This January 2019 Maison & Objet show in Paris, Amsterdam-based home brand Urban Nature Culture is calling on designers and decorators to be mindful and ecologically-sound with their beautiful products.
Urban Nature Culture is all about design with a conscience. While the company’s designs are cutting-edge, modern pieces that work with a variety of home decor options, the brand also pays close attention to the materials used in crafting their products, and how that production affects the environment.
For the brand’s Maison & Objet display booth, they even sought to drive their point home by making a central display out of event trash picked up from the premises. The effect? This installation shows the tremendous amount of waste we produce – and puts it right in your face.
Image via Urban Nature Culture
The House Tipster Industry team, joined by Maison & Objet Trend Ambassador Patti Carpenter, spoke exclusively with the Dutch entrepreneur behind the brand, Anne Marie Hermans, to hear more about Urban Nature Culture’s environmental design mission.
One of the biggest pulls for the company is to move into more ecologically-sound materials for their designs. Right now, that means working heavily with bamboo.
“Bamboo is a replacement for every plastic there is. Bamboo is still not 100% environmental, but it is by far much better than plastics, so they’re more and more strongly developing into 100% bamboo,” Hermans said. “Of course, our bamboo is BPA-free, which is very important. And the nice thing is it’s going to replace all the plastics in the world.”
Image via Urban Nature Culture
In addition to bamboo, Urban Nature Culture is also using corn as a more sustainable material for products like handmade baskets.
“When people eat corn, there’s always leftovers like the leaves,” Hermans explained. “From the leaves, we make corn baskets, corn place mats, and little baskets. You can find corn in every country that they’re produced, they’re everywhere. You can store your things in them, but instead of growing and using new materials, you use leftovers.”
For Urban Nature Culture, it’s all about thinking outside the box for both inspiration and materials.
“You can make everything from anything,” Hermans said.
Tipster TV has released the full video coverage from our special interview, be sure to check it out below.
