You can now view Pli’s current range on the Architonic website: this is one of the best international resources for architects and designers to search and specify products for your projects.

Here’s how Architonic describes itself…

About

Even for large firms of architects it is difficult to keep track of the current wealth of materials, furnishings and fittings on the market, not to mention the constant flow of new designs. For private property owners and design enthusiasts it is all the more difficult.
Architonic provides the solution to this problem by constantly monitoring the worldwide market with its team of architects and designers, making it quick and easy for you to find the products selected by the team.

Our aim: the best products, materials, designs and concepts for the best in architecture - always up to date, impartial, selective.
The result: more than 45,000 products from 4,500 designers and 1,400 manufacturers. Every single month more than 230,000 people visit the Architonic site, of whom 68% are architects, interior architects, and planners. About 60% of the visitors come from Europe, 20% from the USA and 20% from Asia and the Middle East.

Architonic AG, which has its head office in Zurich is an internationally-based network consisting of architects, designers, IT experts and marketing professionals. With its contents and concepts Architonic focuses on the generation and distribution of knowledge and information among architects, designers, research and industry.

This week we welcome Tim Maughan to the team. Tim recently finished studying Nottingham University where he completed his product design and manufacture degree. He is working with Pli for the next few weeks, looking into sustainable packaging options and packaging life cycles for our products.

We chose Tim for this project due to his experience in sustainable packaging. He developed a strong concept for a sustainable Heinz Ketchup bottle. Have a look at that and some more of his work on his Coroflot portfolio page

London Interiors Magazine has made its June 08 edition into the “Eco Issue” and they have profiled Pli and the Reee Chair.

If you’re lucky enough to live in Chelsea, Battersea, Islington, West Hampstead, Greenwich, Clerkenwell or Docklands you might receive a copy through your door soon. You can subscribe or download past editions of the magazine from the website (click the cover image).

The text of the article on our chair is here…

On Wednesday this week, our colleague Eray Cayli presented his research into Utility Furniture at the Green and Trifty seminar organised by London Remade. If you’re a product designer, a design student or simply somebody with an interest in sustainable design, you’re sure to find his insights persuasive and inspiring.

Eray’s central point — as I understand it — is that the Utility Furniture scheme applied austerity measures not only to material supply and manufacturing processes, but also to the creative freedom and experimental curiosity of designers in that period (1942 - 1952). Imagine being constrained for 10 years of your working life by design committees staffed by bureauctratic appointees.

Are we risking our liberty to explore and develop new designs, materials and processes as British designers of the 1930s had done, unwittingly? If design professionals won’t moderate their own environmental impact, who will do it for them? Would it be possible for restraints to be applied centrally by governments or trade authorities to limit our work for the benefit of a low-carbon economy in the future?

Importantly, Eray has also spotted opportunities that arose from the Utility scheme, particularly for small local manufacturers who benefitted from a shortened supply and distribution network. They picked up the business that was previously aggregated by the big producers in High Wycombe and London’s East End. Will we increasingly make a virtue of local supply and short journeys?

You can download Eray’s presentation directly here. We’ll be podcasting the audio and slides in the next few days, once Eray has settled back in Istanbul.

If you want to follow up on the research into Utility Furniture and its application to new resource-efficient manufacturing business models, contact Pli or comment here and we’ll pick up the conversation with you.

Eray Cayli spent a couple of months with Pli this summer, working on a life cycle analysis tool for product designers. Some of his blog posts on this site have sparked interest among other designers. He has been invited to speak at the Green and Thrifty event on Wednesday evening this week (18 June).

Eray has travelled from Istanbul to share his research and ideas at this seminar. If you will be in London and you have an interest in sustainable design, I highly recommend his presentation.

Note: you need to register to attend but there are some places left. Click the London Remade logo to register.

Here are the details:
Date: 18 June 2008
Time: 4 — 7pm
Venue: Rich Mix Centre 35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road,
London E1 6LA

Eray will be talking about Utility furniture. He’ll be comparing the design and product development trends of the 1940s with our own situation. I guarantee you’ll think differently about your priorities, opportunities and risks as a designer once you have heard what Eray has to say about his studies in mid 20th Century design.

The Green and Thrifty event has been put together by London Remade. There’ll be a panel of speakers talking about thrifty design and thrifty business. There’ll be an exhibition on site, featuring [re]design and others. There will be drinks and things to eat. There will be a rag and bone cart, so bring your electronics waste for recycling. There will be lots of interesting people to meet.

Green and Thrifty is part of the Love London festival, running from 1–21 June. Click on the image to go to the Love London website…

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Pli is offering a 20% discount on our Grass media tables through selected online retailers, including Nigel’s Eco Store. To take advantage of this offer–while stocks last–click on the logo.

The Grass media table is designed for modern home interiors. It combines sleek good looks with simply sustainable materials and an affordable price. Grab a bargain.

Pli’s latest products are now available through the UK’s leading online sustainable furniture retailers. A group of new and established retailers are offering eco-friendly furniture and homeware for competitive prices and we are really pleased to have been chosen as a supplier to so many already this year.

You can find selected designs from our Grass, Reee, Hoop and Twist ranges at Nigel’s Eco Store, One Eco Home, The Greenhaus and Hidden Art. More retailers will be stocking our products soon and we will be announcing them over the next few weeks.

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In January 08, Pli exhibited at the Interiors Birmingham Exhibition and fortunately we were able to secure a bit of air time on the show’s TV network. The clip is about strengthening the role of environmental furniture in the British furniture industry. Enjoy.

Pli has just brought out a longer version of the Grass media table, appropriately called the Long table. It’s 2.4 metres long (or wide, depending how you look at it) - that’s 2400 millimetres of media equipment, files, books, bottles, wedding presents, bowls and flatmates you can store on its unbroken bamboo surface. You can learn more about the design here (click on the image)…

Pli was invited to talk at the sustainable design seminar held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London on 4 March ‘08. I made a short presentation about the Reee chair to an audience of very well-informed and engaging product designers, design students, interior designers and manufacturers.

You can download all the presentations, including my slides, from the London Remade site (click on the logo).

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