Journal

Sustainable Neighbourhoods

Where do you spend your time when you have sustainability at heart? The conscious choice is a stay local. So we asked our external base of renowned designers where they tend to go.

 

ByKATO

"I love visiting this green place"

Karl Rydiger, the one half of the talented design studio ByKATO, loves to take his boat out for a spin and visit new places. Green Island - a new architectural raft occupied by a café and restaurant - is his new-found oasis. While enjoying the beautiful and vivid habour life, you can get your preferred organic food and beverage. Green Island is green in both expression and intention. The well-designed island runs on solar cells, including the 400 kilo heavy stone oven that heat up organic pizzas for the locals. 

 

Sara Martinsen

"A place with room for success and mistakes"

Sara Martinsen is a Copenhagen based designer. Her favourite spot is her workshop just nearby her home. This where she collects and explore sustainable materials. She is working with both biodegradable materials and plant fibres for her next exhibition. Sara has designed a bed set made from 100 % hemp for Mater. 

 

Space Copenhagen

"A beautiful, fully transformed area in Copenhagen"

Signe Bindslev and Peter Bundgaard, the architect duo behind the renowned creative studio Space Copenhagen, use the habour area in Copenhagen every day. The harbour is just next door to their office in Central Copenhagen and the transformation of the harbor life really works in their favour; from being an industrial place, the harbour is now a clean, cultural playground for people swimming, dining and visiting museums. 

Eva Harlou

"A beautiful and sustainable way to explore the city"

Eva Harlou is a Danish architect and designer. She has created several collections for Mater through the years and finds her inspiration in her neighbourhood in Copenhagen. She always takes her bike for that daily ride to the office while inhaling the atmospheric sense of the magnificent architecture in the city. Copenhagen is a city known for its bicycle riders, green initiatives and centuries-old buildings. To Eva the bike is the easiest choice when transporting oneself and exploring the surroundings in a sustainable way. 

Shawn Place

"My favourite local shop"

Shawn Place is a Canadian designer known for his aesthetic sustainability. He created the Rocker Chair for Mater known for its Nordic craftsmanship and silhouette. In his day to day live, he supports locally and tend to choose organic shops. His favourite place is the organic grossery and butcher shop "Birch & Boar" in British Columbia, Canada, where he lives. 

"What I love about this place is that they provide grosseries from local farms in the nearby area".  

Michael Dreeben

“We have replanted 3.500 trees in this forest”

Michael Dreeben has designed the Shell chair collection for Mater. He grew up spending time in the Fillmore County valley which is densely wooded with a network of streams, limestone cliffs, and caves. This is his favourite spot. It also gave him an introductory awareness of ecology and of land stewardship. Fillmore County also administers a tree planting program that provides discounted seedlings in regional species to county residents. “Over the last 15 years we have replanted 3.500 trees for furniture making”

Maija Puoskari 

“Picking mushrooms and berries in the forest has always been my favourite thing to do  – It calms me and helps me think clear”.

Living in Helsinki, Maija is inspired by the beautiful forests nearby - this is her favourite place to be. When designing the Terho lighting collection for Mater, she definitely captured the essence of nature in her design. Terho means ‘acorn’ in Finnish and the reference is obvious if you study the elegantly rounded silhouettes of the wooden lamps. She has picked mushrooms and wild berries in the forests since she was a child and goes as often as possible now. She has set her mind to learn about a new mushroom specie every year and enjoy the old Nordic tradition of collecting our own food in the wild.