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| New materials for sustainable design  David Mah and Leyre Asenio, visiting lecturers at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, presented their students with a design challenge: how to merge modern city architecture with greenscapes that engaged the public. In a project that uses design to bring ecology to the concrete jungle, they turned toVycom's Celtec Ultra White as a new sustainable material for their compelling sculpture series. Celtec Ultra White is a solid PVC material designed for outdoor applications where resistance to ultraviolet degradation and impact strength are critical, making it perfect for Mah and Asenio's outdoor garden displays. They were also attracted to Celtec's post-industrial content, recycled from scraps in the manufacturing process.With an international design practice called asenio_mah, their work was featured at the 2012 Canada Blooms garden show in Toronto and the Grand Metis International Garden Festival Show at Reford Gardens, Quebec. The Quebec installation, called Surface Deep, is an intricately carved garden wall that incorporated moss into the hollows. The Toronto design is a spiraled, twisted planter featuring a diverse range of plants. "Simply putting moss on roofs prevents heat and run-off from spilling into cities, resulting in a less destructive effect on the local environment," said Mah. For the two sculptures, Surface Deep and Surface Deep II, the designers needed a frame material that combined "lightness, recyclability, a good finish and the ability to withstand outside conditions, " according to Asenio. Freeman, a local distributor recommended Celtec Ultra White, since it's used successfully as outdoor signage materialand seemed like a good fit. "We really appreciated the product's lightweight, since our shop at Harvard GSD is in the basement," said Mah. "And we were traveling back and forth to Canada so we needed transport costs to be low." "At first, the students were a bit uncertain… PVC?" said Asenio." But now that they work with it, they love it." She said Celtec was very easy to fabricate, from the card mills to the computer controlled routers. "It even responded well to more primitive methods we had to do afterwards, like sanding or shaving with a knife," she said. "And since Surface Deep had so many intricate designs and cuts, a material that was difficult to work with would really be frustrating." "Now, the students at Harvard GSD keep coming up to touch it," said Mah. "And the four-year olds at the public events as well, " laughed Asenio. "Children at both garden shows were drawn to it. We had hoped to engage people with the notion that the sculptures are something they appreciate for their beauty and want to interact with." "The designers agree that the Celtec material has showcased a new way of thinking about structures, one that doesn't choose between the sustainable, the beautiful, or the durable. "We can bring together all three," said Asenio. write your comments about the article :: © 2012 Construction News :: home page |