Sustainable designers 2: Markus Johansson

Another eye-catching example of sustainable design comes from Markus Johansson (click to follow the link to his homepage) and is called simply square.

All images by Markus Johansson

Now you know why.

So, I asked Markus: What makes square sustainable?

"It is made only of a square board, from which you don't get any spill and you don't have to use any glue. It's flat packet so it has low transport cost and impact. The material is eco-friendly and it takes quite a short time for the machin to make it. Like 4 min, so, also low enegry cost. You can get it in different coulors making it more playfull for the customer, hopefully. I think people like it when they know the process and the background. It becomes more valuable."

- The nest chair is a nice piece of furniture. Do you also consider it sustainable?

No, not realy. Production time is quite long and you can't mount it. Maybe it is more sustainable for the eye, comparing it to square.
Here I would like to comment a little bit about this nest chair. It is a bit of a sculptural piece, very evoking. This comment of "sustainable for the eye" is something important. It recalls nature's simple complexity. A bird making a nest takes a longer production time than normal industrialized processes. But that is not a bad thing. Man-time invested in production does no one any harm. I think it is important that we give that the value it deserves.

- What would you say is sustainable desgin?

"Sustainable design is of course important but should not hinder creativety.
I think when you use all the aspects of sustainability (social, economical and ecological) combined with good construciton, form and function. Then you will get a good sustainable design product. But it is quite hard." - Agreed!

"There is also the boring answer: don't design."