Sustainability was always part of Greg Roth’s personal ethos, but it didn’t become the central focus of his professional life until Stephen Pallrand invited him to design the interiors of a home alongside Pallrand’s wife, artist Rachel Mayeri, and the talented architects at CarbonShack. The challenge was to design a home with zero carbon footprint. The project was Casa Zero and would become the first CarbonShack case study house in Los Angeles.
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You can tour Casa Zero Sunday June 25th as part of LA Design Festival’s programming, open to the public.
Inside and outside CarbonShack HQ
CarbonShack’s designs exist in a liminal space between preserving history and building the future. Something about it is reminiscent of Disneyland, in the best way possible, and Greg Roth has the vision of a Disney imagineer, infusing whimsy and a sense of play in every project. He studied architecture and practiced interior design for 25 years prior to joining CarbonShack. In addition to his robust interior design background and passion for sustainability, he brings to CarbonShack a unique understanding about branding from his experience running a design-themed bakery with his husband, where they would take companies’ logos and design bespoke graphic design cookies for brands.
Pallrand founded CarbonShack as an offshoot of Home Front Build, his design-build firm focused on restoring historic homes in Los Angeles. Inside the CarbonShack furniture showroom in Cypress Park, Los Angeles
Green materials and sourcing locally
Behind CarbonShack HQ is a lot full of wood, remnants of past projects, ready to be creatively integrated into the next one. In their latest project, they are planning to take the falling Aleppo pine from their client’s front yard and use the wood to fabricate their kitchen table. “It doesn’t get more locally-sourced than that.” Roth says, adding that one of the best things for individuals to prioritize when it comes to living more sustainably is buying local. He’s not orthodox in his approach to sustainability though. It’s all about trade-offs because without them, he jokes, “you wouldn’t have a house.”
With a playful nod to the complex cellular structures that compose all life forms, the CarbonShack Cellular Sectional Sofa is designed to be moved around, repositioned, and reconfigured to suit your every mood and occasion. Consisting of small, medium and large chairs, plus ottoman tables, the options for gatherings and groupings are limitless. Lightweight enough for easy repositioning, sturdy enough for long-lasting durability, and comfortable enough for casual living. Taking a page out of modern mid-century design and melding it with a healthy dose of organic Arts & Crafts, the CarbonShack Mycelium Mod Console prominently features our signature mycelium motif: hand-carved onto the door fronts made of salvaged mahogany; 3D-printed as bronze hardware; and again as a lacey carved shelf suspended between the table’s turned legs.
A great example of weighing trade-offs is how CarbonShack approaches the production of their textile line. Their fabrics are made of sustainable hemp fibers with versatility in application and a great hand. But, right now, most of the hemp isn’t being milled in the US. They have to source it abroad. Hopefully, their experiments with hemp will help spread the sustainable gospel and encourage more to be produced in the US, cutting back on their carbon footprint even more.
CarbonShack textiles are constructed of hemp fibers (in most cases 100% hemp, in a few cases they are hemp blended with other fibers), and either left in their natural color, or dyed locally, using water-based dyes. The patterns are then printed using water-based inks in a low-waste process. Fabric imported; all other production is done in California.The Fern Spore Blossoms – Forest textile design takes its inspiration from microscopic images of fern spores, using the graphic imagery of the spores to create an energetic pattern that dances across the fabric. Additional Fern Spore Blossoms colorways: Colorways: Forrest, Scarlet, SunsetPrinted on 7.4-ounce hemp muslin, the Fern Spore Blossom textile featuring a blend of sustainable fibers: 45% Hemp, 40% Organic Cotton,15% Recycled Polyester.The Fungal Spores Link – Teal on Ivory fabric underscores the important connective role that fungi, and the spores that produce them, play in the fragile ecosystems of our natural world. The Fungal Spores Link textile is printed on 10.5-ounce sueded cloth, featuring a blend of sustainable fibers: 55% Hemp, 45% Organic Cotton. | Additional Colorways: Gems on Jade; Turquoise on Tan
CarbonShack furniture, fabric, lighting, and tile
In conversations with members of the green building community, it’s usually a matter of minutes before someone references CarbonShack. Their influence on fellow sustainably-focused designers and manufacturers is palpable and with the sustainability movement transitioning from fringe into the American mainstream, they’re well on their way to becoming a household name. Their new product lines are a step in that direction.
The CarbonShack Slime Mold ceramic tile design takes its inspiration from the detailed etchings produced by 19th-century naturalist and scientist Ernst Haeckels. Haeckels’ highly detailed representations of microscopic organisms illustrate the incredible beauty and geometry found throughout nature. By interpreting these designs on decorative tiles, using age-old glazing techniques, our aim is to bring to light unseen elements of the natural world, and thereby strengthen our bonds to the environment. The tiles in this series are designed to create a 4-tile pattern repeat, in the tradition of classic Spanish tilework. The Bacterial Colony Tile series serves to remind us of the critical role these microorganisms play in the natural world, by making plainly visible that which is present but largely unseen. Create your own microscopic world by interconnecting, twisting and rotating the three basic Bacterial Colony Tile designs. These tiles are produced using the cuerda seca glazing technique, which dates back to 14th century Persia and Spain. The Spanish brought this tile technique to California, where they are still using it today to fabricate their tiles. Designed and produced in Los Angeles with clay sourced regionally, and fired in all-electric kilns.The Cyrtoidea Sconce series, inspired by Haeckel’s stunning drawings of microscopic Cyrtoidea, highlights the beauty of these minuscule skeletal-like creatures. Their interpretations transmogrifies the Cyrtoidea into a 3-stage series of nascent development, from Bud to Expectant to Blossom.3D-printed of biodegradable 2-nylon-6 nylon, plated in bronze; attaches to plated metal wall plate with cleat and 2 screws (included), for ease of assembly. “As climate change warms the oceans, jellyfish, which are actually a type of plankton, are appearing in increasing numbers. As carriers of phytoplankton, jellyfish play a crucial role in photosynthesis, the creation of oxygen. These luminescent creatures indicate how changes in earth’s climate affect life on our planet. Our Medusa Chandelier, illuminated by LED diodes and fiber optics, floats overhead, bringing to mind the importance of our interconnectedness to the natural world.” – CarbonShackThe CarbonShack Thalamphora semi-flush mount fixture references the artwork and scientific investigations of 19th-century zoologist & naturalist Ernst Haeckel.“Neither plant nor moss, Lichen form a species of fungi that live in symbiotic relationship with algae….our particular favorite is Cladonia, with its trumpet-like branches reaching upwards, seeming to suggest a hopeful, uplifting future.
Our Lichen Pendant fixture is 3D-printed of biodegradable 2-nylon-6 white nylon. A stunning visual reminder of our connection to the natural world, the Lichen Pendant fixture works as well on its own as it does in groupings of 2, 3 or more.” – CarbonShack
On Sustainability and scalability
Many sustainable solutions become problems again once you start to scale. For this reason, many producers of green products keep their operations smaller. So how do you grow a movement when growth and expansion seem directly at odds with the movement itself, adding to the problem the movement hopes to solve? Where do we go from here? We know that problems with financing green projects are usually the result of introducing sustainability too late in the process and that also usually results in more waste from construction and mistakes. One small step towards alleviating these issues is using CarbonShack’s open source carbon calculator to calculate your own home’s carbon footprint. CarbonShack sees themselves as educators to cut back on the barriers between consumers and sustainable living. In their next phase, they see themselves educating and consulting with designers and manufacturers, not just their clients, on sustainable approaches to design and manufacturing. “The world is headed that way whether you are or not,” Roth says, “CarbonShack wants to help you get there.”
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