Adaptive Design Association

"The mission of the Adaptive Design Association (ADA) is to ensure that children with disabilities obtain the customized equipment they need to fully participate in home, school, and community life."

"ADA’s work is rooted in the spirit of "appropriate technology," an approach used extensively by technical assistance organizations in developing countries to solve problems through the design and application of cost-effective and practical solutions...
Appropriate technology ensures sustainability by drawing on the skills and expertise of the target beneficiaries—a practice that is imperative to the successful design and implementation of adaptive equipment. At ADA we use the guiding principles of appropriate technology to create effective, low-cost, and durable equipment that meets the specific needs of each child."

It follows that the application of an open source approach to design is essential to the ADA for designs to be repeated and adapted.

via Treehugger

Milkit by Play Design

Milkit by Play Design, originally uploaded by Zero-waste Design.

Having just returned from [re]design in London, have uploaded some of my personal favourites to the new zero-waste Flickr account. This is Milkit by Play Design, a lamp kit encouraging the reuse of milk cartons. Its fun, open and lightweight, just the kind of things I like.

O.Design

Zero-waste Design is featured on this Italian site, O.Design, which I am reliably informed is a site similarly concerned with using the creative commons license to distribute open source designs. My Italian is pretty much a non-starter though.

TenGreen Coffee Table & Kitchen Shelving

TenGreen Coffee Table
Originally uploaded by Spherical Roy.

In honour of this week's exhibition, at [re]design 06, I have uploaded a couple of photos of recent further studies on the same theme: A coffee table and a smaller shelving unit. Photos on the Flickr page. There is also now an instructable for the original tengreen shelving - see the TenGreen project page.

felt laptop case

craft vs function again.

[re]design 06

Sorry for the hiatus, as you may know am at the end of an extended research trip in India. Will write more soon regarding that, but the big news here is that 'Ten Green', the recent zero-waste design/Coach House Trust collaboration will be exhibited at this year's [re]design exhibition, that of the good and gorgeous, in London.