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Thursday, 6 August 2009 | Levent OZLER
Housing Ethics: Competition of Ideas for a Sustainable Design
 Competition.pdf ( 486k )
Brief.pdf ( 1MB )
In a period of crisis, such as the one we are currently going through, an ethical and responsible approach to design and production of all the elements that compose our habitat becomes a necessity. Events like "La Casa del III Millennio" (The House of the Third Millennium) must therefore represent a moment of reflection on the opportunities that designers and companies have to work together to create room schemes that are built around man and his needs. Nowadays designing sustainable spaces does not only mean to worry about energetic efficiency or the ecological aspect of the materials used, but it also means going back to the "fundamentals", i.e. the true value, the essential function of the objects that surround us.
The new edition of "La Casa del III Millennio" intends to focus precisely on the ethical aspect of design, the very aspect that respects man and the environment, and it does so by promoting a competition of ideas around issues like reuse of materials, visibility of the designed space, durability of artisanal products, reduction of production waste, communicability of ethical design. The initiative aims at creating products for a market that is increasingly aware and in need of new ideas that should stem from the synergy of the best creative minds and the most dynamic companies of the territory. This is the motivation behind this initiative: that it should have a truly international scope that could, through the organization of a competition for architects and designers, span and sound the local creative world in order to identify those ideas capable of giving a new breath of life to the furniture and furnishings sector with a view to sustainability. Setting up creatives/companies workgroups also serves to create a local "furniture system" which can feed on the synergies in action on the territory and trigger a mechanism of cooperation between the various companies that operate in the sector.
Energetic efficiency and protection of the environment are of crucial importance for the quality of life of the present and the next generations. Today's challenge is to combine energy supply and consumption, protection of the environment and sustainable economic growth in order to achieve a sustainable development in the long term. The environmental policy of the European Union is based upon the conviction that strict environment protection regulations can stimulate innovation and create opportunities for companies and that there are very close links between energy policies and economic, industrial, social and environment policies.
The competition is intended as a way of promoting a series of design experiences that, by their conception, aesthetics, use of ecological materials or/or materials that are recycled from production waste, or still by their technological innovation, respect the contemporary concept of sustainable design.
The categories of products admitted to the competition are:
1. Furniture and furnishings
2. Lighting
3. Furniture and furnishings for bathrooms and kitchens
4. Garden furniture and furnishings
5. Wall and fl oor covering systems , paving and finishings in general
6. Internal partition systems, windows and doors
7. Domotic systems, automation and equipment.
The Exhibition will tell the story of these seven room schemes in a coherent display that will include the projects entered by the winners and produced in collaboration with the participating companies affiliated to CNA of Prato (Tuscany, Italy).
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