#Final7 Spotlight of 5 Materials

To cut down on wasted product, Aeon chose durable carpet tile for The Rose, their affordable housing development in Minneapolis, Minn. Shaw Floors and Interface Flooring provided panels of carpet for the common spaces of the development, a much more economical and sustainable choice than bringing in bulkier and less customizable rolls of carpet. Interface’s Super Flor avoids the possible toxicity of glue by being adhesive-free, which also makes tiles easy to remove and replace in the event of an accident.

The Healthy Materials Lab will be celebrating this material, along with six others, at their Final 7 event on Monday, Sept. 28. It will be held at the Donghia Healthier Materials Library at Parsons School of Design. To RSVP for the event, click here.

Plywood, a product so normal its intricacies are constantly ignored by an industry that uses it as the bone structure for its developments. But the people at Aeon have taken a different approach, using this material as another opportunity to foster a healthy living environment. For their affordable housing development, The Rose, in Minneapolis, Minn., Aeon took a step back and chose carefully where they sourced this common product. The result of their research led them to Columbia Forest Products, and their Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified PureBond plywood. The sustainably sourced timber used in Columbia’s plywood is bound with an adhesive free of formaldehyde, a chemical that is toxic if ingested.

The Healthy Materials Lab will be celebrating this material, along with six others, at their Final 7 event on Monday, Sept. 28. It will be held at the Donghia Healthier Materials Library at Parsons School of Design. To RSVP for the event, click here.

As far as countertops go, it’s hard to go wrong with granite. This long lasting, sturdy rock is easily cleaned because it is one of the hardest rocks around, meaning it’s not porous. It will not absorb chemicals or food items so often used in kitchens, which over time can become toxic. Aeon and MSR Architects chose granite for use in the kitchens of their affordable housing unit, The Rose, in Minneapolis, Minn. And by sourcing the granite from local suppliers, they aren’t just keeping things safe for The Rose’s occupants, they’re also reducing the project’s carbon footprint by avoiding excess shipping.

The Healthy Materials Lab will be celebrating this material, along with six others, at their Final 7 event on Monday, Sept. 28. It will be held at the Donghia Healthier Materials Library at Parsons School of Design. To RSVP for the event, click here.

Nearly all homes are lined and wrapped in a few layers of clay product called gypsum. That’s because gypsum is a key ingredient in drywall, which provides division and insulation to modern homes. Like many other structural materials, this one can easily go unnoticed, but if manufactured incorrectly and infused with additives, gypsum can pose a major health risk to live in the spaces it divides. That’s why, in their new affordable housing development, The Rose, Aeon only used naturally mined, non-recycled gypsum board to line the interiors of their Minneapolis homes.

The Healthy Materials Lab will be celebrating this material, along with six others, at their Final 7 event on Monday, Sept. 28. It will be held at the Donghia Healthier Materials Library at Parsons School of Design. To RSVP for the event, click here.

It takes an innovative developer to find the natural where you’d least expect it. Instead of common linoleum, Aeon decided on innovative Marmoleum floor covering for common spaces in The Rose, their new affordable housing development in Minneapolis, Minn. This unique linoleum (manufactured by Forbo Flooring Systems) contains 97 percent natural raw materials, including linseed oil (derived from flax) and jute, both sustainable annual crops, as well as wood flour, a waste product of the timber industry. Durable and safe, marmoleum is an excellent example of a material perfect for a forward-thinking living space.

The Healthy Materials Lab will be celebrating this material, along with six others, at their Final 7 event on Monday, Sept. 28. It will be held at the Donghia Healthier Materials Library at Parsons School of Design. To RSVP for the event, click here.