Sustainable, very attainable.

Let's face it, the way we are treating planet earth we have, what, maximum 4 more generations living without a permanent oxygen mask on their faces?

Tsunamis, Leukemia, global warming, unexpected monsoons and hurricanes, saturation of landfill sites, how will we cope with self inflicted mass destruction of mankind?

No need to panic (kinda!), but some minor adaptations in the everyday life could help our blue planet massively.

You can start by recycling properly, that's right Pointdexter, plastic bottles don't make compost.

But there is more! Ever thought about reducing the Co2 footprint by how you furnish or build your house? If you still want to be able to breathe fresh air in 2099 and drink from your tap, start exploring sustainable design and art.

From top to bottom: Tree life in Sydney: The cool Hunter, Lamp unknown, Bench: The Greenhaus, Cascade lamp: Russ Hagan, Gogo Ghost lamp: Corey Daniels, The Eco Tree: Louie Psihoyos, Fallen Forest: Erick Hakansson, Melting Men: Nele Azevedo.

Didier Fiuza Faustino

Born in 1968 in Chennevières-sur-Marne, France, Didier Fiuza Faustino, architect and mentalist, has most certainly stimulated my recent crave for interdisciplinary art.

Bridges with no destination, unusable chairs and wave-like barbed wire fences are all taking us into a world where everything is structurally possible and unexpected.

Fan.

Check out this box he designed, produced by Hermes some years ago

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/hbox/default.shtm , showing videos by artists such as Yael Bartana

Kartell and PVC Overkill.

Plastic, metal, paper, the new millennium is all about recycling. After the first skepticism on whether our rubbish separating efforts were not just a pat on the shoulder for the ever so present environmentalists, the era of coloured bins and weird abbreviations for primary materials came to life. The nasty little brown bin for compost, the blue one for toxic waste, the rainbow coloured one for children... All of the sudden everything in the world had its very own personalized trash can.

The question you have never asked yourself is, "what if you could send your waste off to a factory where it would all get molded into expensive PVC designer furniture?"

It was cool in the sixties, but why does Kartell feel the need to continue brainwashing the wealthy home owner to decorate his whole house with blow-ups of retro dollhouse props?

Overpriced playskool set tables for adults, anyone? - Whoever is in the designer hood, should stick with wood.

Tensegrity for winners

If you thought the parallelogram was dope, get ready for

TENSEGRITY.

Tensional integrity, by definition: a structure who's compressive members are connected to each other by tensile members.

Too many difficult words in one sentence to be a subject of interest? Fear not, tensegrity puts the 'c' in cool for sculptural art.

In simple words, this strangely named structure is one that stays erect only if the cables or wires connecting the parts are rigid and tense. Furthermore, as the technique enabled the production of exceptionally rigid structures for their mass, from the 1960's onwards it found its use in architecture. A good example is the Seoul Olympic Gymnastics Arena designed in the 1980's by David Geiger.

But it doesn't stop here, it gets personal too. Tensegrity is something you own, literally, as it is observable in our (human) bodies as the muscle and bone structures are only "keeping it together" because of tension games.

Becoming a tensegrist is very simple, all you have to do is blow up a balloon! The molecules of air discontinuously push against the continuously pulling rubber skin of the balloon and create: TENSEGRITY. Phat.

Below: Sculptures by Kenneth Snelston, Seoul Olympic Arena, in blue: some crazy dutch fetishist making paper sculptures.

The Parallelogram and teenage fantasies.

Parallelograms, what's not to like? They are uncomplicated, formulaic, friendly and above all, they are the kind of geometric shape who's properties you will never forget. Why? Because apart from struggling with the awkward spelling trauma caused by trying to figure out just how to write down parallelepiped (motherf****r), the ortography of the 2 dimensional parallel "brother-form" would equally drive you up the wall in high school. Double 'l', twice or just once?

Okay, so it wasn't love at first sight, but there was something mystical that drew my attention to the unusual square. This is when I decided to give myself a mission, after all those years of soul searching and trying to find the true meaning of life, I decided I was going to finally do it, I was going to Google the parallelogram.

(Dramatic pause.)

I discovered there are four types of parallelograms, I discovered its area to be equal to

but most of all, I discovered I was not alone.

Yes, young girls and boys, there is a world of geeks out there and they all hail our parallel friend.

So here is my question, if the parallelogram fails to have 90 degree angles and looks like a square who's had a bad episode with a large bottle of Jack Daniels, what came first, the rectangle or the parallelogram?

Please find below a late seventies sci-fi movie, 'Deamon Seed' about a bronze speaking evil monster made up entirely out of parallelograms. I think I just wet myself.

P.S.: The big bird picture, not completely irrelevant.