Yesterday was the opening night of [un]disciplined. The keynote speakers were Dror Benshetrit of Studio Dror, our own Ursula Tischner, professor of Design for Sustainability and CEO of Econcept, and Matt Nolan of Belay Architecture.

Dror and his studio have made some thoughtful projects, my favorite of which is the Pick Chair.

During Dror’s presentation I was pretty convinced that I was missing something that should have been staring me in the face… thankfully I wasn’t the only one who noticed.  Some of his products may have worked towards lessening their environmental impact, but there was a lack of true sustainability. Having said this, lessening environmental impact is good, too. Here’s what I took from it…

Flat Pack It!
Making things that can be nested, flattened, folded or squished allows for less packaging and more efficient shipping.  That means less waste and less emissions.

Treasures
Designing something that a person will care about, that will age well, that is a piece of beauty, and that will last a long time will give that something a good, long life.

Adaptability
Modularity and multifunctionality allows the user to simultaneously buy less and get more; products can grow, shrink, and evolve with the users needs. This was as close to sustainability as his projects got.

The project that got the most oo’s and aah’s was Nurai Island. It’s a super luxe resort island, and the renderings were drool-worthy. I think the shining point of the island is that the villas are integrated with the landscape. There’s much less view-pollution, which gives the ultimate get-away-from-it-all experience with all the amenities you could ever want.
Unfortunately, it also is pretty much urban sprawl to the extreme… it’s 12 miles off the coast of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates (which also happens to emit the highest amount of carbon dioxide per capita in the world, closely followed by the US) and will be completely dependent on the main land. The climate and the isolation means that fresh water, food and supplies are going to have to be shipped in all the time.  There’s no way all that grass is native, and it will be quite the water-suck. In the end, it was more of a stunning project than a sustainable one.