Google’s first physical store won top prize in the Environmental Impact category at the NYCxDESIGN Awards with bespoke furniture made with Portuguese cork. Developed by Reddymade – the New York City based architecture and interior design practice, the cork furniture was produced by American designer, Daniel Michalik.
One of Google’s core goals was to attain LEED Platinum status, the highest possible certification within the “Leadership in Energy and Sustainable Design” green-building rating system. Cork was the natural option, as one of the planet’s most sustainable materials, offering unique characteristics in terms of CO2 retention and inexhaustible potential for circular practices. Cork is also light, versatile, resilient, soft to the touch and is visually appealing.
In addition to these valuable attributes, Daniel Michalik says that cork offered “a blank sheet, on which customers can project their ideas, concepts and experiences of the material, interacting in a single space.” Michalik, who is also a professor at the Parsons School of Design, explains that in addition to its sustainability credentials, cork is a healthy raw material: from the perspective of the natural health system, fair wages for work and the health of those who use cork-based objects”.
Further information: https://awards.design/nyc21/project.asp?ID=22704
