Materials

In the present world, sustainable development appears for us to be a major stake and to endeavour to minimize the impact of our pollution by design represents an efficient step. That's why the choice of the materials mustn't be half fast chosen. We have chosen for our project cradle to cradle certificate materials or materials which are close to this concept. For the hammock/k-way, we have chosen a material which is the closer of cradle to cradle certificate material : 3-layer H2No^{®
We have fond this material on Patagonia internet site. Patagonia is a californian company of outdoor sport clothing which all there project are eco friendly.}

Indeed, To determine the environmental impact, they looked at the lifecycle of the product, including end-of-life disposal, and the toxin levels in the manufacturing process. The most environmentally harmful component of a waterproof shell is the waterproof/breathable barrier. It is usually made from three different chemical compounds: polyester (PES, PET), polyurethane (PU) and polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE). As of fall 2008, Patagonia does not use polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE) – the most harmful of the three chemicals – in our waterproof/breathable membrane construction 3-layer H2No^® fabrics are waterproof and breathable by virtue of an advanced combination of elements: a water-repellent shell fabric, a waterproof H2No barrier and an interior scrim fabric. This fabric package is completely waterproof, windproof, breathable and very durable. <sup>Perfect for our metabolic toy.

For the arms and legs, we have chosen the same material.

For the eyes and mouth of the monster, we have chosen a material seen at our excursion at Material connexion. A cradle to cradle certificate material. A plastic made from recycled potato product. It's 100% biodegradable, 100% compostable. Non toxic and made from natural ingredients.</sup>

Our New toy

Where was the hard part of the project, the transformation of our toy into something useful for John when he is adult.

Again, we concentrated on one main characteristic of John : That he travels a lot in nature for his inspiration for video games. We did another brainstorming on travelling in nature. We figured out that when you travel in a unknown part of the world, you must always have a k-way. This element links perfectly with the monster-hammock. Indeed, John will transform the toy into a k-way!

Our k-way will be build like this :

First of all, John will need to cut the head of the monster hammock and a cercle in the middle of the hammock.


Than the arms and the leg will be tied up together 2 to 2 to make the k-way fit on the body.


After, the head of the monster that John has cut will be used like a banana bag. Indeed he will put on a zipper or a button on the head of the monster which was first the pellow of the hammock. Than we will take of his home a old belt to make the belt of the banana bag.



Now John will be nicely protected of the rain when he travels thanks to the k-way.

Our Toy

For a metabolic toy, we concentrated on two characteristic of John : his fascination for monsters and his adventure side of him.

At the beginning, we chosed a monster teddy.


Than, we studied how can we make a link with the monster teddy and his adventure side. Like he loves camping, we did a little brainstorming on camping. We noticed that an hammock or a tent his one of the most important thing of camping. So than, we tried to mix this monster teddy with one of these things. He found that a hammock would be perfect to mix it up with the monster teddy. Our toy becomes at that moment The Monster-Hammock.




So our monster-hammock is build like this :


To open our monster-Hammock, you must detach our velcro bouton, like a scratch. he changed the magnetic button because it is not at all ecologic.

Once you open it, you unfold the body of the monster like showed on the picture. The armes and legs our attached in a strategic way. In fact, they are attached on the edge of the hammock like that it is easy to attached it to a three or something else.

Size : hammock : 160x100 cm
head of monster : 24,5x21x2 cm
Legs and arms : 60 cm of lenght and 6cm of diameter

John

Name: John
Date of Birth: 8 july 1985
Country: United States of America
City: New York, Brooklyn
Hair: light brow
eyes: green
Particular sign: None

John comes from a weathy family. His mother is a teacher and his dad is a lawyer. He has no brother and no sister, not even a pet. When John was small, he was very dynamic. He loved going outside and thinking that he was Indiana Jones. Sometimes, for making John happy, his parents would let him camp in the garden. Usually, little boys don't like camping because they are scared of the dark or even monsters. John? Not at all, he loved monsters! His room was plenty of monster toys, teddy monsters, all monsters. John was also very attracted to technologie. Even if he didn't know what was a computer or robots, he would just stay fixed to it.

As we grown, all this increased. When he was a teenager, he became found of video games, more specially, adventures games. It must had a story in his games. He loved always, as much, going camping with his friends or even alone in the mountains. At the end of his high school, he is accepted in Harvard university. John would become a famous video game programmator.

In his adulthood, John would travel a lot. But not to go visit big cities, he would go in the middle of now where to find inspiration for his games. He would go in amozonie jungle or even go climb the himalaya.

John dies after felling in a river but for him, it was a beautiful death.

William McDonough on cradle to cradle design

Architect William McDonough believes that green design can prevent environmental disaster -- while also driving economic growth. He champions “cradle to cradle” design that considers the full life cycle of a product, from its creation with sustainable materials to a recycled afterlife. In this video, Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account "all children, all species, for all time."

Designers save the earth

Designers actually have more potential to slow environmental degradation than economist, politicians, businesses and even environmentalists. The power of designers is catalytic. Once a new, more environmentally benign design penetrates markets its beneficial effects multiply. Businesses spend less on raw materials and production and so realize bette profits, users enjoy more effcient, better-value products, governments reduce spending on regulatory enforcement and the net gain is an improved environment and quality of life. Designers have the capability to shape the future and to save the earth.

"the source book eco design"

The elephant map

This map represents, in a childish elephant-shape, all the phases of a little Chicco teddy bear life.

First of all, the materials are made in different countries: plastic (used for the eyes) is from China, cotton comes from Europe and the tissu from India. Next, those materials are exported to Italy, the country where the product was already been designed, and in Asia, where the manufacturing and packaging is made of the teddy elephant. When everything is done, they distribute the teddy elephant all over the world, and they are sold in toy centers.

Once somebody bought it, in this case it went to michela house for a few years, The teddy elephant didn't last long, it broke so her mother throwed it away. Then the teddy elephant got burned.

We found these informations about michela teddy elephant here:
http://www.chicco.ch/dove_trovi_chicco/home.asp for the distribution
http://www.artsana.com/ita/html/baby/i_baby.htm for the informations about the italian company (chicco-artsana)
800188898 (phone number) for all the other informations