Deco Nature was a project in corporation with a company called Decoene Products, a wooden indoor door manufacturer, that wanted to incorporate the ecological principles of the passive house in their range of products.
My task was to ensure that the door met all possible requirements of the passive house and respected the ecological principle of it. To do so I used a strategy called lifecycle assesment. Hereby the complete lifecycle of the product is taken in consideration. It consists out of 8 stages:
- Product design review
- Low impact materials
- Material use
- Production techniques
- Distribution system
- Impact during use
- Initial Lifetime
- End -of Life systemen
- In the section product design review we look if all the different demands are achieved, in my case: the insulation value, the airtightness and the fire resistance.
- By using the Ecolizer 2.0 tool produced by Ovam the carbon footprint could be calculated and reduced.
- During the development of the project the focus wasn't on reducing the number of components but reducing the number of material categories used in the project. This comes in handy when trying to recycle the door in the end of its lifecycle.
- In the stage of production technique especially profile optimalization techniques have been taken in consideration
- As a distribution system I used an excisting system of a company called ConTeyor
- In the case of interior insulating doors the impact during use isn't due the consumption of energy, but by letting heath escape. Also indoor climate is a hot topic if it comes to impact during use.
- By using a nesting system of the different kind of profile "warping" of the door will be prevented, this way the initial lifetime will improve.
- Finally the end of life story of Deco Nature is very simple, because all the materials used in the door consist out of wood based products. This mean only the hinges and the lock need to be disassembled before the door can be recycled.
Following are two overview images that show more or less how the concept is build.
If you are in the mood, below you can see a movie of me on a design exhibition talking about this project. (Starting at 1:08)
More details about several topics will follow in next posts, where i will go deeper in the matter of indoor climate, passive house and several other topics.
For more questions you can always send me a message at info.youaredesign@gmail.com.
