GREEN GRADS is a platform for new UK graduates who nurture the environment. They had a popular stand at Grand Designs Live at ExCel last May. Here, at end of show, they scooped up the mass of carpet off-cuts they saw simply being thrown away. Grand Designs Live then challenged the GREEN GRADS to make a centrepiece mobile for the upcoming show – using this waste.
GREEN GRADS applied sustainability’s three core maxims: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and the results hang above you.
The concept is by Michael Czerwinski, co-director of GREEN GRADS and founder of Studio Tucktite, who delivered the design, working with the GREEN GRADS and their founder/curator Barbara Chandler.
His challenge was impact without carpet contamination. Thus BRICK has only minimal stapling and some sewing. No glue and no plastic tape. It can be completely taken apart and all components separated for recycling.
BRICK’s cascading cluster expresses our regard for the humble brick, core component for so many Grand Designs. And the project will continue to build. Before the next hang, the GREEN GRADS will add to the carpet bricks slogans and words that mark their individual sustainability commitments.
Michael Czerwinski is co-director of GREEN GRADS and has curated public engagement for both the Design Museum and the House of Illustration. He is founder of Shoreditch-based creative agency Studio Tucktite. His numerous events and interventions make people think about design, architecture and the environment through shows, graphics and illustration.
GREEN GRADS, founded and curated by design editor Barbara Chandler, is a nurturing platform for new graduates with ideas to heal the planet. Through shows, films, salons and social media, GREEN GRADS offers exposure, expertise, opportunities and contacts.
Because today’s graduates are tomorrow’s planet.