Green-fingered design

Product Designer Luke Cardew is a self-professed jack-of-all-trades – with a background in ceramics, the young British creative has most recently been dabbling in gardening as part of his eco-conscious and sustainable approach to designing in Shanghai.

It was an undergraduate degree at London's acclaimed Central St Martin's College of Art and Design that first got Cardew involved in China. A final year project centred around disaster relief coincided with 2008's devastating earthquake in Sichuan. "One of the key things was the need for shelter", Cardew recalls. "The earthquake happened in the summer and so all the shelters that had been given out weren't suitable for the cold winds of winter". And with conservative estimates placing the number of people rendered homeless around the 5million mark, Cardew was keen to help by bringing an adapted, simplified version of his degree project to life.

Inspired by traditional Chinese greenhouses, Cardew's practical solution applied the same concept of curved bamboo poles, but crossing them so as to render the shelter strong and, crucially, resistant against the region's notoriously relentless winter winds. Covered with a recyclable, biodegradable laminated polyethylene sheet, the shelters were quick – and cheap – to build, and could house a family for up to a year.



For Cardew, though, there was another advantage to the bamboo shelters: "People have to maintain their dignity. In that situation, people weren't happy with having temporary homes built for them, they wanted to do it themselves, so one of the great successes was that people recognized that [the shelters] were similar to what was already being used in the countryside to grow vegetables. They could build them themselves; there was no factory manufacturing, it was all on site, using minimal, locally-sourced materials."

Three years on, the designer has set up creative agency Spark Creative with founder of Kplunk and GoodtoSH, Susan Evans. The spectrum of services the duo offer is wide: events, photo-shoots, product design, industrial design, brand identity – even a spot of engineering, but all in keeping with the pair's environmental and sustainable ethos.





With Evans, and as part of this weekend's Eco Design Fair, Cardew has developed a means for visitors to easily delve into the immensely satisfying world of growing produce at home. His 'Pots of Black Gold' are entirely biodegradable, and really rather chic. "On the one hand it's an educational package to let people learn how to grow things and see just how easy it is. There's loads of people in this city who still don't know how their food is grown", explains Cardew as he proudly shows off one of the bags, currently housing a lettuce and residing in the designer's bathroom.

The bags are made from jute, a grass and natural fibre that can be spun into fabric, similar to hemp. Grown in China and processed at a local factory, the bags are fully bio-degradable and screen printed with eco-ink. Inside is a lining of starch plastic – more expensive than traditional oil plastics, it has the advantage of being quick to degrade. The bags will be filled with (organic) soil and sold with seeds to budding, green-fingered fair-goers.





The 'Pots of Black Gold' won't be the only Cardew-designed element of Saturday's event. Should visitors stray from the fun of the fair and up to the Waterhouse's Roof cocktail bar, they will see what remains of Cardew's kitchen garden, planted last year and about to be revamped and modernized by the designer. "The chefs there are very creative", Cardew enthuses. "I approached it very much as a product designer and asked them what they needed for their recipes. Their response was 'you grow it, we'll use it!' A five star cocktail bar with it's own garden is a great standard to inspire." This year's redesign will see the 90sqm site replanted with culinary staples, and also move towards more contemporary farming methods – perhaps even hydroponics.

Other designs for growing include huge raised planting beds, crafted out of bamboo and due to be installed at GoodtoSH's latest Minhang project, a community garden. What's clear is that at the heart of Cardew's motivation as a designer is a passion for sustainable living and an urge to share his admirable ethos. Be it shelters in Sichuan, his educational (and fun) 'Pots of Black Gold' or working with the Waterhouse's culinary team, Cardew's goal is to make things better. And with that in mind, we highly recommend you pick up one of his smart, green grow bags at this weekend's Eco Design Fair, and then - why not, it will be Saturday after all - sip a mojito at the sunshiny Roof, confident in the fact that your mint will have travelled a mere matter of metres from Cardew's forward-thinking kitchen garden to your glass.



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The Eco Design Fair will take place on Saturday 16 April at The Waterhouse from 10am until 5pm. For a full listing and details of the preceding Critical Mass Bike Ride, click here