Hello everyone and welcome *drum roll* to our brand new blog 🥳 This is meant to be a space for us to share interesting information, some inspiration and showcase our work. It can be hard to start something like this, from scratch, so I thought I would start from the principle that guides all of our practice: sustainability.
I have always had an interest in sustainability – though I am not sure we used to call it this when I was a student. Ecodesign, or maybe green design were terms we would definitely have used back then. The interest resurfaced when I was midway through my masters degree and I came across this book called Sustainability in Interior Design, by the architect Siân Moxon.
After presenting us with the bleak above facts, she point out that us, as interior designers, are in the perfect position to bring sustainability into the buildings as we are, more often than not, dealing with the existing housing stock. So when I set up Forma 79, I wanted this to be the main focus of the practice: how can we make each and every project as sustainable as possible?
These are the main things we do currently:
refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle
The classic mantra of sustainability also applies to our practice. We try to minimise the amount of new things we buy by asking the following questions:
Can we use things the client already owns in its current state? → Can we update things the client already owns? Painting, reupholstering, changing hardware are all included here. → Can we acquire second hand items? → Can we purchase items with a high quantity of recycled materials? → Buy new
By following these steps, we are trying to reduce pressure on raw materials and keep whatever is already in use going for longer.
low voc = healthy home
Our health is also a very important part of a sustainable home. We focus a lot on specifying low VOC products in our projects, as VOCs are known to be detrimental to human (and pets!) health.
lifecycle of materials
We are really concerned with where things go once they stop being useful to our clients, and we are keen on keeping things out of the landfill. We are currently working on finding solutions so that anything that cannot be used in our projects finds a new home – any suggestions gratefully accepted 🙂
We also try and follow biophilic design principles whenever appropriate. We are also signatories of Interior Design Declares, a network of interior design practices, suppliers and educational establishments committed to addressing the climate emergency – I recommend anyone who is involved in any way with interior design to sign up, their resources are great, plus the declaration itself provides a clear guideline to bring sustainability into your practice.
As we are a new practice and we are still learning, I am sure things will evolve as we do. Watch this space to follow our sustainable journey <3
Featured image: Inside Weather via Unsplash
