Category: Uncategorized

Born to Build a Better Future: Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat

Over the next four weeks, I’m doing a campaign for Gap that features profiles of other design bloggers. The interviews are an extension of Gap’s Born To… Campaign, which is about pursuing your passion. As you may have noticed, I’m into that. Find out more about the campaign on the Facebook page here. For completists, the whole set of interviews will live over here.

I’m kicking off the Born To… Series with Jill Fehrenbacher, founder of Inhabitat and a LEED-AP green designer. Her passion is building a better future, as indicated by her trusty hammer and power drill:


http://static.fmpub.net/zone/2474

How fierce is that bob? You may remember Jill from my trip to New York, where I first met her in the spray of Dara Torres’s warm-up routine:

Jill from Inhabitat

Jill and I have friends in common, so we chatted about how one maintains a perfect bob (Japanese straight perm, genetics), and the business of blogging. Later I found out that Jill grew up here in California, though she’s currently based in New York. Over the years, she’s also made homes in Bali and Kathmandu.

Dig a little deeper, and it turns out that Jill is a traveling, karate-practicing, mini-mogul, vegan designer and parent who still makes time for Japanese straight perms. New York moves at a different pace than the rest of the world, my friends.

jillohgirl

In 2005, Jill was enjoying her life as a designer and consultant and decided to start Inhabitat as a way to engage with the design community and draw more attention to environmentally conscious design. At the time, mainstream media was mostly mum on the subject of green design, and Jill wanted to fill that silence. As interest in greener design has grown — dramatically — so has Inhabitat’s online presence and staff. Today, Jill relies on a team of writers to help her maintain five sites:

  • Inhabitat Dedicated to sustainable design.
  • Inhabitots Green design for kids, launched in 2008 when Jill was pregnant with her baby boy.
  • Inhabitatshop A curated online marketplace of favorite green goods.
  • Greener Gadgets A conference and design competition site.
  • Re-burbia A suburban design competition, which recently announced finalists.

I know you’ll be interested to hear that there’s also a fashion site in the works. Keep an eye out for Sustainastyle in the coming months.

Jill’s interest in design started early. A neighbor gave her an easel when she was three years old, and she’d spend hours drawing. “I studied art in high school and college, and that eventually lead me to the world of design, when I realized how much more impactful and relevant applied design was than the world of fine art (sorry fine art people, but it’s true).”

In the beginning, Jill juggled her design and consulting work while maintaining Inhabitat. Soon, the site that was supposed to support Jill’s career became a career in itself. A few years later, she started publishing full time, and replaced her alarm clock with a looming toddler named Petey. She takes him along for a quick jog in the mornings before settling into her role as a publisher.

Jill's Workspace

“I typically stand in my kitchen or office all day in front of my laptop — writing blog posts, fielding inquiries from people, with an occasional pop out to the cafe for a meeting with a designer or advertiser.”

In the evenings, Jill studies karate, and returns home for dinner with her family, all of whom are vegan, including little Petey. Jill has been a vegetarian since high school, but over the last few years her husband’s eating habits have nudged her toward a vegan diet, the occasional chocolate chip cookie aside.

“He gradually converted me off dairy and eggs,” Jill says. “It isn’t tough to maintain at all — especially in NYC where there are tons of vegan restaurants and healthy food shops.”

There’s more blogging to do after Petey goes to bed. “Every day features a lot of time in front of the laptop, but every day is unique,” she says.

She hopes the work she’s doing now will make an easier life for her kids, “[I hope] we’ll be able to solve climate change, and that my children and grandchildren will inherit a decent, peaceful, and not-too-hot future.”

Us too, Jill. Thanks for the chat.


What’s Inspiring Jill Right Now

sunlighttransport1


Fiberoptic Sunlight Transport Lamps
“They direct sunlight into a house, through walls and ceilings, so you don’t need electricity.”

Human-powered dance club


Human Powered Gyms, Dance Clubs, and Subway Stations

“Yeah human power!”

shippingcontainerhouse


Shipping Container Housing

Homes made from shipping containers.

ecotreehouse


Eco Modern Treehouses


Designers Who Give Jill Hope For the Future

malawiwindmill


William Kamkwamba

“A kid from Malawi who — with no formal education or training — figured out how to build a windmill to power his whole village.”

tesla-2


Tesla Motors

“The Tesla Roadster — proving once and for all that eco-friendly can be sexy.”

starckwindmill


Philippe Starck

The Starck Democratic Ecology Windmill

“Star industrial designer Philippe Starck isn’t exactly known for his humanitarian, earth-friendly designs, (he’s better known for decorative plastic chairs and fancy lemon juicers). He’s even said, ‘Everything I designed was unnecessary… and I am ashamed of this fact.’

Now, [he] has turned his eye towards renewable energy and other ‘green’ pursuits, and this gives me a lot of hope for the future, because I believe that he’ll influence a lot of consumers and designers to move in the right direction.”

Mighty Closet: Courtney Skott, Outfit 2

Courtney Skott in her San Francisco apartment

Courtney is a champion thrifter and, shoes aside, this outfit is all second hand. The nautical-stripe dress has a ’50s vibe, but it’s actually a Vicky Vaughn piece from the ’80s. Perfect for standing purposefully on the bow of a ship, fisted hands on hips, grinning at the horizon.

Courtney Skott at her desk

Also, how enviable is her office nook? So tidy!

Red Striped Belt on a Blue Striped Dress, Courtney Skott

Courtney found the belt on the sidewalk in the Western Addition. I know that mighty sound alarming to some of you, but be ye not scandalized. People in the city just leave bags of belongings on the curb instead of lugging them to thrift shops, and decent stuff rarely sits outside for more than an hour or two.

