Living moss carpet

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By Luke Iseman
Posted 2009/01/19 @ 9:39 pm
Category Electronics, Energy

Moss becomes a rug in the most beautiful and sustainable bathroom fixture I’ve seen:

Check out the rest of Nguyen La Chanh’s portfolio here. I especially like the kitchen garden and anti-mosquito fan.

(via Inhabitat)

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9 Responses to Living moss carpet

AndyL on January 21st, 2009 at 4:30 pm said:

Neat, but I’m not sure how “Sustainable” applies.

It’s made of polyethylene, after all.

I *guess* if you’ve got sunlight in your bathroom, it might last a while before it needs to be replaced, but there’s still energy and materials that go into making it. How is this any more “sustainable” than simply walking on the foam itself?

Or maybe you were joking. I can’t tell.

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- Cru on July 9th, 2009 at 12:09 pm said:
  
  Sustainable in the sense that the moss is fed by the humidity in your bathroom.
  
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jiggy on January 21st, 2009 at 5:32 pm said:

Are you familiar with moss? The light from the fixture in a bathroom is probably enough light for moss to grow. And, most bathrooms I’ve seen have at least one window, which would provide ample light.

We’re not talking about grass here. Moss is actually killed by too much light.

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AndyL on January 21st, 2009 at 6:42 pm said:

Fair enough. You’re probably right in most cases. I was thinking of my own bathroom which is windowless. I wonder how many minutes a day I’d need to be in your bathroom with the lights on to keep the moss growing.

It’s a pretty neat and fun idea if it’s practical.

I still don’t think moss growing on plastic is more “Sustainable” than the plastic on its own. But I don’t think that was the artist’s intent anyway.

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BigD145 on January 21st, 2009 at 8:42 pm said:

Homes may have windows in at least half their bathrooms, but I have yet to find an apartment that has a single window in the bathroom.

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Meh on January 21st, 2009 at 10:19 pm said:

I tell you what, go find a patch of moss and stand on it with wet feet. Then look at the bottom of your feet and see how much mud is there. Unrealistic.

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AndyL on January 21st, 2009 at 10:40 pm said:

You’re probably thinking of moss that’s growing in mud.

This moss is supposedly growing in plastic foam. So I can’t imagine there would be much mud.

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vivi on January 21st, 2009 at 10:59 pm said:

I tried to acclimate moss to an indoors environment a few times, but the moss died quickly in all cases. Moss requires a very high humidity and not too much heat. I wonder how long Nguyen La Chanh managed to keep this moss alive in his bathroom. This would be really cool if it could stay alive a few months. The feeling of walking on natural moss is awesome

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metis on January 22nd, 2009 at 8:27 am said:

yes it’s pretty, yes you *could* was moss to get the dirt out, but then it won’t have nutrients, and moss really doesn’t like being walked on, so it’s not practical unless you’ve got someone swapping out unhealthy moss pods for healthy ones on a daily basis.

do i want one? more than a flying badger who brews stout in my basement, but am i going to see one? no.

someday folks will realize that yanko design specializes in amazingly cool design 99% of which is vaporware or knockoffs, and not pass them off as real products.

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