Blog discovery!

This morning I discovered a new (to me) blog written by a woman who does a wonderful job of sharing information about what “green” really is.  Especially in terms of kitchen design. It’s called Green Kitchens by Design, by Roberta Kravette.

She also designs with inclusivity in mind. Inclusivity, as in design for people with mobility issues. Check out this post about a spring visit with Hafele in NYC, in which they looked at mobility & kitchen design.

Hafele’s got a great demo exercise to let designers walk a mile (so to speak)  in the shoes of a compromised mobility person. Roberta volunteered to wear a special suit designed by Cornell University’s Center for Aging Research to simulate restricted movement:

“The suit consists of a pair of overalls outfitted with weights on the arms and legs, stiff inserts to restrict elbow and knee bending, straps to restrict leg and arm movement and other Inquisition-esque design details.”

To the right is a pic of the suit wearer showing the ease of drawer vs door opening without the person’s full range of motion available.

Seeing the forest for the trees

Here’s a positive post about managed forests & their vitality to the biosphere & surface life in general.  Apparently, thanks to managed forest practices, we have 1.9 trees growing for every one tree we harvest.

Trees do more for us than just be a building material:

• filter groundwater supply for us
• absorb CO2 & produce oxygen
• enable bio diversity of other plants & provide habitat for animals & organisms of all shapes & sizes

Every material in its place

For all its plusses, wood is not necessarily the best material for cabinet construction. Roberta penned a guest post over at K+BB Collective about why & when plywood, particle board or MDF is a better choice than solid wood.

Good to know I’m not the only one preaching the virtues of engineered wood products!