Courtney Skott's White Necklace

The painted chain is from a white elephant sale. The moony eyes are from her mama, who did some catalog modeling in her day. Thanks for the good genes, mom.

mccc2shoes

These are Courtney’s go-to eyelet flats, which she realized she wanted to replace just as I was aiming my camera. San Francisco is a walking city, so flats get heavily abused. Comfy flats are by Rocket Dog, and she got them on Zappos.

Tomorrow, Courtney’s favorite jacket, which she purchased in Spain. Olé!

In Front of the Children

http://blip.tv/play/gf9lgZWFGQI

The latest Momversation is about whether it’s cool to be naked in front of your kids. Which it totally is. Except for the chastity belt, I mean.

Excellent reader comment from Miss Tracey Nolan: “I did not grow up in a nakey house. Despite that (because of that?), as a toddler, I used to strip down, sneak out of our apartment and run down the hall yelling ‘I’M FREEEEEE!!!!!.'”

Swim with Bioluminescent Plankton in Puerto Rico? Check.

We hop into a pickup bed filled with sandy, damp life jackets, and they bump against our shins on the dirt road to the beach.

Melissa and I are headed to Mosquito Bay in Vieques, one of most dense bioluminescent bays in the world. It’s teeming with microscopic organisms that light up when they’re disturbed. There are only eleven “biobays” in the world, nine of which are in Puerto Rico.

Ricky, one of the guides, is riding in back with us. He says his job never gets old.

He tells us about raindrops that seem to spark as they hit the water, how schools of fish leave light streams in their wake. I imagine a giant, glowing shark silhouette swimming toward our tiny kayak. Hmm.

We arrive at the beach, and don our gritty life jackets.

The air is suddenly spiky. “What is that?” I ask Melissa. She points to a tiny grain of sand on my forearm. It bites me. We’re covered in vicious, biting mites. Does the guide have any insect repllant? He does, but we can’t use it if we want to swim, it kills the plankton. Baby oil is fine though, and it works great! Does he have any of that? No.

We wade into the water to escape while our guides ready the kayaks.

I’ve adventurously stuffed all my camera equipment into plastic trash bags inside my backpack. Climbing into the open-top kayak, I decide not to think about what might happen if we tip over, because we aren’t going to tip over. Right, Melissa? Melissa, has never been in a kayak before, but we’ll be fine. I’m certain we’ll be fine. Right, Melissa? Melissa avoids eye contact.

We paddle out to the bay and tie the kayaks together to wait for nightfall. Our guide tells us about the dinoflagellates we’ve come to see, single-cell organisms that have the ability to photosynthesize. They’re technically neither plant nor animal. Cool.

I ask the guide if he’ll take our photos when we get in the water, maybe a little video. He warns me that it’s nearly impossible to capture the glow on film. Now he tells me.

We climb out of the boat, and gradually a soft glow gathers around our limbs as we tread water. A few moments later there are sparks and glowing bubbles flying from our fingertips. It looks exactly as you’d imagine pixie dust would look if you were to encounter Tinkerbell in the wild. “I can fly!” I say. I can’t stop laughing. Melissa sweeps her arms through the water and whispers, “I’m a priiiiincess!” We make light saber sounds, hum dramatic overtures as we conduct under water. I lift my hands above the surface, and loose-diamonds tumble down my arms.

As it turns out, our guide was right about the photos. I lightened one so you could get an idea of what the glow looks like. I’m going to blow this up to wall-mural size and hang it above my bed:

I want so much to show you what it was like, but you have to see for yourself. It is amazing. Here’s a little video of us riding back in the truck:

If you can, you have to do this. Go find your swimsuit. Get in the truck.

(Our tour was through Vieques Tours. They were nice, and one of the guides bought the two of us popsicles while we waited for the cars to arrive. Aww. 787.447.4104)

Many thanks to the folks at Intel. They’re making my site more interesting by sponsoring my Mighty Life List over the next few months. They paid for this trip of a lifetime, and I can’t thank them enough.

Redesign Mighty Girl? Check.

So we’re already crossing off my first Mighty Life List item courtesy of Intel*:

Redesign Mighty Girl!

I tried to find a little trumpet sound to link here, but to no avail. So we’ll just have to use our imaginations. Ready? TA-DA-DA-TAAAAAAAAAAA!

Good work everyone.

The new design makes me seem so serene, doesn’t it? Peek behind the curtain and you’ll find me eating potato chips for dinner at 2 a.m., having left the shower without rinsing conditioner out of my hair. This morning, my pillowcase looked like I’d used it to line a platter of fried chicken.

I think the site is channeling some of Helen Jane’s even keel-ed-ness. I knew we’d have to do everything ludicrously fast, so I wanted to work with someone soothing. When I first asked her, she was a little leery.

She thought the process might be unpleasant.

But she does like designing things.

And then she realized what she could charge for a four-week turnaround.

Thanks to Intel, I could actually afford to pay her. She was worth every penny.

Thanks, lady!

Anyway, if you haven’t yet, please poke around and let me know what you think. The categories may seem hinky, because I haven’t had a chance to comb through all ten years of content yet. For now, I’m thinking of the site as a home that gives me room to grow.

As for the other life-list items I’ll be crossing off, you’ll know more in the next few days, but I want to keep some of them a surprise. Also, lots of you have been asking how I chose. The answer is, Intel offered me a timeframe and a budget, and that helped me shape a plan. It’s a mixture of grand things and small, happy things.

I want to do everything, but I also need enough time to savor it. The process has already taught me a lot, but we’ll talk about that later. For now, enjoy the new site while I nap. Thank you for all the incredible comments. You’re all right.

*What’s going on here? Intel is making my site more interesting by sponsoring my life list over the next few months. Next week, I’m going on a Space Shuttle with the Rockettes!