Aequilibrium 2010: the new calendar made by Valcucine

Aequilibrium is this year’s new calendar designed by Valcucine.
In Aequilibrium, the natural elements and the human pulluting activities live coexist in a difficult balance, determined by the man; to reach a more sustainable balance is the main idea of Aequilibrium 2010. In each month a specific environmental problem is described and given a real, pragmatic solution.

International e-waste design competition 2010

In nature substances circulate, are transformed and, in the end, everything is reabsorbed and reutilised. We also have to learn how to reduce the quantity of rubbish we produce and favour the reutilisation and recycling of materials in every possible way, also because the resources we have are limited.
Valcucine has devised the simplest and most complete recyclability of its products by designing them so that the elements of which they are composed can be easily identified and separated when discarded. The plastic parts are marked so that they can be easily identified at the end of their life cycle. To promote recycling of its products, Valcucine is working on having them picked up in the future and on the total recovery of the materials of which they are composed. An example is the new base units that are made entirely of glass and aluminium: completely recyclable and with no toxic emissions.

We highlight here the International E-Waste Design Competition, made with the aim to explore solutions to this problem at the local level and beyond. Electronic Waste, or “E-Waste,” generated by computers, TVs, cameras, printers, and cell phones, is a growing global issue. The spirit of this competition is to prompt the industrialized world to dialogue about product designs for environmentally responsible green computing and entertainment. The goals of this competition are to learn about ways to re-use E-Waste for new and productive means, explore your own ideas for how to address E-Waste problems and contribute to the body of knowledge that advances the practice of environmentally responsible product design for current and future computing technology products. We invite you to create a broad range of design concepts and innovations for technology products that demonstrate fresh approaches and responsible solutions for green computing technologies. Engineering, design, sustainability, or business knowledge will be helpful but not required for success in this competition.

Learn more

Safety in kichen design

The kitchen is the most technically demanding room in the home. Kitchen plan should make our every move easy and all our cooking supplies and appliances within our reach with ample room to turn and walk between the cabinets easily. There are safety issues too along with the kitchen design that makes cooking as pleasant as it can. Especially with kids and pets, you need to plan the kitchen that is not within their reach. Statistics say that most accidents happen at home and most of these accidents occur in the kitchen. The best time to consider kitchen safety is when you are planning a new kitchen with your kitchen designer. Many health and safety issues are plain common sense. However, too many accidents and fires happen in the kitchen each year and there are some basic guidelines that just may stop you from becoming one of those statistics. After all, your kitchen is the heart of your family home and having a safe kitchen will give you and your family peace of mind. So here are some advices to keep your kitchen a safe place for you and your family:

• A socket inside the back section can be very useful for the oven because the power supply can be interrupted by a dipole switch, thus preventing children from accidentally switching the oven on.
• Detergents are usually stored below the sink, an easily accessible place for children. It is a good idea to keep them in a container with a safety lock.
• Children love pots and pans. To prevent burns, a guard should be fitted in front of the hob.
• Sometimes, attracted by some object located on the worktop, children climb onto handles and pullout drawers. If the kitchen is wall-hung, it must be provided with a safe wall-fixing system.
• It is preferable to choose the latest generation of cool-touch ovens with a tangential fan that ensures efficient heat insulation. These ovens keep the door cool even when food is cooking inside, avoiding burns that can sometimes be serious.
• Tower units must have wall-fixing systems that are tested to prevent them from capsizing in the event of children climbing on them.
• It is a good idea to add clips or magnets to drawers and jumbo drawers to prevent children from opening them. This way they are prevented from hurting themselves when they shut them and from reaching the objects located inside (detergents, knives, etc.).
• If a child climbs onto a pullout drawer or if all the jumbo drawers of a kitchen island are pulled out together, the unit is quite likely to capsize. To avoid this it is necessary to fix base units with drawers and jumbo drawers to the floor using capsize-prevention brackets.
• The hob must be provided with a safety valve that stops the gas supply if the flame is not ignited and interrupts its supply if the flame accidently goes out.
• If doors or drawers have a hole instead of a handle, it is a good idea to check that it is not too small. A child may slip his/her finger through the hole and fracture it by moving it around.
• All the glass parts of the kitchen (shelves, doors, etc.) must be tempered for better resistance to impact and to other types of stress.
• Install a master switch out of the reach of children to interrupt the power supply to the oven. Children are attracted by oven knobs and can easily switch the oven on if they play with them.
• It is preferable to install the hob near the sink to avoid having to walk a long distance holding red hot pots and pans that may be dangerous, especially if children are nearby.
• Make sure that wall unit fixings have been tested for resistance to heavy weights and that they can be adjusted in height and depth.
• In general, sharp edged elements are used in modern kitchens and these can become very dangerous for children. It is preferable to choose a kitchen that has rounded doors, handles and knobs.
• It is not a good idea to install the hob near a window because an incoming draught could turn the hob flame out and swaying curtains, perhaps moved by a child, could catch fire.

