Archive for September 2009

Pli’s Reee chair, made from 100% recycled computer games consoles, will be available to buy at Conran’s flagship London store, the Conran Shop Chelsea from 22 September 2009. This ground-breaking chair is made out of 100% recycled plastic from games console casings, wrapped around a tubular steel frame. The Reee chair is an example of home-grown sustainable design: developed and manufactured in the UK from locally sourced recycled materials.

See the Reee chair at Conran's flagship London store

Pli Design is also showing the Reee chair at the 100% Design Exhibition, stand H34, from 24 to 27 September at Earl’s Court in London. Pli is launching the Mark 2 design of the Reee chair at the London Design Festival, with a 14% carbon footprint reduction and a stronger frame that securely stacks 10 chairs high. The Mark 1 Reee chair launched at Sony PlayStation’s London HQ in September 2008 and can already be seen in use at many new eco-friendly buildings around the country.

The Reee chair will also feature in the Geffrye Museum’s “Eco Home” exhibition from October 2009 to February 2010. The Geffrye Museum in London explores the home in Britain from 1600 to the present day.

Pli’s founder, Christopher Pett, says, “Everyone involved with the production of the Reee chair has a great sense of accomplishment because our efforts to bring affordable, eco-friendly design to UK customers are having a real impact. The Conran Shop’s confidence and support is inspiring.”

Pli Design Ltd designs and manufactures eco-friendly furniture in the UK. You can download high-resolution images of all Pli’s products here:

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Pumpkin TV, a British educational film production company, has made a film about the Reee chair‘s story. The documentary covers the development of the Reee chair from the initial concept to the final manufacturing process. You can view excerpts here, including interviews with Guy Robinson, designer of the Reee chair, as well as Christopher and Alex from Pli.

For more information abut the Pumpkin film, visit the website at www.pumpkintv.co.uk or have a browse through their YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/ChannelPumpkin

London-based eco-friendly furniture maker Pli Design Ltd will launch its 2009-2010 furniture range at the 100% Design Exhibition.

The exhibition runs from 24 to 27 September at Earl’s Court in London.

Pli is showing the Mark 2 design of the Reee chair, with a 14% carbon footprint reduction and a stronger frame that securely stacks 10 chairs high. The Mark 1 Reee chair launched at Sony PlayStation’s London HQ in September 2008 and can already be seen in use at many new eco-friendly buildings around the country.

The Reee chair is made out of 100% recycled plastic from games consoles, wrapped around a tubular steel frame. The Reee chair is an example of home-grown sustainable design: developed and manufactured in the UK from locally sourced recycled materials.

The Reee chair will also feature in the Geffrye Museum’s “Eco Home” exhibition from October 2009 to February 2010. The Geffrye Museum in London explores the home in Britain from 1600 to the present day.

The Wrap and Whitechapel table series exemplify a different approach to sustainable design. In place of high-quality recycled plastic, Pli has chosen natural raw materials like FSC certified Ash timber and bamboo combined with pressed steel. The result is a range of sleek, strong tables that can be cared for and treasured for years.

Taken together, this range represents Pli’s uncompromisingly eco-friendly product development philosophy matched with their commitment to affordable, appealing designs. View the full collection at stand H34, 100% Design 2009.

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Greengaged is running a series of events during the London Design Festival 2009 next week. The workshops and seminars are located at the Design Council in Covent Garden. I’ll be speaking at the “Materials Behind Sustainability” workshop on 25 September from 11 am to 1 pm. You can sign up here.

The Materials Behind Sustainability

This is a subject I spend a lot (most) of my time thinking and talking about here at Pli. All our products depend on a successful marriage of sustainable materials with appealing, practical designs. I’m planning to use my contribution to communicate some of our collective enthusiasm for this subject and to share as much practical experience and knowledge as I can. As well as to advise everyone who attends to visit our stand at 100% Design.

See you there.

About Greengaged

Greengaged is a not for profit organisation founded in 2008 by Sophie Thomas from thomas.matthews, Sarah Johnson from Re Design and Anne Chick from The Sustainable Design Research Centre at Kingston University.

Greengaged aims to advance the design industry’s capacity to respond positively to key environmental challenges such as climate change. This is done by offering thought leadership, creating spaces for dialogue, and opportunities for knowledge sharing – within the industry and beyond.

What do Linux, Nokia and WD-40 have in common? On the surface, they appear to be large organizations that offer services in completely different fields. Dig a little deeper and a common resource occurs, a resource for innovations. At the core of many companies, innovation is the driving force. If you lose that drive, the competitors will take over. However, not all companies have brilliant researchers or scientists working in an underground lab with unlimited budget to ensure their next launch will be successful. They will just ask you what to do.

Enter open source innovation; it is not the newest idea in town and it has been around in the scientific community for quite some time. And more recently, it was featured heavily in the community of software development which led to the creation of Creative Commons. It is a license for sharing data under a limited right of usage, which allows open sourcing to be done more securely. Nevertheless, this is a relatively new idea in the world of product design; an idea where innovation is developed by external sources, particularly the users themselves.

International license for open source sharing

Read more »

Last year we used Facebook to organise the launch part for the Reee chair. It worked really well and we’re using our Facebook group again to help our friends and colleagues to organise their visit to 100% Design 2009. If you use Facebook, please forward our invitation to anyone you think would like to attend and tell us about your plans for the exhibition. We’ll be updating Pli’s Facebook group with images and postings about our experiences in the run-up to 100% and during the show.

Pli's Facebook page

Tell us which other stands you’re excited to see,who are your favourite designers, how you think we should communicate our commitment to eco-friendly manufacturing, whatever you want to share. And of course drop by to see us at stand H34 and say hello!