Design standards with ecological responsibility
Where do the wool for your jumper and the cotton for your jeans come from? At hessnatur you can find out. But do you also know where building materials come from? At the Düsseldorf/Frankfurt hessnatur Concept Store their transparency policy makes this discoverable too. A building is a “second skin” that surrounds its users. That’s why the concept stores of the natural fashion brand are also designed according to strict ecological criteria: transparent and recyclable, yet absolutely modern. Clay earth as a building material, of course, plays a part.
Modern interiors – how to design today for tomorrow?
The word modern comes from the Latin adverb modo (‘just, just now, recently’). And modern is what the store’s interior design looks like: bright colours, spacious shelving systems and a concrete floor give you a contemporary shopping experience.
But the choice of materials goes beyond today. The interior designers from Blocher Partners used predominantly environmentally compatible building materials. The central element in the space is the sales counter with rammed earth cladding.
The shelf systems and shelves are made of German ash. Fluffy carpets accent the otherwise straightforwardly designed room. Plastics are taboo.
Transparency – where does the origin lie?
When hessnatur was founded in 1976, sustainability was an absolute niche topic. Since then, the term has become commonplace. Transparency helps you to recognise the difference between empty words and a lived concept.
hessnatur informs you comprehensively where the raw materials for the clothes come from – on the website and in the store. But transparency doesn’t always have to come across as information. You can also see it.
A good example is the rammed earth cladding of the sales counter. The production process can be easily seen in the individual layers. For this, earthen clay is placed in layers in a formwork and compacted.
Another example are the stacked stools made of leftover materials from shop and trade fair construction. The individual layers illustrate exactly what they used to be.
Recycling – What happens at the end of a life span?
At some point, even the highest quality jumper and the most modern interior design reach the end of their lifespan. And then? The old has to make room for the new. Wouldn’t it be better if the old became something new?
Hessnatur, for example, makes bags from denim offcuts. The stools made from leftover materials follow the same idea. And wood and clay can also be excellently recycled. Clay has the special feature that it can be used again and again while retaining the same quality level – simply by mixing it with water. This process is completely waste-free.
Read more »Modern classics – Earthen clay building materials from CLAYTEC
The opposite of fashionable is timeless – just like the building material clay earth. It has been used for thousands of years. And yet today it is more modern than ever.
Its excellent recyclability sets it apart from many other materials used in wall construction. Recycling building materials is a way to reduce the waste of resources in construction. As a natural building material, clay earth is also very healthy to live with. As a wall surface, it buffers humidity and has a positive influence on the indoor climate.
Rammed clay earth, as found in the Düsseldorf/Frankfurt hessnatur Concept Store, is one of the most original methods of building with earthen clay. The horizontal stripes not only tell of the handicraft process but also set a modern accent. This can be creatively emphasised by using coloured clays.
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