Happy holidays

Wishing that the man, through reason, heart and consciousness could reach the balance between his own needs and environmental safeguard, for himself and the future generations.

Valcucine Kitchen @ Solar Decathlon

Gable House was one of the first to be assembled and ran like clockwork the entire competition. The team set out to express its regional heritage and sought to create a synergy between old and new. Traditional techniques in homebuilding, along with great advances in technology, blended to create a house that performed exceptionally well in energy efficiency—as demonstrated by the team’s results in all the objective contests. Focused on performance, this team also achieved elegant simplicity in design: Valcucine Kitchen (model Riciclantica), Whirlpool applaiancies, USG drywall, Imperial and 3M ducting, Kane interior furniture.

The Solar Decathlon brings attention to one of the biggest challenges we face—an ever-increasing need for energy. As an internationally recognized event, it offers powerful solutions—using energy more efficiently and using energy from renewable sources.

The Solar Decathlon has several goals:

To educate the student participants—the “decathletes”—about the benefits of energy efficiency, renewable energy and green building technologies. As the next generation of engineers, architects, builders, and communicators, the decathletes will be able to use this knowledge in their studies and their future careers.
To raise awareness among the general public about renewable energy and energy efficiency and how solar energy technologies can reduce energy use.
To help solar energy technologies enter the marketplace faster. This competition encourages the research and development of energy-efficiency and energy production technologies.
To foster collaboration among students from different academic disciplines—including engineering and architecture students, who rarely work together until they enter the workplace.
To promote an integrated or “whole building design” approach to new construction. This approach differs from the traditional design/build process because the design team considers the interactions of all building components and systems to create a more comfortable building, save energy, and reduce environmental impact.
To demonstrate to the public the potential of zero-energy homes, which produce as much energy from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind, as they consume. Even though the home might be connected to a utility grid, it has net zero energy consumption from the utility provider.

More info about Riciclantica: DOM / Valcucine New York info@domshowrooms.com

The Value of Sharing: Social Engagement

The Value of Sharing: Social Engagement

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Valcucine dealer meeting in NYC

Valcucine dealer workshop new york

Inserito originariamente da valcucine

Today at Valcucine’s New York showroom, all of the North American dealers from across the United States and Canada gathered for their annual meeting.
Brian Jevremov and Seth Jameson from Valcucine NY, Alessandro Ciani, Irina Verardo, Micol Braha and Daniele Prosdocimo from Valcucine Italy took turns explaining the company’s guidelines, the worldwide best practicies and the driving forces behind the 2010 strategy. We had a very nice and inspiring time. Thanks to everybody.

At the meeting attended dealers from
Brian, Seth, Giorgio, Pamela and Esther from Valcucine New York info@valcucinena.com
David from Valcucine Minneapolis info@valcucinempls.com
Scott and Meridith from Valcucine Tulsa | Pohlenz Cucine Moderne, LLC info@pohlenzcm.com
Jeff from Valcucine Dom LA.info@domshowrooms.com
Monica from Casa Design Boston casadesignboston@gmail.com
Lana and Stephanie from Valcucine Chicago – The Merchandise Mart chicago@valcucine-chicago.com
Jesper from DNA European Design Studio San Diego info@dnaeuropeandesign.com
Sherry from Style and Form San Francisco Bay Area valcucine@styleandform.com
Richard from DOM Toronto richard@domtoronto.com

Tree O’Clock: new planted trees at Valcucine!

We have planted many new trees at Valcucine...

Tree O’Clock is past! Tens of thousands of new trees are in the ground and at Valcucine we took part of it. More info at Tree o’clock. More photos on flickr.

