EcoDesign: The Sourcebook

by Alastair Fuad-Luke

Book Overview

Alas, environmentally friendly design hasn t always meant high style. Confronting that challenge head on, ecoDesign lists well over 500 consumer products for those who seek design that s not only beautiful and useful, but also has minimal impact on the earth. Some of these pieces-from clothing to kitchenware, electronics, furniture, and much, much more-have already become classics. But this remarkable sourcebook also guides readers to undiscovered...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811835480
• ISBN13: 9780811835480
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 1.0" x 1.0"

Customer Reviews

A fine and lasting reference any architecture collection needs

The revised edition of Eco Design: The Sourcebook offers college-level architecture and design collections a handy directory of designers, manufacturers, and product listings paired with over eight hundred color illustrations of objects for living and working. Small color photos are accompanied by detailed descriptions, making for a fine and lasting reference any architecture collection needs.

ecoDesign: The SourcebookRevised Edition

This book is useful but does not contain much additional information from previous edition.

a good starting point

This beautifully designed book is a great idea-generator if you're thinking about using sustainable products and materials in your home or office, or if you just like cool, european design that makes you ask, "so where can I get that?" or "who makes that utterly cool thing that I will probably never find in a shop and can't afford, anyway?" It introduces you to good-looking examples of ecological design for everyday life -- flooring, furniture, transportation, miscellaneous -- and gives a breakdown of the kinds of materials available (biopolymers, textiles, etc.) and who makes them. For me, it would also be helpful to see price tags on some of these options, as well as more easily located--or at least up-to-date--URLs for the companies that produce them. Many examples had no web sites listed and some were defunct.

excellent book for designers

this book is cool - lots of pictures, the text is brief. there is a good mix of concepts and production products ( concepts are always more fun to look at and have more pure ideas. production parts show how it all works in the real world). in fact, the best part of the book is that it finds positive things about a lot of products. it isn't demanding that we stop using plastic or batteries - just finds the best examples of products that use them wisely.One important section is buried in the back. pages 327 - 330 give eco-design strategies. the are brief desicriptions of how to design an "eco" product. for example, one says "self-assembly: designs that are assembled by the consumer, therefore saving valuable space in transport and storage". most writers would take several pages to say the same thing.

great fun to browse

For those of us who appreciate both good design and environmental issues (recyclability, energy used in manufacture, durability, etc.), this book offers a wonderfully wide spectrum of products that will inspire and enlighten... and possibly make you reach for your credit cards, thanks to the lists of manufacturer contact info in the back. However, you should realize that a significant portion of the products shown are "one-offs" or case studies -- they are not available for purchase. I feel that the author's descriptions are inconsistent -- sometimes helpful or interesting, sometimes not. But the vast array of products presented are generally quite well chosen from what must have been a truly dizzying number of possible entries, and nicely organized. I appreciate the inclusion of vehicles, although I have been watching that particular area of product development (EV's, FCV's, etc.) closely enough to wish that the author had opted to include certain other models, and had more complete or current facts about some that were presented, such as the General Motors EV1, which was a brilliantly designed electric car with a massive waiting list, mysteriously pulled out of production by GM for extremely dubious reasons. In summary, Ecodesign is quite enjoyable, with a huge number of fantastic designs for a wide range of products.