 2009 for Commercial Interiors Rating System
Reusing existing furniture is an interesting topic for a furniture manufacturer to be talking to its customers about. If we encourage you to try and achieve MR Credit 3.2: Materials Reuse—furniture and furnishings we are turning away business, because to gain the LEED point for MR Credit 5 30% of your furniture and furnishing budget should be spent on salvaged, refurbished or used products. Here at Pli we realise due to environmental issues the way furniture companies do business has to change, so we are trying to come up with our own ideas before we are regulated to into a way of working that may not work for our business.
Wrap & Whitechapel refurbishment diagram
For this post please read page 31 of the LEED 2009 for Commercial Interiors Rating System
In the UK each year DEFRA studies have shown the UK construction industry is the largest producer of waste in England.
…The Government’s Waste Strategy for England 2007 identifies the good potential to increase resource efficiency in construction and reduce waste. The construction industry is a major source of waste in England, using the highest tonnage of solid material resources in any sector, over 400 million tonnes. The construction, demolition & excavation (CD&E) sector generates more waste in England than any other sector, and is the largest generator of hazardous waste, around 1.7 million tonnes…
As new regulations are created to curb this environmental catastrophe, construction waste is costing companies fortunes in disposal penalties.
To encourage participating developers to look more at the construction waste issue, LEED offers points to Material Reuse (called MR Credits). In future posts, I will talk how this relates directly to furniture reuse and refurbishment (MR Credit 3.2) and Recycled content (MR Credit 4), but before then I want to talk about how Pli offers a unique opportunity to help score points in MR Credit 3.1: Materials Reuse.
Pli’s Wrap table, which normally uses Oriented Strand Board (OSB) in its core, was designed to accept various board materials. This means it is possible to reuse a percentage of your own project’s construction waste in the manufacture of your new Wrap tables. We will work with your construction company to divert suitably selected waste boards back into the core of your tables. Those tables will be treated by Pli as new and covered by all our warranties.
Points earned from using the recycled board would naturally fall under MR Credit 4: Recycled Content. However, considering you are using recycled waste from your own construction site, we also think you have a strong case for including the tables in your points calculation for MR Credit 3.1.
When making a decision, most people look for outside endorsement. We at Pli value the opinions of companies like Steelcase and Herman Miller, who are the market leaders in the office furniture industry. Both these companies are early adopters of LEED-thinking and it’s application to furniture design. They see the value to the customer of furniture that will help contribute towards the credentials of green building projects. Herman Miller even sets an example: its European Headquarters at the VillageGreen facility in Chippenham, England, was one of the first buildings in the UK to gain LEED NC Gold (new construction) certification.
BREEAM is the UK version of the US based LEED building certification system. BREEAM is a good system but does not have as much emphasis on interior furnishings. Fixed furnishing, such as fitted cabinets, falls under BREEAM but loose furniture does not. We want our products to make as much impact on a project as possible. Using BREEAM, our furniture would be purchased in the spirit of the project, but using LEED it makes a positive contribution to the overall interior project rating.
Example of the LEED points label for commercial interiors
The following posts in the “LEED & Pli” series will explain exactly how our products will earn points for your project. Over the certification process, Pli’s products can help towards 10 out of 100 possible LEED Commercial Interior certification points, and at least 1 of the 6 extra points available in the Innovation in Design section. (see LEED label above).
With the difference between the various levels of certification being 10 points, your choice of furniture could be the difference between just certifying your project and achieving silver, gold, or platinum certification. Considering the cost of the furniture compared to the total cost of some building projects, there are valuable points to be earned.
As Pli develops as a company, we are always trying to find new ways to express how our furniture can help you and your projects become greener. Our latest idea is to help you, our customers, to understand how our furniture can help towards gaining LEED ( an internationally recognized green building certification system) accreditation.
Over the next few months we will be looking at some of the different criteria involved, with regards to furniture and commercial interiors, in gaining LEED accreditation . The first step for you is to visit the LEED website, then download the LEED 2009 for Commercial Interiors Rating System and become familiar with the sections that will be relevant to the series. Below is an outline of the posts with relevant section heading and pages which you can refer back to the LEED 2009 for Commercial Interiors Rating System.
In the food industry there is a major push to buy “Local”. This movement, as well as cutting carbon footprints, helps pump the pound back into the UK economy. This patriotic movement has bought to light that the UK produces top quality products and you don’t have to go much further than your doorstep to find them.
Can the same patriotism that has led the masses to buy British pork convince the British furniture industry that they might sell some more tables if they make their product in the UK rather than abroad? With British design being so strong it seems a bit of a shame that we ship our manufacture off-shore to reduce the price rather than designing for UK industries.
Simon Andrews, designer of the Wrap table
