News

Launching product design from mountains

01.03.2019

Mountain Partnership member Fundacion CoMunidad, the Parsons School of Design in New York City and the local mountain population of La Yeguada in Panama have partnered up to create household products using a blend of non-timber forest resources and waste from pine timber cut-offs.

Conducted by students at Parsons, the project looked at how design can potentially increase the diversification of agroecosystems through the use of a wider range of plant-based materials.

For the Forest Reserve of La Yeguada in Panama, students proposed cultivating a range of native plants that will provide fibers and dyes that can be grown in live-fence systems surrounding agricultural fields, providing additional protection and nutrients to surrounding crops. These materials would   be secondary to the main material source of Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea). In the 1960’s, 7000 hectares of Caribbean pine was planted by women from La Yeguada to protect the local watershed by hydroelectric plants. Although, pine is not native to the region, it is the only species that thrived in the region. Today, around 2 000 hectares are allocated for rotational harvest and use.

Students’ projects consisted of utilizing pine scraps and considering scale for potential export, exploring bioplastic recipes, addressing local pollution and waste management. Additionally, some projects also included designing smaller items such as salt-pepper shakers.

The project also introduced design students to small-scale production systems that have a positive impact on local people and the environment. “Many students want to use their design-skills for ‘good’ but most jobs are in mass-production. This class introduces young designers to alternative career paths either working for or with non-profits as independent contractors or applying positive production systems to their own creations,” says Christine Facella of Parsons School of Design.

Basic ecological comprehension was also a major component of the product design class. In particular, the class focused on systems where former cattle ranches are ‘reforested’ and turned into timber plantations specifically in Central America. “This is where we come in. If we want healthy agroecosystems, we need to diversify, and if what is being cultivated in determined by the market, then the market needs to learn that there are more than three species of timber,” says Facella. The students also learned about the value and function of forests, the concept of ‘ecosystem services’, how they can use design to amplify natural systems, as well as the negative environmental, social (and political) consequences of using synthetic oil-derived materials.

The initiative was presented at Yale University at the International Society of Tropical Foresters Conference 2019 and was developed from 31 January – 2 February 2019 at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in New Haven, USA.

Photo by Alberto Pascual