The story of cap & trade for the climate solution: recycling can save the planet

The Story of Cap & Trade is a short movie that provides a look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the “devils in the details” in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis.
We chose to publish here this video because it highlights the importance of ethical practises for the environment, such as recycling.
Source: The Story of Stuff Project & Free Range Studios

In nature substances circulate, are transformed and, in the end, everything is reabsorbed and reutilised. We should learn how to reduce the quantity of rubbish we produce and favour the reutilisation and recycling of materials in every possible way, also because the resources we have are limited. Recycling is probably the cheapest way to save the planet: reducing emissions through recycling is 30% cheaper than through energy efficiency and 90% cheaper than through wind power.
The potential of recycling, composting, biogas, and other waste prevention techniques to reduce emissions is enormous. Please sign a letter to be delivered to climate negotiators in Copenhagen. We hope the new climate treaty, discussed in these days in Copenhagen (7-18 devember 09) will increase recycling through the informal sector, instead of funding landfills or incinerators.
Valcucine has devised the simplest and most complete recyclability of its products by designing them so that the elements of which they are composed can be easily identified and separated when discarded. The plastic parts are marked so that they can be easily identified at the end of their life cycle. To promote recycling of its products, Valcucine is working on having them picked up in the future and on the total recovery of the materials of which they are composed. An example is Invitrum, the new base units, entirely made of glass and aluminium, so completely recyclable and with no toxic emissions.

Ugo Nespolo’s world through traditional and modern art

source: The New York Times

Valcucine’s collaboration with the Italian artist Ugo Nespolo, whose career dates back to the Sixties to the era of Italian Pop Art to Conceptualists and Future Poverists, is espressed by some artistic collections of kitchen programmes, such a Artematica.

On the 27th November, The New York Times published an article about Ugo Nespolo, descibing his works through traditional and modern art. Here below is a part of the original article:

The paintings, sculptures and other playful objects raised in the fantastic nursery of Mr. Nespolo’s imagination bring to mind that whole new race of Futurist toys proposed in the “Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe” which, it was envisaged, would not only delight children but also be “very useful to adults, too, keeping them young, agile, joyful, self-assured, ready for anything, indefatigable, instinctive and intuitive.”
The authors of this manifesto, published in 1915, were Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero, whose works Mr. Nespolo has collected for many years. He is also the owner of around 4,000 manuscripts relating to Depero’s life and works, and the exotic waistcoat, designed by Depero, which Filippo Tomasso Marinetti, the founder of Futurism, can be seen sporting in a famous photograph taken in Turin in 1922.
The Futurists hated museums, or at least affected to — Marinetti likened them to cemeteries in the first 1909 Futurist Manifesto — but Mr. Nespolo is an avid enthusiast for them. One favorite, he says, is the Bargello in Florence, which contains some of Italy’s greatest sculptures — from Donatello’s “David” and “St. George” to Michelangelo’s “Bacchus” and Giambologna’s “Mercury” — alongside an outstanding collection of ceramics, glass, metalwork, ivories, enamels and other applied arts.
Mr. Nespolo was invited by the Bargello to stage a retrospective of his work in its temporary exhibition space, the first time it has ever hosted a contemporary artist. Mr. Nespolo’s “Novantiqua”- the name is a word play on new and old — is curated by Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, the museum’s director; it runs until Jan. 10.
The show consists of 40 paintings and sculptures in ceramic, glass, bronze and other media, spanning Mr. Nespolo’s career. It includes three pieces, “Novantiqua 1-3,” inspired by the Bargello itself and made especially for this exhibition.
Museums have long been a theme for Mr. Nespolo, as demonstrated by three earlier works among the paintings here.
“Andy Dandy,” from 1973, features a bizarre display of three identical flower paintings being observed by a man accompanied by a bulldog on a leash; “Ferrarese Suggestions” from 1982, offers a view of an imaginary gallery containing paintings by the Metaphysical artist Giorgio de Chirico; and “The Beautiful Gestures,” from 1999, presents a vista of a museum, or other exhibition, of modern art.
The images are constructed from jigsaw-like patterns of wooden pieces, painted in glossy, primary acrylic colors, suggesting a vision of childlike wonder and simplicity. In the three “Novantiqua” pieces, which employ the same technique, Mr. Nespolo has depicted internal views of the Bargello, reinforcing the chromatic richness with gilded sections, reminiscent of the golden backdrops of precious Byzantine mosaics and medieval Italian paintings. Among the exhibits, museum visitors — gazing at the displays, reading guide-books, taking photographs and sketching — themselves constitute unwitting living statues amid the antique marbles and bronzes.

Read the full article from the New York Times