RHIZOME

Rhizome is a design firm that works towards sustainability. We work with a lot of materials, but our specialty is bamboo. Rhizome was founded in 2009 by Rebecca Reubens, an industrial designer who has worked extensively in the international development sector. Ms Reubens’ work and experiences had already demonstrated that design could bring sustainability out into the mainstream. Her next logical step was to launch a sustainable-design firm that worked towards achieving the fine balance betwee... n development, sustainability and commercial viability. Rhizome’s mandate is to provide the complete spectrum of design support that take productsand services to their logical end—the market—while being mindful of sustainability. The firm offers services in design, prototyping, streamlining production protocols, technologydevelopment, market studies, and branding. We mainstream sustainability and make it desirable through design. Our work proves that design can simultaneously be commercially-viable and positively impact sustainability. Sustainability is a compound picture made up of lots of beautifully complex, wicked and non-negotiable pieces which our designs work to integrate. We look beyond single individual factors—such as the user, the market and production lines—to an integrated design brief. Most of our products are developed in collaboration with a cross section of individuals and communities. This helps us look at all the pieces of the sustainability jig-saw—economic, social, cultural, and ecological—to design sustainable products with underpinning production to consumption systemsMore