We are Studio 31: Press and Media Information
Grand Designs Live- Nice to meet you!
Thanks for helping us reduce our carbon footprint by viewing this press information online.
Studio 31 is an award winning, adventurous and environmentally conscious landscape architecture practice working across the residential, public realm and commercial sectors. We use research-led design principles to explore the link between nature and health with the aim to create landscapes which are both better for people and better for the planet. We do things a little differently and want the spaces we create to not only exceed our clients’ expectations but also push the boundaries of modern landscape architecture.
We are passionate about the work we do and always keen to share our expertise so please do come and chat to us in the Grand Gardens section at stand E4B.
IN PROGRESS
Content
About our practice
We are a passionate and diverse team consisting of designers, landscape architects and a researcher. We believe in recruiting with a values first system which has allowed us to build a passionate and diverse team which shape our practice into something new and exciting. We explore the link between health and landscape through research and translate this into our design work meaning we are aiming to create spaces which are intrinsically good for us. This combined with our environmental conscience and drive to blaze a trail means we want to design landsacpes which are good for the planet too.
2. About our services can be found here
2. Examples of our work can be found here and on our stand G2.
3. Information about our Grand Designs stand including eco-credentials (below)
4. Studio 31’s health and wellbeing, research-led design ethos (below)
5. Studio 31 run a sucessful landscape blog which includes both wider industry information and information about our practice. A short introduction to types of topics covered in our blog can be found below or our full journal can be accessed here.
Our Stand
As a studio, our values are simple; inventive design, client centred processes and a practice with a conscience. So, what we want with our stand at grand designs is to retain the heart in what we do.
What better way then, than to take our studio (or a corner of it) to grand designs. This idea works for us on many levels; it represents the transparency we have in our process by giving a sneak peek into our studio and working life as a design team and more than this, it reflects our sustainable ethos*.
We also recognise that for many of our clients, family can be one of the central reasons to embark on a project. For clients bringing their children with them to the show, there will even be toys to entertain the miniature self-builders.
To see our stand for yourself, head to stand G2 close to the entrance of the Grand Gardens section of the show.
Further Detail regarding the minute detail of the eco-credentials of our stand can be found below.
Design for Health and Well-being
Much of the work we do here at Studio 31 uses research-led design principles in relation to health and well-being. We’ve already incorporated these principles into our public sector and commercial projects and now we are beginning to see an increasing desire from residential clients to use this approach too. All three of our talks at GD-Live this year use these themes and principles so why not come along to learn more. Want to know more? Just ask!
Studio 31 Blog
As a practice, we believe in sharing our knowledge and understanding of landscape architecture and garden design and as such write a varied design blog focussing on four key areas.
- Landscape Professionals. We believe demonstrating the huge diversity of skills and expertise and the landscape industry as well as the power of uniting and sharing those skills.
- Research. We explore research which links the concepts of health and wellbeing to landscape and design.
- Our work. We share our work, good practice and hints, tips and ideas.
- Our industry. We write blogs on current trends, industry news and specialist areas.
Please see the journal pages of our website for more detail.
Our Eco-Ethos- full length.
As environmentally conscientious landscape architects it’s important to us that our work reflects our passion for the landscape in every aspect of what we do. We do everything we can to have as minimal impact on the environment as possible without compromising on quality. The same goes for our time at Grand Designs Live, our exhibition stand was designed with the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle. Here’s how…
Furniture
Our table and chairs are straight from our office. In fairness, this has made lunch time back at the office a slightly more picnic-like experience but why buy new for 9 days when you can use what you’ve got. Add to this that the office table is made from up-cycled singer sewing machine legs and a sideboard destined for the tip and our chairs are genuine old school chairs and you’ll see that we are reusing the reused here!
Marketing Materials
Our marketing materials have always been printed using sustainable printing processes and materials so we saw no need to change now. We use Seacourt, an eco-conscious company boasting these credentials.
100% recycled FSC paper stock
VOC free inks
Printing with 0% Water and 0% Chemicals
100% renewable energy
Zero waste to Landfill
Carbon positive supply chain and factory
Stationery
We love our stationery but want that to come from a sustainable source too so we buy ours from eco-conscious company Remarkable. This means, that whilst you’re leaving us your details, the pen you’ll be holding will have been made from some of the 3.5 million tonnes of plastic wasted each year.
Our bench and stand.
No nasty MDF here. Our bench is made from FSC Hardwood sustainably sourced and responsibly purchased. Unlike most traditional exhibition stands, it will also have a life beyond the exhibition itself so no waste here.
Our lettering
Wow, this was a challenge. Whilst wooden letters aren’t that hard to come by, sustainable materials are. This has probably been the hardest part of our stand to source responsibly but thanks to the ingenuity of the company who made them and the determination of Alex our director, we have lettering made from ‘Medite Ecologique’ a type of MDF that’s manufactured without the nasty formaldehyde usually found in the MDF manufacturing process.
We also painted these letters with chalk paint rather than off the shelf stuff. No easy task to source when you work with designers who are very specific about colour. More than all of this, we have waited until now to adorn our office with our Studio name so that’s where these letters are headed after the exhibition.
For the kids
We’ve promised some entertainment for the kids but those aren’t just ordinary colouring pencils; they are sprout plantable (yes you heard me correctly) plantable pencils. So we can teach small hands to colour responsibly and grow something too. The paper they are drawing on is 100% recycled and recyclable so you can pop it in your recycling bin when you’re done. That’s if you don’t want to frame their art work and hang it on the wall.
Toys are notorious for being created from colourful but harmful plastics. Not here. ours is just as fun, just as colourful but made by Babipur, an environmentally conscious company who (in their own words) make toys that “are just about as eco, sustainable and high quality as toys can be”. Plus they have a carbon-neutral process and zero-waste policy.
Coffee. If three members of staff were to have just one cuppa a day each over the 9 days of the show that would be 27 coffee cups into landfill. We don’t want to contribute to that, so we are bringing along our own reusable coffee cups. Created by the very lovely team at FrankGreen they are made from stainless steel rather than plastic and keep our coffee warm meaning we can spend as long as we like chatting to visitors without our cuppa going cold.
Water. You’ve all seen the media reports on the environmental impact of single use plastics. Plastic water bottles make up a huge proportion of that problem. Luckily FrankGreen also do water bottles so we aren’t using single use bottles either. Added bonus; they are also made from stainless steel so we aren’t even using multi-use plastic
Plants
It’s a well-known fact that plants are good for you, good for the environment and good for everyone else too. And of course, all our garden schemes contain plants so our stand, simply wouldn’t be complete without them. All our plants are either from our office or our homes and are taking a well-earned holiday to the show.
We are constantly striving to find the most sustainable solutions without compromising on quality or design. We know our stand isn’t perfect and we are always looking to do more but we are doing our best and hopefully we are, in our own small, way making a difference. We also hope that through caring about our suppliers, we are helping them make a difference too. After all, change is very often a chain reaction.
