A designers' dilemma: The story of Stuff

This short film was made in 2007, and is still very relevant today. Even more relevant, i would say, with our collective cellphone addicition (the Iphone came out somewhere around the time this movie was made)(feels ancient, right?).

What to do as a designer?
Should we stop creating stuff altogether or is it our responsibility to keep designing, but do it smarter and make a difference?
Is that even possible?
Can we make a difference by adding more stuff?

More about this and more video's can be found on thestoryofstuff.org.
Feel free to share your thoughts.

Get ready to start your greenery / Spring is coming

photograph by House of Thol

Last year we discovered Waterworks can help you create a pretty thriving balcony-garden.
This photograph was taken during the summer, but in order to get the lush greenery at this level when the warmer weather sets in, it's almost time to get into action and start your seeds.

Don't worry, you still have time to prepare, most seeds can be sown inside from March onwards.
I made a Pinterest board with some gardening-calendars i found online, check it out here.

While we're on the topic of balcony-gardening and herbs, an important side note about supermarket-herbs: After years and years of stubbornly trying and being 100% sure they were watered right, i'm pretty certain the living herb-plants sold in (Dutch) supermarkets are just not made to last. They're grown to harvest and be discarded. Not even a Waterworks-set will help you there.

Better to grow your own kitchen-herbs from seed: You notice the parsley in the photograph? That plant still lives, we were able to keep it green(-ish) all winter by moving it indoors into our cramped kitchen during the (few) colds spells of the past months.

Working Waterworks

How to work your Waterworks | New bilingual manual

Since we were almost running out of Waterworks manuals, it was time for a bilingual redesign of the Waterworks how-to folder that comes with every set.

It has been quite some time in the making (with this going on) but here it is:

A 1-2-3 description of how to use the Waterworks System on the inside...

...And more information about the cones + the reasons to have more houseplants on the outside, all in both English and Dutch.

Get the Waterworks-set with the new manual now via www.shophouseofthol.nl.

Let's get this New Year started.

6 Reasons to get houseplants now

Photograph by Siren Lauvdal
The Artful Desperado for SFGirl by Bay

Houseplants are The-Thing-In-Style right now (as a little Pinterest search will show you). 

You don't have them in your living room yet? Don't worry, it's not too late to jump on the bandwagon.

And here are a few reasons why you should: 

1. Houseplants provide fresh oxygen

Photosynthesis. Remember from your first year of biology? 

A very (very) basic explanation: the plant uses sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to grow and releases oxygen while doing that.... Or to really get into it: read this Wikipedia article.

Oh, and one affect of less carbon dioxide in the air is that you feel less fatigued, which means you could safely state that house plants give you energy.

2. Houseplants filter the air

Not only do houseplants create fresh oxygen, some plants also filter the air from pollutants like benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene.

I'm not making this up: NASA conducted a very extensive study to the air-filtering qualities of houseplants back in 1989. 

A full transcript of the original study can be found here. Or, for a quick overview of the outcome and a list of plants that are stars at battling indoor pollution, check out this Wikipedia article.

NASA recommends at least 1 plant per 100sq feet (ca 9m2) of home. Feel free to do the math yourself.

NASA is also growing plants in space: Zuchini sapling grown in the international space station in 2012
read about it here.

3. Houseplants make you smarter

At least that's what this article on Scientific American states. There's still a lot of research going on in this area, and most scientists agree that houseplants can help you stay fresh and focused during a hard day of staring at the screen, thus improving productivity.

Businessweeks 12 best deskplants round-up
click here for the original article

4. Houseplants make you happy and healthy

Living in a green environment can reduce stress, lower blood-pressure and can even help the healing process: according to cardiologist Dr. Bruno Cortis, patients who have a room with a garden view recover more quickly than patients who are staring out of a window to a brick wall. Not hard to imagine that.

Some people say the reason we feel better when we're surrounded with plants is because we do well when surrounded by nature. Something to do with humanbeings living in nature for millions of years, only to retreat into a world of concrete in the last century.

Again: makes sense.

An indoor garden
found here

5. Houseplants are natural humidifiers

As humans we feel best in a humidity-level ranging from 40%-60%. 

Most rooms and offices however, have a humidity level of 25% (especially in winter, when the heater's on) and it's not uncommon to have a humidifier in a room or office to help create the right humidity. Such a waste of space and electricity. 

Houseplants can significantly increase the over-all humidity-level of a room, bringing it right up to the ideal percentage. 

Healthy humidity-levels are not only great for your skin, it also prevents itchy eyes and an irritated throat.

Photograph by Ida Borg for Swedish Magazine Residence
click for full article

6. Houseplants are pretty

A pretty obvious reason, and enough for me to start building an indoor garden. Not convinced by the photographs so far? How about these lovely settings?:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

So go get yourselves some houseplants! Now! (or in the near future, don't feel pressured...)

Need a little help determining which houseplants are best for you? have a look at this infographic with 6 houseplants which are great for indoor air quality.

6 Houseplants that are great for indoor air quality

by House of Thol

Just a little easy overview we made a year ago.
Since we're now campaigning for greener homes, we thought this might be an easy reminder.

And of course: a Waterworks-set could help you keep these plants green.. ;-).

photograph by Masha Bakker
order your set here.

NASA's 1989 study for clean air

Wolverton, B. C., A. Johnson and K. Bounds, Plants for Clean Air Council, Davidsonville, Maryland, 1989
published on Scribd by Avisolo

Remember this infographic? It was based on a study conducted by NASA back in 1989. 

Googling around i found a scan of the original study on Scribd.

So for all of you who are interested in the exact amount of benzene a Golden Pothos plant filters out of the air in two hours and other scientific results: read the report.

As easy as one-two-three

Waterworks manual by House of Thol

(or: what we were doing last night until 03:00 am)

Plants for air

Infographic by Jana Flohr