A new exhibition celebrating sustainable design and featuring some of the UK’s leading designers is currently on at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

‘Green Design: Creativity with a Conscience’ examines the growing demand for products that are both fashionably designed and environmentally friendly and looks at how products for people, homes and communities are increasingly being shaped to meet green demand.

Objects on display range from a fully bio-degradable papier mache coffin and acorn-shaped urn to a maize bikini, a sustainable guitar made from agricultural waste and trainers constructed from recycled parachute material, car seats and prison blankets.

Green Design also features a pouffe made from used tennis balls by Tony Michiels, a jute shopping bag by designer Wayne Hemmingway of Red or Dead fame, a set of fully biodegradable bamboo cups, plates and bowls by Habitat’s head of design, Tom Dixon and a basket by artist Lois Walpole from 1990 constructed entirely from found waste. A table by Nick Rawcliffe made from compressed coffee grounds is also on display.

Esther Lynn, exhibitions officer at the National Museums of Scotland said “Ten years ago, sustainable design was very much a niche activity, but these days as consumer demand increases, companies are investing more and more in environmentally friendly materials and processes.  This new exhibition charts the history of green design over the past 16 years and looks at the direction in which future trends are heading.”

‘Green Design: Creativity with a Conscience’ is on at the Museum of Scotland, Special Exhibitions Gallery, Level 3, Chambers Street, Edinburgh from 31 March to 25 June 2006.  Opening hours Monday to Sunday 10am to 5pm. Admission is free.

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